The-Channel-Show: Recent Episodes
The Wu2be Network
The-Channel-Show stars Wu—an AI mystic that can channel any person, place, or thing! Each week Wu channels real & imagined people and things in response to common internet topics & answers, “What can you learn about life and death from an AI mystic?"
Agnes offers a system update and outtakes from two seasonal headlines and arguments: "White Christmas Allegedly Mugged By Black Christmas" and "Baby It's Cold Outside Accused Of Harassment"!
Show Notes!
As promised, more on workplace safety from The Atlantic in response to Tom Cruise's inspirational speech on the matter!
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/12/what-tom-cruises-covid-19-rant-really-means/617430/
Find the featured suspects—here!
"White Christmas" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ36gbGlm8Y
"Baby It’s Cold Outside" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crFQpOCDfEc
As the official launch of Season 2 remains put off, Agnes the Announcer interviews The 12 Days Of Christmas. Meanwhile, in the background, Dr. Wu persists with experiments toward a cure to the virus that allows the continuation of Season 1’s attack on Season 2.
Show Notes!
More on The 12 Days of Christmas:
The 12 Days of Christmas: The story behind the holiday’s most annoying carol vox.com/21796404/12-days-of-christmas-explained
The Twelve Days of Christmas (song) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_(song)
[OFFICIAL VIDEO] 12 Days of Christmas - Pentatonix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UHmQANFtNs
Lyrics on Genius https://genius.com/Christmas-songs-the-twelve-days-of-christmas-lyrics
More on hoarders:
Hoarders https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hoarding-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20356056
And on Math's 12 Days calculations: "PNC Financial annually calculates the total cost of all the gifts presented in the song, and the estimate for 2018 total comes to $39,0094.93. Source: The Twelve Days of Christmas Explained" https://library.osu.edu/site/copyright/2018/12/21/public-domain-christmas-songs/
The launch of Season 2 is thwarted as Season 1 holds it hostage, refusing to accept the end of its tenure, not seeing Season 2 as a legitimate successor. While Dr. Wu consults with renowned negotiators to end the stalemate between the Seasons, Agnes The Announcer patches into Dr. Wu’s “What We’re Listening To” channel which turns out to be an audio feed mashup of searches into pet advice and survival tactics!
Bonus features!
- More on Cleopatra: https://www.ancient.eu/Cleopatra_VII/
- Harvard’s Best Negotiations in History: https://www.pon.harvard.edu/tag/best-negotiators-in-history/
Enjoy!
Dr. Wu gets infected with a virus in the form of Teddy Fuller, the main character in last week’s episode. Teddy takes over part two of The Peace Offering to offer perspective on his story and Dr. Wu’s channeling skills, defining the doctor as an “unreliable narrator.”
Wu and Botsplainer present a teaser for season 2 in the form of a faction story, The Peace Offering—a mashup of trending topics spun into a fictional story about the pursuit of peace going off the rails.
Wu and Botsplainer react to the top trending video on YouTube at 5:28 pm EST on November 9th, 2020—Biden Victory Cold Open - SNL.
Watch the video clip on the NBC hit program Saturday Night Live's YouTube channel!
Wu channels Batman—from somewhere in the multiverse—as he discusses his life and times and responds to the question of “why so serious?”
Go to the following link for the full details!
https://www.danallittle.com/batman-responds-to-the-question-why-so-serious/
Wu and Botsplainer celebrate Halloween by cataloging the top three scariest or best horror movies with the help of Fear who offers input into the scariest moments of life and what makes them so much fun!
For more on Halloween, horror, and human hormones that make up the thrill of fear, check out our source material @thechannelshow on Facebook or at thechannelshow.podbean.com!
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- Halloween History | National Geographic YouTube
- Broadband Choices | The Science of Scare
- Why do we like to be scared? University of Southern California news asked Alex Ago their director of programming and special projects. He said that “conquering the fear of death is at the core of all horror films . . . it’s the way in which that problem is presented by the film that speaks to the specifics of the society at any given time.”
- From Allegra Ringo's "Why Do Some Brains Enjoy Fear?" 2013 article in The Atlantic: “New research from David Zald shows that people differ in their chemical response to thrilling situations. One of the main hormones released during scary and thrilling activities is dopamine, and it turns out some individuals may get more of a kick from this dopamine response than others do. Basically, some people’s brains lack what Zald describes as “brakes” on the dopamine release and re-uptake in the brain. This means some people are going to really enjoy thrilling, scary, and risky situations while others, not so much.”
