This week we talk about the NOAA, FEMA, and the SSMIS. We also discuss Arctic ice, satellite resolution, and automated weather observation stations. Recommended Book: Superbloom by Nicholas Carr Transcript The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, is a US scientific and regulatory agency that tackles an array of environmental, climatic, and weather-related issues, alongside its responsibilities managing oceanic ecosystems. So it’s in charge of managing fishing protections and...
Jul 01, 2025•16 min
This week we talk about OPEC, the Seven Sisters, and the price of oil. We also discuss fracking, Israel and Iran’s ongoing conflict, and energy exports. Recommended Book: Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf Transcript The global oil market changed substantially in the early 2000s as a pair of innovations—horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing—helped the plateauing US oil and gas market boom, unlocking a bunch of shale oil and gas deposits that were previously either entirely...
Jun 24, 2025•19 min
This week we talk about tit-for-tat warfare, conflict off-ramps, and Israel’s renewed attacks on Iran’s nuclear program. We also discuss the Iron Dome, the Iran-Iraq War, and regime change. Recommended Book: How Much is Enough? by Robert and Edward Skidelsky Transcript In late-October of 2024, Israel launched a wave of airstrikes against targets in Iran and Syria. These strikes were code-named Operation Days of Repentance, and it marked the largest such attack on Iran by Israel since the 1980s, ...
Jun 17, 2025•20 min
This week we talk about drone warfare, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and total war. We also discuss casualty numbers, population superiority, and lingering munitions. Recommended Book: The Burning Earth by Sunil Amrith Transcript Eight years after Russia launched a halfheartedly concealed invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, under the guise of helping supposedly oppressed Russian-speakers and Russia loyalists in the area, in February of 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine....
Jun 10, 2025•22 min
This week we talk about gene-editing, CRISPR/Cas9, and ammonia. We also discuss the germ line, mad scientists, and science research funding. Recommended Book: The Siren’s Call by Chris Hayes Transcript Back in November of 2018, a Chinese scientist named He Jiankui achieved global notoriety by announcing that he had used a relatively new gene-editing technique on human embryos, which led to the birth of the world’s first gene-edited babies. His ambition was to help people with HIV-related fertili...
Jun 03, 2025•16 min
This week we talk about greenhouse gases, renewable energy capacity, and China’s economy. We also discuss coal power plants, natural gas, and gigatons. Recommended Book: What If We Get It Right? by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Transcript In 2024, global CO2 emissions hit a new all-time high of 37.8 gigatons, that figure including emissions from industrial processes, oil well flaring, and the combustion of fuel, like petroleum in a vehicle. And for context, a gigaton is one billion metric tons, which ...
May 27, 2025•12 min
This week we talk about kidnappings, ransoms, and bitcoin. We also discuss crypto wealth, robberies, and memecoins. Recommended Book: The Status Game by Will Storr Transcript In 2008, a white paper published by someone writing under the pen name Satoshi Nakamoto proposed a method for making a decentralized asset class called a cryptocurrency that led to the creation of bitcoin, which was implemented and began trading in 2009. While there were other variations on this theme, and attempts to creat...
May 20, 2025•12 min
This week we talk about the NHTSA, CAFE standards, and energy efficiency. We also discuss incentive programs, waste heat, and the EPA. Recommended Book: Africa Is Not a Country by Dipo Faloyin Transcript In the United States, fuel-efficiency laws for vehicles sold on the US market are set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA. They set the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE standards by which vehicle-makers have to abide, and that, in turn, establishes the minimum ...
May 13, 2025•17 min
This week we talk about the Marshall Plan, standardization, and USB. We also discuss artificial intelligence, Anthropic, and protocols. Recommended Book: Fuzz by Mary Roach Transcript In the wake of WWII, the US government implemented the European Recovery Program, more commonly known as the Marshall Plan, to help Western Europe recover from a conflict that had devastated the afflicted countries’ populations, infrastructure, and economies. It kicked off in April of 1948, and though it was replac...
May 06, 2025•16 min
This week we talk about British India, Kashmir, and water treaties. We also discuss the global order, sovereignty, and tit-for-tat escalation. Recommended Book: Power Metal by Vince Beiser Transcript When then British India was partitioned by the British in 1947, the country carved up by its colonialist rulers into two new countries, one Hindu majority, the Union of India, and one Muslim majority, the Dominion of Pakistan, the intention was to separate two religious groups that were increasingly...
