While We're On The Subject
Jon Roberts and Michael Draper get together every week to discuss education, building a career as a millennial, social issues, personal development, technology, anything really.
- 1 hour 19 minutesWWOTS 026: I Only Endorse Some Crime
Mike and Job discuss conspiracy theories and the complicated and public nature of the modern digital world. They then discuss how people underestimate the progress of democracy around the world and how some ideas in evolution and economics relate to one another.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How conspiracy theories come to be
The difficulties of improving in public
How democracy is advancing and thriving around the world
Mentioned in the Episode:
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
Leader of Myanmar - Aung San Suu Kyi
31 July 2018, 4:25 pm - 1 hour 31 minutesWWOTS 025: You’re Batting A Big Old Zero
There is a pervasive and growing mood of pessimism in many parts of society. Our hosts struggle to understand and deal with it. They then tell some of their worst stories from work. The show closes with a discussion of potential university reforms to increase flexibility and practicality.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How to deal with the negative mood of the day
Our worst work experiences
How everyone would benefit from the rise of micro-credentials in university
Mentioned in the Episode:
A History of Western Philosophy
3 July 2018, 3:40 pm - 1 hour 27 minutesWWOTS 024: Optimistic About Burning It All Down
Mike and Jon follow up on their discussion on repeated processes before debating what makes some revolutions successful. They then argue over the merits of the Irish abortion referendum and direct democracy more broadly. They close with a discussion of the Netflix Documentary Wild Wild Country about the sannyasin commune in rural Oregon.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
Why some revolutions succeed
The Irish abortion referendum
Our analysis of Wild Wild Country
Mentioned in the Episode:
19 June 2018, 5:59 pm - 1 hour 24 minutesWWOTS 023: Mobs Have Been Mobbing Since Humans Have Been Walking
The hosts argue about the usage democratize, capitalism, democracy, and communism and then explore the downsides of capitalism. They debate the merits of single issue voting and contrast the events of the Latin American independence revolutions and that of the United States.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How democratize is misused
The issues with capitalism
Our thoughts on single issue voters
Mentioned in the Episode:
NEXT EPISODE: Wild Wild Country
Japanese Honor: Order of the rising sun
Sumo Wrestling medics ordered out of the ring due to gender
Radical Markets by Glen Weyl & Eric A. Posner
5 June 2018, 4:26 pm - 1 hour 31 minutesWWOTS 022: Just Turn Spongebob Off
Mike and Jon start out complaining about people with terrible grammar but quickly move on to an attempt to make boring things interesting and a far ranging conversation about the possibilities of terraforming Mars and Venus. They finish it all off with an examination of automation and the difference between scarcity and abundance.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
Why dials are interesting
Why Venus and not Mars will be terraformed
The difference between scarcity and abundance
Mentioned in the Episode:
31 May 2018, 1:18 pm - 1 hour 30 minutesWWOTS 021: Talking To Oldies
Mike and Jon complain about walking etiquette before exploring how society treats the elderly and experience. They then discuss creating new things and what goes into it. They close with a conversation on giant tech firms, and why there are none in Europe.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
The importance of experience
How process and execution interact in creative endeavours
Why new technologies come from so few countries
Mentioned in the Episode:
27 May 2018, 12:15 pm - 1 hour 13 minutesWWOTS 020: Klosterman’s Curious Questions
To celebrate their twentieth episode Mike and Jon decided to try something a little different. Avoiding even the whiff of anything serious they discuss a series of peculiar questions written by the Author Chuck Klosterman. They discuss questions: 1,2,4,13,7,19, and 8 in that order with all of the awkwardness and unnecessary seriousness they bring to everything.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
Why it’s hard to kill a horse
The perils of having a banquet of ex-lovers
If magic qualifies as impressive
Mentioned in the Episode:
Klosterman’s Questions:
1. Let us assume you met a rudimentary magician. Let us assume he can do five simple tricks he can pull a rabbit out of his hat, he can make a coin disappear, he can turn the ace of spades into the Joker card, and two others in a similar vein. There are his only tricks and he can’t learn anymore; he can only do these five. HOWEVER, it turns out he’s doing these five tricks with real magic. It’s not an illusion; he can actually conjure the bunny out of the other and he can move the coin through space. Hes legitimately magical, but extremely limited in scope and influence. Would this person be more impressive than Albert Einstein?
2. Let us assume a fully grown, completely healthy Clydesdale horse has his hooves shackled to the ground while he head is held in place with thick rope. He is conscious and standing upright, but he is completely immobile. And let us assume that for some reason every political prisoner on earth (as cited by Amnesty International) will be released from captivity if you can kick this horse to death in less than twenty minutes. You are allowed to wear steel-toed boots. Would you attempt to do this?