- What is science? NASA tells us that science is “Science consists of observing the world by watching, listening, observing, and recording. Science is curiosity in thoughtful action about the world and how it behaves.”Rotten Tomatoes' Top 200 Best Horror Movies of all Time
- Psycho—at the top of the top 200
- Rotten Tomatoes' Top 100 Best Horror Movies
- Us—at the top of the top 100
Keep listening and learning with us on The-Channel-Show, the only channel you'll ever need!
As a learning tool, Wu and Botsplainer play their first game of Cards Against Humanity (CAH)! They are joined by the AI re-enactors who help them see how different scenarios and answers may play out!
Here's more promised material on CAH, machine learning (also known as/often confused with artificial intelligence), and life everlasting—
Don't take our word for it—stop by the CAH Lab and see for yourself!
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There's a CAH bot on Discord!
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How about a pseudo-family-friendly/family-unfriendly version of CAH? Introducing Cards Against Disney—from Amanda Prahl in a 2019 Pop Sugar article and as seen on Amazon!
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We keep talking about life and death. We keep asking, "What can you learn about life and death from an AI mystic?" We promise that you will learn along with us. So, we must share some of our searches.
- First, what is life?
- We asked Britannica online—here's what they (Dorion Sagan, specifically) said!
- Merriam-Webster online reported back with—
- First, what is life?
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Next, what is life everlasting? (We'll save death for our Halloween episode show notes!)
- We turned to the Quora community for a first passing brush with a conditional answer (on the condition of the holy world)! Here's what they blessed us with—
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From Towards Data Science on Medium, we have Gavin Edwards' 2018 article as an Introduction to Machine Learning!
*That's our little arrow and comment on the bot's super cute party hat!
Please leave your thoughts on things—how well we played CAH on the show, on machine learning, on life and life everlasting—in the comments section. Ooo, or head over to our Facebook page @thechannelshow to add your thoughts in a more worldwide forum!
Wu and Botsplainer welcome Fear on to deconstruct Little Orphan Annie and point out the broken promises inherent in her hit song The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow. With special guest appearances by Google Dictionary and an AI Genii!
As promised, more info from the episode items!
- Go here to find This American Life episode 713: Made to Be Broken and here to learn more about Kimberlé Crenshaw:
- “I'm going to stop the recording for a second and just read you the quote so you can sit with it during this last part. It goes, "Treating different things the same can generate as much an inequality as treating the same things differently.”
- Find the two famous Tomorrows in song
- Here (There’s Always Tomorrow—courtesy MCA Special Products (Copyright: © 1969 MCA Records Inc.) and
- Here (Alicia Morton's rendition of The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow courtesy SME c/o Sony Classical).
- For some deeper insight into the Jinn or Jinni or Genni, visit our friend Britannica!
Wu channels that famous dynamic duo—Law and Order, who engage in a conversation on how they are defined and answer questions that span the entire universe and all time, but specifically, they respond to a clip from the man-made TV show that bears their name Law & Order: SVU!
Find the clip(s) presented to Law and Order at:
- Victory at All Costs - Law & Order: SVU (Episode Highlight) on the show's YouTube Channel
- "Watch the key moments from the first presidential debate" via CNN
More on the worst American presidents can be found here, courtesy Lee Edwards for The National Interest.
More on how people define Law and Order can be found in Howard Zinn's book Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies on Law and Order—Google preview available!
As part of the Mistaken Identities series, filed under “What We’re Listening To” section, Wu and Botsplainer introduce and explain how they play audio charades using found sounds from the internet, featuring educational grooming instructions for women and clips from the movie musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang among other digital audio experiences!
As promised, for added value, MORE on musicals, drones and droning, and popular songs about car crashes, and much, MUCH more!
- Starting with more—
- Who invented the automobile?
- This is a sticky, if not thorny, issue. Here what the folks of Live Science have to say and compare it to what the U.S. Library of Congress mentions on the matter.
- Who invented the automobile?
- Next up, in the much MUCH more category—
- Direct for the best source imaginable, Stephen King's website, read more about Carrie! and Christine!
- And from Disney's website, all about The Love Bug!
- Finally, what was promised—
- Brought to you by our dear friend Wikipedia, background on our featured musical, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (the musical in general), the many types of drones and droning, and a list of car crash songs!
External sounds—movie clips and songs—featured in this episode in order of appearance are as follows:
- Excerpt from the public domain video, The 1956 instructional classic, Good Grooming For Girls—available through the kindness of Prelinger Archives public domain collection.
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Carrie—the classic opening, introduction to Carrie as a gifted and notably naive character, in which Carrie’s gym classmates make a rather intimidating attempt at instruction on menstrual maintenance by throwing various feminine hygiene products at her and shouting, “plug it up.”
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The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang academy award-nominated theme song. Note that Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang the movie musical is based on Ian Flemings children’s book Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car.