Apr 29, 2025•17 min
This week we talk about AI chatbots, virtual avatars, and romance novels. We also discuss Inkitt, Galatea, and LLM grooming. Recommended Book: New Cold Wars by David E. Sanger Transcript There’s evidence that the US Trump administration used AI tools, possibly ChatGPT, possibly another, similar model or models, to generate the numbers they used to justify a recent wave of new tariffs on the country’s allies and enemies. It was also recently reported that Democratic mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo...
Apr 22, 2025•18 min
This week we talk about smishing, Huione, and scams. We also discuss money laundering, the Cambodian government, and Tether. Recommended Book: The Longevity Imperative by Andrew J. Scott Transcript The portmanteau ‘smishing’ combines SMS and phishing to refer to the practice of using text messages to trick the recipients of said messages into revealing information that allows scammers to access their victim’s accounts on various platforms. One common variation of smishing, which I’ve seen a lot ...
Apr 15, 2025•18 min
This week we talk about taxes, reciprocity, and recession. We also discuss falling indices, stagflation, and theories of operation. Recommended Book: The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer Transcript Stagflation, which is a portmanteau of stagnation and inflation, is exactly what it sounds like: a combination of those two elements, usually with high levels of unemployment, as well, that can cause a prolonged period of economic sluggishness and strain that slows growth and can even lead to a rec...
Apr 08, 2025•22 min
This week we talk about Studio Ghibli, Andrej Karpathy, and OpenAI. We also discuss code abstraction, economic repercussions, and DOGE. Recommended Book: How To Know a Person by David Brooks Transcript In late-November of 2022, OpenAI released a demo version of a product they didn’t think would have much potential, because it was kind of buggy and not very impressive compared to the other things they were working on at the time. This product was a chatbot interface for a generative AI model they...
Apr 01, 2025•19 min
This week we talk about Elon Musk, deportations, and the First Amendment. We also discuss electric vehicles, free speech, and Georgia. Recommended Book: Red Rising by Pierce Brown Transcript Greenpeace is a protest-focused, environmentalist nongovernmental organization that was originally founded in Canada in the early 1970s, but which has since gone on to tackle issues ranging from commercial whaling to concerns about genetic engineering, worldwide. They have 26 independent organizations operat...
Mar 25, 2025•19 min
This week we talk about tariffs, consumer confidence, and trade wars. We also discuss inflation, GDP, and uncertainty. Recommended Book: A Brief History of Intelligence by Max S. Bennett Transcript On January 20, 2025, mere hours after being sworn into his second term in office as President of the United States, Donald Trump announced new 25% tariffs on most incoming goods from Canada and Mexico, accusing the two allies of failing to halt the flow of drugs and illegal migrants into the US. These...
Mar 18, 2025•19 min
This week we talk about Euromaidan, minerals deals, and propaganda. We also discuss European security, NATO, and the western-led world order. Recommended Book: Storm Front by Jim Butcher Transcript In February of 2014, pro-Russian protests racked parts of southeastern Ukraine and Russian soldiers, their uniforms and weapons stripped of flags and other identifying markers, occupied another part of Ukraine called Crimea. This was seemingly in response to Ukraine’s overthrow of its pro-Russian pres...
Mar 11, 2025•21 min
This week we talk about Luna 2, soft-landings, and Firefly Aerospace. We also discuss the private space launch industry, lunar landers, and regolith. Recommended Book: The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey Transcript In 1959, Luna 2, a Soviet impactor-style spacecraft, successfully reached the surface of the Moon—the first-ever human-made object to do so. Luna 2 was very of its era; a relatively simple device, similar in many ways to the better-known Sputnik satellite, but getting a craft to the...
Mar 04, 2025•21 min
This week we talk about arabica, robusta, and profit margins. We also discuss colonialism, coffee houses, and religious uppers. Recommended Book: On Writing and Worldbuilding by Timothy Hickson Transcript Like many foods and beverages that contain body- or mind-altering substances, coffee was originally used, on scale at least, by people of faith, leveraging it as an aid for religious rituals. Sufis in what is today Yemen, back in the early 15th century, consumed it as a stimulant which allowed ...
Feb 25, 2025•19 min
This week we talk about H5N1, fowl plague, and viral reservoirs. We also discuss the CDC, raw milk, and politics. Recommended Book: Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari Transcript In late-January of 2025, staff at the US Centers for Disease Control, the CDC, were told to stop working with the World Health Organization, and data, and some entire pages containing such data, and analysis of it, were removed from the CDC’s web presence—the collection of sites it maintains to provide information, resources, an...
