Mansplaining

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After considering why companies run out of ideas in our last episode, Joe put the same question to Mark about why so many of our favorite pop and rock music artists seem to run out of ideas.  Mark and Joe ponder whether this is a real phenomenon, and if so, what might cause it.  Turns out that early-career creativity is a complicated amalgam of neural plasticity, free time, and the commercial imperatives of a pop music industry that skews young.  And yes, Clayton Christensen’s ideas about the innovator’s dilemma might also apply to musical innovation. (Recorded November 15, 2024.)

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Google had quite a run, from its market-leading search engine to Gmail to the Android operating system.  For the longest time, it seemed like a veritable fount of innovation.  But in recent years, dogged by antitrust lawsuits, it looks less like a forward-thinking innovator and more like a tired dinosaur trying desperately to hold onto its piece of the profit pie.  Why does that same evolution happen to so many companies?  Looking for answers in Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma and its subsequent critiques, Joe and Mark discover that the modus operandi of established companies might be more about fear than anything else. (Recorded October 25, 2024.)

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When the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious affirmative action programs, it conveniently left standing the legacy preferences employed by colleges and universities that are described by some as affirmative action for rich, white people. Is it fair that schools are now forced to ignore the race of their applicants but are still allowed to favor the children of wealthy alumni and donors?  Mark and Joe examine the history and impact of legacy admissions policies in American colleges and universities and consider the arguments that there are good reasons for retaining them. (Recorded October 4, 2024.)

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Every time the power goes out in Seattle, Mark wonders whether his city fell victim to malicious hackers.  It’s a legitimate concern, since bad actors have been messing with America’s energy systems for years.  But how credible is the threat of foreign hackers causing catastrophic damage to critical civilian infrastructure like our electrical grid and drinking water? Joe and Mark log into the wild and woolly world of infrastructure hacking and learn that it’s a two-way street, with the deterrent of “mutually assured computer disruption” awaiting anyone who goes too far. (Recorded September 17, 2024.)

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The CDC and Surgeon General recently released reports highlighting twin epidemics that are plaguing young people in our country.  For boys, it’s loneliness and social isolation; for girls, it’s persistent sadness and hopelessness.  Why are young people so sad and lonely?  Mark and Joe discuss whether loneliness is inheritable, how much of the blame we can pin on the distorted view social media provides of reality, and how, in the land of plenty, we can help our kids get the one thing they need the most: human connection. (Recorded September 6, 2024.)

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It’s been said that fusion power is 20 years away, and always will be.  Why is it taking so long?  Well, it turns out that generating temperatures as hot as the sun is hard to do here on Earth, as is controlling the fusion reaction so it doesn’t vaporize everything it touches. Joe and Mark ponder these and other challenges to producing fusion energy, and whether any of us is likely to live long enough to see it become part of a carbon-free electrical grid. (Recorded August 16, 2024.)

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Who knew the Democratic Party was run by "childless cat ladies"?  JD Vance's rant has already garnered more than its share of well-deserved opprobrium.  But in Mansplaining's first-ever White-Hot Take, Joe takes aim at the right's weird obsession with fertility, what it means for American women, and why, like so many of the right's other weird obsessions, it's likely to end up in the dustbin of history.

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The Supreme Court’s recent controversial ruling about presidential immunity appears to rely on a shadowy notion of executive branch power called the unitary executive theory.  After gaining currency in conservative circles for decades, the unitary executive may now be poised to go from theory to reality, thanks to the right-wing SCOTUS supermajority.  Mark and Joe trace the theory’s lineage, whether evidence for it exists in our founding documents, and the implications of its newfound legitimacy. (Recorded July 26, 2024.)

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It wasn’t so long ago that human fertility was likened to a ticking time bomb, with overpopulation leading to famine and ecological collapse.  More recently, we’ve heard that declining fertility rates are the real problem, bringing forth a shrinking workforce and economic ruin.  Is negative population growth something to worry about? Joe and Mark examine demographic history and trends, what declining fertility means for women and children, why the Goldilocks “just right” level of fertility is unsustainable, and whether that’s a problem for humanity. (Recorded July 12, 2024.)

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For decades, Americans have moved south chasing cheaper homes and better weather.  But after years of unremitting heat and more frequent hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods that have disproportionately devastated those destinations, you might wonder whether people start moving back whence they came.  In a follow-up to Episode 74 (The Weather Forecast is Calamitous), Mark and Joe assess the likelihood that a reverse migration of displaced climate refugees will happen anytime soon. (Recorded June 28, 2024.)