While We're On The Subject

Mike and Job discuss conspiracy theories and the complicated and public nature of the modern digital world. They then discuss how people underestimate the progress of democracy around the world and how some ideas in evolution and economics relate to one another.

Listen to this Episode and Learn:

How conspiracy theories come to be

The difficulties of improving in public

How democracy is advancing and thriving around the world

Mentioned in the Episode:

So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed

Leader of Myanmar - Aung San Suu Kyi

There is a pervasive and growing mood of pessimism in many parts of society. Our hosts struggle to understand and deal with it. They then tell some of their worst stories from work. The show closes with a discussion of potential university reforms to increase flexibility and practicality.

Listen to this Episode and Learn:

How to deal with the negative mood of the day

Our worst work experiences

How everyone would benefit from the rise of micro-credentials in university

Mentioned in the Episode:

A History of Western Philosophy

Black Lives Matter

A History of Germany: 1918-2008

The Weimar Republic

Skillshare

Edx

Khan Academy

Mike and Jon follow up on their discussion on repeated processes before debating what makes some revolutions successful. They then argue over the merits of the Irish abortion referendum and direct democracy more broadly. They close with a discussion of the Netflix Documentary Wild Wild Country about the sannyasin commune in rural Oregon.

Listen to this Episode and Learn:

Why some revolutions succeed

The Irish abortion referendum

Our analysis of Wild Wild Country

Mentioned in the Episode:

Wild Wild Country

Rajneeshees

The Bhagwan

The hosts argue about the usage democratize, capitalism, democracy, and communism and then explore the downsides of capitalism. They debate the merits of single issue voting and contrast the events of the Latin American independence revolutions and that of the United States.

Listen to this Episode and Learn:

How democratize is misused

The issues with capitalism

Our thoughts on single issue voters

Mentioned in the Episode:

NEXT EPISODE: Wild Wild Country

Doreen Simmons

Japanese Honor: Order of the rising sun

Sumo Wrestling medics ordered out of the ring due to gender

NPR

State and Regulatory Capture

Net neutrality

The Salvation Army

Wealth Taxes

Universal Basic Income

Fannie Mae

Homeowner Tax Credits

Single Issue Voters

Real Time with Bill Maher

Radical Markets by Glen Weyl & Eric A. Posner

Greater Colombia

Federalists

Anti-Federalists

Coloured People (South Africa)

Apartheid (South Africa

NEXT EPISODE: Wild Wild Country

Mike and Jon start out complaining about people with terrible grammar but quickly move on to an attempt to make boring things interesting and a far ranging conversation about the possibilities of terraforming Mars and Venus. They finish it all off with an examination of automation and the difference between scarcity and abundance.

Listen to this Episode and Learn:

Why dials are interesting

Why Venus and not Mars will be terraformed

The difference between scarcity and abundance

Mentioned in the Episode:

Chinese Cloud Seeding in Tibet

Terraforming

Geo-engineering

Gravitational Waves

Mike and Jon complain about walking etiquette before exploring how society treats the elderly and experience. They then discuss creating new things and what goes into it. They close with a conversation on giant tech firms, and why there are none in Europe.

Listen to this Episode and Learn:

The importance of experience

How process and execution interact in creative endeavours

Why new technologies come from so few countries

Mentioned in the Episode:

Leisure World, Seal Beach

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

South Park

Philadelphia 76ers

The Phantom Of The Opera

Kodak

Sony

Nintendo

CERN Labs

Texas Instruments

To celebrate their twentieth episode Mike and Jon decided to try something a little different. Avoiding even the whiff of anything serious they discuss a series of peculiar questions written by the Author Chuck Klosterman. They discuss questions: 1,2,4,13,7,19, and 8 in that order with all of the awkwardness and unnecessary seriousness they bring to everything.

Listen to this Episode and Learn:

Why it’s hard to kill a horse

The perils of having a banquet of ex-lovers

If magic qualifies as impressive

Mentioned in the Episode:

Klosterman’s Questions:

1. Let us assume you met a rudimentary magician. Let us assume he can do five simple tricks he can pull a rabbit out of his hat, he can make a coin disappear, he can turn the ace of spades into the Joker card, and two others in a similar vein. There are his only tricks and he can’t learn anymore; he can only do these five. HOWEVER, it turns out he’s doing these five tricks with real magic. It’s not an illusion; he can actually conjure the bunny out of the other and he can move the coin through space. Hes legitimately magical, but extremely limited in scope and influence. Would this person be more impressive than Albert Einstein?

2. Let us assume a fully grown, completely healthy Clydesdale horse has his hooves shackled to the ground while he head is held in place with thick rope. He is conscious and standing upright, but he is completely immobile. And let us assume that for some reason every political prisoner on earth (as cited by Amnesty International) will be released from captivity if you can kick this horse to death in less than twenty minutes. You are allowed to wear steel-toed boots. Would you attempt to do this?

