Bald and Bloviating

Mookie Spitz turns the tables on Ali Rizvi, and invites the Canadian podcaster, tweeter, and author onto his own show. They dive into the swirling chaos of modern masculinity, media madness, and midlife musings -- from praising Mick Jagger as the bisexual apex predator of rock, to wondering WTF happened to dude-bro billionaires including Musk and Zuckerberg. Along the way, they toast and roast Trump, break up with Bill Maher and Neil Degrasse Tyson, and BBQ behind-the-scenes deer steaks from Rizvi’s Joe Rogan experience. Toss in Nietzsche, Carl Jung, and a dash of geopolitical drama with some existential dread about democracy and AI's future, and you’ve got a whirlwind of brainy banter that rocks harder than a Scorpions reunion tour. Think philosophy meets pop culture with the zany intellectual energy of a bar fight in the lobby of a TED Talk.

The Guest

Ali A. Rizvi is a writer, physician, and musician. He is the author of “The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason”, host of the Unlicensed Therapist podcast, and all-round sh*t disturber.

His Book

https://www.amazon.com/Atheist-Muslim-Journey-Religion-Reason-ebook/dp/B01F1YC64M?ref_=ast_author_mpb

His Tweet

https://x.com/aliamjadrizvi/status/1908739952990372315?s=46&t=eXtlxIVW4NACXR3p9vqCoA

His Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/unlicensed-therapist-ali-a-rizvi/id1516920300

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Seems two kinds of people inhabit the planet: those who have game, and those who don't. Here I rant about the importance of identifying yourself and others in either category, and what entails from such a fundamental distinction. 

Cited Pod

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2455331/episodes/16756707

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Doing things unconventionally my whole life, I've encountered unconventional people -- including celebrities-to-be Beck, and as described here, Andy Dick. Here I recount how we met, how we became friends, and our strange and memorable experiences together just before Andy moved to LA to become the Andy Dick we know and love and are annoyed by to this day... 

Blog Post

https://mookiespitz.medium.com/an-up-coming-dick-2696f61684e0?sk=2b61aec7637b66b76e3745eb9c824cdc

Beck Podcast

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2455331/episodes/16870832

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Buckle up and get set for some serious bloviating. Your bald host, Mookie Spitz reconnects with coiffed musician, psychologist, and desert van-dweller Reza Ziai for a wild ride full of paywalls, pop stars in space, and why Elon Musk might be the messiah—or a Bond villain with ASD and excellent connectivity. They unpack why Iran still doesn’t have nukes and what should and shouldn't be done about it, whether AI will wipe us out or simply ignore us, and why cultural appropriation might actually save humanity.

Along the way:
– Was Beck right in that taco stand when he equated art and money?
– Can space travel solve existential dread or at the very least make Oprah cry? 
– Might porn, pokemon, pizza, and Palantir targeting bring peace to the Middle East?

This one’s got it all: geopolitics, space dicks, Nietzschean game theory, and quarter-tone Iranian Beatles covers. No script. No mercy. No hair! And yes, great wifi from Reza's van... 

The Guest

Reza Ziai is a musician (over 35 years of experience), a recording artist, and a psychology professor (over fifteen years of experience in higher education). 

He recently quit his full-time position and has been living in his mobile home recording studio writing music deeply influenced by his Iranian-American background and his passion for free expression. 

As a deep thinker and an artist, Reza has devoted his life to the relentless pursuit of creating music and making meaning in a sometimes seemingly meaningless world. 

His Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/Ziai

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In this solo episode of Bald and Bloviating, host Mookie Spitz riffs on his linguistic pet peeve: the overuse of the passive voice. Prompted by a recent media blitz from linguist John McWhorter—whom Mookie once emailed with unsolicited writing advice—this episode dives into why phrases like "it is" and "there was" weaken prose. Drawing inspiration from a long-forgotten middle school teacher and Dickens’ famous opening, Mookie makes a passionate, funny case for active voice as the secret to strong, intentional writing. 

The blog emailed to John:

https://medium.com/@mookiespitz/avoid-the-biggest-most-common-writing-mistake-dc859b9f8414

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Mookie Spitz talks to a self-described leftist, Jared Vaugh Davis, to dissect the deep dysfunction of American politics, with a focus on what's gone wrong with the Democratic Party -- and how to fix it. Fast paced, with sharp humor and raw honesty, they explore whether personality is more important than policy, explore the need for a celebrity to lead the “New Democrat” movement, and the paradox of Trump ruining the country for real change to erupt. From Bernie Sanders to The Rock, from wrestling to wokeism, it's a no-holds-barred conversation about power, messaging, and the future of democracy. 

The Guest

Jared Vaughan Davis is a corporate art director, fine artist, and comic book author, with a Master’s degree in Art and Science from the University of the Arts London. He has lived and worked in New York City, Beijing, and London, and currently resides on the gulf coast of Florida with his wife and son. Jared describes himself as a leftist, atheist, and secular humanist, and is a fierce critic of American propaganda and right-wing culture.

IG: @jaredvaughandavis
FB: @jaredvaughandavisart

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The Yemen attack Signal fiasco embodies the new administration's attitudes toward protocol, security, and the role of government itself. Here's my take from the concerned vantage point of a Marine dad...

My video parody:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DHr4FSRpQ5J/

My video commentary:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DHqk_0oxuX7/

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"I knew them when..." is the ultimate celebrity trope, in this case a true one when back in North Hollywood, California in the mid-80s, I got to know and hang out with teenage Beck. Reminiscing can be fun and revealing, saying much about the roads to fame, and the elements of great storytelling. Here's how I met him, recorded a song together, and argued about music. (Spoiler alert: Beck proved his point.) GIve us a listen! 

The inspirational blog post:

https://medium.com/@mookiespitz/hi-im-beck-and-i-m-going-to-be-famous-3a752281b488?sk=5b349920ea8eb5549337685566afb29b

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Science fiction is often based on the counterfactual conditional, "What if...?" I based this short story I wrote back in the mid-90s on two such speculations: "What if... global nuclear disarmament precludes WW3 but leads to our extinction, anyway, because we can't deflect a planet-killer asteroid or comet?" and "What if... the President of the United States is eventually a transgendered person?" 

The combination sounds exotic and odd, and that's what I was going for as I did the reading of this quirky and fun tale at the Red Lion bar one Sunday afternoon in Chicago, right across the street from the Biograph Theatre where John Dillinger was gunned down. Fast forward three decades later, and the story seems surprisingly prescient in ways I never consciously anticipated. 

The Medium Post:

https://medium.com/@mookiespitz/a-quickie-at-the-end-of-the-world-ef45b2a9672

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Writers write, and when not writing stories write about writing stories. Here's a rant about my first short story, the short story itself, and the agony and ecstasy of learning how to write stories. Whether or not you're a writer you might enjoy hearing about the process, and how it feels to revisit work decades later, dust it off, and share it with shock and awe... 

The original short story:

https://mookiespitz.medium.com/mission-impissible-5d92317db003

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