What kernels of truth are there in sci-fi content today that can maybe predict what our smart technological futures will look like? This week, Jess and Joey talk about retrofuturism, the Otis elevator, all things Dymaxian, AI, post-scarcity society and ship names. They don’t talk about our dystopian present. references Christmas in Connecticut Otis Elevator Dymaxion Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson Corrections Department: Neuromancer by William Gibson Iain M. Banks' Culture series Post-scarcity Neu...
Dec 16, 2024•24 min
What do we do with Cultural Beige? This week, Aaron and Joey talk about cultural homogenization, algorithms, local commerce, international culture, outliers and Charli XCX. They don’t talk about Christian Bale or J. G. Ballard. references Empire Of The Sun "Walking On A Dream" Empire Of The Sun "Alive" @ The Hollywood Bowl 11/23/24 Sabrina Carpenter "Espresso" terroir Sammy McCormack: "How Janet Jackson Made 'If'" Sammy McCormack: "How Britney Spears Made 'Break The Ice'" Froggy Fresh Timbaland ...
Dec 11, 2024•36 min
Why haven't we figured out hybrid yet? This week, Jess and Joey talk about remote working, cost structures, collaborative tools, individual flexibility, speaker microphones, and body language. They don’t talk about sensory processing issues and how they impact in-person productivity. references Yegor Denisov-Blanch on software engineering productivity Reddit response to Yegor Denisov-Blanch Entenmann's Donuts Torus...
Dec 02, 2024•26 min
What varietal of mind wine are your grapes lately? This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about pattern breaking, the restorative power of boredom, bird brains, pajama day, the productivity mindset, and seizing rest. They don’t talk about when Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. references Feng Shui Modern by Cliff Tan Boggle Five Senses Exercise How to use 4-7-8 breathing for anxiety Yahtzee...
Nov 26, 2024•42 min
Why are we so obsessed with trying to live forever? This week, special guest Chandler Saunders joins Jess and Joey to talk about adult superlatives, aging, the soul, compounding experience, afterlife FOMO, and aging reversal. They don’t talk about Irene Cara . references Piaget's 4 Stages of Cognitive Development Explained Ray Kurzweil Ship of Theseus Fermi paradox Spin by Robert Charles Wilson Kardashev scale Telomere Dr. David Sinclair...
Nov 19, 2024•39 min
What is it about certain settings that just piss us off? This week, Joey and Jess talk about Maggie Rogers, live concerts, the unflustered mom, road rage, cycling, and liminality. They don’t talk about mosh pits. references Maggie Rogers The Unflustered Mom: How Understanding the Five Anxiety Styles Transforms the Way We Parent, Partner, Live, and Love by Amber Trueblood This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life by David Foster Wallace l...
Nov 12, 2024•27 min
Bonus episode: A takeover! Kristy shares a recent edition from SYLVAIN’s Progress Report newsletter: The State of Youth: A New Paradigm for Growing Up , written by Chief Strategy Officer Chris Konya. For more from SYLVAIN's Progress Report, see progressbysylvain.co .
Nov 08, 2024•10 min
What's the best way to unlock a sense of financial security in all of us? This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about voting, the economy, financial insecurity, the post-scarcity world, unequal distribution, and intergenerational trauma. They don’t talk about A$AP Rocky . references Werewolf Bar Mitzvah The Ballad of the Witches' Road (Agatha Through Time Version) Pascal's wager Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE): How It Works r/Fire Run's House...
Nov 04, 2024•32 min
What happens when your mind changes? This week, Joey and Jess talk about nuclear power, Three Mile Island, solar power, the Overton window, abortion, and tokamaks. They don’t talk about Eddie Kendricks . references Hemingway on bankruptcy The Three Mile Island accident Overton window Tokamaks...
Oct 28, 2024•25 min
What do we do about power distance? This week, Joey and Jess talk about organizational hierarchy, Geert Hofstede, authoratative leadership, omakase, decision-making, and Mr. Oizo. They don’t talk about Flat Stanley. references IF This is 40 Mark Menjívar's "Refrigerators" Geert Hofstede's 6-D model of national culture Mr. Oizo's "Flat Beat" Mr. Oizo aka Quentin Dupieux...