Amnesty international and Political Prisoners
4. Genetic engineers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a so-called super gorilla. Though the animal cannot speak, it has a sign language lexicon of over twelve thousand words, and an IQ of almost 85, and most notably a vague sense of self-awareness. Oddly, the creature (who weighs seven hundred pounds) becomes fascinated by football. The gorilla aspires to play the game at its highest level and quickly develops the rudimentary skills of a defensive end. ESPN analyst Tom Jackson speculates that this gorilla would be borderline unblockable and would likely average six sacks a game (although Jackson concedes the beast might be susceptible to counters and misdirection plays). Meanwhile, the gorilla has made is clear he would never intentionally injure any opponent. You are commissioner of the NFL: Would you allow this gorilla to sign with the Oakland Raiders?
13. Every person you have ever slept with is invited to a banquet where you are the guest of honor. No one will be in attendance except for you, the collection of former lovers, and the catering service. After the meal, you are asked to give a fifteen-minute speech to the assembly. What do you talk about?
7. Defying all expectation, a group of Scottish marine biologists capture a live Loch Ness Monster. In an almost unbelievable coincidence, a bear hunter shoots a Sasquatch in the thigh, thereby allowing zoologists to take the furry monster into captivity. These events happen on the same afternoon. That evening, the president announces he may have thyroid cancer and will undergo a biopsy later that week. You are the front-page editor of The New York Times: What do you play as the biggest story?
19. Your best friend is taking a nap on the floor of your living room. Suddenly, you are faced with a bizarre existential problem: This friend is going to die unless you kick them (as hard as you can) in the rib cage. If you don’t kick them while they slumber, they will never wake up. However, you can never explain this to your friend; if you later inform them that you did this to save their life, they will also die from that. So you have to kick a sleeping friend in the ribs, and you can’t tell them why. Since you cannot tell your friend the truth, what excuse will you fabricate to explain this (seemingly inexplicable) attack?
8. You meet the perfect person. Romantically, this person is ideal; You find them physically attractive, intellectually stimulating, consistently funny, and deeply compassionate. However, they are one quirk: This individual is obsessed with Jim Henson’s gothic puppet fantasy The Dark Crystal. Beyond watching it on DVD at least once a month, he/she peppers casual conversation with Dark Crystal references, uses Dark Crystal analogies to explain everyday events, and occasionally likes to talk intensely about the films deeper philosophy. Would this be enough to stop you from marrying this individual?
15 May 2018, 5:05 pm - 1 hour 21 minutesWWOTS 019: National Kick A Kid While They’re Down Day
Mike and Jon talk about the potential use of DNA for data storage and the progression of science through the centuries. They then discuss their second quarter plans and the growing complexity of and conflicts between intellectual and tangible property rights.
Mentioned in the Episode:
The brain uses 20 watts/day (Laptops use 50-100 watts/hour or 1200-2400 watts/day)
CORRECTION: Saint Patrick didn’t drive out dragons, Saint George slew dragons
Jon Roberts - Jon’s YouTube Channel
John Deere Tractor Software Controversy
Monsanto GMO Seed Patent Controversy
Panama Banana Disease Wiped Out Banana Agriculture in the 1950’s
1 May 2018, 4:31 pm - 1 hour 8 minutesWWOTS 018: I Feel Like I Always Get Put In The Dumb Group
Mike and Jon discuss how words for specific places or things generalize before exploring some simple strategies for improving memory retention when studying or reading books. They then break down the relationships between population decline, economic growth, and national debts, and Japan’s acute dangers with these.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How words with specific means expand and generalize
How to remember more of what you read and study
The relationships between growth in population, the economy, and public finances
Mentioned in the Episode:
Paradise Lost - Pandemonium
Bedlam - English insane asylum
24 April 2018, 3:21 pm - 1 hour 24 minutesWWOTS 017: Back When Mao Was Maoing
Mike and Jon clarify the importance simplicity when learning science. Then they discuss playing pool and the difference between knowing about and knowing how to do something. They follow that with an exploration of potential impacts of Autonomous Vehicles and then close by talking through some of the dangers around cults of personality and the rise of strong men in politics.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
The difference between knowledge and skills
Potential ramifications of Autonomous Vehicles
Cults of personality in the USA and China
Mentioned in the Episode:
An Post: the Irish post office
Uber AV kills someone in Arizona
Uber Pool Express (carpooling)
11 April 2018, 9:12 am - 54 minutes 52 secondsWWOTS 016: Genetic Engineering Is Here Today
Mike and Jon start with a conversation about jobs their not suited for and the dull life of house painters before some follow up on the wilder side of genetic engineering. They then explain why they always rank things in their mind and go into how constraints and limitations can spur creative problem solving and help us to think of novel solutions.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How Genetic Engineering is advancing today
Why ranking things helps to order the world around us
How limits in creative projects can spur creative solutions
Mentioned in the Episode:
Radiolab Podcast - Mantis Shrimp Episode
Barbra Streisand’s Cloned Dogs
UK Mitochondrial Replacement - 3 parent babies
3 April 2018, 9:31 am - More Episodes? Get the App