Episode 286: The Great Granny Patches Gambit

Play Now!

We've all heard the saying: never meet your idols. Well, folks, let me give you one very real example of a fallen idol in this Episode 286: The Great Granny Patches Gambit.

In this episode, I read from: The Official J. P. Patches Website. I played: an add introducing the podcast version of an On The Media podcast extra called "The Forgotten History of the First Sitcom"^*' JP Patches introducing a concert in 1992; and an anecdote recalled about the first day in the career of a former Seattle Policeman from a video titled "This CLOWN can get away with anything in Seattle!".

Musically, you heard: KMFDM introducing Mr. Ceglowski in the intro. Mistle Thrush plays us out with "It's All Like Today."

Episode 285: Laboring Upstream On the River of Shit

Play Now!

Why do so many of the companies that provide us with stuff need to be ginormous? For that matter, why must too many of them outright abuse their workers? I look at this just a bit in this Episode 285: Laboring Upstream On the River of Shit.

In this episode, I read from: Cory Doctorow's excellent new book Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It. I also read from the Shit River press releases they think absolve them of their responsibility in abusing their workers, that found in the Oobah Butler documentary The Great Amazon Heist: Undercover, Unions, and Loopholes.


Here's a Link!

(Oops. I just realized I screwed up Mr. Butler's name in the show, calling him "Oodah" instead of "Oobah." Damn it. My bad.)

Of course, I also play bits of that documentary in the show. Just for fun, I also sprinkle in just a bit of the old South Park Underpants Gnomes theory of business.

From memory, I recount the Reveal story concerning the leaked warehouse injury rates that the company would rather not report to the proper authorities. (Seriously, this is one fucked up company.)

Musically, KMFDM backs Cory Doctorow's synopsis of what has happened to antitrust law in the last few decades. Julie & Rolf & The Campfire Gang sing us out with "Over the Rainbow."