Episode 8: The Buck Starts Here

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With Episode 8: The Buck Starts Here, I hope to blow a few minds with a tidbit of information about the functioning of our capitalist system . . . some have said the core function that defines capitalism itself. What's more than a little surprising to me, at least, is the fact that one can find this bit of simple—nay, fundamental, even trivial information if one knows where to look; but without that bit of guidance, the search for how money works has become so completely obscured as to sound down right esoteric if not ludicrous. Could it be that commercial forces have decided to obfuscate this fact? I think so.

Some places to look for this information could be (but are far from limited to) certain episodes of the C-Realm Podcast where I found the source material for the audio montage heard in the middle of Episode 8. In order of appearance on the C-Realm, we find in the montage Ellen H. Brown (from #102: A Vocabulary of Control), John Michael Greer (from #262: Assume the Can is Open), Thomas H. Greco (from #265: Legal Tender and the Credit Clearing Function), Dmitri Orlov and Richard Heinberg (from #266: A Black Hole of Debt), and Charles Eisenstein (from #272: Emperor of What). Doug Lain has not articulated the tidbit himself as far as I am aware, but I included his voice as well (from #269: A Better Laugh Track).

If these voices are not enough, I could also provide a reading list from books these guests have written on this very subject. I intend to speak on this topic in future episodes, though, and have half a mind to read from these books as support for said episodes, so just stay tuned to this RSS feed.

Ably backing those worthy voices was "Servant Eye" by Ga'an.

Jan Wong's voice in the new Journalism Intro comes from Jesse Brown's Canadaland podcast (episode 32: "Jan Wong Isn't Over It").

And finally, many thanks to John McKenna for his kind permission to share with you his song, "Mayfly." I would share a link to more of his work; but modest man that he is, he didn't provide any. If you'd like to comment on this song, be it in praise or in pan, leave such commentary in the show notes and I'll make sure to pass it along to the artist.

Episode 7: Longer, Slower, Uncut

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In Episode 7, Longer, Slower, Uncut, I consider what some call Slow Television, content that refuses to be contained in limited time slots and constrained by the manic and incessant pace of commercial advertising. Really, in a digital cable television reality, why shouldn't someone have a channel that shows nothing but puppies frolicking, sleeping, eating, and all without commercial interruption?

Seriously. Why not?

Supporting content and inspirational material from This American Life episode #233, "Starting From Scratch", featuring the story "Puppy Love"; from On The Media's episode "I Want My Slow TV!"; and from Stephen Fry's Podgrams, Series 2, Episode 4, iTunes Live Festival.

Brief music selection by Ludwig von Beethoven, Fifth Symphony. First musical interlude from Charles Atlas, "Signal Flags". Closing interlude music from Omyiga, "Hypnogogia".

Oh, and for those that want a feed instead of individual downloads, plug http://attackads.libsyn.com/rss into your feed gatherer. Lemme know in the comments section if there are problems. Once Certain Quite Major and Unavoidable Family Problems are better resolved, I'll have more time to smooth the bugs out of the more popular feed portals; but not until then, I'm afraid.