Amnesty international and Political Prisoners

4. Genetic engineers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a so-called super gorilla. Though the animal cannot speak, it has a sign language lexicon of over twelve thousand words, and an IQ of almost 85, and most notably a vague sense of self-awareness. Oddly, the creature (who weighs seven hundred pounds) becomes fascinated by football. The gorilla aspires to play the game at its highest level and quickly develops the rudimentary skills of a defensive end. ESPN analyst Tom Jackson speculates that this gorilla would be borderline unblockable and would likely average six sacks a game (although Jackson concedes the beast might be susceptible to counters and misdirection plays). Meanwhile, the gorilla has made is clear he would never intentionally injure any opponent. You are commissioner of the NFL: Would you allow this gorilla to sign with the Oakland Raiders?

NFL

NFL commissioner

800 pound gorilla

Oakland Raiders

13. Every person you have ever slept with is invited to a banquet where you are the guest of honor. No one will be in attendance except for you, the collection of former lovers, and the catering service. After the meal, you are asked to give a fifteen-minute speech to the assembly. What do you talk about?

7. Defying all expectation, a group of Scottish marine biologists capture a live Loch Ness Monster. In an almost unbelievable coincidence, a bear hunter shoots a Sasquatch in the thigh, thereby allowing zoologists to take the furry monster into captivity. These events happen on the same afternoon. That evening, the president announces he may have thyroid cancer and will undergo a biopsy later that week. You are the front-page editor of The New York Times: What do you play as the biggest story?

Sasquach

Loch Ness Monster

19. Your best friend is taking a nap on the floor of your living room. Suddenly, you are faced with a bizarre existential problem: This friend is going to die unless you kick them (as hard as you can) in the rib cage. If you don’t kick them while they slumber, they will never wake up. However, you can never explain this to your friend; if you later inform them that you did this to save their life, they will also die from that. So you have to kick a sleeping friend in the ribs, and you can’t tell them why. Since you cannot tell your friend the truth, what excuse will you fabricate to explain this (seemingly inexplicable) attack?

8. You meet the perfect person. Romantically, this person is ideal; You find them physically attractive, intellectually stimulating, consistently funny, and deeply compassionate. However, they are one quirk: This individual is obsessed with Jim Henson’s gothic puppet fantasy The Dark Crystal. Beyond watching it on DVD at least once a month, he/she peppers casual conversation with Dark Crystal references, uses Dark Crystal analogies to explain everyday events, and occasionally likes to talk intensely about the films deeper philosophy. Would this be enough to stop you from marrying this individual?

The Dark Crystal

Back To The Future

The Muppets Christmas Carol

Mike and Jon talk about the potential use of DNA for data storage and the progression of science through the centuries. They then discuss their second quarter plans and the growing complexity of and conflicts between intellectual and tangible property rights.

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Economist

Wired Magazine

Fast Company Magazine

Megatech 2050

23 And Me

The brain uses 20 watts/day (Laptops use 50-100 watts/hour or 1200-2400 watts/day)

Pi Day

Mole Day

Saint George’s Day

CORRECTION: Saint Patrick didn’t drive out dragons, Saint George slew dragons

Jon Roberts - Jon’s YouTube Channel

John Deere Tractor Software Controversy

Monsanto GMO Seed Patent Controversy

Panama Banana Disease Wiped Out Banana Agriculture in the 1950’s

Mike and Jon discuss how words for specific places or things generalize before exploring some simple strategies for improving memory retention when studying or reading books. They then break down the relationships between population decline, economic growth, and national debts, and Japan’s acute dangers with these.

Listen to this Episode and Learn:

How words with specific means expand and generalize

How to remember more of what you read and study

The relationships between growth in population, the economy, and public finances

Mentioned in the Episode:

Paradise Lost - Pandemonium

Sandwich - etymology

Bedlam - English insane asylum

House on Haunted Hill

The Forgetting Curve

The Learning Curve

University Of Richmond

Greenspan: The Age of Turbulence

Japan’s Population Growth

Japan’s National Debt

Mike and Jon clarify the importance simplicity when learning science. Then they discuss playing pool and the difference between knowing about and knowing how to do something. They follow that with an exploration of potential impacts of Autonomous Vehicles and then close by talking through some of the dangers around cults of personality and the rise of strong men in politics.

The difference between knowledge and skills

Potential ramifications of Autonomous Vehicles

Cults of personality in the USA and China

An Post: the Irish post office

The Wicklow Way

Jon hiked Crone Wood

English in pool (spin)

League Of Legends

E-sports

Uber AV kills someone in Arizona

Uber Pool Express (carpooling)

Zipcar - car sharing

Cult of personality

China Eliminates Term Limits

Xi Jinping

Mao Zedong

Deng Xiaoping

Louis 14 - “I am the state”

Xi jinping’s suffering during the cultural revolution

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