On this episode of Modern Notion Daily, our guest is Christian Rudder, a co-founder of the online dating service OkCupid and author of Dataclysm: Love, Sex, Race, and Identity—What Our Online Lives Tell Us about Our Offline Selves (Broadway Books, paperback September 2015). Rudder gained some attention when he wrote the OkTrends blog for OkCupid, which analyzed user data in order to better understand human behavior. Hes compiled many of those observations into Dataclysm. Later in the hour, contributing editor Erin Blakemore gives us the rundown from Laurapalooza, a conference on acclaimed young adult author Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Music this hour:

“Forgiven Not Forgotten” by Jahzzar, from the album Kuddelmuddel

“Soldiertype (militarised)” by Ketsa, from the album What’s Without’s Within

DJ by Jahzzar

On this episode of Modern Notion Daily, our guest is John Safran, an Australian comedian, documentary maker, and author of the book Godll Cut You Down: The Tangled Tale of a White Supremacist, a Black Hustler, a Murder, and How I Lost a Year in Mississippi (Riverhead Books, paperback September 2015). As part of his Australian television series Race Relations, Safran visited with Richard Barrett, a white supremacist leader in Mississippi. When Safran found out Barrett had been murdered not long after that visit, he wanted to find out more about the murderer, Vince McGee, as well as the secret life of the murdered. Our conversation with Safran reaches from the comedians own identity as a Jewish Australian, to the backlash from some of the outrageous stunts on Race Relations, to why he felt compelled to write this book.

Music this hour:

“Guatemala – Panama March” by Heftone Banjo Orchestra, from the album Music Box Rag

“Soldiertype (militarised)” by Ketsa, from the album What’s Without’s Within

Our guest today on Modern Notion Daily is Dick Lehr, coauthor with Gerard ONeill of the definitive book on Bostons most notorious gangster, Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a Devils Deal (PublicAffairs, reissued August 2015). Lehr and ONeill were part of an investigative journalism team at The Boston Globe in the 1980s, covering Whitey and his brother Billy Bulger. As they got deeper into the story, though, they uncovered Whiteys unholy relationship with the FBI. Later in the hour, contributing editor Erin Blakemore tells the story of a husband so disgruntled he started a fake art movement.

Music this hour:

“Forgiven Not Forgotten” by Jahzzar, from the album Kuddelmuddel

“Railroad’s Whiskey Co” by Jahzzar, from the album Home (Excerpt)

“Soldiertype (militarised)” by Ketsa, from the album What’s Without’s Within

Our guest today is Elijah Wald, author of Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties (Dey Street Books, July 2015). Fifty years after the fact, we talk with Wald about the night Bob Dylan first performed with an electric band at the Newport Folk Festival, shocking his fans and ushering in the era of rock and roll. But to understand why the night was so momentous, you have to understand the folk musicians (including Pete Seeger) who influenced him. Later in the hour, Aviva Kempner joins us to talk about her documentary, Rosenwald, which premieres tomorrow.

Music this hour:

Maggies Farm by Bob Dylan

Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan

“Forgiven Not Forgotten” by Jahzzar, from the album Kuddelmuddel

“Soldiertype (militarised)” by Ketsa, from the album What’s Without’s Within

On todays show, our guest is Val McDermid, author of Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us about Crime (Grove Press, July 2015). McDermid is a crime novelist and tries to make her fiction as close to real life as possible. Writing Forensics, a nonfiction title that explores the science of crime scene investigation, allowed McDermid to learn even more about what she dramatizes—from stringing to understand more about blood spatter, to the stages of bug infestation in a corpse. We also kick off our series on world population: Pam Wasserman from Population Connection tells us about the history of oil wells in ancient China and how that has impacted population. You can check out Population Connections interactive map/timeline at www.worldpopulationhistory.org.

