Journos

Who Are Cities For, Anyway?

Some interesting experiments around transportation cropped up lately:
In one, a study of big art projects painted on the streets cut down on "incidents" involving drivers and pedestrians. In another, a state called Utah lowered the legal limit for drunk driving while offering more ways for the intoxicated inhabitants of the desert to get home. The result: fewer drunk driving crashes, even as the state sold more booze.
This got us thinking: what's it look like when we design cities for the people we have, rather than the people we claim to want?
What if we go ahead and accept human faults and set up systems to adapt, rather than just punishing anybody who doesn't have the right buckles on their Puritan shoes?
Maybe we get better education or drug policy ... or maybe society itself comes crashing down. (Depends who you ask.)
Buckle your thinking shoes -- or you know what? Don't buckle anything if you don't got buckles. But do, for the love of God, think along with us as with try to find our flawed yet delightful selves.
JOURNOS is produced by Heather "Eagle Ears Wilson.
 
NOTES
More on Bloomberg's Asphalt Art Initiative // NYT digs into the arts groups behind the asphalt // Richmond, VA, paints the streets

A Visit to Elon Musk’s New Mall of America

Elon bought Twitter. (You may have heard.) The analysis, hand-wringing, and general worrywart-ery about how bad it might be for media has been great for media, giving journalists and pundits lots to fill up pages and airtime. And to tweet about, of course.
It's a lot to take in, but for us, it helps to think about the whole thing as a visit to a mall in a state of flux. What will happen to the sunglasses kiosks? Or the fountain where everyone chit-chats? And will an attempted government overthrow begin in the Orange Julius?
Brandon & Stephen dig into what it might all mean, from Musk's stated opinions on Twitter to whether the app will be overrun by the worst elements of the internet. We also question Musk's idea of "free speech absolutism" and dig into the United States' history of letting people say what they want ... or not. Get ready for some hot socialist goss and the wisdom of using swears as the name of your business.
Lace up your Mall Walkers (those are shoes), and let's set off at a moderately brisk toddle through the all-important, all-American topic of who can say what, and whether Gary Busey is the ultimate test of free speech.
JOURNOS is produced by Heather "Eagle Ears" Wilson.
 
NOTES
Robert Reich thinks Elon just wants freedom from accountability // The Supreme Court and bad words // Disney, Florida, and Citizens United // Algorithms versus marginalized groups

AriZona Iced Tea Defies Inflation & Hijacks Evolution

For AriZona Iced Tea, the 99 cent price printed on the festive southwestern design of its big old cans might as well be carved into tablets lugged down a mountain. Marketing-wise, it's word-of-God stuff. 
So the company's decision not to raise prices in 30 years became a fun story republished all over the place during the volatility of this inflationary period. "Billionaires Buck Economy Itself ... for the Little Guy!" is kind of the takeaway. But AriZona's founder, Don Vultaggio, knows a little marketing secret that'll keep us coming back: humans are primates.
It's true! The Iced Tea Economic Standoff sends us in search of some answers about taste itself, and where it comes from, and why we like the things we like. We talk about how our moms influence our preferences before we even have a chance to rebel, and the evolutionary origins of our love of salt, sugar, and big-ass eggs. 
It's our ancient wiring that gets us into trouble, dietarily speaking. And especially so when companies know the easiest, sweetest way to a buck (or even 99 cents) makes us both obese and malnourished. 
Print that on a can and gulp it down!

Can We Still Trust Science When it’s Calling Black Holes ”Hairy”?

Some conflict in this episode: Brandon wants to talk about a new study that suggests black holes have quantum "hair" and Stephen wants to at least take a moment to discuss why the great minds behind the science didn't think a little harder about the branding of their hypothesis.
Chortling aside, the hairy black hole story is interesting to us for a few reasons. One is that, if correct, the hypothesis would resolve a contradiction at the heart of modern science — which involves whether or not anything can really escape the gravity of a black hole.
The other reason we latched onto this shaggy tale is that it got us talking about trust in science: how much of it do we have? how has it changed in recent decades? what does politics have to do with it? and is anybody really keen to let scientists put computer chips in our heads, regardless of how great the wifi is?
All this and a Very Special Quiz on Weird Science Names. We're all winners in the game of learning!
 
JOURNOS is produced by Heather "Eagle Ears" Wilson
 
Notes
Some funny scientific names // Some more funny scientific names // A fungus named for a sponge // The news media's fascination with one pop star's butt
 

Bugs in the System: Cancer-Sniffing Worms, Hackers, and the New Cold War

Stephen said this episode was about "diagnostics," but no one's going to listen to an episode about "diagnostics." Even a diagnostician is going to pass on a diagnostics episode in favor of some vintage white-lady killings on "My Favorite Murder."
So! This episode is all about things infiltrating systems, which is much more interesting. 
Check it -- scientists discovered that the ever-useful C. elegans roundworm, a research favorite, is naturally attracted to the smell of lung cancer. What did we ever do to deserve such a great little fella?
Also -- let's talk about the world of "ethical hacking," where companies hire sharp-eyed software engineers to break into their computer systems. It's, not surprisingly, a good career path, should you want to ditch the Bed, Bath & Beyond management track and head back to school, white hat in hand.
The timing for a career move is good, since ransomware attacks are at an all-time high ... and given the US tensions with Russia, it's not crazy to assume we'll see more hacks in the future. 
All of which is much more exciting, and potentially unsettling, than "diagnostics." Luckily, Stephen also talks about goats and racehorses, so this is truly an episode with something for everyone.*
 
*Some conditions apply.
 
JOURNOS is produced by Heather "Eagle Ears" Wilson. Music by Nathan "Nerthanial" Readey. Special thanks to Mike Bussing.

Would You Become a Yacht Pirate for Ukraine?

