Mad Mad World

Los and Bertram discuss another kind of epidemic that has been spreading the globe: loneliness. Did you know it's killing more people than obesity? The boys uncover some new, fascinating information about the destruction loneliness is having on our lives right now. A must listen for anyone who feels like they are struggling through this virus right now.

Thank you for listening! We love you. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, spread the word about this podcast.

Resources from this episode:

The Pandemic Has Erased Entire Categories of Friendship - The Atlantic

The Campaign to End Loneliness

The Loneliness Epidemic - HRSA.gov

What We Lose when We Lose Acquaintances - NPR interview

The Loneliness of an Interrupted Adolescence - Washington Post

Loneliness and Social Isolation Linked to Serious Health Conditions | CDC

Loneliness in the UK: ‘I go to supermarket just to talk to someone’ | ITV News

The History of Loneliness | The New Yorker

Why Are We So Lonely? - Glad You Asked S1

Coronavirus FAQs: What Are The New Dating Rules? And What About Hooking Up? | Goats and Soda | NPR

Making Meaning Relationships - A Free Non-Credit Course for USC Students/Staff | Campfires USC 

Rainn Wilson and Reza Aslan on loneliness, forgiveness, and the ‘Metaphysical Milkshake’ | KCRW

New Cigna Study Reveals Loneliness at Epidemic Levels in America | Cigna

Dave Chappelle - Redemption Song

Los and Bertram discuss the history of the argument for slavery reparations. What are the obstacles and why hasn't this been done already?

Thank you for listening! We love you. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, spread the word about this podcast.

Resources from this episode:

The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates

NPR - The Story Behind '40 Acres and a Mule'

NYT - America has tried reparations before

WSJ - The Long History of American Slavery Reparations

Why we need reparations for slavery

Vox - Six times victims have received reparations

Reparations, History and the Origins of Global Justice

What is Redlining

Los and Bertram discuss the recent controversy on Reddit (subreddit: Wallstreetbets), where Bertram had a first-hand account of for the last few months. Where does the stock market go from here and how will this whole saga play out?

Thank you for listening! We love you. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, spread the word about this podcast.

Resources from this episode:

How Reddit gamed the stock of GameStop

How Options Trading Could Be Fueling a Stock Market Bubble - The New York Times

A Brief History of the Stock Market - SoFi Learn

AOC learns how Robinhood makes its money | YouTube

Why 40,000 People Die for Every 1% Increase in Unemployment - The Big Short

AMC Theatres staves off bankruptcy

What's $23-billion GameStop really worth? Maybe $2 billion

Law professor explains this mess

Robinhood bans GME

What the GameStop Rally Has Revealed About Financial Media

Los and Bertram discuss the student loan crisis and ways it should, and is currently being addressed. What sort of options to people have out there and how can young people make smart decisions to set themselves up for success?

Thank you for listening! We love you. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, spread the word about this podcast.

Resources from this episode:

The terrifying US debt clock

Student loans frozen until September, maybe more

Biden urged to cancel student loans

Forgiving student loans won't solve the problem

What are income-share agreements?

ISAs: The Milton Friedman solution

Why ISAs could be bad

Los and Bertram discuss the importance of MLK Day in America. Is it more about celebrating a key figure in our history or what he stood for? What is race and how does it define our nation in a trying time?

Thank you for listening! We love you. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, spread the word about this podcast.

Resources from this episode:

What is MLK Day?

Biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Vox - Race isn't real

National Geographic - Race is a made-up label

Michael Che stand-up - "Black Lives Matter"

Bill Nye explains skin color

Race isn't biologically real

Author Kwame Alexander reads his beautiful poem, The Undefeated

EDITING NOTE: Hey, it was pointed out to us that we accidentally dropped Los's audio from the 20-minute mark to about the 25-minute mark. Sorry about that! We fixed it. Thanks for listening!

SHOW SUMMARY:

What on Earth has happened in our nation's capital? Los and Bertram break down what happened with the insurrection, as well as draw comparisons and provide lots of notes.

The prediction is that this will be the most listened to episode in the history of podcasts...or something else, I guess.

Thank you for listening! We love you. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, spread the word about this podcast.

Resources from this episode:

Capitol fact check

Tulsa burning

Van Jones: What happens if a candidate refuses to concede the election?

Daniel Day Lewis as Obama?

Wilmington Massacre - TIME

The Only Coup D'Etat in US History

Lost History - The Atlantic

The Presidents Ranked - James K. Polk

Louis CK - White Privilege

Are New Year’s Resolutions a bad thing? Why do so many of them fail and how can you avoid that? The boys talk about this, discipline, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, sources to help you, and how we can make 2021 the best it can possibly be.

Los and Bertram give us the rundown on all things 2021 as they flush the toilet on that giant bowl of 2020.

Thank you for listening! We love you. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, spread the word about this podcast.

Resources from this episode:

Howard Zinn’s book

Jocko Willink’s advice for making the most out of tough days

With so much talk of the stock market and the economy, and jobs, it's hard to understand what's really going on.

Los and Bertram planned to argue their sides in the old Capitalism vs. Socialism debate. Instead, they discuss the benefits of both while breaking down all the components which make the economic machine keep churning—for better or worse.

Thank you for listening! We love you. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, spread the word about this podcast.

Resources from this episode:

How does the stock market work? - Oliver Elfenbaum | TED-Ed (via YouTube)

Top Ten US Economic Indicators | Investopedia

US GDP Statistics and How To Use Them | The Balance

What Caused The Stock Market Crash of 1929 | HISTORY

Capitalism and Socialism | CrashCourse (via YouTube)

Conscious Capitalism: A Definition | The Arthur W. Page Center/Public Relations Ethics

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just revived a classic argument by conservative economist Milton Friedman about who pays for pollution | Business Insider

Milton Friedman on the free-market case for taxing pollution (from 1979 interview on Phil Donahue) (via YouTube)

Economic Freedom: Policies for Lasting Progress and Prosperity

Mixed Economy with Pros, Cons, and Examples | The Balance

Los and Bertram discuss the history and consequences of the perceived media bias in the United States. 

From Yellow Journalism to the Fairness Doctrine to social media, to the Media Bias Chart—and so much more, the boys go in-depth on why it's so hard for the media not to choose sides. 

Thank you for listening. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and make sure to share this podcast.

Resources from this episode:

Media Bias Chart

Yellow Journalism

Leading daily newspapers in the United States in September 2017 and January 2019, by circulation

Most-Listened-To Radio Talk Show Hosts in America

Fairness Doctrine

Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984

Media Regulation | CrashCourse via YouTube)

Section 230: The Law at the Center of the Big Tech Debate | WSJ (via YouTube)

Civil War Tested Lincoln's Tolerance For Free Speech, Press | Freedom Forum Institute

Ethics Unwrapped: Deontology | McCombs School of Business

Ethics Unwrapped: Consequentialism | McCombs School of Business

Defund the Police - Top 3 Pros and Cons | ProCon.Org

Do Experts or Collective Intelligence Write with More Bias? Evidence from Encyclopædia Britannica and Wikipedia (*Not referenced in this episode but used during research on Media Bias for this episode.) 

Los and Bertram recap the election chaos. Topics include everything from bizarre declarations of election fraud to who the all-time best and worst looking US presidents are (step your game up, Grover Cleveland). The duo talks about CNN and Jake Tapper's election coverage comparing to the March Madness Bracketology specials in college basketball, and they even wonder about India's prime minister, Modi.

Thank you for listening. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and make sure to share this podcast.