Journos

The Foundation of the Internet Is in Danger ... and That May Be a Good Thing

For years, rear view mirrors have urged us to be aware that "objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear." And if you think about it, that's a pretty heady statement for a piece of automotive equipment -- reminding drivers that nothing in reality is exactly what it seems.
That was certainly the case for a bunch of despondent youngsters and their families in Glasgow, Scotland, upon entering what was billed to be an interactive, mind-bending, immersive Willy Wonka experience. Instead, the tots and weary parents were faced with something much more reminiscent of a meth lab.
 
A wonka-style Fyre Fest? You better believe the comparison was drawn. 
 
Around the same time, across the pond, a larger discussion of business liability was discussed in the Supreme Court. The subject? Section 230, a "sword and shield" sort of law that protects companies like Facebook and others from liability based on what people say on their platforms, and provides them with the right to boot folks off of their platforms at their discretion. But perhaps what's most interesting about this story is its inability to be neatly placed in either a red or blue box, politically speaking. Either way, experts are saying that the Internet as we know it hinges upon the sanctity of this law.
 
So hop on in this haunted gondola ride to the twisted chocolate factory that is this episode of JOURNOS, decide for yourself if this section 230 thing should go the way of a greedy child turned into a blueberry (rolled back) or protected, like a whimsical chocolatier in a funny hat. 
 
NOTES
E! News Clip on Wonka Fest//Fyre Fest Clip//NYT on 230//NPR on 230//Solid Primer on 230//Biden and 230//HBR on 230//ScotusBlog on 230//NYT on 230...in '96!//FOSTA-SESTA
 

Dry January is the Most Selfish Holiday

It's a new year, and at least one of us at JOURNOS is celebrating Dry January. But what is this strange holiday? What are its origins? And how are booze brands evolving to adapt to the selfish preferences of those who forswear drinking for an entire month?
The hard seltzer White Claw offers some answers here, as it unleashes a zero-alcohol product, turning its seltzer into ... seltzer. It is an absurd miracle of form following function.
... Much like the second story we tackled, about how the lifeforms in the emoji kingdom don't match the biodiversity of the actual world. Is this a problem for our understanding of the natural world? An impediment to modern communication? Or should we leave ecology out of emoji and just stick to the ever-useful eggplant?
We get into these topics with a surplus of sobriety. In this episode, we promise less slurring ... plus, the ability to legally drive anywhere!
NOTES
Where Dry January came from // More people gettin' dry // Who's drinking worldwide? // Is Dry January good for us? // White Claw is very proud of White Claw // The Washington Post considers the value of zero-alcohol booze // The emoji biodiversity research // Extinct emoji and endangered emoji // Emojination // What's the most popular emoji?

”What Is Consciousness?” with Janet Varney

We're introducing a new feature here on JOURNOS: a sort of journalism detective agency. You've got a question, we do journalism on it and find the answer.
(I should say that the term "do journalism on it" has had a mixed reception.)
Our first question comes from friend and guinea pig of the show, Janet Varney, who asks a pretty simple little question: "What is consciousness?"
Brandon & Stephen hunted far and wide and interviewed a couple of experts about theories of consciousness, the hard and soft problems, whether you can communicate with people in vegetative states, and more. 
And then we talked to Janet about it and got deep on how these theories affect our view of ourselves, our world, and shine some light on what version of reality we'd all prefer.
Get ready to think about how we talk about thinking, and what we think we're talking about when we talk about what we're thinking about. It's a trip from the neurons to the stars.
NOTES
Timothy Bayne weighs in on when consciousness starts and name-calling in the field
Martin Monti talks mind-reading, vegetative states, and cloning consciousness
Finding consciousness in the brain
The juices & jolts of consciousness
Anil Seth says we create our reality
... And takes a stab at defining consciousness
... Which may be a fight against entropy
The current academic-type theories 
The recent catfight over one theory of consciousness
Some history of panpsychism
... And a little more history of panpsychism
... And more on whether consciousness might be everywhere
Orchestrated Objective Reduction Theory
... Is wet enough for quantum
You're never far from Buddhism
 

AI: Miracle Tech or Just Another Pair of Chopsticks Lodged in Your Brain?

