Pol and Pop (Politics/Pop Culture)

Sometimes, it's right in the middle of the day, and suddenly the moon gets right between you and the sun and it gets really dark out for a few minutes. Likewise, we take a break from our usual series of politics and pop culture for this episode.I took a trip through Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas, scheduling it all so that I could see

Special note: I'm re-releasing this on April 8th, which is the day that a full solar eclipse is occurring across much of the middle of the United States. If all is going according to plan, I'm out in Missouri now so that I can watch it from the zone of totality! It's also part of a trip where I'm visiting six states in that west-Tennessee general area, all for t

In this episode, I delve into the topic of High School education in the U.S., including more tape from my interview with Gary and Woody which I followed up on with further research. Areas discussed include: ramifications (or the lack thereof) for bad behavior, racial disparities in suspension rates, diploma versus certificate tracks, bullying, and parents moving to better areas (wi

Even though politics has seemed relatively quiet recently, there's still a lot to discuss from the past two and a half months or so, in total. So, in this episode, Woody and I tackle all of that-- both all the big things and all the small things-- and get up-to-date.

Happy Pi Day! This seemed like a good occasion to get my latest episode edited by and put up on.Leap Day is a really big day for me. So, not only did I make sure that one of my flashback episodes went up on that day, I also made a point to record this new episode on that day specifically, and go into my thoughts about it. I trimmed out a lot, so hopefully it doesn't seem disjo

Special note: Daylight Saving Time in 2024 starts on March 10th... so I'm re-releasing this on March 9th. Don't forget to set your clocks!--In this episode, I address the terrible plan to switch the U.S. to permanent Daylight Saving Time. I start out our journey by covering how humanity laid out the whole system of time that we use today, piece by piece over the span of s

In case I don't have a new episode to schedule for the day instead, I'm at least putting this up-- Happy Leap Day!--In this episode, I explain how representation of citizens works in the U.S. Government, how redistricting follows the census, what gerrymandering is, where it came from, why it's so bad in general, where things stand currently, and how things are only l

Special note: I'm re-releasing this episode on 2/23/24, which is two years to the day after it was recorded.--I sit down with politics enthusiasts and amateur experts Gary and Woody to ask them about the problems at the core of U.S. politics right now. This helps me make sure we stay right on track, only addressing the most central, most important issues and not wasting anyone

After making our predictions for the year ahead, Woody and I just continued our conversation and saw where it took us... which was all over the place from an abstract view of what happens after we die to just political commentary in general.This marks fifty episodes, not counting flashbacks... and a nice, general, deeper conversation to boot. What better way to wrap up season 1 of

Will machines ever come to life and take over the world? Here are the important basic facts behind what "you" are, ensoulment into a body, how computers work, how artificial intelligence works, and how it all ties together. No wasting time here-- I cover everything you need to know about all of that in under 21 minutes. Heck, I even throw in a fun thought experiment about