Oct 21, 2024•26 min
How many things are we surrounded by that have use cases that we're not thinking about? This week, Joey and Jess talk about Ozempic, Cialis, blockchain, invention, solar panels, and pessimism vs. optimism. They don’t talk about chainsaws . references Semaglutide (Ozempic) Tadalafil (Cialis)...
Oct 15, 2024•20 min
How do you do spontaneous brilliance? This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about pressure, boredom and safety, theatre, peopling, jewelry making, and Quiplash. They don’t talk about combustion. references "Orinoco Flow" by Enya Quiplash Athena Podcast: Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum: PATTON OSWALT: Refusing to Settle, The Issue for Comedians Today & Emotions Reconciling Loss "Streest of Philadelphia" by Bruce Springsteen...
Oct 07, 2024•30 min
Can we learn about coming up with creative ideas from bikes today? This week, Jess and Joey talk about bike infrastructure, dad wagons, folding bikes, stacked bikes, e-bikes, and mobility mixes. Oddly, they don’t talk about Bike Kill . references The Science of Cycology: can you draw a bicycle? Penny-farthing Tall bike Brompton Velocipede The Asahi Shimbun: High school kids build Edo Period tricycle out of home center buys Rack City, bitch The New York Times: The Hustlers Who Make $6,000 a Month...
Oct 03, 2024•27 min
How do we know if we're doing the right thing for potentially the wrong reasons? This week, Joey and Jess talk about The Anxious Generation, social media, polio, experimentation, modes, rodents, and sesame paste. They don’t talk about Yusei Kikuchi. references The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt Hank Green on X How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics by Eugenia Cheng The Ezra Klein ...
Sep 23, 2024•35 min
What is your comfort level with abstraction? This week, Jess and Joey talk about math, the transitive property, cookbooks, slang, strange attractors and chameleons. They don’t talk about cake math. references How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics by Eugenia Cheng Transitive Property The Langlands Program: The Biggest Project in Modern Mathematics Look Around You...
Sep 17, 2024•28 min
What can jazz teach us about making stuff together? This week, Aaron and Jess talk about mistakes, improvisation, leadership, asking questions, saltine crackers, and Tori Amos. They don’t talk about girls that eat pizza but never gain weight. references Amelia Bedelia Marc Mommaas and the New York Jazz Workshop Corrections Department: Miles Davis, not John Coltrane, was the one who didn't fear mistakes. . (Trane was a perfectionist). Corrections Department: Count Basie , not Cab Calloway Hidden ...
Sep 10, 2024•36 min
How do we do math learning better? This week, Joey and Jess talk about numeracy, literacy, discrete math, Carl Sagan, Cleopatra, and sushi. They don’t talk about Frank Ocean . references math rock Jay-Z "4:44"
Sep 03, 2024•29 min
What does fridgescaping tell us about ourselves? This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about weirdly shaped foods, bookshelves, trad wives, gelatin molds, cluttercore, and gallery walls. They don’t talk about Jello Biafra's fridge. references Rusted Root Polyphonic Spree The New York Times: Not Even the Inside of Your Fridge Is Safe From Decorating @weirdoldfood MTV Cribs The Independent (UK): Marie Kondo says she’s ‘kind of given up’ on cleaning HGTV Secret Revealed! Why Books Are Always Backwa...
Aug 26, 2024•38 min
What turns your ears on? This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about Detroit, groove, algorithms, Clyde Stubblefield, sampling, and flow states. They don’t talk about the late, great Biz Markie . references Hair/Glam Metal Chamois vs. chamois leather Major 7th chord Curtis Mayfield "Little Child Running Wild" Clyde Stubblefield , the Funky Drummer Puff Daddy + Biggie + Mase "Been Around the World" David Bowie "Let's Dance" Brian Eno’s “The Big Ship” and Me and Earl and The Dying Girl Klaus Badel...
Aug 19, 2024•45 min
How do we make more science tourism happen? This week, Jess and Joey talk about scientific pilgrimage, CERN, the Large Hadron Collider, inspiring awe, Dolly the sheep, and particles. They don’t talk about the six flavors of quarks. references CERN Higgs boson Large Hadron Collider The ITER Tokamak The Life of Dolly Baikonur Cosmodrome Micropia Amplituhedron...
