First, apologies for missing a week. Producing these takes a lot of work and I needed I week off. - Jim Our guest this week is Balazs Szelenyi, Associate Teaching Professor at Northeastern University. From his university bio: Balazs Szelenyi received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1998 and teaches classes on Philosophy, Globalization, Sociology and History for Northeastern University. His first major area of research was on urban history and urban development. Based on that research he published his...

Peter Mulvey joins the pod in person, sitting side by side with Jim in the Slabmedia offices this week. We talk about his career in songwriting, hitting a little on themes and methods, but also on inspiration, and a long history of work. Jim mentions Peter's TED talk about his book Vlad the Astrophysicist. We talk about the creation of his recordings: Notes from Elsewhere and More Notes from Elsewhere and play some clips from recent albums, Are You Listening?, There Is Another World, and Love...

Ben Soto joins the pod to talk about The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life which is an extensive conversation between Matthieu Ricard and his father Jean-François Revel. Ben found this book particularly fascinating, given his interest in Buddhism, science, and the nature of mind. We also talk about The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self by Thomas Metzinger and Jim and Ben get very heavily into the nature of mind, while Lionel...

We begin by espousing the benefits of corduroy jackets, move on to quality problems at Jim’s childhood bagel shop, lambaste The Onion, and wave the flamethrower of curmudgeonliness at perceived modern production optimization techniques. We then talk about our varying perceptions of the state of Connecticut. Jim mentions Rein’s Deli, where a photo of his band hangs on the wall. Lionel remembers his time growing up in that state. On to the sujet de la semaine–The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., a...

We start by talking about what we like and don’t like about the band Cheekface. It’s mostly like. Then we talk about the novel Heavy Weather by P.G. Woodhouse. We talk about the line through Red Dwarf from that author and style of writing. We go on to discuss The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Nighttime by Mark Haddon and we discuss what we find dark and light about that novel. Lionel felt a lot of the influence of the band XTC in the story, which takes place in Swindon. We move on to...

Julia Tenney joins us for what we are pretty sure is the 100th episode of our obscure podcast. Depending on how you count, considering that Jim forgot to press record on episode 2 of Season 1 (so, not counted) and there were some encore episodes (so, not counted) this one should be the actual 100th. We start by talking about Jim’s new apple watch and then veer perpendicularly headlong into Pokémon Go. Then we discuss the recent eclipse and all of our various vantage points. Julia says that...

This week we talk about The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Suggested by Julia Tenney, this book deals with regrets we've felt throughout life and wishing we could go back and fix things. Lionel contrasts this book with The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Nighttime by Mark Haddon. The conversation turns to a book Jim wants to write about acceptance and meditation. We finish up by talking about the recent total eclipse, and our two vantage points, and how unlikely and precious our earth and...

This week, we welcomed Bing Broderick as our guest. Bing Broderick comes to justBook-ish after years in marketing, community organizing, and nonprofit management. Early in his career, he marketed and sold music into niche outlets across the country (including bookstores) as Director of Special Marketing for the Cambridge-based record label, Rounder Records. Mid-career, Broderick shifted his focus to food justice, arriving at the Boston-based nonprofit Haley House to manage the newly launched...

Lionel talks about The Three Body Problem, both the novels by Liu Cixin and the Netflix series. We contrast the style of this series with our recent reads. Lionel contrasts the tv show with Red Queen on Prime. Back to The 3 Body Problem again, we discuss the ideas of Alastair Reynolds (not Ian) and killer alien traps. We then launch into an enervating discussion of doing taxes and finding a general practitioner. This only lasts 12 minutes, so you might want to fast forward. We talk about the...

Dar joins the pod to tell us about her experience writing What I Found In A Thousand Towns, her songwriting and creative process, her experience in Beacon New York with Roger Ailes, the remarkable Jaimie Raskin, our relationship to art, the environment, and each other, Active Citizenship, and so much more. I could not find the live performance of The Mark Rothko song. If someone knows where it is, please send an email so I can post it here. Dar's Website Writing A Song That Matters (her...

Lionel and Jim start by inexplicably talking about oat and almond milk. Lionel talks about how he considers upstate New York New England as per American Nations by Colin Woodard. We run through some of the "Nations" again. They touch quickly on tax season before Jim talks about his read of Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher. Naturally, this leads us to Calvinism in America. Jim asserts with no real authority, that John Calvin was a kind of logician who was a religious writer. His...

We start by talking about the possible death of TikTok in the USA and move on to introduce Julia Tenney and marvel over her pysanky eggs, the methods for their creation, and their Ukrainian and eastern European roots. Lionel discusses the historical Piranesi and his sketches. This leads us to talk about dreams and their origins and consequences. We launch into a discussion of Dune, the books by Frank Herbert, and a little about the first recent movie. None of us had seen the second. Lionel...