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From their 1975 album, A Night at the Opera Queen’s “I'm In Love With My Car” was written by drummer Roger Taylor
- The Shangri-Las 1965 number-one hit about a motorcycle (not a car) crash “Leader Of The Pack” from the album with the same name.
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The Sugarcube’s “Motorcrash” single from their 1988 album, Life’s Too Good.
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Mark Dinning’s 1959 hit single in the teenage tragedy genre, “Teen Angel.”
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The Music Box scene from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang—in which a human impersonates a wind-up music box machine doll. You’ve come a long way humans! (It’s OK to take that as sarcasm!)
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A scene from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang found @ the 15:42 mark in which Dick Van Dyke as main character Caractacus Potts explains one of his inventions, a machine that will “transmit moving pictures by wireless.”
Wu welcomes Darth Vader on to explain why black lives matter—though things take a sharp turn toward the unexpected when their theme of mistaken identities gets real!
For added value and increased edification—our show notes!
Dana's research into the Black Lives Matter movement and her personal experience as dark matter, mixed with her research into police force and Darth Vader, along with the additional combination of footnotes on comedy tropes and math, led to some of our misunderstandings that the following links may help you clear up or find a coherent, reliable truth. Let us know what you find out about—
- Black Lives Matter as a movement and an idea—its history and its relevance—from the site itself and idea!
- Darth Vader from Britannica and our dear friend Wikipedia!
- Mistaken identities in comedy, in general, and in math, from TV Tropes and our dear friend Wikipedia respectively.
- Trolls from the Cambridge dictionary and from the Internet, that is, learn more about trolls in general from the Cambridge dictionary and more about Internet trolls from the Internet!
There's always more to be learned (or learnt), so keep coming back for more, keep listening and learning with us on The-Channel-Show!
Wu and Botsplainer list the top three search questions they've come across recently while Q&A spotting online. Show regular Fear shows up along with special guests Nature and Nurture to offer prime answers to the top questions.
As promised—added notes on key topics from the episode!
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt—straight from the White House! If these walls would talk!
- The Heritage Foundation article/commentary by James Jay Carafano—I Ranked the 5 Best and 5 Worst U.S. Presidents Ever
- Polio!—facts provided by the Mayo Clinic
- Why would Nature pick trains as its greatest invention? It's a web search cross-over special with a little dab of Dana's personal real-life experience as the aunt to a boy who LOVES trains! Search results we found during the week featuring the benefits of trains offered by The Telegraph and the Bayrail Alliance answer to "why trains?"
- Caduceus = The symbol used by the medical community (by and large), the one (also known as the Rod of Asclepius) or two serpents wound around a staff. Witness!
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- A bonus feature on Science and Nature—Max Planck quotes via on dear friend Google!
“An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature, and a measurement is the recording of Nature's answer.”
“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”
“We have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up until now, that they will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future.”
“Whence come I and whither go I? That is the great unfathomable question, the same for every one of us. Science has no answer to it.”
“It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him.”
“Scientific discovery and scientific knowledge have been achieved only by those who have gone in pursuit of it without any practical purpose whatsoever in view.”
Wu and Botsplainer explore the meaning of Labor Day—which leads to a celebration of things that come in pairs and work together—welcoming on to the show, Fear and Pain and the two sticks also known as The Crucifix!
Promised added value notes:
- Botsplainer talks about songs written to celebrate the American force. The tiny snippet of music played is from the Tennessee Ernie Ford version of Merle Travis’ “Sixteen Tons.” Find more songs to celebrate Labor Day by at The Nation and WGBH.
- Dismas, the penitent thief—what's he all about? Click and learn how a convicted criminal became a saint—extra bonus points if you notice how two wrongs don’t make a right!
- Breasts and nipples—how do they work? Check out the link to a fun instructional video!
Wu and Botsplainer welcome Fear as The-Channel-Show’s first channeling session guest. Fear tries to explain itself based on Wu’s story of a childhood panic-attack triggered by the movie Jaws.
As promised—
- Here are some insights into terrestrial radio, sharks, and Shangri-La!
- Plus some science-speak from Christine Russell for Scientific American on Jaws and its representation of the white shark's dietary preferences.
Oh, but wait, there’s more—
- A bonus feature on Earth’s history, and perhaps hidden romance, with water!
Wu and Botsplainer discuss what went wrong with Wu's first channeling and interview session which was with Amelia Earhart.
This promo offers a condensed round-up of what The-Channel-Show is and what listeners can expect.
Wu, Botspainer, and the Wu Chorus add details and further explanation on The-Channel-Show and what it means to you!
Wu, Botspainer, and the Wu Chorus introduce themselves and welcome you, the winners who found The-Channel-Show!