Critical Nonsense

SYLVAIN

High-low brow conversations about culture, science, and tech. With hosts Joey Camire, Aaron Powers, and executive producer/nerd herder Jess Vander. SYLVAIN is a strategy and design company.

Last refreshed: July 22nd, 2025 at 6:51 AM ⓘ

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Episodes

235! Conceiving History

How do we wrestle with history? This week, Jess and Aaron talk about rote learning, putty, history as study vs. history as culture, stories, empathy, and erasure. They don’t talk about the history of Play-Doh. references Six The Very Serious History of Silly Putty Red, White & Royal Blue Giving credit where it's due: "Molly Ivins, lively columnist who dubbed Bush 'Shrub'" See also: Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush by Molly Ivins...

Aug 28, 2023•37 min

234! Reconsuming Content

This week, Joey and Jess talk about Chuck Klosterman, Bluey (again), the Mona Lisa, High Fidelity, Kafka, and Shakespeare. They don’t talk about Slick Rick . references Whut? How to find Kentucky on a map Anathem by Neal Stephenson How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie High Fidelity Me and Earl and the Dying Girl The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka...

Aug 21, 2023•34 min

233! Gamifying Sleep

What things that we need should we be gamifying? This week, Joey and Jess talk about not getting enough sleep, Pokémon, mixed expertise, incentivized behavior change, Duolingo, and eating. They don’t talk about superconductors, no matter how badly Joey wants to. references Like no one ever was ... Pokémon Sleep The Atlantic: Did Francesca Gino and Dan Ariely Fabricate Data for the Same Study? The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson The New York Times: Sleep Better at Every Age The New York Times...

Aug 14, 2023•37 min

232! Contradiction

How do we deal with contradiction? This week, Jess, Joey, and Aaron talk about Björk, Barbie, G-strings, Elf on a Shelf, multiverses, and compartmentalization. They don’t talk about Green Day . references The Perfectly Emo Clone High Intro Björk "All Is Full of Love" Björk + SNL 'Barbie' invites you into a Dream House stuffed with existential angst The New York Times: Who Gets to Wear G-Strings Now? Occam's razor Reader's Digest: 26 of the Funniest Oxymoron Examples The Elf on a Shelf The Verge:...

Aug 07, 2023•40 min

231! Finding Empathy

Where might we find more empathy for each other? This week, Jess and Joey talk about etiquette, niceties, deplaning, consideration, the inverse crush, and villains. They don’t talk about Brother Bear. references Take a look at something that's not The Lion King now Whatever you're feeling in the air tonight, it's not The Lion King It might just be love though Bumble released its female users height preferences Pulmonary embolism Paramore's "crushcrushcrush"...

Jul 31, 2023•42 min

230! Unexpected Audiences

How should we think about things that are created that wind up being more beloved by audiences that weren't the original target? This week, Joey and Aaron talk about Bluey, Pixar, Adult Swim, Married With Children, Patricia Richardson, and drag queens. They don’t talk about Left Eye. references In case you Don't Know Much about Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt Lisa Stansfeild aka Definitely-Not-Linda-Ronstadt Bluey Bandit Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood The Most Subversive Kid’s Television Shows Eve...

Jul 24, 2023•32 min

229! Attractiveness

How important is attractiveness? This week, Joey and Jess talk about self-rating, the butt phase, dating apps, dating profiles as brand strategy, TMI, and hotties. They don’t talk about teratophilia. references Debutante Ball's are real ... as are narwhals "Physical and Psychosocial Correlates of Facial Attractiveness" by Marco Costa and Dario Maestripieri (PDF) "80% Of Women Choose Only The Top 20% of Attractive Men" Is A Big Fat Incel Lie Pew Research: The Virtues and Downsides of Online Datin...

Jul 12, 2023•28 min

228! Patriotism and Empanadas

What is patriotic? This week, Jess, Aaron, and Joey talk about American Democracy, fusion foods, the spirit of the thing, beer holding, the cronut, and empanadas. They don’t talk about pastechi . references Dance Moms BuzzFeed: "Maddie Ziegler On Being Sia's 'Muse' From Age 11" "Majorities in most countries have a positive opinion of the U.S." "Will Democracy Win? Barack Obama in Conversation with Christiane Amanpour" Revisiting: Critical Nonsense 233! The Familiar Unexpected Empanada Mama Taste...

Jul 03, 2023•28 min

227! Tendies

Why are we all suddenly calling these chicken "tendies"? This week, Jess and Joey talk about children's food, compression, self-deprecation, cutification, Big Chicken, and expressivity. They don’t talk about brekky. references Chicken Fried philology ScienceDirect: Compression and communication in the cultural evolution of linguistic structure...

Jun 26, 2023•27 min

226! Collective Vibes

Do you believe in the idea that collective vibes could exist, and are we fully entering into a new vibe? This week, Joey and Aaron talk about the debt ceiling battle, the Writers Guild of America strike, AI, not sitting idle, Lucy Lawless, and pasta. They don’t talk about cowboy pasta . references A long "May-tember" ARTnews: Hannah Gadsby’s Disastrous ‘Pablo-matic’ Show at the Brooklyn Museum Has Some ‘Pablo-ms’ of Its Own The Writers Guild of America strike Cascatelli pasta The New York Times:...

Jun 20, 2023•25 min

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