Feb 18, 2025•21 min
This week we talk about DART, extinction events, and asteroid 2024 YR4. We also discuss Bruce Willis, Theia, and the Moon. Recommended Book: Exadelic by Jon Evans Transcript In the 1998 action flick Armageddon, an asteroid the size of Texas is nudged into a collision course with earth by a comet, and NASA only notices it 18 days before impact. The agency recruits a veteran oil driller, played by Bruce Willis, to fly out to the asteroid and drill a hole in it, and to detonate a nuke in that hole,...
Feb 11, 2025•17 min
This week we talk about tax hikes, free trade, and the madman theory of negotiation. We also discuss EVs, Canada, and economic competition. Recommended Book: How Sanctions Work by Narges Bajoghli, Vali Nasr, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, and Ali Vaez Transcript On January 20, 2025, the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, was inaugurated as the 47th President of the US following a hard-fought election that he ultimately won by only a little bit in terms of the popular vote—49.8% to 48.3%...
Feb 04, 2025•23 min
This week we talk about OpenAI, the Stargate Project, and Meta. We also discuss o1, AGI, and efficiency. Recommended Book: The Shortest History of Economics by Andrew Leigh Transcript One of the bigger news items these past few weeks, in terms of the numbers involved, at least, was an announcement by US tech company OpenAI that it will be starting a new company called the Stargate Project, which will boast a total $500 billion-worth of investment, the first $100 billion of which will be deployed...
Jan 28, 2025•22 min
This week we talk about October 7, the Gaza ceasefire plan, and Netanyahu. We also discuss Hamas, Qatar, and the new US administration. Recommended Book: Witch King by Martha Wells Transcript On October 7, 2023, the militant group Hamas launched a sneak attack from the Israeli occupied Gaza Strip against Israel itself, killing about 1,200 people and taking just over 250 hostages. Israeli forces were caught stunningly unaware by this, but shortly thereafter, Israel launched a counterattack into G...
Jan 21, 2025•23 min
This week we talk about the Pacific Palisades, Hurricane Katrina, and reinsurance. We also discuss developed property values, arsons, and the cost of disasters. Recommended Book: The Data Detective by Tim Harford Transcript Natural disasters, whether we’re talking about storms or fires or earthquakes, or some combination of those and other often related issues, like flooding, can be incredibly expensive. This has always been true, both in terms of lives and material damage caused, but also in te...
Jan 14, 2025•21 min
This week we talk about Luigi Mangione, VAW attacks, and mass shootings. We also discuss stochastic violence, terrorism, and Cybertrucks. Recommended Book: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh Transcript The terms “Lone Wolf,” “Lone Wolf Actor,” and “Lone Wolf Killer” are interchangeably used in many countries—though most commonly and prominently in the United States—to describe someone who commits a mass-killing or other mass-casualty event, but who is not part of an organization like a terrorist...
Jan 07, 2025•23 min
This week we talk about Yoon, martial law, and impeachment. We also discuss the PPP, chaebol, and dictators. Recommended Book: Starter Villain by John Scalzi Transcript In the wake of WWII, Korea—which was previously held by the recently-defeated Japanese Empire—was split into two countries, the north backed by the Soviet Union and the south backed by the United States and its allies. North Korea had a guerrilla fighter and staunch Soviet-style communism activist, Kim Il Sung, placed at the head...
Dec 17, 2024•21 min
This week we talk about coups, the Arab Spring, and Bashar al-Assad. We also discuss militias, Al Qaeda, and Iran. Recommended Book: The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks Transcript In the early 2010s, a series of uprisings against unpopular, authoritarian governments spread across the Middle East—a wave of action that became known as the Arab Spring. Tunisia was where it started, a man setting himself on fire in protest against the nation’s brazenly corrupt government and all that he’d suffered under...
Dec 10, 2024•20 min
This week we talk about emissions, carbon credits, and climate reparations. We also discuss Baku, COP meetings, and petrostates. Recommended Book: The Struggle for Taiwan by Sulmaan Wasif Khan Transcript In 2016, a group of 195 nations signed the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, usually just called the Paris Agreement, which was negotiated the previous year, and which, among other things, formalized the idea of attempting to keep the global average...
Dec 03, 2024•21 min
This week we talk about Mastodon, Threads, and twttr. We also discuss social platform clones, user exoduses, and communication fractures. Recommended Book: Invisible Rulers by Renée DiResta Transcript In 2006, a prototype of a software project called twttr, t-w-t-t-r, was developed by Jack Dorsey and Florian Weber, that name used because the full twitter.com domain, the word with all its vowels, was already owned and in use, and because the vowel-less version of the word only had five letters, w...
Nov 26, 2024•21 min
