Favourite Podcasts

[arugula2]

Interesting coincidence... I just discovered that podcast the other day after a couple of his interviews on the JRE:

[newolder]

^ More Weinstein from a couple of days ago but this time being interviewed by Dr. Brian Keating of "Losing the Nobel Prize" fame. Almost 2 hours duration but still good for lockdown and couple of brew-time breaks...

[arugula2]

So, within a few days of first running into that JRE interview, after several more interviews, I had listened to enough Weinstein to suspect that he... might be full of shit? (generally, not on any specific point) but has a kind of sophisticated delivery system. That he’s a much more interesting thinker, in other words, than the content of his thoughts... And if that’s true (I’m now reacting this way anytime I listen to him for more than 5 minutes) I find myself wading through a lot of intriguing setup and waiting for a payoff that never comes. Actually, a more fair way to describe it is, my first encounter was the most interesting (plus an interview in which he riffs on the Epstein case to a clueless reporter). (Weirdly, his brother is exactly the same way.) Ideally, he needs someone else to distill and deliver his best thoughts, minus all the eel-like maneuvering. But it’d be hard to find a spokesperson with the same storytelling potential.

[newolder]

The stories have little, if any, personal impact. The technical details are (just) beyond my training but they sound intriguing. The idea that institutionalised physics is drowning certainly has merit but, I guess, these things will only be resolved in future days and I have no particular worries either way. It's certainly been a lot of words with not a lot of product, so far, but I'm prepared to give more time to the technical side than anything else. Stephen Wolfram & Eric Weinstein would be a heck of double act...

[The_Piper]

His brother and spouse have a podcast that's good for some tidbits about evolution. They've been talking mostly about Covid19, which I prefer to listen to someone in that field about, but again, there are always interesting tidbits about evolution.
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi5N_uAqApEUIlg32QzkPlg

[arugula2]

Oh, also... completely narcissistic (both brothers) but usually able to mask it well in conversation. That’s based on only about a dozen hours’ exposure, combined, so... It’s ok as a feature, as long as there’s enough pay-off, imo.

[The_Piper]

I think that could be right, as in every podcast they mention Evergreen or telomeres (work he participated in about lab mice). But in fairness, they're asked a lot of questions about it. I have no interest in the Evergreen story. I don't know the full story. Some students wanted the white people to stay home for a day and these two refused. Big deal, I can't blame them either. But a lot of their podcast questions are about anti-pc, and also, especially in the written comments there are a shitload of far right assholes that listen. They don't sound like anti-pc people much at all in the podcast. Heather vaguely mentioned problems with academic "establishment" which makes me a bit skeptical, but I don't pay attention to that subject either. I'm merely a guy on the internet. The ideas about evolution are interesting and make me think, so it's enjoyable.

[The_Piper]

Just an update, fuck Bret Weinstein and his wife. I'll get interesting tidbits about evolution from someone else. Their podcasts turned bad with the recent protests, and I listened to the first few minutes of his latest Joe Rogan podcast appearance, which was unbearable dogshit.

[Fallible]

Disappointing, innit, when that happens.

[The_Piper]

Yes it is. Luckily in the age of social media, there a lots of other choices.

[Fallible]

Indeed, thank goodness.

[quas]

While working on a mini-project, I stumbled upon "My Favorite Murder". The online description seems promising. "My Favorite Murder is a weekly true crime comedy podcast hosted by American comedians Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. The first episode was released in January 2016.[2] The podcast debuted as #25 on the iTunes podcast charts and peaked at #3 on April 27, 2018. [3] Weekly episodes regularly land within iTunes' Top 10 Comedy Podcast chart.[4] The podcast has 19 million monthly downloads.[1]" But 5 podcasts through, I was so bored out of my mind that I was damn near suicidal. "Somebody kill me already. Put me out of my misery." At the end of the fifth podcast, they recommended the documentary "The House of Suh", so I looked up the trailer on Youtube and a few comments say "Stephanie Soo brought me here." Turns out she is one of the greatest storyteller of our time.



Listening to her has saved my life.

[arugula2]

[quote="The_Piper";p="2746472"]I think that could be right, as in every podcast they mention Evergreen or telomeres (work he participated in about lab mice). But in fairness, they're asked a lot of questions about it. I have no interest in the Evergreen story. I don't know the full story. Some students wanted the white people to stay home for a day and these two refused. Big deal, I can't blame them either. But a lot of their podcast questions are about anti-pc, and also, especially in the written comments there are a shitload of far right assholes that listen. They don't sound like anti-pc people much at all in the podcast. Heather vaguely mentioned problems with academic "establishment" which makes me a bit skeptical, but I don't pay attention to that subject either. I'm merely a guy on the internet. The ideas about evolution are interesting and make me think, so it's enjoyable.[/quote]
That right-wing dogwhistling is basically what the mystery-meat is, in all their non-technical conversations. The coyness that rubbed me the wrong way, even in interesting convos, was always a combination of narcissism & alt-right pandering. They sound like the 'polite' or 'reserved' alt-right vanguard: "Oh, well, I'm sure it's beneath me to outright say that the entire academic world is conspiring against me, and, could someone remind me: isn't it kind of what it's like to be a white man in the modern age? Some would say it's exactly like that." That sort of bullshite, but subliminally. Have the guts to spew your nonsense in full view, is my motto.

It's a mark of the times, if nothing else, that I thought it was one of the Weinstein brothers in a video interview who gleefully points out that none of Joker's victims (in Joker) was undeserving of murder - that every one of them was a criminal scumbag, and critics supposedly miss that. But I can't find the comment where I thought it was, and now I'm thinking it may have been Dave Reuben who said it. Oh well.

And just to clarify, the social worker in Joker - even by the movie's own logic - isn't a criminal scumbag deserving of murder. In fact, the movie portrays the character as haggard & sympathetic, and the script goes to lengths to underscore that this character and the Joker are in the same boat, victims of an apathetic system. But the character is black, so...

Same thing, right?

[arugula2]

The things you learn from comedians...

(Edit: Part 2 is even loonier.)







(This phone call I'd known about, but not the lawn jockey.)

[arugula2]

Hmm... youtube algorithm wins this time. 2nd random topic just as interesting. Pattern established. *Subscribe*



This began with a Patton Oswalt binge. Thanks buddy.

[Sgt Kelly]

[arugula2]

The Dollop episode on George H W Bush, queued up to the segment about the car bomb assassination of a Chilean dissident & an American woman, in Washington, DC. The 3 minutes from the linked timestamp = a decent trailer for the show.

[arugula2]

Radio War Nerd, gram for gram possibly the most interesting interview show out there. I haven't listened to this latest upload (“The Secret History of July 4, 1776” recorded 3 years ago), and their youtube offerings are crumbs intended to draw listeners to their Patreon. The episodes on Iran, Yemen, and The Iliad are riveting.

[arugula2]

Interview with main guest (Shaq) starts at 34:45, or click here if you're lazy. Shaq is so on fleek.

[arugula2]

Useful Idiots on Rolling Stone's youtube channel. Typically good podcast, for the comedic repartee between Taibbi and Halper. The magic suffers somewhat due to covid adjustments - they're palpably better when they're sitting in the same room. Anyway, the title of this episode refers to Taibbi's recent article On “White Fragility”, which addresses cancel culture from the reasoned satirist-contrarian pov.