How did Trump manage to become president of the United States? There's no simple answer. It involves fear, racism, nationalism, populism, hatred, dirty tricks, manipulation, and more. But the one thing I never suspected was that occult beliefs and practices played a part in Trump's surprising victory. In Gary Lachman's new book, Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump, I learned that occult and esoteric thinking permeates the alt-right, Putin's inner circle, and even Trump...

Ruben Bolling and I had a terrific time interviewing one of our heroes, the amazing Al Jaffee, who has been a member of MAD magazine’s usual gang of idiots for 56 years (his work has appeared in every issue, save one). Best known for his MAD Fold-in, which has appeared on the inside back cover of the magazine since 1964, he’s also the creator of a long running column, "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions," and my favorite, his dozens and dozens of whimsical inventions that border on the edge...

168: South Pole diary, 2-page RPG adventures, Bitcoin for the Befuddled by Gweek

Maria Konnikova’s new book, The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time, takes a deep dive into the psychology of con artists and the psychology of the trusting people they take advantage of. It’s a scary and fascinating book that reveals the methods and motives of con artists like Bernie Madoff, Jim Bakker, and Lance Armstrong, and explains why everyone is vulnerable to the con artist’s game, even other con artists.

Guests: Michael Goodwin, a freelance writer and the author of the comic book Economix: How the Economy Works (and Doesn’t Work) in Words and Pictures. Like many freelance writers, he lives in New York City with cats. New York Times best-selling novelist Scott Sigler, author of Ancestor, Nocturnal, and the Infected Trilogy (consisting of the books Infected, Contagious and Pandemic).

056: Kevin Kelly, Wes Calimer, Dean Putney by Gweek

I recently spoke with Jon Ronson about his latest book, So You've Been Publicly Shamed. It's about people who've had their lives ruined from online shaming. In the book, Jon spent time with recipients of online shaming, including Jonah Lehrer, The Silence and Respect photo person, the people fired in the dongle joke incident, and Justine Sacco, who tweeted “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”. I was sickly fascinated by the book. I think it's Ronson's best...

Our guest this week is Maggie Tokuda Hall. She writes books for children and stories for adults, and also reviews books with her series of videos, Review in Doodle. Her debut children’s book, And Also An Octopus, is due out from Candlewick Press.

In this discussion with Boing Boing’s software developer, Dean Putney, programmer and entrepreneur Jeff Atwood shares many good insights about learning. For instance, he says no one really buys giant programming book anymore: “Programmers are learning online from each other now. They just “page fault” in the information. That’s how people learn today.” He also says, “If you want to prove that you understand something, teach it to someone else.”

Mike Evans is a musician, teacher, husband, and father from Pennsylvania. He was a founding member of the touring neo-swing band, Big Tubba Mista, and currently performs with The Greatest Funeral Ever, Gumbo Junk Brass Band, and other local bands. When not performing, he recruits his two kids, who are too young to know any better, into doing zany projects and exploring curious new hobbies….Anything from kite aerial photography, geocaching, or remote control seagull-cams, to juggling,...

Our guest this week is Steve Denton, AKA Dr. Monkey. Steve Denton is an internet scourge, sometime writer, full time smart aleck, and an unrepentant gadfly in the ointment of life. He runs the blogs Monkey Muck and Dr. Monkey’s Retro Scans, which we’ve mentioned previously on Gweek.

Seth Godin enlightens us this week with an unexpected assortment of tools that will have you exploring the deepest recesses of your subconscious while, at the same time, enriching your hobbies and lifestyle.

What do you do after you walk the Amazon? Ed Stafford -- adventurer extraordinaire and Guinness World Record holder for walking the length of the Amazon River -- likes a challenge. Casting about for an adventure that would top the extraordinary feat he recounts in Walking the Amazon, Stafford decides to maroon himself on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific. His mission: to survive for sixty days equipped with nothing -- no food, water, or even clothing -- except the video cameras he...

Gweek 163 - Veronica Belmont by Gweek

Guests for this episode of Boing Boing's pop culture podcast are IDG editorial director Jason Snell and Joshua Glenn, publisher of HiLoBrow.

Dan Shapiro helps us explore some inventions and innovations this week that offer a surprisingly valuable experience for their price. If you're looking for luxury on a shoestring, you won't be disappointed by Dan's picks.

Blogger and Author, David McRaney introduces us to some lesser known creative solutions to life’s tiny nuisances that will help you untangle your wad of keys, opt for a better YouTube experience and explore the future of musical experimentation.

There are currently 4.2 million medical cannabis patients in the United States, and there are 20 states plus the District of Columbia where medical cannabis is legal. As medical cannabis becomes an accepted herbal medicine, there is a demand for clear, easy-to-follow information for the layperson based on the latest sound medical and evidence-based research. Written by Michael Backes, a respected expert in the field, Cannabis Pharmacy begins with the history of medical marijuana and an...

Soon enough, nobody will remember life before the Internet. What does this unavoidable fact mean? For future generations, it won’t mean anything very obvious. They will be so immersed in online life that questions about the Internet’s basic purpose or meaning will vanish. But those of us who have lived both with and without the crowded connectivity of online life have a rare opportunity. We can still recognize the difference between Before and After. We catch ourselves idly reaching for our...

Mark caught up with two of his favorite cartoonists, Gabrielle Bell, who has a new autobiographical book out, called "Truth is Fragmentary", and Ruben Bolling, who announced his upcoming series of illustrated kids' books, called Emu Club Adventures.

This week AJ Jacobs, bestselling author and journalist, shows us how he rids himself of life’s common nuisances and hazards like an untied shoe, a noisy environment or a half hour wasted in traffic so he can focus on larger pursuits, like bringing the world together in one great big family reunion. AJ reminds us that we are all cousins and encourages all of us to explore just how we are related by hitting up some of his favorite genealogy resources. Oh, and we’re all officially invited to The...

In this episode Xeni talks about upcoming tech from Apple, including the larger-display iPhone 6. And Mark discusses your repair options for a cracked tablet or smart phone screen. Plus, recommendations for a cat fur removal mitten and a keyboard wrist pad.

Jon’s reward for holding the wall is Janos Slynt and Tyrion seeks justice from the gods in Jon IX and Tyrion X (Hardback page 778/Paperback page 946) in George R.R. Martin’s “A Storm of Swords”. Nato Green of FX’s Totally Biased, The Business, and his podcast, The Nato Sessions, joins Ivan and Red to discuss translators for the deaf not being detailed enough for Game of Thrones, invented vocabulary, scorpions on decks of boats, government being run by hot 25 year-olds, Wayne Campbell taking...

Tom Scioli is co-writing, drawing, coloring, and lettering the monthly comic book series, Transformers vs. G.I.Joe. His other comics include Godland, American Barbarian, Final Frontier, and Myth of 8-Opus. Ed Piskor is the author/artist of the Hip Hop Family Tree – a weekly comic strip on Boing Boing and an ongoing book series that chronicles the history of hip hop in comics form. He is also the creator of Wizzywig. They share a studio in Pittsburgh. We visited their studio to talk about...