Subtitle: The beginning, the beginning!

The dog-blaming continues, and John has updates on the social component of arc raiding.

Links and Show Notes:

The dog-blaming continues, and John has updates on the social component of arc raiding.

Credits

• Audio Editor: Jim Metzendorf
  
• Admin Assistance: Kerry Provenzano
  
• Music: Merlin Mann
• The Suits: Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley

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Dog Accidentally Shoots and Injures a Pennsylvania Man, the Police Say - The New York Times

Dog-Centered Design - One Foot Tsunami, by Paul Kafasis

OU launches wireless button allowing dogs to control household appliances

INRI - Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum

Clever Hans - Wikipedia

Arc Raiders

Subtitle: Everybody starts out with the same quarter.

After some Follow-Up on phone dimming and naked swimming, John discusses a video game with some unusual—and possibly unintentional—social mechanics.

Links and Show Notes:

After some Follow-Up on phone dimming and naked swimming, John discusses a video game with some unusual—and possibly unintentional—social mechanics.

In this month’s member bonus segment, your hosts discuss the first two episodes of Prur1bus (Apple TV, 2025).

You can sign up today to hear all the member episodes, get more bonus stuff, and help support our program.

(Recorded on Tuesday, November 11, 2025)

Credits

• Audio Editor: Jim Metzendorf
  
• Admin Assistance: Kerry Provenzano
  
• Music: Merlin Mann
• The Suits: Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley

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Get 20% off annual membership until the end of 2025!

iPulse - Iconfactory

iPulse in the Apple App Store

Naked swimming in gym class mentioned in the pilot episode of 21 Jump St. in 1987

Written by Patrick Hasburgh, who was born in 1950.

Technology Connections - YouTube

Nissan Figaro - Wikipedia

Marathon (2025-ish) - Wikipedia

ARC Raiders

ARC Raiders trailer - YouTube

ARC Raiders - Wikipedia

Nexon, owner of Embark Studios, makers of ARC Raiders - Wikipedia

Pluribus (aka Plur1bus, aka Plurbius) - Wikipedia

Rhea Seehorn - Wikipedia

John’s post about a review of Top Gun - Hypercritical

Pluribus’s log line

“The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.”

Edgar Wright: How to Do Visual Comedy - Every Frame a Painting on YouTube

I Think About My Painting Goblin in The Sims a Lot - Becca Schuh in The Cut

Monster Factory - YouTube

Empty Nest Results.

(Recorded on Tuesday, October 28, 2025)

Links and Show Notes:

Things kick off with some quick Follow-Up on Merlin's hot phone and how our ancestors' brains dealt with Lead.

For a main topic, John's kids have left for college, so what kind of changes has he noticed so far?

(Recorded on Tuesday, October 28, 2025)

Credits

• Audio Editor/First Chair Saxophonist: Jim Metzendorf
  
• Admin Assistance: Kerry Provenzano
  
• Music: Merlin Mann
• The Suits: Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley

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Our Human Ancestors Were Exposed to Lead, and New Research Suggests It May Have Shaped Human Evolution - Smithsonian Magazine

The Wandering Village: a game that really wears its influences on its sleeve

Subway Surfers - Wikipedia

Why TikTok Always Has Subway Surfers Or Family Guy Playing - YouTube

Remess: an app to show stats from your Messages history

Use at your own risk!

Kids in the Hall: The Eradicator - YouTube

Subtitle: Merlin can still smell the slide oil.

TiVo: The Exit Interview.

Links and Show Notes:

John leads us through the TiVo Exit Interview.

In this month’s member bonus segment, your hosts discuss Alien: Earth (FX, 2025).

You can sign up today to hear all the member episodes, get more bonus stuff, and help support our program.

(Recorded Tuesday, July 22, 2025)

Credits

• Audio Editor/First Chair Saxophonist: Jim Metzendorf
  
• Admin Assistance: Kerry Provenzano
  
• Music: Merlin Mann
• The Suits: Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley

Get an ad-free version of the show, plus a monthly extended episode.

Quaker meeting (game) - Wikipedia

Last One Laughing: Bob Mortimer's Funniest Moments - YouTube

TiVo Stops Selling DVRs

Philips DSR6000 for DIRECTV - TiVopedia

Merlin's first TiVo

Alien: Earth - Wikipedia

Alien (1979)

Aliens (1986)

Alien³ (1992)

The Tithingman at the Ipswich Meeting House – Historic Ipswich

Apparently, what Merlin calls "the bonking stick" refers to a staff or rod wielded by a "Tithingman."

