292! Sci-Fi

What kernels of truth are there in sci-fi content today that can maybe predict what our smart technological futures will look like? 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about retrofuturism, the Otis elevator, all things Dymaxian, AI, post-scarcity society and ship names. They don’t talk about our dystopian present. 

references 

• Christmas in Connecticut 

• Otis Elevator 

• Dymaxion 

• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson 

• Corrections Department: Neuromancer by William Gibson 

• Iain M. Banks' Culture series 

• Post-scarcity 

• Neural Lace 

• Neuralink 

• The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks 

• Humans 

• Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky 

291! Cultural Beige

What do we do with Cultural Beige? 

This week, Aaron and Joey talk about cultural homogenization, algorithms, local commerce, international culture, outliers and Charli XCX. They don’t talk about Christian Bale or J. G. Ballard. 

references 

• Empire Of The Sun "Walking On A Dream" 

• Empire Of The Sun "Alive" @ The Hollywood Bowl 11/23/24 

• Sabrina Carpenter "Espresso" 

• terroir 

• Sammy McCormack: "How Janet Jackson Made 'If'" 

• Sammy McCormack: "How Britney Spears Made 'Break The Ice'" 

• Froggy Fresh 

• Timbaland feat. OneRepublic "Apologize" 

• Cam'ron and Mase: It Is What It Is 

290! Hybrid Work

Why haven't we figured out hybrid yet? 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about remote working, cost structures, collaborative tools, individual flexibility, speaker microphones, and body language. They don’t talk about sensory processing issues and how they impact in-person productivity. 

references 

• Yegor Denisov-Blanch on software engineering productivity 

• Reddit response to Yegor Denisov-Blanch 

• Entenmann's Donuts 

• Torus 

289! Mind Wine

What varietal of mind wine are your grapes lately? 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about pattern breaking, the restorative power of boredom, bird brains, pajama day, the productivity mindset, and seizing rest. They don’t talk about when Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. 

references 

• Feng Shui Modern by Cliff Tan 

• Boggle 

• Five Senses Exercise 

• How to use 4-7-8 breathing for anxiety 

• Yahtzee 

288! Living Forever

Why are we so obsessed with trying to live forever? 

This week, special guest Chandler Saunders joins Jess and Joey to talk about adult superlatives, aging, the soul, compounding experience, afterlife FOMO, and aging reversal. They don’t talk about Irene Cara. 

references 

• Piaget's 4 Stages of Cognitive Development Explained 

• Ray Kurzweil 

• Ship of Theseus 

• Fermi paradox 

• Spin by Robert Charles Wilson 

• Kardashev scale 

• Telomere 

• Dr. David Sinclair 

287! Concert Rage

What is it about certain settings that just piss us off? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about Maggie Rogers, live concerts, the unflustered mom, road rage, cycling, and liminality. They don’t talk about mosh pits. 

references 

• Maggie Rogers 

• The Unflustered Mom: How Understanding the Five Anxiety Styles Transforms the Way We Parent, Partner, Live, and Love by Amber Trueblood 

• This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life by David Foster Wallace 

• liminality 

• Boom 

Progress Report: The State of Youth

Bonus episode: A takeover! Kristy shares a recent edition from SYLVAIN’s Progress Report newsletter: The State of Youth: A New Paradigm for Growing Up, written by Chief Strategy Officer Chris Konya.

For more from SYLVAIN's Progress Report, see progressbysylvain.co.

286! Finding Financial Security

What's the best way to unlock a sense of financial security in all of us? 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about voting, the economy, financial insecurity, the post-scarcity world, unequal distribution, and intergenerational trauma. They don’t talk about A$AP Rocky. 

references 

• Werewolf Bar Mitzvah 

• The Ballad of the Witches' Road (Agatha Through Time Version) 

• Pascal's wager 

• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 

• Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE): How It Works 

• r/Fire 

• Run's House 

285! Changing Our Minds

What happens when your mind changes? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about nuclear power, Three Mile Island, solar power, the Overton window, abortion, and tokamaks. They don’t talk about Eddie Kendricks. 

references 

• Hemingway on bankruptcy 

• The Three Mile Island accident 

• Overton window 

• Tokamaks 

284! Flat Power Distance

What do we do about power distance? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about organizational hierarchy, Geert Hofstede, authoratative leadership, omakase, decision-making, and Mr. Oizo. They don’t talk about Flat Stanley. 

references 

• IF 

• This is 40 

• Mark Menjívar's "Refrigerators" 

• Geert Hofstede's 6-D model of national culture 

• Mr. Oizo's "Flat Beat" 

• Mr. Oizo aka Quentin Dupieux 

283! Medical Serendipity

How many things are we surrounded by that have use cases that we're not thinking about? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about Ozempic, Cialis, blockchain, invention, solar panels, and pessimism vs. optimism. They don’t talk about chainsaws. 

references 

• Semaglutide (Ozempic) 

• Tadalafil (Cialis) 

