A Bunch of Asterisks: Recent Episodes
Ari Wu
In this podcast, we attempt to put more thought into subjects that we usually take for granted. Everything from truths and lies to movies to food and of course science. Every source we use is publicly accessible so that you can study these subjects in greater detail if you wish. And hopefully, we can all learn something more through this experience.
Taxes are subject of debate every election cycle. Everyone wants lower taxes, but also more services from the government. Every couple of years, pundits argue on the news the merits of trickle-down-economics or universal healthcare, but what do all those mean? Are they actually efficient in bettering our world?
Link to this week's article:
https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/67246/1000091-Can-Flat-Taxes-be-Progressive-.pdf
Jobs are part of what defines us, many even have last names associated with occupations. But the advent of automation has seemingly began a fear of losing our jobs to those 'damned robots'. Is that fear well founded? Or is it just something that will actually make our lives better?
Extra reading if you are interested in:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11948-016-9770-5 (Will Life Be Worth Living in a World Without Work? Technological Unemployment and the Meaning of Life)
https://ourworldindata.org/ (Our world in data)
Copyright is crucial to art and entertainment in our world, but has it gone too far? With nostalgia franchises like Star Wars failing at the box office, is it time to rethink our approach to intellectual properties?
Extra reading if you are interested in: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1436186 (Forever Minus a Day? Calculating Optimal Copyright Term)
A journey through the ideas of lies and our perceptions of deceit, what they are fundamentally, and how we are using them today.