Subtitle: “Periscope up!”

Main topic is the various voices in our heads. If the technology existed to expose the workings of our interior world, what do we imagine it might look like?

Links and Show Notes:

John has Follow-Up on naked swimming as well as an update on his mystery beep. Merlin is increasingly concerned about his Lead, but it's a little late for that now.

The main topic is the various voices in our heads. If the technology existed to expose the workings of our interior world, what do we imagine it might look like?

(Recorded on Tuesday, September 30, 2025)

Credits

• Audio Editor: Jim Metzendorf
  
• Admin Assistance: Kerry Provenzano
  
• Music: Merlin Mann
• The Suits: Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley

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Reconcilable Differences #270: We Inflated Our Pants

This episode includes our members-only aftershow, free for everyone.

How half the US lost part of their minds - YouTube

This is the "lead in baby teeth" video.

How artificial intelligence gave a paralyzed woman her voice back

Meet the Little Brain Region that Helps You Say What’s on Your Mind

Scientists develop interface that “reads” thoughts from speech-impaired patients

AlterEgo: Thought to text

Aphantasia - Wikipedia

Unified Modeling Language - Wikipedia

The Rest Is History #604: Greek Myths: Sex, Drugs & Tragedy (Part 3)

Lawrence M. Schoen - Wikipedia

New College professor and Klingon language specialist from whom Merlin took a Mnemonics class.

New Order - "The Beach" ('Blue Monday' remix, 1983) - YouTube

Merlin thinks this is how electric cars sound.

Kraftwerk - "Uranium" (1975) - YouTube

Source of the sample used by New Order.

Everything You Know About “Blue Monday” is Probably Wrong I New British Canon - YouTube

Peg-word mnemonic - Oxford Reference

one is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree, four is a door, five is a hive, six is sticks, seven is heaven, eight is a gate, nine is wine, ten is a hen.

Amazon.com: The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play: 8580001059679: Lorayne, Harry, Lucas, Jerry: Books

Merlin couldn't remember the author of this book, and that's just funny.

Swimming naked in school and thinking about Lead.

Links and Show Notes:

In Follow-Up, listeners share their experiences with Swimming Naked in School. Won't someone please think of the pool filters? Merlin recalls that distant summer he attended swimming and trampoline camp—albeit in an admittedly non-nude context.

Next up, John does his level best to give updates on his finished room. Space is required for something called "blocking." Merlin confesses that he can't really identify where that beeping sound is coming from.

In the (free-to-you) member segment, things kick off with compliments to the author Stephen King along with some remarks on his earthy social media presence.

But the main topic? Lead (Pb)!

In particular, your hosts explore scientific speculation that the effects of lead on the psychopathology of their generation may be far greater than previously known.

Authentic anecdotes about aggressive childhood lead play are revealed.

(Recorded on Tuesday, September 16, 2025)

N.B. Your hosts thought this week's member segment was pretty good, so they decided to share it with everybody here for free. If you enjoy what you hear, please consider supporting the program at https://www.relay.fm/rd/join.

Credits

• Audio Editor: Jim Metzendorf
  
• Admin Assistance: Kerry Provenzano
  
• Music: Merlin Mann
• The Suits: Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley

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Give to St. Jude!

Bachman–Turner Overdrive - Wikipedia

Bachman Turner Overdrive - "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" (1974)

ACK: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) - Wikipedia

“Ack!” Cathy (comic) - Wikipedia

“Ack!” Bill the Cat (Bloom County) - Wikipedia

ATP 657: Ears Are Weird — Accidental Tech Podcast

ATP Overtime: Alterego and “thought to text” translation

Procedure word - Wikipedia

Nude swimming in US indoor pools - Wikipedia

Alison K. Hoagland. "Introducing the Bathroom: Space and Change in Working-Class Houses."

Minnesota men bare all about naked swimming in school - The Minnesota Star Tribune

Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story (2022)

Silver Beaver Award - Wikipedia

Merlin's late father was awarded a Silver Beaver.