Discussion of Bram Stoker’s Dracula starts with Jim trying to do a Boston Brahmin accent, and talks about his daughter’s inexplicable accent when she was younger. They move on to talk about xenophobia in the book, alongside the treatment of the other in Frankenstein. We return to Mary Shelley’s work repeatedly to compare and contrast. Lionel mentions all the new technology occurring in Bram Stoker’s book. Jim compares the book favorably to the movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula with Gary Oldman....

Jim opens with a thread sent regarding the previous episode on Frankenstein. They incongruously launch into a debate about artificial sweeteners. We get back on track discussing the Transcendentalist movement and what came after, as written about in The Metaphysical Club. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. is one of the main characters. Lionel asserts that he is  the father of legal positivism, but that was  Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.Lionel mentions another character, Charles Sanders Peirce (aka...

Sarah Elkins joins us to discuss the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. We start with a Filk song to the tune of Funiculi funicula. What is Filk? Victor spent His teenage years pursuing all the lore of alchemy (alchemy) Then he went Away to college and he switched to modern chemistry (chemistry) He was bent On secret science studies in the lab A descent: His obsessive glory-seeking grab! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s become a god! I’ll create life with parts dug up from sod! Homunculi,...

After some audio problems at the start, we start talking about Valentines Day and the variety of items available and not available at Trader Joes, and not unlike the olds that we are, we stop just short of listing all the items in our freezers. We quickly move on to our admiration of Katherine Ellis and her character Concordia Shwarma-McGraw on TikTok. We move on to a couple of additions to our list of musicians like They Might Be Giants. As before, we draw a line between the surrealist...

Lionel tells us all about the Garbage Plate at a restaurant in Rochester, NY. Apparently, it’s like Poutine. We talk a bit without fact checking ourselves about the creation of the Erie Canal and Dewitt Clinton, it’s creator. Somehow this references the demise of the Pony Express due to the advent of the telegraph. We continue in this fashion, touching on a myriad of subjects. Here is a partial list: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver - parallels are drawn between William Gibson’s The...

Shawn Peters joins us to talk about his adventures in the publishing world and his two books out on Harper Collins The Unforgettable Logan Foster and The Unforgettable Logan Foster and The Shadow of Doubt. We talk about his writing origins, the creation of these two books and plans for future novels. The Unforgettable Logan Foster is a middle grade superhero story that deals with neurodivergence, autism, foster parenting, and the trials and tribulations associated with defeating a...

Shawn Peters joins us to talk about his adventures in the publishing world and his two books out on Harper Collins The Unforgettable Logan Foster and The Unforgettable Logan Foster and The Shadow of Doubt. We talk about his writing origins, the creation of these two books and plans for future novels. The Unforgettable Logan Foster is a middle grade superhero story that deals with neurodivergence, autism, foster parenting, and the trials and tribulations associated with defeating a...

Jim begins by listing his mistakes in the previous podcasts, creating new errors as he goes. A "detraction" is actually a term from Christian theology. Jim should have said "retraction." It reminds Lionel of something he saw at the Newseum in Washington, DC. Jim talks about his recent move from his old office to the new one upstairs, listing some of his Uncle's old books and collectables. Notable among these is his copy of the DC Special #1: An All Infantino Issue. We launch into our...

Jim begins by listing his mistakes in the previous podcasts, creating new errors as he goes. A "detraction" is actually a term from Christian theology. Jim should have said "retraction." It reminds Lionel of something he saw at the Newseum in Washington, DC. Jim talks about his recent move from his old office to the new one upstairs, listing some of his Uncle's old books and collectables. Notable among these is his copy of the DC Special #1: An All Infantino Issue. We launch into our...

We launch into the pod by talking about a short Punch and Judy animation by Jan Švankmajer, Czech filmmaker and artist, which leads us into a talk about The Brothers Quay and then into reflections on Ridley Walker by Russell Hobanwhich leads into thoughts on Philip Glass, which leads to Lionel mentioning Kraftwerk, and electronic processing of found sound and spoken word when Jim says he wants to do a new project in Iceland in slow rap format. This all happens in the first seven minutes. We...

We launch into the pod by talking about a short Punch and Judy animation by Jan Švankmajer, Czech filmmaker and artist, which leads us into a talk about The Brothers Quay and then into reflections on Ridley Walker by Russell Hoban which leads into thoughts on Philip Glass, which leads to Lionel mentioning Kraftwerk, and electronic processing of found sound and spoken word when Jim says he wants to do a new project in Iceland in slow rap format. This all happens in the first seven minutes. We...

Jim starts talking about the transparent OLED display at the current CES. We move on to keyboards you stick on your iPhone and the new round of visors. Lionel is inspired to go on 2 rants. The first is about youtube reviewers who get free gear. His second rant is about a story that shows how AI can be used to get around restrictions imposed on AI. Jim compares this to the Heartbleed exploit of the past decade but much worse. Given the carelessness with which these Artificial Garbage...