While We're On The Subject: Recent Episodes
Subject Radio
Jon Roberts and Michael Draper get together every week to discuss education, building a career as a millennial, social issues, personal development, technology, anything really.
Mike and Job discuss conspiracy theories and the complicated and public nature of the modern digital world. They then discuss how people underestimate the progress of democracy around the world and how some ideas in evolution and economics relate to one another.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How conspiracy theories come to be
The difficulties of improving in public
How democracy is advancing and thriving around the world
Mentioned in the Episode:
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
Leader of Myanmar - Aung San Suu Kyi
There is a pervasive and growing mood of pessimism in many parts of society. Our hosts struggle to understand and deal with it. They then tell some of their worst stories from work. The show closes with a discussion of potential university reforms to increase flexibility and practicality.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How to deal with the negative mood of the day
Our worst work experiences
How everyone would benefit from the rise of micro-credentials in university
Mentioned in the Episode:
A History of Western Philosophy
Black Lives Matter
A History of Germany: 1918-2008
The Weimar Republic
Skillshare
Edx
Khan Academy
Mike and Jon follow up on their discussion on repeated processes before debating what makes some revolutions successful. They then argue over the merits of the Irish abortion referendum and direct democracy more broadly. They close with a discussion of the Netflix Documentary Wild Wild Country about the sannyasin commune in rural Oregon.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
Why some revolutions succeed
The Irish abortion referendum
Our analysis of Wild Wild Country
Mentioned in the Episode:
Wild Wild Country
Rajneeshees
The Bhagwan
The hosts argue about the usage democratize, capitalism, democracy, and communism and then explore the downsides of capitalism. They debate the merits of single issue voting and contrast the events of the Latin American independence revolutions and that of the United States.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How democratize is misused
The issues with capitalism
Our thoughts on single issue voters
Mentioned in the Episode:
NEXT EPISODE: Wild Wild Country
Doreen Simmons
Japanese Honor: Order of the rising sun
Sumo Wrestling medics ordered out of the ring due to gender
NPR
State and Regulatory Capture
Net neutrality
The Salvation Army
Wealth Taxes
Universal Basic Income
Fannie Mae
Homeowner Tax Credits
Single Issue Voters
Real Time with Bill Maher
Radical Markets by Glen Weyl & Eric A. Posner
Greater Colombia
Federalists
Anti-Federalists
Coloured People (South Africa)
Apartheid (South Africa
NEXT EPISODE: Wild Wild Country
Mike and Jon start out complaining about people with terrible grammar but quickly move on to an attempt to make boring things interesting and a far ranging conversation about the possibilities of terraforming Mars and Venus. They finish it all off with an examination of automation and the difference between scarcity and abundance.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
Why dials are interesting
Why Venus and not Mars will be terraformed
The difference between scarcity and abundance
Mentioned in the Episode:
Chinese Cloud Seeding in Tibet
Terraforming
Geo-engineering
Gravitational Waves
Mike and Jon complain about walking etiquette before exploring how society treats the elderly and experience. They then discuss creating new things and what goes into it. They close with a conversation on giant tech firms, and why there are none in Europe.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
The importance of experience
How process and execution interact in creative endeavours
Why new technologies come from so few countries
Mentioned in the Episode:
Leisure World, Seal Beach
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
South Park
Philadelphia 76ers
The Phantom Of The Opera
Kodak
Sony
Nintendo
CERN Labs
Texas Instruments
To celebrate their twentieth episode Mike and Jon decided to try something a little different. Avoiding even the whiff of anything serious they discuss a series of peculiar questions written by the Author Chuck Klosterman. They discuss questions: 1,2,4,13,7,19, and 8 in that order with all of the awkwardness and unnecessary seriousness they bring to everything.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
Why it’s hard to kill a horse
The perils of having a banquet of ex-lovers
If magic qualifies as impressive
Mentioned in the Episode:
Klosterman’s Questions:
1. Let us assume you met a rudimentary magician. Let us assume he can do five simple tricks he can pull a rabbit out of his hat, he can make a coin disappear, he can turn the ace of spades into the Joker card, and two others in a similar vein. There are his only tricks and he can’t learn anymore; he can only do these five. HOWEVER, it turns out he’s doing these five tricks with real magic. It’s not an illusion; he can actually conjure the bunny out of the other and he can move the coin through space. Hes legitimately magical, but extremely limited in scope and influence. Would this person be more impressive than Albert Einstein?