What is Blocking? - Cocoknits

Blocking 101 (Knitting Tutorial)

Stephen King promotes The Long Walk (video)

An excerpt from Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy - Prose Porn Subreddit

“The judge like a great ponderous djinn stepped through the fire and the flames delivered him up as if he were in some way native to their element. He put his arms around Glanton. Someone snatched the old woman’s blindfold from her and she and the juggler were clouted away and when the company turned in to sleep and the low fire was roaring in the blast like a thing alive these four yet crouched at the edge of the firelight among their strange chattels and watched how the ragged flames fled down the wind as if sucked by some maelstrom out there in the void, some vortex in that waste apposite to which man’s transit and his reckonings alike lay abrogate. As if beyond will or fate he and his beasts and his trappings moved both in card and in substance under consignment to some third and other destiny.”

Words Cormac McCarthy Uses in His Novels [PDF]

"Each word is noted as to which book(s) it is included in as well as how many times it occurs in that book."

Contribution of childhood lead exposure to psychopathology in the US population over the past 75 years

“More than half of the current US population was exposed to adverse lead levels in childhood as a result of lead's past use in gasoline. […] Lead-associated mental health and personality differences were most pronounced for cohorts born from 1966 through 1986 (Generation X).”

20th Century Lead Exposure Damaged American Mental Health - Duke University

We Made Hot Fuzz - YouTube

Subtitle: This is where the tractors go.

John shares the results of some fascinating recent polling on TV obstructions and chewing gum swallowing.

This episode of Reconcilable Differences is sponsored by:

• Vitally: A new era for customer success productivity. Get a free pair of AirPods Pro when you book a qualified meeting.
• Factor: Healthy, fully-prepared food delivered to your door. Use code diffs50off

Links and Show Notes:

John speculates about a reference, then Merlin sings like Paul Simon for a few seconds.

In Follow-Up: if you thought "shirts vs. skins" was bad? Oh boy, just wait until you hear how they used to do things in 1970s Michigan.

Next up, Merlin has questions about urban phone usage. Specifically, hey, what's the deal with all the talking on speakerphone?

Then, John shares the results of some fascinating recent polling on TV obstructions and chewing gum swallowing.

Merlin really wants John to watch the movie, Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola, 2024).

(Recorded on Tuesday, September 2, 2025)

Credits

• Audio Editor: Jim Metzendorf
  
• Admin Assistance: Kerry Provenzano
  
• Music: Merlin Mann
• The Suits: Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley

Get an ad-free version of the show, plus a monthly extended episode.

Give to St. Jude!

Roderick on the Line #593: These Are the Days

These Are Days, by 10,000 Maniacs

These Are Days (audio links)

Sharon Linne Faulk on her husband's high school PE class in the 1970s

John's TV blockers poll

Megadoc (2025) - IMDb

Aubrey Plaza says Megalopolis is “disturbing,” Coppola “repressed”

Subtitle: “No Scraps!”

Canada blames the dog, John presents his Vacation Results, and Merlin talks about the beach. In this month's bonus member segment, Merlin shares some Professional Expert Results.

This episode of Reconcilable Differences is sponsored by:

• Vitally: A new era for customer success productivity. Get a free pair of AirPods Pro when you book a qualified meeting.
• Factor: Healthy, fully-prepared food delivered to your door. Use code diffs50off

Links and Show Notes:

Canada blames the dog, John presents his Vacation Results, and Merlin talks about the beach. In this month's bonus member segment, Merlin shares some Professional Expert Results.

(Recorded Tuesday, August 19, 2025)

Credits

• Audio Editor: Jim Metzendorf
  
• Admin Assistance: Kerry Provenzano
  
• Music: Merlin Mann
• The Suits: Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley

Get an ad-free version of the show, plus a monthly extended episode.

Winnipeg woman says dog started fire by turning on stove under recall notice — twice

Greenmade InstaCrate Collapsible Storage Bin

ATP Insider: Vacations

Defunctland: The History of Action Park - YouTube

C8 Corvette steering wheel

Subtitle: We called them latex invitations.

John reports back with his Billy Joel Results.

This episode of Reconcilable Differences is sponsored by:

• Vitally: A new era for customer success productivity. Get a free pair of AirPods Pro when you book a qualified meeting.
• Factor: Healthy, fully-prepared food delivered to your door. Use code diffs50off

Links and Show Notes:

John reports back with his Billy Joel Results.

