Podcast 596-Values

Podcast 596-Our Values

Journalism’s new norm is reaction. It is called News. In Podcast 596-Values, news coverage today is a reaction to something someone said or wrote. News is reaction to a new initiative by some government entity. Donald Trump hasn’t been president for a month yet. Already it seems like a year. Trump’s pace of executive orders, executive actions, tweets and initiatives allows him to dominate the media battle space while he cooks up another controversy stew to cauterize yesterday’s controversy.

In Podcast 596-Values, where is the media battle ground? It’s not the Internet. It’s some some battlefield in Europe or Virginia where armies clashed. It’s not a battlefield with stories of élan, bravery or great deeds. The media battle space is our brain. This battlefield is as small or as expansive as it needs to be. As the media storm rages and the wind blows, how do we know our tent is securely fastened and isn’t going to blow away? It call comes down to something called values.

In Podcast 596-Our Values, time to take a pause in this daily insanity of back and forth partisan media coverage. A break from ‘journalists’ who call two or three people, get some quotes, write it up and call it a day. Time to take a look at what we believe as individuals and as a people. Democrat, Republican, Populist, Populist Nationalist, Libertarian, Communist, Socialist, Moderate, Partisan, and Extreme alike. We’re all on a journey together in our lifetime on this planet.

What do we believe? What are the Values we hold dear? Where do those values come from? How do those values anchor us when the gales of change blow up even when those gales are generated from the hot air of politicians in Washington? Politicians who cry and grandstand secure in the knowledge the things they say and do won’t be investigated for any length of time or to any real conclusion?

Reporters determine our values by looking at the latest poll or driving to a shopping center and asking people in the parking lot a few questions. The result is a few hundred words taking the ‘temperature’ of regular everyday ‘folk’. Don’t have any supporters of the president in your state to talk to? Just drive across the state line to the first town and sit in the parking lot of a Safeway or Piggly Wiggly until mom and the kids show up, or chat up and write up what old uncle Frank thinks, while he sits in his 1997 Lincoln waiting for Aunt June. The headline? “Middle America Supports Trump”. Boom.

Work on a national TV show? Find that article about middle america. Get that pollster on the show. Find that Congressmen who says that crazy stuff. Get that woman on from that foundation. Say some stuff. Get some calls. Move on to the next ‘story’. Clicks. Listens. Comments. Calls. Ratings!

The battlefield is the mind. How do you avoid becoming a casualty in the partisan political war? It’s increasingly a battlefield filled with threats. More and more it’s a battlefield better characterized as a moonscape no man’s land, where the shell shocked wander, dazed and confused. Survival in this environment depends on what we believe. Why we believe it. Where we learned it. Who taught us. Where we get our information. How we check our information. What anchors us in the storm, or what kind of ground we have pounded our tent pegs into.

Sponsored by X Government Cars and Hydrus Performance.

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Podcast 531-Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-37

Podcast 531-Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-37. In the final podcast from the EAA Airventure Show in Osh Kosh, we’re live during the reenactment of the attack on Pearl Harbor; a fitting backdrop after the tumult of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. While the democrats were meeting in the city of brotherly love the air show was in full tilt and so much fun! From camping on the tarmac next to your plane, to the possibilities and difficulties designing, building and marketing the flying car there’s a lot to talk about in this celebration of everything aviation. As we get ready to pack up Mobile Podcast Command comes the realization that the common theme running through all the podcasts from the air show this week has been the passion and fun associated with flying; or the Freedom to Fly. Optimism permeates this gathering. It’s present in almost everyone here, including the people that don’t fly, who come to watch the air shows and admire the planes (like me!). Optimism and passion are two emotions not present in the national political discourse; a fact revealed with one look at social media, cable television news or a moment spent with talk radio. The Freedom to Fly means the freedom and willingness to dream, to connect with your life’s passion. Again, something many people in this country seem to have forgotten. Not here at EAA though. There’s more than enough passion and dreams to go around from the air shows, to the war birds, to the museum, to the experimental and home built planes, and workshops. Optimism and passion are present in the conversations, and especially in the young people. With so many airline pilots retiring and general aviation growing into the future, great opportunities await those who learn to fly. I can’t help but believe part of the economic issues facing our country is a mismatch in skills between what we need, and what our schools are producing. Flying is but one example. So, amid the noise and grandeur of the pearl harbor attack reenactment, jet fighters streaking overhead while I record additional content for this podcast, and my observations about this unique summer experience, this is a little bit of a different Podcast 531-Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-37 this week. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Karow Contracting, your Storm Damage Specialists.

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Podcast 445

The Highway Song. As the media cycle repeats on an endless loop, boredom begins to set in. How many more arguments do you want to hear about Donald Trump being Hitler, or Ted Cruz being Ted Cruz, or Hillary Clinton and Benghazi? There is a real world waiting to be experienced. Not the make believe world the media’s twenty four hour a day obsession with American politics seems to be showing us. When there’s a new wrinkle, the Bob Davis Podcasts will break in with an update. Meanwhile this podcast asks, is travel an escape from reality or is travel reality and our lives are an escape from travel? A walk and talk through a ‘warm’ early December evening is designed to stir your memories of travel and your wanderlust. Where have you gone? Where would you like to go? Why? When did you first experience a sense of wonder as you traveled to new places? Was it a road trip with the parents? A first flight to some exotic location in the islands? A ski trip in the mountains? A road trip, with college friends, back in the day? What cities have you visited? Where would you like to visit? New York City? Chicago? New Orleans? San Francisco? Las Vegas? For me its all about the road trip. As I prepare for the big Mobile Podcast Command Winter ’16 trip to Iowa for the caucuses, then onto the mid south, and the eastern seaboard through the North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, my mind turns to the things I see and learn through the screen … the windscreen that is. There’s nothing better for the soul. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and X Government Trucks. 

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