Third Space Podcast

Mind your Morals returns after a few episodes, this time examining the risque topic of strip clubs. Are they moral, either for the strippers, the patrons, or the owners? If not, on what grounds? What about weird futuristic scenarios with VR strip clubs and robo-boobs? Bennett and Daniel examine it all.

Daniel has a cough, which turned out to be Covid. If it wasn't called that, it wouldn't have mattered at all, but by that name, it meant wearing the Scarlet Letter of a mask. We talk about that a little, and then Daniel turns the tables on Bennett by asking him to defend poetry. And he actually does it, sort of. Enjoy the discussion and the return of the phenomenal jingle.

You can consider this the beginning of a new Third Space Podcast, one where we shift from roughly monthly multi-hour podcasts to weekly sub-hour ones. In this episode, we do a fair job at trimming down the time while still keeping a favorite segment: Superpowers and Drawbacks. We also discuss... aliens! And don't miss out on the super sweet AI-generated jingle. Maybe AI really will take over the world.

In this episode of Third Space Podcast (3SP, see what I did with the title there?), Daniel enthusiastically introduces the conversational topic of ChatGPT, the recently popular AI chatbot. They discuss its function, potential, limitations, and the implications of AI bots for education and society; whether we will be overtaken by AI or tame it and be better humans with better tools.

In this well-paced episode, Bennett blows smoke about smoke detectors, then Superpowers and Drawbacks returns to its roots with a level 1 set of choices, and finally Bennett and Daniel discuss a generally unpleasant but also strangely interesting topic: death. Namely, the associated costs and rituals that accompany death and the possibility of exploitation in the death industry.

This is a very fun episode. We begin with This or That, back for the third or fourth run, and then we launch Country or Crock, which is very reminiscent of episode 35's Rap or Crap. Bennett presents Daniel with snippets of stereotypical or hilarious country songs in a variety of categories and has Daniel try to guess which are real and which Bennett just made up. If you don't hear from Bennett again, it's because he's moved to Nashville to become a honky-tonk star.

Bennett and Daniel kick things off by wondering why we still bother with signatures, which spawns multiple mini-topics ranging from celebrity autographs to retro video games. Then, after a long absence, Mind Your Morals returns, and by the end of the segment, we've eliminated cancer, racism, and mosquitos. So moral!

It's been a while since the last episode, but for good reason: Daniel got married! Not only that, but he's also gotten a new job and moved to a new state, so there's lots to catch up on. We talk about all things wedding-related, but not before discussing the difference between generalists and specialists, and how the US seems to be specializing more and more, for both good and ill.

In this episode, Bennett once again does his social duty by fixing the world's worst sport in Bennett Fixes Sports, and then Bennett and Daniel discuss a classy topic: dressing up. Has society ceased valuing dressing up? Is there some moral component to how we dress? Should dressing up be preserved, or is it better for us to accept a more casual fashion?