Suggested new phrase for the confusing pace of modern life: 
"It's like having chopsticks stuck in your brain."
Not, of course, the song (we would never be so basic). No — literal chopsticks, but lodged in such a way that you can still go about your business ... just, everything just seems a lot harder. One man unwittingly has become the symbol for this new symbol, a man who got chopsticks lodged in his brain ... and didn't even know it.
So begins our exploration of weird stories about bodily invasion by foreign objects, from houseflies to, ahem, "a whole coconut." 
Which of course led to the biggest invasion story of our time: artificial intelligence. In this episode, Brandon and Stephen survey the state of AI by looking at what it's doing to journalism, from clickbait to personalized news.
Will we leave it to machines to tackle the essential chopstick stories of our time? Will that free us up to work on real stuff that's not about a whole coconut that somehow found its way into somebody's ass? Will AI really be a trusty sidekick for our biggest stories? And will Angela Lansbury be the voice of the movement?
Most importantly: Why are mummies part of like the third-grade curriculum? 
As one chopstick said to another, "We're really getting up to something now!"
NOTES
Complex’s combo chopsticks/housefly story // AI usage hype // The Sports Illustrated AI shitshow, and the weird fake author profiles // What people were reading on CNN in 2022 // A big-picture look at AI and journalism // AI and media predictions // One possible model for AI journalism // Our conversation with cartoonist Ted Rall from March
 

Bad News? Simulated Universe. Good News? Simulated Universe! w/Dr. Melvin Vopson

Is the universe a simulation? If so, is there someone twisting the dials or is the universe a big computer running itself, a program that includes things like the coati and those sneakers with wheels in them?
It's a big question (the biggest, really), and in this episode we dig into it with Dr. Melvin Vopson. Melvin is an Associate Professor of Physics at the UK's University of Portsmouth, and he's made news for his work studying the nature of information and entropy. His conclusion? The way things work — from electrons on up to stars — looks suspiciously like how a computer might run things. 
It's a fascinating and controversial idea. Is information the base layer of the universe? And does this mean there's a planet full of popular, well-known fantasy characters out there somewhere?
We expel a little heat energy into the void to figure out how real Melvin Vopson's theories might be. (And how real we ourselves might be.)
NOTES
More on the simulation idea // Melvin's Second Law of Infodynamics // The implications for genetics // The Information Physics Institute
 
 

No, Your Candy Isn’t Poisoned ... But Climate Change Is Coming for Your Beer

This Spooky Season, two twisted tales ...
In the first fearsome fable, an old monster returns: drugs in the Halloween candy. Fear not, because while there are terrifying candy-looking drugs out there, they're not aimed at kids. But the familiar holiday myth is a reliable zombie, dumb yet unkillable. To address the misnformation, we dress as wet, sexy vampires and go in search of truth ... or treats.
In the second sinister story, a terrifying force develops a taste for wine: we learn that climate change will actually improve the taste of Bordeaux. (But at a ghastly cost: the taste of beer will get worse.)
In this episode, we confront the uncomfortable: that some myths retain their power no matter how much debunking goes on, and that some truths are so scary we don't want to face the nuance.
Pour yourself a glass of the future and bite down on some razor-sharp apples with us in this Very Journos Halloween ...
(Mwah ha ha ha hah!)
NOTES
Judy Klemensrud's NYT Op-Ed
More on the fentanyl fear
Spooky Halloween spending numbers here and here
NatGeo and Agence France-Presse have a similar take on the Bordeaux news
“The weather isn’t climate change”
“The good news on climate”
“Why climate change is good for the world”
Farmers may benefit from climate change
Get ready to cruise the Northwest Passage

That Time Fake Aliens Invaded Mexico and Real Rats Invaded D.C.

