TheModernMoron podcast

I’ve had way too many occupations for a moron my age and a good number of those jobs were in the Los Angeles area.  I catch up with a long time friend of over 20 years who is originally from Boston. In this episode we do some catching up and talk about her son who has finished his junior year of high school and has already visited some college campuses.  You probably know through your own kids or grandchildren even that this process starts waaaaayyyyy sooner than it did when we were contemplating college.

I mispronounce Bass- achussetes, we hit the term “Hobo - phobic”, how kids have been and always will be embarrassed and ashamed by the mere presence of us parents, the threats we parents make to get our children to behave… there’s a discussion about my intense sweet tooth and a couple of places in New York where you can get really decadent milkshakes.  Also, my guest shares her interesting encounter with Snoop Dogg. You don’t wanna miss that right? That’s why I put it at the end! Do you think I’m some kind of Moron?

What do you do when you can’t count on a moron to keep a commitment?  You get a 10 year-old to replace him.  My daughter and her friend, with mommy’s consent, sit down with the Moron to examine some of the challenges ten years on this planet can bring.  We talk about birthday parties… we talk about what it’s like to lose a pet, what it’s like to have a ceremony for a pet and then rapidly switch to the subject of cartoons and life before Cartoon Network.  We have a discussion about boys and I’m not sure where they’re at on that subject at 10 years old but there is some bleeping of names to protect the innocent and NOT because they curse like sailors, but it might be fun to imagine that when you hear it.  We wrap up by discussing their parallel acting careers and things get a little chippy.

Hold on to your protons… because in this edition of the Modern Moron we change our initials MM to Miraculous Madduri.  If you remember some time ago I interviewed Achyntia Madduri who has a PhD in Electrical engineering. His work involved independent solar grids that could be deployed to disaster victims.  Well in this show we’re going to talk to the block that he is a chip off of as they say, his father, Dr. Somayazulu Madduri.

He is a scientist as well and is part of a breakthrough in superconductors and superconductivity.  What the heck is that? Don’t ask me, but we are going to ask him to dumb it down or Moron it down for us.  To do their thing, superconductors need very high pressure and very low temperatures, minus 300 degrees almost, because they generate a lot of heat.  Well Dr. Zulu, as they call him, has been part of a team that has figured out how to do it at almost room temperature. And that’s a very big breakthrough… how big?  I can’t put it into perspective but we talk about Star Wars for a second so that’s big enough for me.  I’ll also include a link to a very short straightforward article about his work.

We also talk about Hinduism and bringing up children in a household that embraces both science and religion as part of the same journey.

You’re going to hear words you don't’ normally hear on this program.  Here are a few… maybe you can use them on your daily crossword puzzles...

Lanthanum - A chemical element. It is a soft, silvery-white metal that tarnishes rapidly when exposed to air and is soft enough to be cut with a knife.  It’s used for flint in lighters and is used in the semiconductors in Dr. Zulu’s experiments.

“Dynamo” which is not only a way to describe the Senator’s personality but is literally a generator for turning mechanical energy into electrical energy.

Epistemology - the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge.

Upanishads - are ancient Sanskrit texts that contain some of the central philosophical concepts and ideas of Hinduism, some of which are shared with religious traditions like Buddhism.

See how much benefit you’re getting from making the Modern Moron part of your day?

https://phys.org/news/2019-01-evidence-superconductivity-room-temperature.html

In this episode we have our first 3-way!  The Senator and I interview a mutual friend and our second retired firefighter.  This gentleman was an Emergency Medical Technician and Ambulance driver for his department. We find out the difference between an EMT and a full Paramedic which is interesting to me but apparently boring to the Senator as he takes over the interview and instead we hear about a firehouse prank and about our guest’s successful battle with cancer… we even tease him about his cancer as only a couple of morons can.  Thank you for listening!

We conclude our Easter chat by talking about Bernie Sander’s new found wealth, I get angry (surprise) about the old farts running on the democratic ticket as well as Rudy Giuliani.  We have a weeks old Mayor Pete update so I guess that’s not really an update is it? Then the Senator talks about (and to) his new Alexa device. We have a couple of entertaining YouTube videos we point to and then… We’re done.  Except I forgot to stop recording and we end up truly exhibiting what white privileged idiots.. Sorry, morons we are.  So, I’m leaving it in and I’m not sure why other than to say it’s real and I’m telling on myself.  You may think it’s entertaining, you may think it’s racist and insensitive. I have my doubts about leaving it in but its there at the end of the episode. For now anyway.  Thank you for listening… I think.

The  Senator has belated Easter wishes for you so we have to talk about the horrible fire at Notre Dame Cathedral last week and ALL that money that was donated… over a billion dollars!  Then we can’t figure out the name of the Yellow Vest Movement in France. (morons) We chat about a brief meeting of the minds between Cher and Donald Trump over immigration. I confess my brief foray into Facebook that lasted about twenty minutes.  And we conclude with a tragic story of the Senator losing a cat and somehow he’s the one that’s the victim in the whole thing.

On this very special episode our initials TMM stand for ‘The Music Man’.  I mentioned that I had the privilege to attend a memorial service for an acquaintance and a friend named Ken Welch.  He and his wife and collaborator Mitzie were musicians, performers, musical arrangers and producers and worked with some very notable talents that you will definitely recognize.  I get a chance to interview one of Ken’s daughters about his life in music which will take us back to the golden age of television when programs aired live. We’ll hear a few segments of songs… one song he wrote that helped one great talent launch her career and a musical arrangement that led to another’s first hit single. 

Carol Burnett - I Made A Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles

Barbra Streisand “Happy Days Are Here Again” on The Garry Moore Show

Barbra Streisand & Judy Garland Happy Days Duet

Hal Linden Specials Interview

Ken & Mitzie Welch “I’ve Got Rhythm” on The Jack Paar Show 1959

The Senator's father has written an obituary for himself and the Senator has a rebuttal to the obituary.  What a moron.  The old man  attends a memorial service himself.  We talk about a sexist comment in the new Spiderman trailer and we conclude with the Jussie Smollett case being dropped and he refuses to pay the court costs of his staged assault.  It's all worth it because Charles Barkley puts it all into perspective for us.

We’re back with the Senator discussing the heavy hitting important issues of the day like: Joe Biden’s Hugging Habits… Donald Trump as a 5-year-old boy… literally not just behaving like one.  We mention the Meuller report and the definition of the word “redacted”, the Yelp documentary called Billion Dollar Bully and the Senator ponders an ancestry DNA test.  I hope he passes.

Our consultant gives us notes and recommendations about the show.  It's scary but we're going to try and keep an open mind.  Also, our consultant is a retired firefighter and we talk briefly about the time he spent in the administrative end of firefighting and how he felt it helped his career.  And we discuss a little bit about the not-very-pleasant side of being on an emergency scene and how some firefighters might use humor to deal with tragedy.