Well, would you? You don’t have to decide now, but be aware that lawmakers in Texas have introduced legislation to bring back privateering in order to empower citizens to seize the yachts of Russian oligarchs docked in American harbors. 
Ahoy. 
In this episode, Brandon and Stephen take a look at forms of protest and resistance in solidarity with and defense of Ukraine. First up is Marina Ovsyannikova, the woman who poached the state-run Russian airwaves with a message for her country’s people: “Don’t believe propaganda. They’re lying to you here.” Brandon then takes a look at a microbrewery in Kiev that’s turned its production plans on a dime in order to manufacture and distribute Molotov cocktails. 
Over in Chicago, a shop called Citizen Brick is also making Molotov cocktails, but these are teensy-tiny LEGO versions. You can also buy a snazzy Zelenskyy mini-figure, and all the proceeds support Ukrainian relief efforts.
In Ukraine, a grassroots IT army of 300,000 hacktivists is stirring up trouble in Russia any way they can. In France, a former businessman-turned-badass broke into Putin’s daughter’s Biarritz villa and invited Ukrainian refugees to stay there. (Side note: Putin’s daughter, whom he’s yet to publicly acknowledge, is also an accomplished “acrobatic rock n’ roll star.”)
And, yes, people are going after Russian billionaires' yachts and houses. In Norway, they won’t even fuel ‘em up. Why? To start putting the screws to Putin’s cronies so that they might encourage the oft-shirtless despot to back out of Ukraine before all their fancy shit gets stolen. 
JOURNOS is produced by Heather “Eagle Ears” Wilson.

What Shipwrecks Can Teach Us About Hot Cars, Fast Ice, and Human Progress

Brandon's on vacation ... a cruise, actually! Which some people might consider work, but after a few dozen piña of coladas, he's feeling philosophical...
... And that's right when Stephen tracks him down to talk about, what else?, shipwrecks, because they're topical and because Stephen isn't reading the room. Still, it was interesting to talk about the Felicity Ace, that Portuguese ship carrying luxury cars that caught fire and had to be abandoned. Particularly, the viral rumor that all those Porsches and Bentleys were now up for grabs because something something law of the sea, which is not at all true.
(That's what you get for spreading maritime lore from a Twitter feed specializing in old station wagons and Chuck Norris thirst pics.)
The bigger — and more profound — shipwreck news is that explorers found Sir Ernest Shackleton's long-lost ship, the Endurance, which was right where he'd left it, at the bottom of the sea in Antarctica. Thus ends a chapter of human exploration with one more sea story...
Speaking of sea stories, Brandon can't get back to his important frozen cocktail work without regaling Stephen about his own Antarctic adventures, and some chit-chat about the Antarctic Treaty and whether we can learn anything from it so as to better share this planet with our fellow humans.
Pull up a drink and mix yourself a chair, we're ahoying!

What Jesus’ Foreskin Foretold About the Skincare Industry

Among the tiny relics dotting the timeline of Christian history, few items pack a bigger punch than the holy prepuce. For the uninitiated, that’s fancy-talk for Jesus’ foreskin, and the provenance and authenticity of numerous specimens purported to be the one-and-only bit of flesh have been questioned for years. 
That’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg in this episode, as Brandon and Stephen pull back the layers of the holy prepuce to reveal that it may have, if nothing else, the ability to knock a few years off the penance of a wayward Italian from time to time. 
But, as Stephen points out, those early Christians may not have been too far off in touting a tiny piece of Jesus’ penis as a balm in Gilead. That’s because, in these modern times, foreskins are used in fancy-pants skin care treatments — and so much more. Everyone from burn victims to those who’ve lost their eyelids can benefit from the cellular secrets locked in this prized bit of virgin tissue. 
This gets our hosts thinking of all sorts of other weird, elite health hacks, from harvesting the blood of the young to preserving your brain for the metaverse to the literal holy grail: a procedure to slow the process of aging. 
It’s a wild one, folks. See ya in there.
JOURNOS is produced by Heather "Eagle Ears" Wilson. Music by Nathan "Nerth" Readey.

Storytelling: Corporations Want to Replace Daydreams with Good Clean Algorithms

In this solo outing, Brandon talks about the big business of personalized, AI-generated music.
Companies with names like Spotify, Amazon, and Apple want to suck up all your valuable biorhythms and kick out the jams, while startups like Endel want to use artificial intelligence, and Grimes, to create a soundtrack for your mind because, as the company says, “we need new technology to help our bodies and brains adapt to the new world.”
Meanwhile, meditation apps like Headspace and Calm are recruiting celebrities and sports heroes to whisper encouragement, or deeply sensual lullabies, right into your brain.
So what are we talking about here? Possibly no less than the end of that particular kind of psychic jukebox shuffling of old tunes, random memories, and future-surfing we call daydreaming.
Is this more focused, more productive tomorrow a good thing? Or do we need the crap to keep us human?
A version of this story originally ran at WhoWhatWhy.
JOURNOS is produced by Heather "Eagle Ears" Wilson.
 

A Ukraine State of Mind w/Valerie Demicheva

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine loomed, Brandon reached out to his colleage, journalist Valerie Demicheva, to see if she'd be interested in writing a piece for WhoWhatWhy. Valerie talked to Ukrainians in the days and hours before the invasion to understand their feelings on Russia (and Russians) and how they were preparing.
We talked to Valerie about the people she met and how they're coping with Russian incursion. We also talk about Valerie's own history: she and her family left Ukraine when she was a child and the country was part of the Soviet Union. For her, writing the story revealed how she's still dealing with fear of an all-seeing state, and whether she can identify with the modern Ukrainian state of mind.
 
JOURNOS is produced by Heather "Eagle Ears" Wilson.