Episode 33: The Sinclair Maxim

Play Now!

Time to return to two of what must be my least and most favorite sources for podcast material. Episode 33: The Sinclair Maxim first dives into the bothersome wrongness of the NPR podcast and frequent Attack Ads! hobbyhorse and scapegoat Planet Money. Just when I think they couldn't get even worse, they prove me wrong and overly optimistic yet again. My seeming favorite source is in the title.

In this episode, we hear from two Planet Money co-productions made with This American Life, "The Giant Pool of Money" and "The Invention of Money." Inspiration for this episode was appropriately triggered by a glaring detail found opening Planet Money's episode #619, "The Free Throw Experiment." We also hear Planet Money top dog Adam Davidson's appearance on local Seattle NPR affiliate KUOW, on their show The Conversation, a conversation that aired May 26, 2010.

Musically, I chose Metastaz's "Skreeem" and "Miss Fortune", both of which fit frighteningly well into the theme of the show itself.

Finally, credit where due.


Spoiler!

I dedicate the title for today's episode to Upton Sinclair, specifically for his quote, details of which can be found in his 1934 book, "I, Candidate for Governor, And How I got Licked."

Episode 32: Little Brothers Are Watching You

Play Now!

Episode 32: Little Brothers Are Watching You continues the saga of the Smart TV and why, as I claimed in the last episode, Smile!, the threat is even worse than I previously mentioned. I outline actual televisions that (at least at one time) peek into far more than one's face patterns and viewing information, and insert far more than the the content requested by the viewer/owner.

I open with Chris Martenson getting all down about the current business practices with his guest, the ever-insightful John Michael Greer. I read from a blog post by someone calling themselves Doctor Beet, and we hear from a Smart TV manufacturer's video promising exactly what I and (I hope) everyone listening to the Attack Ads! Podcast would rather not ever see come to fruition. The video itself was pulled, but someone reading Dr. B's blog mirrored it; you can find it at his blog. I also read from an article describing a pop ad appearing where it was most unwanted in Australia.

We also hear from On The Media's Brooke Gladstone interviewing Representative Walter Jones in 2013 on a wonderful bit of legislation he proposed, the We Are Watching You Act of 2013 that sadly died before being signed into law. And finally I played at bit of the Dude and Walter from The Big Lebowski ruminating on the difference between Nazis and nihilists.

As always, KMFDM's "Attak" opened the show, this time with Dmitri Orlov's observations, originally made on the Extraenvironmentalist Podcast.

Episode 31: Smile!

Play Now!

Episode 31: Smile! starts this podcast's look into a quiet but insidious threat to our privacy: the new "smart" televisions and other appliances. Unlike those other gizmos with the "smart" designation, though, these TVs have built within them the tools of surveillance most would deem inappropriate.

In this episode, I play a brief section from Episode #104 of the '60s cartoon "The Jetsons"; I play a selections from a BBC interview with a smart TV owner named Peter Kent; and I read from smart set manufacturer Samsung's Global Privacy Policy.

Music today comes from my KMFDM intro with Dmitri Orlov, and from "The Jetsons."