Episode 59: Mea Culpa

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To err is human, amirite? In this, Episode 59: Mea Culpa, I'm not seeking forgiveness. I know I make mistakes. I've made them before, and I'm sure I will continue to make them. Here, though, I do—for a very specific reason which will become apparent instantly to long-time listeners—feel the need to correct the record lest I be accused not-journalism. Even though, I know, I'm not a journalist.



Trust me. There's a reason for this.

Today, I read from Tim Wu's "The Master Switch" once again; and from Rose George's "The Big Necessity," the best book about the complexities involved in the systems and traditions tied to relieving oneself I have ever read. Shit can be hard, it turns out.

Musically, KMFDM and Mistle Thrush ably open and close this episode.

Episode 58: Warring Assumptions

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In this Episode 58: Warring Assumptions, I look briefly into a topic I haven't covered in a bit lately: commercials and how to avoid them. Specifically I look at developments in commercial-nuking technology; the lawsuits and corporate decisions that kept the best tech from emerging when it was first developed; and the later realizations that allowed it to (in a limited way) finally become available to the viewing and listening public. In the end I manage to Godwin the whole thing, tying corporate decision making to an element that inadvertently hamstrung the fight against Adolf Hitler himself.

My sources for this episode include: Tim Wu's book, "The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires" (Random House, 2010, pp. 184-186); Richard Strauss' "Also Thus Spake Zarathustra;" Orson Welles introducing the 1939 Mercury Theater production of "War of the Worlds;" and Visciera's "Coming Back." I open with Dmitri Orlov backed by KMFDM's "Attack," and close with Mistle Thrush's "It's All Like Today."