Aug 12, 2024•35 min
What can we learn about the state of entertainment when we look through the Olympics Stroboscope? This week, Jess and Joey talk about the The Rottening, Summer Olympics, streaming platforms, culture wars, sports bodies, and shared viewership experiences. They don’t talk about artistic swimming. references Stroboscopes Metric Fucktonne Adriana Ruano Stephen Nedoroscik What are Phryges? Everything to know about the Paris 2024 mascot...
Aug 06, 2024•30 min
How does one engage in a generational war? This week, Joey and Aaron talk about Millenials, marketing demographics, being an afterthought, the policing of cool, Sambas, and othering to in yourself. They don’t talk about Billy Idol. Or Les Gilbert. references Sambas Control System Shock...
Jul 29, 2024•29 min
How do we decide what feelings matter? This week, Jess and Joey talk about Inside Out 2, compound emotions, cognitive development, sonder, motivations, and sandwiches. They don’t talk about Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam . references Subscribe to our Progress Report newsletter progressbysylvain.co Inside Out 2 The 6 Types of Basic Emotions and Their Effect on Human Behavior Compound facial expressions of emotion: from basic research to clinical applications Time: The Real Science Behind the Animated Emo...
Jul 22, 2024•25 min
How should we be arguing? This week, Joey and Jess talk about argument realms, Theranos, Steve Jobs, facts vs. feelings, and band names. They don’t talk about Monarch of a Great Kingdom. references Tea etymology Why Are We Yelling? by Buster Benson PEMDAS...
Jul 15, 2024•30 min
This week, Joey, Aaron, and Jess talk about the Boston Celtics, Jayson Tatum, Nikola Jokić, celebrity, debates, and Caitlin Clark. They don’t talk about Simone Biles' 10,000 crystals . references Celtic Football Club ( pronounced with a soft 'C' ) Boston Celtics name origin Jab Like Jayson Tatum Hollywood Reporter: What Tina Fey Told Bowen Yang About Expressing Opinions Publicly What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith ( summarized nicely here ) mesophyte Red Panda Andscape: T...
Jul 11, 2024•36 min
How do we predict the future? This week, Joey and Jess talk about polling, phone phobia, targeted advertising, e-mail compartmentalization, stacking ambiguity, and Airheads. They don’t talk about nomophobia. references Adam Duritz Irish Times: Why younger people don’t make phone calls...
Jul 01, 2024•21 min
This week, a takeover! Aaron shares his latest edition from SYLVAIN’s Progress Report newsletter: Automating Our Instincts: How AI Can Be Embraced Rather Than Feared By Creatives . For more from SYLVAIN's Progress Report, see progressbysylvain.co .
Jun 27, 2024•8 min
How do y'all deal with your digital poltergeists? This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about search results, the endless repository of stuff, digital cleanup, emails, collateral distraction, and friendly ghosts. They don’t talk about warlocks. references Dinosaurs eating Joey Toe beans and the art of reading them poltergeist They're here! Woah, my love, my darling ... Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville "Don't Know Much" Teenybopper Manwich...
Jun 18, 2024•33 min
How do we age right? This week, Joey, Aaron, and Jess talk about aching, supplements, cognitive decline, Tom Brady, LeBron James, and the future. They don’t talk about Alphaville. references L.A. Times: "Talking 'Men of a Certain Age' with Ray Romano, Scott Bakula and Andre Braugher" Radiolab Podcast: The Secret to a Long Life John Meyer's "Why Georgia?" The 5 Regrets Of The Dying: Life Lessons Everybody Learns Too Late... New York Magazine: "The 12 Best Nice-Looking Pill Cases" System Shock...
Jun 11, 2024•34 min
What types of folk knowledge or rules of thumb do you live by? This week, Joey and Jess talk about cheating at science fairs, sleep, the rule of threes, tenets, the How I Met Your Mother pause, and concavity. They don’t talk about what Werner Herzog's thumb tastes like . references Chris Brunet's X thread on the ISEF cheating scandal Jean Yang's life lessons Pause The Idea of You (and Maybe Not Harry Styles)...
Jun 05, 2024•40 min
