Eric Weinstein's podcast

Eric Weinstein has started a podcast called The Portal. Man, I wish I known about this guy back on DU. He is awesome. He's a physicist I think but he gets into all kinds of other stuff. You can use a podcast thingy like Stitcher to listen or you can also find him on You Tube. I have to listen to most of it at least twice but I love it. He was recently on Joe Rogan and mentioned that our way of running the economy, the way we focus on growth has to change. It's become a ponzi scheme. Embedded Growth Obligation. How fast a structure has to grow in order to maintain it's honest position. He explains it really well. And I think it says a lot about how we had better take this opportunity to change some shit. But he also talks a lot about stuff like why there's something rather than nothing and why the something is so "rich". Anyway, since we're all stuck inside.....

Thanks Jenni, I like suggestions for new things to try.  I've never paid much attention to podcasts before, although I'm aware of several I probably should follow.

I wasn't familiar with Stitcher; it looks like an excellent program for following podcasts.  I downloaded it and set up "Wait Wait" and "Savage Love" and "The Portal" and "Radiolab" and "Freakonomics" a few others as favorites.  I paired my iPad with my new wireless Bluetooth headphones and am happily going to town.

Fun!

Podcasting, it seems to me, is still in its infancy.  Too many of them -- the vast majority of them -- are simply people sitting at microphones and talking.  There are no production values, no attempt to bring in sound effects or a sense of space... most times not even broadcasting in stereo!  Radiolab is at least cognizant of this, and includes some segments that bring in some sonic interest.

Back when I was still working, I spent most Saturday mornings listening to the NPR lineup of shows: Wait Wait, Morning Edition, Radiolab, This American Life, others.  Since I retired, Saturdays are no longer special days, and I'm always too busy to devote a half day to radio.  Maybe podcasting will allow me to get back into it.

But I don't want to get stuck behind a big truck like the TED Talks, which are slow and dumb and obvious and a huge waste of time IMO.

I used to be a pretty regular listener back when I commuted of CarTalk and Wait Wait and TAM and Radiolab and a couple of other shows whose times one could predict....

But since retiring I'm not about to let my schedule be dictated by some radio program.  I've let all my favorite shows disappear from my life.

TV, I still often turn on the news or MSNBC during dinner, and watch until I feel like throwing something at the screen.  Chris Hayes keeps mentioning his podcast, and Chuck Rosen has a podcast... Dan Savage has a podcast...

But really?  They all strike me as "time wasters" rather than information I need or am entertained by.  Filler.  Fluff.  Gab.

Guess I need to give The Portal another try.

Did he quit?  The last episode of The Portal online is dated December 1, 2020.  It talks about the end of the Trump presidency, which seems like a lifetime ago now.

Meh.  Weinstein's analysis of the election is stilted and myopic, full of hyperbole and exaggeration, full of non-nuanced misunderstandings.

Methinks he's another Joe Rogan, who has proved his intellectual dwarfism with his COVID rant.

"The Problem With" by Jon Stewart is a lot more thought provoking and consequential.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-problem-with-jon-stewart/id1583132133

Mary Trump just started a podcast, naming it "The Mary Trump Show" with no sense of irony. The debut episode was pretty slow moving, and unfocused, and covered topics we've all been hearing for a year now. Still, she's a pretty big smart cookie.

However, either Mary or her podcast guest (Molly Jong-Fast), not sure which, had a cat that felt it must be feeding time. The loud meowing did not interrupt this discussion (surprisingly) but it was clearly audible throughout the whole thing.

Made me smile, anyway..

Second episode dropped today, with an interview with Joyce Vance.  Very intelligent, very thought-provoking, and it addressed several concerns I have expressed before.  Plus, Mary's introductory essay was marvelously spot-on.

I'm signed up for next Wednesday's episode.

No cats in this episode.  Just one siren, and an overly-reverberant recording closet.

Chris Hayes's podcast, "Why Is This Happening?" has occasionally been useful, although mostly it covers the same things we hear everywhere else including his MSNBC show "All In With Chris Hayes."

I wanted to dip into his latest episode, which is all about the current Supreme Court, because it's a joint podcast with his wife Kate Shaw who has her own legal-issues podcast.  Two brains are better than one.

They cover all the stuff you'd expect -- The Federalist Society vetting judge candidates, the "purity tests" candidates have to pass, the naked ruthlessness and hypocrisy of Mitch McConnell -- then they talk about this "Barrett court" -- using the name of the newest Justice rather than the Chief Justice, because it's the newest members who move the Court in different directions -- the Barrett court is hell-bent on legislating from the bench and overturning 70 years of Earl Warren and his influence.

