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Greg and Jacques talk on day 5 of South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown, about how they are coping with it, and about how they think the nation might.

Musical interludes, and the intro and outro music, are edits of Soixante-8 by Obsibilo (under Creative Commons license 3.0).

Our second episode about AI focuses on the risks of [not] allowing AI to drive our cars and fly our planes, and whether Skynet intends to turn you into a paperclip.

P.S. This might be the last episode for a while, given the Coronavirus lockdown. Sorry!

Musical interludes, and the intro and outro music, are edits of Soixante-8 by Obsibilo (under Creative Commons license 3.0).

The first part of a [4 part?] series, in which Greg and Jacques talk about how Artificial Intelligence is either going to end up killing you, or saving you, or maybe neither of those things. Anyway – it’s certainly going to make a difference to you.

Musical interludes, and the intro and outro music, are edits of Soixante-8 by Obsibilo (under Creative Commons license 3.0).

This week, we discuss Beloftebos, a wedding venue that has [at least] twice received criticism for not welcoming gay marriages at their venue. More generally, should such discrimination ever be tolerated, and why do religious communities feel entitled to special privileges to discriminate?

Musical interludes, and the intro and outro music, are edits of Soixante-8 by Obsibilo (under Creative Commons license 3.0).

Links:

The Beloftebos media statement

Pierre de Vos on Beloftebos

SA Human Right Commission not trusted by the complainants

While it’s obviously true that many humans struggle with being in a body they are not comfortable with, there are also risks in starting [irreversible] treatment on people who are not yet capable of fully-informed decisions, such as when using puberty-delaying hormone treatment on children. This week, your hosts go there.

Musical interludes, and the intro and outro music, are edits of Soixante-8 by Obsibilo (under Creative Commons license 3.0).

Links:

Gender-affirming psychological support in South Africa.

Sweden’s rising gender dysphoria diagnoses.

Measure to prevent transgender kids from receiving treatment fails in South Dakota.

Children are not miniature adults – on the complications of early treatment, and informed consent in the case of children and teens.

This week, your hosts discuss Facebook, privacy, de Klerk and whether apartheid was a crime against humanity, as well as Michael Bloomberg, doctored videos and the buying of elections.

Musical interludes, and the intro and outro music, are edits of Soixante-8 by Obsibilo (under Creative Commons license 3.0).

Links:

* Mike Bloomberg tweeted a doctored debate video. Is it political spin or disinformation?* Should campaign finance reform aim to level the playing field? (Academic paywall)

This episode is a little [too] personal [for JR], because Greg gets all nosy about family heritage, the meaning of personal histories, and whether one should cherish the culture you emerged from.

Musical interludes, and the intro and outro music, are edits of Soixante-8 by Obsibilo (under Creative Commons license 3.0).

This week’s episode talks about moral ambiguity, the case of Kobe Bryant and his rape accusations, and whether our heroes need to be imperfect to actually be worth celebrating.

Musical interludes, and the intro and outro music, are edits of Soixante-8 by Obsibilo (under Creative Commons license 3.0).

Hello! We’re back for 2020 after a break which was [not really] restorative, because people kept saying perplexing things on Twitter and elsewhere. This episode is about the Democratic Alliance’s [apparent] attempts to alienate most of South Africa’s voters, through the mechanism of Helen Zille’s Twitter account.

Musical interludes, and the intro and outro music, are edits of Soixante-8 by Obsibilo (under Creative Commons license 3.0).

Reading:

* A cultural war waged by a cartoonist (on the “satirical” Jerm cartoon)* Finding sanity in a stampede of agitrolling, fauxrage and verbiflage (Zille defines and defends nonsense words)* Zille: The race to the bottom (Chris Roper)* Chris Roper’s vile “alt-right” smear (Ratcatcher “responds” to Roper)* Helen Zille and “valuable aspects of colonial heritage” (JR on “that” tweet)

Greg and Jacques talk about godparents, putting the X back into Christmas, and why nonbelievers can [and should] lighten up about people believing in strange things.