2. Let us assume a fully grown, completely healthy Clydesdale horse has his hooves shackled to the ground while he head is held in place with thick rope. He is conscious and standing upright, but he is completely immobile. And let us assume that for some reason every political prisoner on earth (as cited by Amnesty International) will be released from captivity if you can kick this horse to death in less than twenty minutes. You are allowed to wear steel-toed boots. Would you attempt to do this?
Amnesty international and Political Prisoners
4. Genetic engineers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a so-called super gorilla. Though the animal cannot speak, it has a sign language lexicon of over twelve thousand words, and an IQ of almost 85, and most notably a vague sense of self-awareness. Oddly, the creature (who weighs seven hundred pounds) becomes fascinated by football. The gorilla aspires to play the game at its highest level and quickly develops the rudimentary skills of a defensive end. ESPN analyst Tom Jackson speculates that this gorilla would be borderline unblockable and would likely average six sacks a game (although Jackson concedes the beast might be susceptible to counters and misdirection plays). Meanwhile, the gorilla has made is clear he would never intentionally injure any opponent. You are commissioner of the NFL: Would you allow this gorilla to sign with the Oakland Raiders?
NFL
NFL commissioner
800 pound gorilla
Oakland Raiders
13. Every person you have ever slept with is invited to a banquet where you are the guest of honor. No one will be in attendance except for you, the collection of former lovers, and the catering service. After the meal, you are asked to give a fifteen-minute speech to the assembly. What do you talk about?
7. Defying all expectation, a group of Scottish marine biologists capture a live Loch Ness Monster. In an almost unbelievable coincidence, a bear hunter shoots a Sasquatch in the thigh, thereby allowing zoologists to take the furry monster into captivity. These events happen on the same afternoon. That evening, the president announces he may have thyroid cancer and will undergo a biopsy later that week. You are the front-page editor of The New York Times: What do you play as the biggest story?
Sasquach
Loch Ness Monster
19. Your best friend is taking a nap on the floor of your living room. Suddenly, you are faced with a bizarre existential problem: This friend is going to die unless you kick them (as hard as you can) in the rib cage. If you don’t kick them while they slumber, they will never wake up. However, you can never explain this to your friend; if you later inform them that you did this to save their life, they will also die from that. So you have to kick a sleeping friend in the ribs, and you can’t tell them why. Since you cannot tell your friend the truth, what excuse will you fabricate to explain this (seemingly inexplicable) attack?
8. You meet the perfect person. Romantically, this person is ideal; You find them physically attractive, intellectually stimulating, consistently funny, and deeply compassionate. However, they are one quirk: This individual is obsessed with Jim Henson’s gothic puppet fantasy The Dark Crystal. Beyond watching it on DVD at least once a month, he/she peppers casual conversation with Dark Crystal references, uses Dark Crystal analogies to explain everyday events, and occasionally likes to talk intensely about the films deeper philosophy. Would this be enough to stop you from marrying this individual?
The Dark Crystal
Back To The Future
The Muppets Christmas Carol
Mike and Jon talk about the potential use of DNA for data storage and the progression of science through the centuries. They then discuss their second quarter plans and the growing complexity of and conflicts between intellectual and tangible property rights.
