Critical Nonsense

This week Aaron and Joey talk about the importance of making space for weird. They don't talk about being normal and forgotten or weird and remembered.

references

• CVS Bangers
• The X Files Techno Remix
• Pure Moods CD Commercial

Where does your justice threshold rest? 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about Lana Del Rey, LEGO, the arenas of justice, the TSA, Aaron's personal space, and taking umbrage. They don’t talk about the Molecular Lego of Knots. 

references 

• Lana Del Rey's "Video Games" 
• Father John Misty 
• LEGO Great Pyramid of Giza 
• Corrections Department: Jan (pronounced Yon) Vormann discusses his Dispatch Work 
• Donatello vs Sub Zero | Mortal Kombat 11 vs Injustice 
• LEGO Masters Season 1, Episode 6: Aaron and Christian's Bridge 
• Veritasium on Knot Theory 

What is the role of truth and how should we think about how it's changing? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about misinformation, wallets, the replication crisis, journalism, radical candor, and trust. They don’t talk about the word "cap." 

references 

• Revisiting Critical Nonsense 227! Tendies 
• Nick Lavallee Wants to Crown Manchester “The Chicken Tender Capital of the World” 
• Replication crisis 
• The Explorer and the Journalist: The Extraordinary Story of Frederick Cook and Philip Gibbs by Richard Evans 
• Billy Joel's "A Matter of Trust" 

In what ways is procrastitivity useful ... or not? 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about procrastination styles, Maya Angelou, procrastavoidance, urgency, anxiety, and Éric Ripert. They don’t talk about The Soul of an Octopus. 

references 

• Joey is a baboon 
• "Maya Angelou: How I Write" 
• The Eisenhower Matrix 
• Urge incontinence 
• Baldur's Gate 3 
• Final Fantasy XVI 
• Éric Ripert 

What's in a name? 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about Cher, dysmorphia, name commonality, De'Coldest Crawford, permutations, and nick names. They don’t talk about Major Danger. 

references 

• Cher and Aqua turn back time. 
• Revisiting Critical Nonsense 139! Teenage Girl Power and Sharing Names 
• De'Coldest Crawford 
• Ryans Meetup 
• How Many of Me? (a variation) 
• Danger Charles 
• Come On Be My Baby Tonight 
• Torres Potato Chips 
• Neutral Milk Hotel 
• Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 

What things should we be leaving up to chance? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about the expectation of rightness, hiring, outsourcing decisions, smart coins, Level 5 Engineers, and proposing. They don’t talk about DJ Screw. 

references 

• Take a look at me now ... 
• because we've been waiting for this moment for all our lives. 
• Big Think: ‘Freakonomics’ study offers simple strategy for making tough decisions 
• "Not good enough!" 

How do we wrestle with history? 

This week, Jess and Aaron talk about rote learning, putty, history as study vs. history as culture, stories, empathy, and erasure. They don’t talk about the history of Play-Doh. 

references 

• Six 
• The Very Serious History of Silly Putty 
• Red, White & Royal Blue 
• Giving credit where it's due: "Molly Ivins, lively columnist who dubbed Bush 'Shrub'" 
• See also: Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush by Molly Ivins 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about Chuck Klosterman, Bluey (again), the Mona Lisa, High Fidelity, Kafka, and Shakespeare. They don’t talk about Slick Rick. 

references 

• Whut? 
• How to find Kentucky on a map 
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson 
• How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie 
• High Fidelity 
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl 
• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 

What things that we need should we be gamifying? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about not getting enough sleep, Pokémon, mixed expertise, incentivized behavior change, Duolingo, and eating. They don’t talk about superconductors, no matter how badly Joey wants to. 

references 

• Like no one ever was ... 
• Pokémon Sleep 
• The Atlantic: Did Francesca Gino and Dan Ariely Fabricate Data for the Same Study? 
• The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson 
• The New York Times: Sleep Better at Every Age 
• The New York Times: 500 Days of Duolingo: What You Can (and Can’t) Learn From a Language App 
• Common metre 
• 감사합니다 

How do we deal with contradiction? 

This week, Jess, Joey, and Aaron talk about Björk, Barbie, G-strings, Elf on a Shelf, multiverses, and compartmentalization. They don’t talk about Green Day. 

references 

• The Perfectly Emo Clone High Intro 
• Björk "All Is Full of Love" 
• Björk + SNL 
• 'Barbie' invites you into a Dream House stuffed with existential angst 
• The New York Times: Who Gets to Wear G-Strings Now? 
• Occam's razor 
• Reader's Digest: 26 of the Funniest Oxymoron Examples 
• The Elf on a Shelf 
• The Verge: The LK-99 ‘superconductor’ went viral — here’s what the experts think 
• Unearthly Materials 
• LEGO Eggo Waffles