Paul Bearer is the vocalist for one of the most influential and underrated New York Hardcore bands of all time: Sheer Terror. Sheer Terror came out of the very strange New York Hardcore scene of the 80s — before the music became codified into the metallic, bouncy mosh parts we think of as NYHC today. While Sheer Terror is certainly no stranger to blending metal and punk, their sound is much more Tom G. Warrior plus Oi! rather than syncopated, single-string riffs. Nothing against bouncy mosh...

Monetary policy is confusing. What even is The Fed? How do they control interest rates? Is The Fed different than the Treasury? Why do different cities have different feds? And, most importantly, do people with laser eyes on Twitter actually know anything about inflation? These are all things that I've wondered about — fortunately, my friend Chris Russo is a post-graduate research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and an expert on monetary policy. And, he lifted some...

I first encountered Spenser’s work through his writing for the Morning Chalk Up, and at some point I clicked on enough links to realize that the majority of his work is on voting rights and election reform. I’ve been a subscriber to Spenser’s voting rights newsletter, so I wanted to get his take on how things went with New York City’s experiment in ranked choice voting in their Democratic mayoral primary. While election fraud and voter suppression are hot-button culture war issues, there...

Dave Bland is one of the most creative drummers currently playing extreme music. While technical wherewithal with blindingly fast blast beats is always appreciated, the ability to adapt to the varied styles present on Full of Hell records as well as the more straightforward death metal of Jarhead Fertilizer requires much more perspicacity. I first met Dave over 10 years ago when he was a high school student who left to go on tour with Full of Hell without his parents’ permission. Since then,...

Humans have an intuitive sense for who is important and well-connected. We like knowing “movers and shakers,” and we regularly engage in complicated social machinations — conscious or otherwise — to position ourselves close to the seat of influence. But what about the formal study of the spread of information through human networks? Matthew O. Jackson is a professor of economics at Stanford, and his book “The Human Network” is a fantastic primer on the complex dynamics of human...

Yautja plays lurching, uncomfortable music, so it is fitting that their new album is called “The Lurch.” I first met Kayhan back in approximately 2010 when I was on tour with Weekend Nachos and we stayed at Kayhan’s place in Birmingham, Alabama. At the time, Kayhan was in a band called Legion (funny enough), and since then has gone on to play in several excellent hardcore and metal projects like Coliseum, Die Young, and — of course — Yautja. Yautja’s most recent record is fantastic, so I...

I’ve often spoken on the Legion Strength & Conditioning podcast about the desire for “simple solutions to complex problems.” I figured I’d reframe and refine that discussion for a solocast based upon the cynefin decision-making framework, Julia Galef’s great new book “The Scout Mindset,” and some marketing intuition from years of running a small business. Over years of creating content for a fitness audience, I’ve learned that the things that resonate with people are often not the...

At some point in the last year or so, I started listening to the Epidemiology Counts podcast. I was thrilled to learn that the host, Bryan James, is a Chicago local at Rush University — and he’s a CrossFitter at Goose Island CrossFit. Bryan and I recently collaborated on an article for BarBend about controlling the spread of Covid in gym, as well: COVID In Gyms: What The Research Says About Mitigating Spread. In his day job, Bryan’s research focuses on the epidemiology of Alzheimer’s...

James Pligge is back by popular demand. This time, we talk about some of the many misconceptions that people have about James and Harm’s Way — as well as James’s ill-fated attempt to make a protein shake with Coca-Cola. To be honest, talking about making a protein shake from Coca-Cola probably doesn’t do a lot to correct any of those popular misconceptions about James… Either way, this is a hilarious conversation. James explains why Harm’s Way is more influenced by The Jesus Lizard than by...

I feel like I say this about a lot of my friends that I have on the podcast, but John Caution is one of the weirdest and funniest people I know. I’m happy to talk to John endlessly about funny things that people we both know did 15 years ago, but, in this interview, we talk about the legacy of Weekend Nachos. We talk about the trolling instinct, the impulse to create — either in riff form or otherwise, and being in a band that defined the identity of a lot of angry but funny social misfits. ...

Speaking with Matt is like being blasted with a firehose of information. He is entwined in the worlds of politics, database engineering, and 3D printing, and he speaks in dense, reference-laden paragraphs. This is thrilling to me, since I love information. I also feel empathy for folks who have been subject to my own tendencies to speak in dense, reference-laden paragraphs, since it’s not always easy to keep up. While infrastructure isn’t exactly a sexy topic, we’ve seen a lot of...

Andy is one of the most talented musicians I know. Some people think of musical talent as a preternatural gift for shredding through neoclassical riffs on guitar or ripping through Chopin concertos as a pre-teen. In Andy’s case, this talent manifests itself as incredible taste and intuition for songwriting and audio production. When you hear a song written by Andy — whether it’s the, uh, powerviolence of Weekend Nachos or the alt rock throwback of Sourmouth — you know it’s an Andy song. ...

