Journos

Is the Covid Story Ever REALLY Over? w/ Dr. Bob Wachter

It’s late October, winter is fast-approaching, and there’s one big question on everyone’s mind: What the heck is going on with COVID? Compounding this confusion was President Biden’s declaration that the pandemic was over — despite the fact that the virus is still significantly deadlier than the flu. (This was later walked back, as the public health emergency has been once again extended through January 11.)
Quite the noggin scratcher indeed. To make sense of it all, we’re joined in this episode by Dr. Bob Wachter, a professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. In the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Wachter emerged as a trusted source of accurate information related to COVID due to his matter-of-fact, no-judgement postings on Twitter. Since then, he’s amassed a huge following and to this day he continues to live-tweet the pandemic play-by-play, leveraging his expertise and community of leading medical specialists in order to give the public some of the most accessible, fact-based insights anywhere on the ‘net. 
Beyond talking about the current and future state of the pandemic (epidemic?), we also discuss the current precautions he’s taking to remain safe, what it means be both a human being and a doctor at the same time, and the nature of public storytelling in the 21st century. 
Follow Dr. Bob Wachter on Twitter at @Bob_Wachter.

Tomatoes on Our Highways, Mammoths in Our Midst

Let's take a look at things in places where they shouldn’t be, the illusory nature of reality, and bringing mammoths back from the dead to save the world.
First up, truck spills — the story that America just can’t quit. Not too long ago 150,000 tomatoes were strewn across the road from a big truck in California. Then — that very same week — thousands of jars of Alfredo sauce found their way onto an interstate down in Tennessee. But are stories like these just clickbait, or do they reveal something deeper about our yearning for order to prevail? Probably both. But either way, clear next Tuesday’s calendar and dive into the annals of www.truckspills.com. It’s what critics are calling “a delightful romp through Web 1.0.” 
So, every time a truck spills its cargo, the fabric of reality is tested. We’re reminded that the utterly predictable can give way to absurdity in milliseconds. But what happens when we go out of our way to mess with the natural order of things?
We may find out soon enough. That’s because at least one tech startup is promising to resurrect the wooly mammoth to fight climate change. It could work — bringing back the bison population in Oklahoma was a huge success — or it could, you know, go all Jurassic Park on us. Or maybe it’ll just piss a few folks off, like these beavers did. Hard sayin’, not knowin’, since we’ve yet to “de-extinct” an animal. One thing’s for certain: A lot of money will be printed in the process. 
Join us, as we take a wide-angle look at how all this weird shit fits together. Heck, a jar of creamy pasta sauce and a resurrected hairy elephant might have more in common than you think.

Is ”Serial” Guilty ... of Bad Journalism? w/Rebecca Lavoie & Janet Varney

News from the "Wrongs Righted" Desk ~~
Adnan Syed, imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit, was released after 23 years in prison. If you've heard of Syed, it's from the podcast "Serial," which kick-started the ... trend? genre? industry? ... of longform podcasting.
But is it good journalism? After "Serial" premiered in 2014, questions arose about its accuracy; "Serial" creator Sarah Koenig's reporting focused on aspects of the story that made Syed look guilty (or just made the story look better) and ignored some crucial evidence that argued for his innocence. In the years since, there's been a lot of critique (and other podcasts) that have not only poked holes in the prosecution's story, but also "Serial" itself. And yet, now that Syed is out, all eyes will once again be pointed toward that flawed but very influential podcast, which has never corrected its mistakes.
We're getting into that today. But first, a missing person's case: Stephen is on vacation, y'all! So Brandon invited on two guests for a JOURNOS chat  about the Adnan Syed case, the legacy of "Serial," and podcasting as a form of journalism.
Get deep into the weeds with Rebecca Lavoie of the podcast "Crime Writers On," and friend of the show (and sometime Elizabeth Holmes) Janet Varney, who cohosts the podcast "Truth & Justice" with Bob Ruff. 
In the case of Adnan Syed, justice has been served, but it raises all kinds of questions about responsibility in journalism, the state of podcasting, and who gets to be the final authority on telling someone's story.
NOTES
A couple of true-crime podcasts get discussed in this ep, all excellent: "Undisclosed" is the one that corrected the flaws with the "Serial" story, co-hosted by Rabia Chaudry, without whom "Serial" might not exist in its current form, and without whom Syed might still be in prison.
We also talk about "Bear Brook," "Suspect," and "In the Dark." "In the Dark" is especially noteworthy since the reporting that went into that podcast was used as evidence to convince the Supreme Court to overthrow the conviction of Curtis Flowers, which says a hell of a lot about the potential of the humble podcast to make a difference.