It's mankind versus nonhuman invaders in this episode of Journos! Stephen's big talk about pant legs gets Brandon thinking about a Washington Post story on rat-hunting that reads like a newspaper version of a snuff film ... only with rats. 
What's with WaPo's obsession with the city's rats? Our sleuths dig into the last few years of coverage to sort out whether the city's paper of record really really loves rats, or really really hates them. (Seems like a cross-species frenemy situation.)
All this talk of invasion inspires Stephen to ruminate on Mexico's space alien problem. The problem turns out not to be the aliens, though, because the aliens are fake. The problem is the fabulist who somehow got into Mexico's Congress to talk about fake aliens. 
And the bigger problem, as we unpack here, is that the news media is only too happy to push the "alien" part of the story without spending too much time on the "fake" part. 
So, prepare your terrier for battle. This episode goes for blood.
NOTES
Washingtonian Magazine gets to the dog story first! // WaPo's rat obsession includes playing rats, video game rats, ratcatcher tips, rat czars, rat panic, heroic rats, and car-eating rats // Orkin reveals the rattiest cities in America // Reuters and NPR report on aliens in Mexico (but wait: here's the original Reuters and original NPR versions!) // WIRED, not having it // El Pais gives us Avi Loeb's support // Loeb is no joke, astronomically speaking // Harvard goes all in on Loeb's alien hunt

We Nearly All Died Out, But We Survived ... to Create Barbie!

After some discussion of one of the lesser-known markers of climate change (sticky leather seats), we kick off this episode by introducing you to a new guest host: Hondo!
Then it's on to the question of how we endure crises. First, the unfortunate recent diarrhea incident that forced a Delta plane to turn around. Then, we talk about a recent study in the journal Science that posits the human population went through a bottleneck such that we were down to fewer than 1,300 people.
That the modern human is the product of pretty serious inbreeding guides us straight into a new segment: a game show! Stephen runs the gauntlet of "Journos in the Hot Seat" to learn all about how, after the success of "Barbie," the toy company Mattel is itself trying to evolve its products into 45 upcoming movies. (Some creative inbreeding seems inevitable.) 
Join Stephen (and Hondo) in ... the Hot Seat!
 

Trying *This* in a Small Town

In this episode — stories of small towns, starting with a moral quandary for Stephen in the smallest town of all: the open ocean(?) What would he do if a rogue otter tried to steal his surfboard? 
From there we get territorial on two country songs that are topping the charts of the culture war: Jason Aldean's "Try That in a Small Town" and Oliver Anthony's "Rich Men North of Richmond." Both songs are big conservative talking points, but while Aldean's traffics in big-city stereotypes, Anthony's is a folky class commentary, even if its policy positions are a little wonky.
Which leads us down a two-lane road to a real exploration of power in small towns: the saga of the Marion County Record, a Kansas newspaper raided by local police for reasons that sound more personal than professional. While the cops had to return what they snatched, the tale shows how small-town stories can have international implications.
Stow your surfboard, pull up a stump, and let's jam a bit about class, press freedom, and greedy sea mammals.

Are We Living in ... Medieval Times? w/Jake ”The Knight” Bowman

It's the season of unions, and we've found a union story that's nearly mythic.
In February, performers at the Buena Park, CA, location of the Spanish-chivalry-dinner-theater-experience Medieval Times went on strike. They claim dangerous working conditions, low pay, sexual harassment, and unacceptable treatment of the horses all contribute to a work environment that is (might as well just say it) medieval. 
In this episode, we talk to union organizer and strike captain Jake Bowman about living out the modern metaphor of a peasants' revolt, joining a union with The Rockettes, and why it's still cool to be a knight even if life and limb hang in the balance.
Forsooth it is verily an episode about the state of labor in Ye Olde United States!