282! Spontaneous Brilliance

How do you do spontaneous brilliance? 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about pressure, boredom and safety, theatre, peopling, jewelry making, and Quiplash. They don’t talk about combustion. 

references 

• "Orinoco Flow" by Enya 

• Quiplash 

• Athena 

• Podcast: Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum: PATTON OSWALT: Refusing to Settle, The Issue for Comedians Today & Emotions Reconciling Loss 

• "Streest of Philadelphia" by Bruce Springsteen 

281! Bicycle Innovation

Can we learn about coming up with creative ideas from bikes today? 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about bike infrastructure, dad wagons, folding bikes, stacked bikes, e-bikes, and mobility mixes. Oddly, they don’t talk about Bike Kill. 

references 

• The Science of Cycology: can you draw a bicycle? 

• Penny-farthing 

• Tall bike 

• Brompton 

• Velocipede 

• The Asahi Shimbun: High school kids build Edo Period tricycle out of home center buys 

• Rack City, bitch 

• The New York Times: The Hustlers Who Make $6,000 a Month by Gaming Citi Bikes 

• Red Panda 

• Rascal Rides: 10 Best Family Cargo Bikes For Hauling Your Kids 

280! Phone Bans

How do we know if we're doing the right thing for potentially the wrong reasons? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about The Anxious Generation, social media, polio, experimentation, modes, rodents, and sesame paste. They don’t talk about Yusei Kikuchi. 

references 

• The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt 

• Hank Green on X 

• How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics by Eugenia Cheng 

• The Ezra Klein Show podcast: On Children, Meaning, Media and Psychedelics 

• The New Yorker How CoComelon Captures Our Children’s Attention 

• Corrections Department: Colloid 

279! Abstraction

What is your comfort level with abstraction? 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about math, the transitive property, cookbooks, slang, strange attractors and chameleons. They don’t talk about cake math. 

references 

• How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics by Eugenia Cheng 

• Transitive Property 

• The Langlands Program: The Biggest Project in Modern Mathematics 

• Look Around You 

278! Jazzing

What can jazz teach us about making stuff together? 

This week, Aaron and Jess talk about mistakes, improvisation, leadership, asking questions, saltine crackers, and Tori Amos. They don’t talk about girls that eat pizza but never gain weight. 

references 

• Amelia Bedelia 

• Marc Mommaas and the New York Jazz Workshop 

• Corrections Department: Miles Davis, not John Coltrane, was the one who didn't fear mistakes.. (Trane was a perfectionist). 

• Corrections Department: Count Basie, not Cab Calloway 

• Hidden Brain Podcast: You 2.0: Taking Control of Your Time 

• Revisiting Critical Nonsense 211!: Question Asking 

• Tori Amos "Silent All These Years" 

• Deathloop 

277! Innumeracy

How do we do math learning better? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about numeracy, literacy, discrete math, Carl Sagan, Cleopatra, and sushi. They don’t talk about Frank Ocean. 

references 

• math rock 

• Jay-Z "4:44" 

276! Fridgescaping

What does fridgescaping tell us about ourselves? 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about weirdly shaped foods, bookshelves, trad wives, gelatin molds, cluttercore, and gallery walls. They don’t talk about Jello Biafra's fridge. 

references 

• Rusted Root 

• Polyphonic Spree 

• The New York Times: Not Even the Inside of Your Fridge Is Safe From Decorating 

• @weirdoldfood 

• MTV Cribs 

• The Independent (UK): Marie Kondo says she’s ‘kind of given up’ on cleaning 

• HGTV Secret Revealed! Why Books Are Always Backwards 

• The New Yorker: The Rise and Fall of the Trad Wife 

• Southern Living: Cluttercore Is The Design Trend That Embraces More 

• The Easiest Way to Hang a Gallery Wall 

• IKEA Kreativ 

275! Musical Turn Ons

What turns your ears on? 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about Detroit, groove, algorithms, Clyde Stubblefield, sampling, and flow states. They don’t talk about the late, great Biz Markie. 

references 

• Hair/Glam Metal 

• Chamois vs. chamois leather 

• Major 7th chord 

• Curtis Mayfield “Little Child Running Wild" 

• Clyde Stubblefield, the Funky Drummer 

• Puff Daddy + Biggie + Mase "Been Around the World" 

• David Bowie "Let's Dance" 

• Brian Eno’s “The Big Ship” and Me and Earl and The Dying Girl 

• Klaus Badelt "Pirates Of The Caribbean" 

• Sufjan Stevens "Mystery of Love" 

• Scrotal Recall aka Lovesick 

274! Science Tourism

How do we make more science tourism happen? 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about scientific pilgrimage, CERN, the Large Hadron Collider, inspiring awe, Dolly the sheep, and particles. They don’t talk about the six flavors of quarks. 

references 

• CERN 

• Higgs boson 

• Large Hadron Collider 

• The ITER Tokamak 

• The Life of Dolly 

• Baikonur Cosmodrome 

• Micropia 

• Amplituhedron