Mentioned in the Episode:
The Economist
Wired Magazine
Fast Company Magazine
Megatech 2050
23 And Me
The brain uses 20 watts/day (Laptops use 50-100 watts/hour or 1200-2400 watts/day)
Pi Day
Mole Day
Saint George’s Day
CORRECTION: Saint Patrick didn’t drive out dragons, Saint George slew dragons
Jon Roberts - Jon’s YouTube Channel
John Deere Tractor Software Controversy
Monsanto GMO Seed Patent Controversy
Panama Banana Disease Wiped Out Banana Agriculture in the 1950’s
Mike and Jon discuss how words for specific places or things generalize before exploring some simple strategies for improving memory retention when studying or reading books. They then break down the relationships between population decline, economic growth, and national debts, and Japan’s acute dangers with these.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How words with specific means expand and generalize
How to remember more of what you read and study
The relationships between growth in population, the economy, and public finances
Mentioned in the Episode:
Paradise Lost - Pandemonium
Sandwich - etymology
Bedlam - English insane asylum
House on Haunted Hill
The Forgetting Curve
The Learning Curve
University Of Richmond
Greenspan: The Age of Turbulence
Japan’s Population Growth
Japan’s National Debt
Mike and Jon clarify the importance simplicity when learning science. Then they discuss playing pool and the difference between knowing about and knowing how to do something. They follow that with an exploration of potential impacts of Autonomous Vehicles and then close by talking through some of the dangers around cults of personality and the rise of strong men in politics.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:The difference between knowledge and skills
Potential ramifications of Autonomous Vehicles
Cults of personality in the USA and China
Mentioned in the Episode:An Post: the Irish post office
The Wicklow Way
Jon hiked Crone Wood
English in pool (spin)
League Of Legends
E-sports
Uber AV kills someone in Arizona
Uber Pool Express (carpooling)
Zipcar - car sharing
Cult of personality
China Eliminates Term Limits
Xi Jinping
Mao Zedong
Deng Xiaoping
Louis 14 - “I am the state”
Xi jinping’s suffering during the cultural revolution
Patreon.com/wwots
Mike and Jon start with a conversation about jobs their not suited for and the dull life of house painters before some follow up on the wilder side of genetic engineering. They then explain why they always rank things in their mind and go into how constraints and limitations can spur creative problem solving and help us to think of novel solutions.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:How Genetic Engineering is advancing today
Why ranking things helps to order the world around us
How limits in creative projects can spur creative solutions
Mentioned in the Episode:Radiolab Podcast - Mantis Shrimp Episode
Peacock Mantis Shrimp
Tardigrades (Waterbears)
Extremophiles
Canadian GM Salmon
Barbra Streisand’s Cloned Dogs
CRISPR CAS9
UK Mitochondrial Replacement - 3 parent babies
Using CRISPR On Humans In China
Choice Paralysis / Overchoice
Jon’s Procrastination Video
Flash fiction
Mike and Jon discuss the differences between people who nitpick endlessly or make sweeping generalizations as well as how people wrap their identities up in their ideas. They also go over Jon’s condemnation of contemporary scientific units and the importance of feedback whether provided by yourself or others.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:The problems with the Metric system
The problems with scientific notation
How our hosts deal with feedback
Mentioned in the Episode:History of the metric system
Unit conversion problem causes lost NASA satelite
Scientific notation
Contact us!!!! We Love Feedback!!!
Mike and Jon start with a conversation on the mentality of immigrants and the difference between risk and the unknown followed by a meandering walk through marginal cost how to evaluate friendships and the dangerous virality of long dead ideas.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:The difference between risky outcomes and unknown outcomes
The value of having relationships with people you disagree with
How old ideas made new can come back with a vengeance
Mentioned in the Episode:Jack Dempsey wouldn’t spar Hemingway for fear of hurting him
Marginal cost
Ethno-Nationalism
Mercantilism
Darth Sidious
Fire and Fury
Our hosts examine the difficulties of migration and demographic decline in Eastern Europe and how this is exacerbating populism in Poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary. They go over what mike wants in a place he lives and talk about the history of number systems as well as what an ideal system might look like. They close out with some speculation about the future impact of fusion, solar energy, and genetic engineering upon societies.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:How Eastern Europe’s demographic crunch illuminates challenges for the entire world
The history and importance of number systems
What the future of genetic engineering portends
Mentioned in the Episode:Book: Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The earliest human genetic engineering: Mitochondrial Replacement Surgeries
Mike and Jon recap their conversation on time tracking and rank the three most underrated U.S. Presidents and the three worst periods of history. They then discuss why branding and advertising are so despised and the often ignored intrinsic value they bring to society.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
The value of time tracking
Interesting facts about underrated Presidents
The upside of branding and advertising
Mentioned in the Episode:
Smart Phones without advertising: One Plus One