The Vikings are at the Doorbell

Say what you will about the Vikings, but one thing’s for certain: They had a strong brand. So strong, in fact, that it’s easy to draw a pretty clear through line between their insatiable appetite for conquest and the relentless march of tech companies into our personal and private lives. 
The only difference? Nobody back then would ever agree to a Viking's Terms of Service (ToS). 
But before we get there, what’s up with Japan’s National Tax Agency, and why are they trying to get us drunk? And why is Coca-Cola hoping to tap into the collective dreamspace of Gen Z? The answer to both can be found in murky boardrooms on either side of the planet, in which bottom-lines are mandates from the gods, and are to be met at all costs. 
It’s in boardrooms like these where we encounter modern-day Vikings, plotting and charting new voyages into the final frontiers of our minds, and even the inside (and outside) of our homes. Let’s face it — the folks at Amazon have what can only be described as Big Viking Energy™. It’s an aura readily apparent in the acquisition of two companies, iRobot (who got its start making machines for the military) and Ring (who isn’t afraid to talk to cops). 
The purchase of these reflects the once-plucky online bookseller’s apparent endgame of surveilling our entire private existence. While the Roombas are busy mapping our homes and reporting back to the Cloud, the Ring video doorbells will stand sentry at our doorsteps, and perhaps catch an act of civil disobedience from time to time. Valhalla! 
Of course, not everyone’s buying it just yet. But don’t worry, there’s a plan for that. And you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out what it is…
Fine. Here’s a hint: It’s a dystopian contest. (No, not that kind.)
Anyhow, grab your weird horned helmet and start rowing. It’s Viking-time people, and you might as well blend in.

Make America Wolves Again

For every season, there is a boogieman. Once upon a time, it might've been vampires, and your average British nobleman might've felt protected by an ornate, classy vampire-killing kit. 
Ah, but times change. Boogiefolk change. Nowadays, the monster might be something more hip & modern, like wolves. Wolves! Unleashed by environmentalists! In which case, the best defense for some is to vote right. Way right. The righter the better.
The question of monsters and appropriate responses — that's what we're puzzling through in this episode. It means digging into a study with a cool name, asking why conservatives are so quick on the gag reflex, and thinking hard about journalists' own boogieman: our relevance.
Peer bravely into the darkness with this hand-crafted, finely wrought episode. It'll be a collector's piece in no time.
JOURNOS is produced by Heather "Eagle Ears" Wilson. The cocktail party is catered by audio from 7by7 and KieLoKaz.
 

Defacing the Mona Lisa and DALL•E’s Horrifying Netherworld of AI-Driven Art

What makes life worth living? What kind of cake does the Mona Lisa prefer? What does a chair made of avocados look like? 
Art, in its many forms, seeks to answer all of the above. And for years, humans have enjoyed a near monopoly on creating it. But things are changing — and fast. Here, we take a look at people, our penchant for environmental destruction, and our even stronger proclivity for creating technology that may one day wipe us from the face of the earth — but not before creating next year’s fall lineup on Netflix. 
First, what makes life worth living? We begin with a meditation on Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot, spurred by the release of the first ego-melting images from the James Webb Space Telescope. What should we feel? Nihilism or reaffirmed humanism?  Either way, we should probably start taking care of our humble cosmic abode. Or at least that’s what some plucky guerrilla environmental art-activists think over in the Old Country (Europe). 
Speaking of Europe, what kind of cake does the Mona Lisa prefer? A few months back, one guy dressed up like grandma over at The Louvre and found out she never touches the stuff — the hard way. In an attempt to warn and admonish us of our planet-killing ways, the man physically attacked the famed woman with that weird half smile, smearing cake across her bulletproof shield. He did it in the name of the environment, as did a group of like-minded eco-Marxists who glued themselves to a couple of paintings at The Royal Academy in London a few weeks later. Methods of communication aside, they raise a decent point: Why make art in a world that might not be around for future generations?
Which brings us to our final question (and another one): What does a chair made of avocados look like? Moreover, what does an “emo sausage roll… waiting for a bus that might never arrive” look like? The answers to these queries and more are deftly proffered by the latest AI-craze to hit the internet, DALL•E — an AI art program that scrapes the world’s content to produce hellish visions of the digital subconscious. So what hath DALL•E wrought? Are artists out of a job? It’s not clear yet, but we’ve certainly got some ideas.
Join us, and give this one an ear-gander. Heck, who knows how much longer this show will be hosted by humans at all. 
JOURNOS is produced by Heather “Eagle Ears” Wilson. Illustration by Stephen Jackson.

