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An irregular discussion of current events, popular culture, unpopular culture, economics, hip-hop, and killer robots
Episodes
Saturday Aug 30, 2025
Saturday Aug 30, 2025
This episode is a very special conversation with my Uncle Harry (on my father's side) and Aunt Cris. We discuss their lives, our family, and why it's so important to learn about history and honor each other.
I'll be back soon with some thoughts on wedge issues and AI companions. Thanks for listening and enjoy!
Wednesday Jul 23, 2025
Wednesday Jul 23, 2025
As Maria Ressa says, we must hold the line. We should not surrender in advance to authoritarianism in Brazil, South Korea, The Philippines, or the USA.
Today — exactly one year after my last episode — I turned on the mic and spoke from the heart about Trump, Musk, DOGE, Grover Norquist, the Department of Education, Israeli war crimes in Gaza, AI, and more. Plus a tiny glimpse of one of the best female MCs in the world today.
Enjoy!
Want to do something about the horrors of the world? Why not write a letter for Amnesty International?
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Current Events
- Trump and the angry white guys who voted for him [Pew Research: Voting patterns in the 2024 election]
- Donald Trump and Steve Bannon need angry young men. They’re using Gamergate culture to get them
Economics
Education
Killer Robots
Hip-Hop
Quote of the Show
Salah Ta’mari is (or was; I can’t find info on him now; this is from a 1992 book) a writer and former member of the Palestine resistance movement. He wrote in his Journey into Hades: Diary of a Palestinian in an Israeli Prison:
- [At the end, after hallucinating a conversation with his mother] "One million giants stood up in me and began fighting their way to the surface again, with determination, fury, and force. No way to make me give up. I was stronger, I would fight back, I would rise to the challenge."
Tuesday Jul 23, 2024
Tuesday Jul 23, 2024
On this very special episode of the SynCast, I speak with my friend and teaching colleague Dr. Lucy Polo. Her work in sociology has taken her to Colombia, Bolivia, and many other places. For 15 years she worked in the south Mexican state of Chiapas, where the Zapatista movement transformed the way people around the world think about indigenous communities, neoliberal economics, and democracy itself.
Enjoy this discussion about her life and work, the people she met in Chiapas, and how the EZLN raised the consciousness of everybody who came into contact with its unique forms of activism.
- Wikipedia: Zapatista Army of National Liberation
- End Song: Matador by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
Tuesday Jun 11, 2024
Tuesday Jun 11, 2024
Summer is here and after a year of being Audio AWOL, I'm back with a huge brain full of stuff to dump on you. Now that school is off for three months, I felt the urge to turn on the mic and just word vomit for two hours.
Some topics I discuss:
- Energy as a resource like time + money
- UDHR Article 24
- Garrett, my best friend of 30 years who passed away in November 2023
- Capitalism (feat. Bob the Businessman)
- Donald Trump (feat. White Guy With Dreads)
- Education (feat. various characters)
- Gaza (feat. Annoying Supporter of Israel)
- Epistemology, Ethics, and (a little) Metaphysics
- Audio Two's 1988 album What More Can I Say
- Lots of Other Stuff
Enjoy! Lemme know what you think.
Send questions and thoughts. (The more I get, the more likely I am to make another podcast sooner rather than later.)
Saturday Aug 12, 2023
Saturday Aug 12, 2023
Hawaii's Tragedy, UK Beer, Floreda Psychology, and 50 Years of Hip-Hop
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First Things
- Hello, Floreda!
- Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
- Impossible People: A Completely Average Recovery Story
Current Events
- Hawaii and climate change
- Biden administration announces $1.2B in funding for projects to pull carbon from the air
- IEA flags risk of higher oil prices, cuts 2024 demand view
- The 2024 US Presidential Election
- Coup in Niger
- Operation Lone Star
- Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution."
- It is not illegal to seek asylum in the US
Economics
Education
Killer Robots, etc
Hip-Hop
Tuesday Mar 22, 2022
Tuesday Mar 22, 2022
A special treat on the day before my new scifi novel Delivery to Nimbus X drops. Here's Chapter 1 of the audiobook, exclusively released to my awesome SynCast audience.
The other chapters will appear on this feed in the weeks ahead. Thanks for listening, and enjoy!
Thursday Nov 25, 2021
Thursday Nov 25, 2021
On this very special episode, I give thanks for my mom Linda and step-dad Rob! Listen as we discuss their lives and loves, their jobs and journeys. We recorded these conversations in Florida during the summer of 2021.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
Monday Aug 09, 2021
Monday Aug 09, 2021
A discussion of fake binaries, the need to resist oversimplification, and how to sustain the complexity. Featuring audio from Alan Watts.
Plus: A first look at the Nimbus X book!
Links
Tuesday May 04, 2021
Tuesday May 04, 2021
A short little SynCast, especially aimed at my teacher friends. As some of you know, Teacher Appreciation Week is a sick joke. But I was inspired by Sarah Kay to share some of my teaching-related poems. So … enjoy!
Poem Titles:
- Shove Yer Appreciation
- Pandemic Polemic
- Get Off My Cape!
- Mental Salary
- The Hardest Thing I've Ever Done
- I Should Have Learned By Now
Saturday Apr 17, 2021
Saturday Apr 17, 2021
or: How Scientology Helped Me Better Understand #BLM
On this episode I dig through a documentary about Scientology, how it connects to my fascination with NXIVM, and what it can teach us about the psychological torment of Black folks (and people of color) all over the United States.