Smart Phones without branding: The Essential Phone
Coke christmas Ad campaign
Mike ruminates on the origins of stairs, housing and doors before challenging Jon to find something interesting in the mundane topic of rope. They continue with a discussion of commuting, getting gas in LA, and how traits like optimism, caution, responsibility, and age might impact decision making around things we all do. They then explore the contemporary political realignment seen around the world in the decades since the end of the cold war, the lack of capitalist tradition in post soviet republics, and the proliferation of conspiracy theories about the new world order. They close by reviewing and reflecting on the first 10 episodes of this show, what they’ve learned along the way, and the value of having recordings of early work for seeing your growth and progress.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:Interesting facts about rope
How global politics have realigned since 1990
Our thoughts on the first 10 episodes of While We’re On The Subject
Mentioned in the Episode:
Dave Chappelle Special: Poor White Voters
Our Patreon
Mike and Jon begin by discussing how our expectations around marriage, schooling, and work are influenced by our families, the media, and society at large. They examine how desires interact with expectations and some of theirs growing up. After touching on some of the failings of the educational system they go into how the search for passions in work distracts from true satisfaction and how passion is actually developed. They close with a comparison of rationalism and empiricism. Going through their practical uses and how to use these methods of thinking to assist our learning and pursuit of truth.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How expectations interact with desires and outcomes
Why some countries are convinced that they’re the best
The uses and misuses of logic and Rationalism
The importance of empirical thinking when judging the truth of information
Mentioned in the Episode:
Books: Deep Work and So Good They Can’t Ignore You, by Cal Newport, professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University
Our hosts broaden their conversation of grammar by complaining about people not using the plural possessive, schools not teaching grammar, and an exploration of German cases and the echoes of these that remain in English. They continue with a discussion of people’s interests and why different people are interested in such different things; examining sports and history in particular. They close by analyzing the media they consume, how long media remains relevant, and what mediums are best for consuming different kinds of information.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
The plural possessive and German cases
Interest, where it comes from, and how we can generate it
The shelf-life and relevance of different kinds of media consumed in different mediums
Mentioned in the Episode:
No one uses plural possessives
German cases
Native Australian language - Time is described with directions
Dan carlin’s hardcore history - The American Peril Episode
Reeling in the years
Our hosts start off contrasting the snow in Korea to the fires all over California. Jon then complains about speed bumps and somehow generalizes them as a symptom of greater evil in society. They suggest a way to think about implementing long term permanent changes whether as a city planner or for yourself. They then touch on the hidden French etymological origins of some word families and how finding these connections between languages can shed meaning on patterns in our own language, discuss the drift of accents in the United States and the United Kingdom, and the influence of German culture and language on the USA. They go on to speculate over the impact of future medical advances greatly lengthening human lifespans, how our societies might acclimate to them, and whether individual rights include healthcare. They close with some reflections on 2017 and a few plans for the coming months.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
Why speed bumps are a terrible solution
How English is a creole and its Germanic and Romantic roots
Speculation on how society would handle people living for 500 years
Our thoughts on new year’s resolutions
Mike and Jon follow up on the cost of cabs and Ryanair flights, and make corrections about car ownership and New York hurricanes. They also talk about the Economist Newspaper’s odd practice of collective authorship, and why we trust certain media sources sources. After this they explain the Catalan independence movement and have a discussion on various secession movements and the future of the European Union more broadly.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
The origins of the Economist Newspaper
Our thoughts on trust of the media
The forces driving the Catalan independence movement
Our thoughts on secessionists, nationalism, and self determination
Mentioned in the Episode:
Ryanair: 10 euro flights between the UK and Ireland
New England hurricane killed 60 people
the Economist Newspaper
Why Economist Authors aren’t listed
Bloomberg Businessweek
Economist founded September 1843 - to fight corn laws among other things
Catalan Independence
Galencia and basque independent movements
Scottish independence referendum
Catalonia’s referendum - October 2017 - 92% for 8% against
2016 US Election - 58% of eligible voters turned out
Correction: Catalonia accounts for 20% of Spanish GDP
Population of Catalonia is 7.5 million > Ireland (4.7M) or Denmark (5.7M)
Italy’s Northern League
Correction: Naples is Italy’s 3rd largest city
IRA - Irish Republican Army not to be confused with NRA - National Rifle Association
Peruvian ethnic and linguistic diversity
Chinese Languages