Jeff edits many of these podcasts…and now it is time for him to speak! Jeff is a prolific musician and artist — creating in a variety of genres and formats. His works appear as stand-alone albums, as complements to performance art, and on pirate radio stations. I’ve long been a fan of Jeff’s music, and, in 2020, he released two of my favorite albums of his: Ditch and Scale with Zeena Parkins. I wanted to talk to Jeff about the differences between creating for “the art world” vs creating as...

Of Feather and Bone put out one of the best records of 2020 with Sulfuric Disintegration, so I was really excited to speak with drummer Preston Weippert. Like Rats played with Of Feather and Bone in Baltimore a few years back, and I was very impressed with them. Since then, they’ve released two albums and dropped any pretense of being anything other than a death metal band. Fascinatingly, they compose most of their music through improvisation and jamming, which is not typical for most death...

Like many, I am deeply concerned with the impact social media has had on our brains, our attention, and our society. I have a slightly different take on what the root of the problem is, though. While those worried about distraction, polarization, algorithms, and censorship all have a right to be concerned, I think the real issue is deeper and more fundamental. By creating a hyperconnected network for information flow, we seem to have kicked off a negative ratchet that leans on several...

This episode with James from Harm's Way is one of the most consistently downloaded episodes of the podcast, so figured this would be a good time to revisit it. If you haven't seen the Harm's Way Running Man memes that offered a much needed moment of levity this summer, then spend some time giggling right here. And, the original show that sparked the memes from hate5six's YouTube channel is absolutely fantastic as well. Check that out here. New shows will return in January 2021. If you're...

This conversation is a repost from the From Coach to Business podcast that I did with my friend Brandon last year. With the recent announcement that San Francisco CrossFit is closing their doors, I wanted to revisit this conversation since there were several key takeaways on operational excellence. In the best of times, running a functional fitness gym in a major urban environment is already a grueling, low-margin business. When a global pandemic devastates the entire fitness industry...

This is a holiday repost, which pairs very nicely with the recent episode with Cedric Chin discussing tacit knowledge, expert intuition, and deliberate practice. If you enjoyed that episode, you will hopefully also find Scott Young's work fascinating—since he distills research-based best practices in learning and skill acquisition into highly actionable strategies and tactics. Here's the original episode post: I’ve long been a Scott Young fan from my early days of reading blogs (miss you,...

Certain clusters of nerds on the internet can find it very frustrating when successful people say a lot of incorrect stuff ("Just focus on your passion and be yourself!") about how they found success in their field. To be clear, I am such a nerd. Cedric Chin has researched and written extensively about the academic literature on skill acquisition and expertise—and has made these concepts extremely practical for knowledge workers looking to improve their career skills at his Commonplace...

Leonard Suryajaya creates lush, harrowing, and hilarious images in his photography, and I was fortunate enough to be a part of his process for his recent work with The New York Times. I love talking to creative people about how they see the world and how they find their creative insights. I also used this conversation with Leonard as an opportunity to brush up on my understanding of the history of Southeast Asia—and Leonard was kind enough to provide insight into his own experiences...

John Nerst, in some sort of bizarre ascetic practice, enjoys studying people disagreeing online. While online discourse is a cesspool of bad intentions, bad faith, and, of course, bad arguments, John is able to divine some deep insights about the fundamental nature of human disagreement. In this interview, we discuss how the abstractions we use let us down when we are trying to be precise in moral arguments, how the “decoupling vs contextualizing” axis explains how smart people with good...

Albert Kao of the Santa Fe Institute has been researching collective behavior in animals — including really crazy things like using their own bodies as a bridge to invade a wasp nest. As we mention in the podcast, this absolutely needs to be made into a horror movie if it hasn't already. In addition to animal behavior, Albert has also created some really insightful models that find that smaller groups do a better job of converging on accurate information in complex environments — contrary to...

I’m often asked “how I handle it all,” and — while I think the true answer may have something to do with several deep flaws in my fundamental personality, I do think I have a framework that helps me get a good amount of stuff done. I tend to manage too many projects at once pretty much all of the time — which is actually probably not very good for my mental health nor my overall effectiveness. Still, I’ve developed some systems that enable me to keep things moving along. The biggest update...

It doesn’t always work well to try to corner artists who you like and make them explain how they do the thing that you enjoy about their work. Sort of like getting a comedian to explain their jokes. Maybe not the best thing for your ongoing enjoyment of humor. Still, I will not be deterred, and I wanted to get Ethan from Primitive Man on the podcast to pressure him into explaining how he thinks about the dissonant soundscapes he creates not just for Primitive Man, but for all of the musical...