(Recorded on Tuesday, August 5, 2025)

Credits

• Audio Editor: Jim Metzendorf
  
• Admin Assistance: Kerry Provenzano
  
• Music: Merlin Mann
• The Suits: Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley

Get an ad-free version of the show, plus a monthly extended episode.

The Living Daylights (1987)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

“Slicing the Pie” in Destiny - YouTube

“Slicing the Pie” with diagrams - YouTube

Direct MP3 link to the member version of Reconcilable Differences #266

Free to everyone! This is the full member version of episode 266, which includes the normal episode followed by the members-only aftershow (and no ads, of course). If you like what you hear, you can become a member at https://relay.fm/rd/join

Lisp code examples

“Lisp has all the visual appeal of oatmeal with fingernail clippings mixed in.” — Larry Wall, July 21, 1994 in comp.lang.lisp

Billy Joel: And So It Goes - HBO

Billy Joel: Turn the Lights Back On - YouTube

Subtitle: The folder is called “Pepperoni.”

How does John generate all that cool chapter art?

This episode of Reconcilable Differences is sponsored by:

• Vitally: A new era for customer success productivity. Get a free pair of AirPods Pro when you book a qualified meeting.

Links and Show Notes:

Things kick off with John sharing some breaking news about The Flop House, plus it's clear that Merlin's Britishisms are becoming numerous, invasive, and a little un-American.

Next up, Merlin wonders how John generated all that cool chapter art for a recent ATP special. (Hint: some of it was automated; some of it was not.)

And, finally, Merlin decides to apply Theory of Mind to predict why John hasn't watched the Billy Joel special yet. Subsequently, John is pitched on why this program probably represents essential viewing for him and his people.

In this month’s member bonus segment, John has book-adjacent questions about Merlin's Wisdom Project.

You can sign up today to hear all the member episodes, get more bonus stuff, and help support our program.

(Recorded Tuesday, July 22, 2025)

Credits

• Audio Editor: Jim Metzendorf
  
• Admin Assistance: Kerry Provenzano
  
• Music: Merlin Mann
• The Suits: Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley

Get an ad-free version of the show, plus a monthly extended episode.

Flop House Mini 132: Stu Brings Down the Hammer

This is the Flop House mini episode where Stuart Wellington fulfills John’s request to explain the Warhammer 40,000 episode of the Secret Level animation anthology series on Amazon Prime Video.

Secret Level episode 5: Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear - Wikipedia

Secret Level episode 5: Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear - Amazon Prime Video

"Faff" in the Oxford English Dictionary

Substage

The Mac app for using an LLM to take actions in the Finder.

ATP Tier List: Pizza Toppings

ATP Member Specials

Billy Joel: And So It Goes - HBO

HBO’s Big Beautiful Billy Joel Documentary Delivers Maximum Piano Man Per Minute - GQ.com

Hicksville, New York - Wikipedia

Hicksville, New York - Google Maps

The Gilded Age (TV series) - Wikipedia

Billy Joel - Live in London (March 13, 1978) - YouTube

Lorraine Bracco - Wikipedia

wisdom.limo

The fun URL for Merlin’s Wisdom Project.

Merlin’s Wisdom Project on GitHub

Inspirado for Merlin’s Wisdom Project

The Art of Pants

Reconcilable Differences #3: Helena Sell - Relay

On the complexities and constraints of pursuing the right answer.

This episode of Reconcilable Differences is sponsored by:

• Vitally: A new era for customer success productivity. Get a free pair of AirPods Pro when you book a qualified meeting.

Links and Show Notes:

Credits

• Audio Editor: Jim Metzendorf
  
• Admin Assistance: Kerry Provenzano
  
• Music: Merlin Mann
• The Suits: Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley

Get an ad-free version of the show, plus a monthly extended episode.

R.E.M. - Collapse into Now

Stephen Hackett: Ten Years Indie

Lighter Darker: The ILM Podcast

Merlin’s post about ChatGPT and “ctx”

The Gell-Mann amnesia effect - Wikipedia

Like Stories of Old: When Two Filmmakers Make the Same Movie - YouTube

Like Stories of Old: The Inner Chronicle of What We Are – Werner Herzog Documentary - YouTube

Come and See (1985)

We Were the Lucky Ones (2024)

Merlin’s “Some Next-Level Shit” movie list