Indian linguistic diversity
Esperonto - the second language of the world
Gaudi houses in Barcelona
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
Some history of social change and the the issue of gay marriage in the USA
How demographics, birth rates, and life spans are changing around the world
Our thoughts on why people struggle with change and how integral change is to human perception
How Generational change is unique
The importance of the aging of the populace and how that will affect society in the coming decades
Mentioned in the episode:
Hate listening to podcasts: The Joe Rogan Experience
Books:
The righteous mind - Jonathan Haidt - People make political choices due to morality more than economic interests
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Demographic changes and life extension in asia: Japan, China, India, Indonesia
Japan Population is in Decline
China population will decline by 2025
Jon and Mike talk about recent trips to liverpool and Milan, hate listening to podcasts like “the Joe Rogan Experience”, Mike’s new job in the property management industry, and how it feels to listen to recordings of yourself. They then examine some ideas about change, how and why people are resistant to it, and how integral it is to the way we perceive the world. Following this conversation they break down generational change, what kinds of beliefs become entrenched in people after adolescence, and how this has growing importance due to potential changes to technology, demographics and lifespans. They close with a discussion of how power is shifting into the hands of much older people and how, if we develop technologies to extend life spans substantially, we’ll see even more drastic shifts in power and authority.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
Some history of social change and the the issue of gay marriage in the USA
How demographics, birth rates, and life spans are changing around the world
Our thoughts on why people struggle with change and how integral change is to human perception
How Generational change is unique
The importance of the aging of the populace and how that will affect society in the coming decades
Mentioned in the episode:
Hate listening to podcasts: The Joe Rogan Experience
Books:
The righteous mind - Jonathan Haidt - People make political choices due to morality more than economic interests
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Demographic changes and life extension in asia: Japan, China, India, Indonesia
Japan Population is in Decline
China population will decline by 2025
Mike has been having a lot of great days lately. Jon and Mike discuss what makes for a good day and how to keep your momentum and good energy. They argue about commuting, and car ownership, then explore what makes a city nice to live in. After that they delve into their opinions on how Halloween compares to their favorite holidays, and what it’s like to celebrate American holidays while living abroad.
Links:
New York, USA vs Seoul, South Korea: average temp: 12.7°C vs 12.2°C
Chicago winters
Buffalo moved NFL game after 220,000 tons of snow fell on the stadium
New York City Hurricane history
Halloween comes from Samhain and old celtic festival from Ireland
Cinco de mayo remembers the battle of Puebla.
The origins of Thanksgiving, mostly not Genocide
“I got you a handshake for Christmas.”
After a summer break Mike and Jon return to discuss their travels in Peru, California, and Ireland, new jobs, settling into a new city and country, the American educational system, how we learn, the distinctions between skills and knowledge, how society thinks about failure, life long learning, and a some recommended reading.
Links:
What we did instead of recording:
Shrugging at a waterfall
Making faces at a river
Taking in the Sierra Nevadas
Skills versus Knowledge
Rote memorization
Improving Memory:Mnemonics; Narratives; Spaced Repetition Systems
Questions if you want to learn marine biology:
How do you learn that?
What do you do?
What techniques do you use?
What materials do you use?
How do you determine how good those materials are?
Not just teaching information but teaching people how to learn information
We know how to learn skills:
1) Look at skill
2) Break it into its component parts
3) Practice those parts
4) Reintegrate them
5) Practice them together
Thinking: look at information, understand it, and break it down
Learning: retain new information, develop a new skill, understand concepts
People are ashamed of failure, is it just part of the process of learning
How do interest and curiosity affect memory?
Recomendations:
Book - Getting things done - David Allen - Introduction to thinking about Organization and task management
Article - Some Of My Best Friends Are Germs - Michael Pollan - NY Times - Microbiome and immunology
Mike and Jon discuss some new gadgets they’ve bought, how to get money out of China $500 at a time, Jon’s long path toward personal development and organization, the value of tracking how we spend time, how to assess goals and measure success, a trip to South Korea, Jon’s total lack of punctuality, Mike’s tooth infection, dental insurance, medical insurance, and how and why insurance is structured like it is.
Mike and Jon touch on: fitness and stretching, traveling from China to Peru, and some of their pet peeves. They then go in depth on an archeological breakthrough regarding the origins of humans in the Americas and discuss the types of information they consume and how they think about the news media.
MIke and Jon Introduce themselves and While We’re On The Subject. They then discuss China and break down its ethnic makeup, how it compares with Korea, and how the very diverse people of China interact with a regime that often doesn’t relate to them at all.