It’s Psychedelic Wedding Season, Y’all w/Jenni Avins

 
Is this our first real "summer" type summer since the pandemic? The signs of a returned normalcy are there: people traveling, people complaining about traveling. People are even going on cruises again, which is normal, and having threesomes on those cruises, which is presumably also normal, and those threesomes are leading to 60-person battle royales of jealousy, which ... maybe we're all still a little feral.
But so to this question of "How do we come together as people anymore?" our friend and fellow journo Jenni Avins has one possible answer: psychedelic mushrooms.
Jenni wrote a piece for The Cut about the shroom as a wedding essential for some folks, and she came on to talk about who's doing it, who's selling it, how legal it might or might not be, "mushroom squires," and whether this could actually be exactly the thing that one uptight uncle might need to see that, you know, we're all connected, man.
You're cordially invited to this marriage of interesting ideas & wry asides -- no RSVP necessary. Here's your bouquet, made of only the finest in universe-reorienting blooms.
JOURNOS is produced by Heather "Eagle Ears" Wilson
 
NOTES
Don't believe the cruise brawl story? Here's some video. // A little more on Michael Pollan and psychedelics
 

What Happens in Your Face, Stays in Your Face

Proving that all the good science has already been found out and all that's left is the weird, gross stuff, Brandon & Stephen return from hiatus to tackle the recent discovery of a mite that lives on our face, where it has sex, and where it's gotten so good at having sex on our face that it doesn't know how to live independently anymore.
At a time when even humans have a hard time believing in other humans, it's somewhat heartwarming to know these little guys are going all-in on our species. Ride and/or die!
But so: adapting to new environments had us thinking about another bit of bedraggled science here at the end of some sort of cycle. Researchers asked the question of how, exactly, we're going to handle spending all this time in the metaverse, and 18 brave test subjects wore VR goggles for a week ...
Sorry, 16 brave test subjects spent a workweek in the metaverse and ... it did not go well.
Gird your face with cumbersome headgear, make some room for some mites, and descend with us into an exploration of evolution, empire, and things we'll put up with to earn a good night's sleep.
Plus: corgis.
 
JOURNOS is produced by Heather "Eagle Ears" Wilson.
NOTES
The primordial ooze sequence was built by Brandon from audio samples by Patrick Corrà, BMacZero, DigPro120, and tigersound (under a Creative Commons license). Thanks to them for their excellent goop recording skills.

The Truth About “Soylent Green” w/ Dana Gould

We did it! If you’re reading this, you’ve made it to the present day, and may have noticed that many erstwhile promises of science fiction have been delivered on. That's not great: Most sci-fi books and movies of yesteryear — with the notable exceptions of Star Trek and The Jetsons — spell out a blighted future for humanity, and among the most famous to do so is Soylent Green (1973), a film set in, you guessed it, 2022.
But to what extent does fiction predict the future? Or instead, does the past’s vision of tomorrow serve to inspire events to come?
Either way, it turns out that Soylent Green got a lot right. From deadly pollution to a global food shortage to the rise of assisted suicide, many of the film’s predictions were made with seemingly clairvoyant precision. And while we haven’t resorted to serving people to the proles, we are in the throes of a baby formula shortage here in America, a dilemma with undoubtedly dystopian undertones. Fun.
We wanted to properly plumb the depths of this oh-so-viridescent film, and get to the obscure bottom of whether or not fiction speaks reality into being. So, we called up writer, comedian, actor, movie buff, and Charlton Heston savant Dana Gould to help lead the way. 
Dana’s preternatural understanding of old sci-fi and monster movies and experience writing on The Simpsons (also purportedly predictive) proved to be precisely what was needed to make sense of Soylent Green (spoiler: it’s people). He also helps answer the question of whether the stories we tell are accidental prognostications or words of encouragement for plucky young billionaires — egging them on to one day shoot themselves into space. 
It’s a fun one. See you in there.
JOURNOS is produced by Heather “Eagle Ears” Wilson. 

Kinky Dolphins, Bodies in Barrels, and Seeing What We Want to See

We begin with a mystery:
What does it mean when a pair of sexually aroused river dolphins engage in rough play with an anaconda? Science has no definitive answers, but the media — from Business Insider to The New York Times to BroBible — will happily cover the confusion.
So begins an exploration into pareidolia, that cognitive quirk where we see faces in all kinds of stuff, and "find" patterns of meaning in just about everything else. In this episode, Brandon & Stephen ask whether pareidolia applies to how we read (and produce) the news, too.
Is the announcement that SpaceX wants to land on Mars within the decade a sign of progress or of terrifying corporate control of the future? Are bodies in barrels a story of Vegas mob crime or a larger story of climate crime? And are we the only ones who missed the living political cartoon that was a rabid fox biting a bunch of people around the White House?
We wrestle a big anaconda of a question: is every story actually a "choose your own adventure" tale of variable meanings? Or are some stories, like the psychosexual hijinks of a couple of river dolphins, immune to our ability to see what we want? Are some stories too weird to be about anything but themselves?
Dive into these murky waters with us and pray you don't rub up against any strange barrels.
JOURNOS is produced by Heather "Eagle Ears" Wilson.
 
NOTES
A message from Earth in the clouds // A handsome/scary face on Mars // Shep's mind is blown by Mars // A little more on pareidolia // A lot more on pareidolia, plus cute pics of car faces