Wikipedia wrote:

Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was an American politician and jurist who served as 30th governor of California from 1943 to 1953 and as the 14th chief justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969. The "Warren Court" presided over a major shift in American constitutional jurisprudence, which has been recognized by many as a "Constitutional Revolution" in the liberal direction, with Warren writing the majority opinions in landmark cases such as Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Reynolds v. Sims (1964), Miranda v. Arizona (1966) and Loving v. Virginia (1967).

The Barrett court is not "judging," they're not "interpreting the law."  They're intentionally working on transforming public policy, regardless of public opinion.  Afterall, they're not elected.  They're not answerable to the public.  They're answerable only to The Federalist Society.

We in the modern liberal world tend to see the expansion of equality in gay rights and equal pay and reproductive rights and protections for transgender persons, we see this a "progress."  Creating a more fair and inclusive and equitable world.

The Federalist Society sees it as an assault on their core principle, White Male Superiority.  It is their intention, has been for seventy years, to roll us back to "Leave It To Beaver."

I don't think the American public will like the new America that's being created, but getting back here again will be very, very difficult.  Even though only a very slim minority (20-25%) of Americans want a return to 1953, they've worked diligently to make it happen and it won't be undone easily.

On Ari Melber tonite he wondered aloud why Middle America isn't more alarmed, isn't more motivated over the rolling back of three generations worth of progressive policies.  Apparently, only after they're lost will people sit up and take notice.

Actually, since these are the same people who are actively working on making 2024 our LAST election, maybe we won't have to worry about the freedoms we're losing in 2022. It'll be illegal to even try to do anything, in a couple short years.

Hmmmm podcasts.  The lineup on Apple's podcast app is huge, but I'm still have trouble finding anything to listen to.  The podcasts seem to fall into three categories:

• Podcasts by established broadcasters (Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Lester Holt, Nicolle Wallace, etc.) doing essentially their same cable TV show in a podcast format.
  
• Vanity productions by unknown people, who put together long rambling monologues all about their uninformed opinions about anything and everything
  
• Audio versions of newspaper columns by sportswriters, sex columnists, opinion writers, movie reviewers, etc.  A person sits in front of a microphone and reads what they have written.
  

A little of those go a long way.

Then there are audio plays.  Some old classics like "War of the Worlds" and Jeeves and Little Women and stuff, basically audio books read by more than one speaker.  But they are still not full productions, with sound effects or music.  I found most of these damn boring, with nothing but readers (who are not generally voice actors).

I have one production I downloaded of a full-production one-man audio play by Andrew Sachs, who played Manuel on Fawlty Towers, but there don't seem to be too many such productions in existence.  No market to support the budget necessary, I suppose.

There are a series of productions called "walking tours" but I'm not sure if they're narrated tourist stuff or what.  The idea has possibilities (sort of an Anthony Bourdain for the ears) but I'll be surprised if they are.

There are also "sound walks" which are audio guided tours to specific places.  Similar to "walking tours" except the tours tend to send you to restaurants and tourist attractions, while walks send you to non-commercial destinations to hear details unique to that location.  

I wish I could find some productions that used full production values to give the listener tours of odd locations, or talk to smart people, or explore different cultures.  The possibilities are out there.... but apparently untapped.

NoCoPilot wrote:

I wish I could find some productions that used full production values to give the listener tours of odd locations, or talk to smart people, or explore different cultures.  The possibilities are out there.... but apparently untapped.

Because that would be more work, and the return wouldn't be there.

Chris Hayes had Kara Swisher on recently, she's a long-time tech writer and blogger, talking about Elon Musk's implosion of Twitter.

She talks really really fast, often not finishing sentences before starting a new one. It was a toboggan ride listening to her speak.

Her insights on Musk are based on 20 years of cove4ing him, and she seems to know everybody else in the tech-slash-venture capital world. Fun listen, very engaging, but not a whole lot of new insights really.

Listening to a few "On With Kara Swisher" podcasts now. So far, not impressed.

Still having difficulty finding podcasts that aren't a TWOT (total waste of time), by which I mean totally obvious, totally non-controversial, totally affirming rather than challenging. I just listened to Chris Hayes' latest, an interview with Adam Kinsinger about the decline of the Republican Party and the elevation of Mike Johnson to speakership and how Donald Trump is a manipulative cancer on America.

I mean, yeah, obviously.

Next I looked for something new and ran across "Am I Doing It Wrong?" a podcast about social conventions and negotiating adulthood. The latest episode was an interview with a dating app creator, and how to "game" dating apps which are not generally aimed at honest interactions. Her advice? "Be real."

Jesus christ. I remember a time when writers and entertainers would CHALLENGE your preconceptions, when discussions, good discussions with good friends, would throw your brain for a loop. When you heard original ideas expressed in original language.

All these TWOTs are just rehashing the obvious, reinforcing our preconceptions, scratching the surface of issues without any in-depth analysis. It's all confirmation bias, where everyone is given what they already have so they feel good. Warm oatmeal.

Where is there any intelligence in podcasting? Yet to find, yet to find....