Reject Modernity Embrace Tradition

Since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act 35 years ago, we've made limited progress on disability access and even regressed in certain ways when it comes to productive public attention to the issue. Making further progress requires rejecting rising ableism and embracing accessibility.

There's been much to-do about the graying of the world. But how much of it is real, how much are millennials responsible, and is it actually a problem? Listen along as Megan and Clayton take you on a (hopefully) more lighthearted episode this week.

Recent years have seen the rise of "manosphere" content as opportunistic grifters monetize men's inability to get a date and tell them that it's all women's fault. This content is bad for men, bad for women, and bad for society in general. It serves no one but those who are making money stoking people's worst beliefs and impulses. It deserves to be summarily rejected.

Much as digital learning technologies can provide better access to education for some people, they are not, and we cannot let them be a replacement for in-person instruction. They just simply are not as effective and, with the rise of generative AI technologies, only provide more incentives for students to shirk their work and not actually learn the things that they are supposed to. In order to make sure that these technologies do not further harm students' education, we need to embrace the tried and true classroom.

The last two decades have seen a dramatic decline in local newspapers and local news more generally. This has had consequences on everything ranging from social cohesion to the quality of local elections. Megan and Clayton are joined by Sean Ewing to discuss how we got here and what we might be able to do mitigate this decline.

Levels of general knowledge are genuinely on the decline, and the distrust of experts and even reveling in one's own lack of knowledge seem to be on the rise. We all need to be more curious again, and get back to desiring and respecting more knowledge about the world around us.

The origins of Mother's Day are, dare we say, actually pretty woke. But almost immediately after becoming an official holiday, it became commercialized and went through the hallmark-ization that many holidays have gone through. On this Mother's Day though, we wanted to take the opportunity to talk about how we can help mothers and families and get back to the original intent behind the holiday.

In the wake of the Great Recession, it often feels like the only acceptable orientation towards work and life is to hustle. The goal is to work long hours, be super productive, and to always have something new in the hopper. But, it turns out that hustle culture is really really bad for us, both socially and medically. We need to reject its allure in favor of taking real, genuine time for ourselves.

We've all heard about the loneliness epidemic, and it can feel like there's not much we can do about it. But, even wholly apart from policy, there are things we can each do in our own personal lives to create more community, improve our friendships, and help the people we know feel a little less lonely. It can all start just by inviting people to hang out.

What is there to say about the Dobbs decision honestly? A calamitous choice by the Supreme Court that will have unknowable and incalculable negative consequences. Listen along as Megan and Clayton take you through a deep dive of just how badly we need to reject it in every way possible.