Moments of Non-Zen

Every now and then, we have a Moment of Non-Zen. A moment of pissed-offness that is uncontrollable. In our final episode for this season we speak about what little things get to us and make us lose our shit.

We all have friends who have decided that the scientific process is bogus because they have learned the truth via YouTube or the such. We talk about the scientific process with Peter, a learned man who was willing to slum it with us ignorami.

The old saying “no news is good news” seems to be truer every day. Not only do all the headlines seem horrible, the way we consume the news continues to be more geared to tastes and preferences than to importance. Although - who’s to say what’s important? We speak about both the content and the form of modern news and how it’s difficult to remain positive while being inundated by bad news.

We played Dungeons and Dragons (and other roleplaying games) a lot when we were kids and teenagers. It was an important part of our lives and certainly had an effect on our development (or lack thereof…). Why do we feel it was good for us and probably good for others? What do we make of the recent resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons? What about computer games they call roleplaying games (RPGs)? Do they count? We share our view and advocate playing pen and paper roleplaying games in this episode.

Midlife Crises seem to be a thing – or at least they were. We’re not sure if they are a thing of the past or whether this very podcast is a manifestation of our own impulses to re-evaluate our existences. Are our uncertainties destructive? Does the classic story of men suddenly behaving differently in the pursuit of new youth still hold?

Do you believe? In 'God'? Or a god? Or a greater power of some sort? Why? Are we outgrowing organized belief systems?

Some call it playing, some call it creating complex feats of engineering using a modular brick systems. Either way, we can't deny we've got a thing going for LEGO. Listen in and find out why and how much we love it. You might also find a few interesting tips, like how to sort your blocks best!

Skynet, HAL, Tron - we have plenty of examples of powerful AI in science fiction, whether it controls robots or other physical manifestations. What is our biggest fear when robots come to power? This is a follow on to our previous episode on AI. 

We all have our motives and reasons for doing things and usually when we do something we plan on doing it well. Sometimes we also get very good at doing things, so good that our egos lead us to believe we are the best or at least a lot better than others. Is this good or bad? Do we need to actively hold our egos in check or is it a good thing to have a big self-esteem? 

Women in tech, why are there so few of them? What is it like to work in a male dominated environment? And how can we change this archaic system? In this episode we speak with Barbara, a tech guru much smarter than ourselves, to try and find some insights and solutions.