Music this hour:

Twin by Jahzzar, from the album Onus

“Soldiertype (militarised)” by Ketsa, from the album What’s Without’s Within

The Han Palace Autumn Moon

“Persian Lamb Rag” by Heftone Banjo Orchestra, from the album Music Box Rag

Sound effects:

Factory by viertelnachvier

Water Boil by fryzu82

Oil Drum by engreitz

Today on Modern Notion Daily: journalist Ari Berman takes us through the history of voting rights and restrictions in the last 50 years, as detailed in his book Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, August 2015). Berman explores why the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was so effective in registering previously disenfranchised voters. Berman argues that the Supreme Courts 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder weakened the VRA immeasurably in a time when its still necessary. (Check out the literacy test used in Louisiana that Berman refers to in the interview here.) Later in the hour, contributing editor Erin Blakemore tells us about three societies where women rule.

Music this hour:

“Superconductivity” by Jahzzar, from the album Kuddelmuddel

“Soldiertype (militarised)” by Ketsa, from the album What’s Without’s Within

David Neiwert, author of Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us (The Overlook Press, June 2015), joins us to talk orcas on todays episode of Modern Notion Daily. Neiwert explores the killer whales unique intelligence and ability to echolocate, as well as the conditions these animals are subjected to in captivity. We should look to orcas as models for empathy and how to be at the top of the food chain, according to Neiwert.

Music this hour:

Friday Im in Love by The Cure

“Forgiven Not Forgotten” by Jahzzar, from the album Kuddelmuddel

“Soldiertype (militarised)” by Ketsa, from the album What’s Without’s Within

Pippin the Hunchback by Kevin MacLeod, from the album Thatched Villagers

Today, on Modern Notion Daily: we get a rare look at the manned space flights of Project Apollo. Our guests are John Bisney and J.L. Pickering, coauthors of Moonshots and Snapshots of Project Apollo: A Rare Photographic Look (September 2015, University of New Mexico Press). For more than four decades, Pickering has been collecting 8x10 images of manned space flights, and he now boasts more than 100,000 images in the collection. He and Bisney have combed through this archive and threaded a narrative through it to give us a deeper sense of the work that went into the Apollo missions.

Music this hour:

“Chance, Luck, Errors in Nature, Destruction As a Finale” by Chris Zabriskie, from the album Reappear

“Forgiven Not Forgotten” by Jahzzar, from the album Kuddelmuddel

“Soldiertype (militarised)” by Ketsa, from the album What’s Without’s Within

This hour, our theme is sea wars, and we bring you two very different stories. First, were talking with John Boyle, author of Blood Ransom: Stories from the Front Line in the War Against Somali Piracy (Bloomsbury, July 2015). Boyle interviewed prisoners in Somalia who were serving time for alleged pirate activity. Then were joined by Summer Brennan, author of The Oyster War: The True Story of a Small Farm, Big Politics, and the Future of Wilderness in America (Counterpoint, August 2015). After returning to her hometown to become a reporter for the local newspaper, Brennan found herself embroiled in a battle over a decades-old oyster farm and became fascinated its implications for how we think about nature across the country.

Music this hour:

Seasong by Jelsonic, from the album Various Moods II

“Forgiven Not Forgotten” by Jahzzar, from the album Kuddelmuddel

“Soldiertype (militarised)” by Ketsa, from the album What’s Without’s Within

On todays Modern Notion Daily podcast, were talking spies and subways cars in the ocean. First were in the studio with Alex Kershaw, author of Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Familys Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris (Crown, August 2015). Kershaw tells the story of an American doctor and Swiss nurse who became part of the French Resistance in Nazi-occupied Paris. Later in the show, we welcome Jeff Tinsman, the artificial reef project manager for the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife, as well as Stephen Mallon, an industrial photographer. Mallon photographed New York City subway cars as they were dropped into the Atlantic Ocean to become structures in the artificial reef program that Tinsman leads.

Music this hour:

“Superconductivity” by Jahzzar, from the album Kuddelmuddel

“Soldiertype (militarised)” by Ketsa, from the album What’s Without’s Within

“Forgiven Not Forgotten” by Jahzzar, from the album Kuddelmuddel