Podcast 575-Surviving Thanksgiving

Podcast 575-Surviving Thanksgiving. How to maintain your sanity through Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season. As the final curtain is drawn on election 2016 the phrase “it’s all over but the shouting” should read, “It’s all over but for Political Junkies and others who can’t let it go”. Whether it is the cast of a broadway play, members of the alt-right paying homage to their leader, or Kanye West it seems sometimes as though people have lost their minds and are intent on making fools of themselves. Prepare for the toughest challenge of the political season: Your family at the Thanksgiving Day Table. A News Cleanse might be just what the doctor ordered. The Thanksgiving experience sets the tone for the rest of the holiday season. Podcast 575-Surviving Thanksgiving provides some simple ground rules so you don’t end up in a screaming match with your crazy uncle. If you are the crazy uncle these rules apply double. Back in the day people gave thanks at harvest time for surviving one more year. Today we give thanks for the new flat screen TV and stuff more of that cheeseball into our mouths. My favorite holiday is the fourth of July. No one cares what you do, or what you eat, or how much beer you drink and there are fireworks. Fireworks! At Thanksgiving it’s dark, winter is coming and we’re stuck with people who may just say things to see what happens. The culprit at Thanksgiving is High Expectations. People get very emotional. They want everyone to be happy. If you start in about Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, everyone is not going to be happy. Among strategies for avoiding arguments or falling victim to relatives who like to poke at you, I mention techniques for changing the course of the conversation abruptly. Just bring up the Hollow Earth theory, Planet X, The Mandela Effect, the new Paul Is Dead theory, Time Travel, the Trumpets of Jericho and the idea that the world actually ended in 2012 and we are living in a computer. These are like conversational ‘in case of emergency break glass’ tools. Use them wisely. And have an excuse that allows you to leave early. Sponsored by X Government Cars, Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Hydrus Performance.[powepress]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:00 — 130.5MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 536

Podcast 536-Midnight Thoughts. Back in the studio after a long road trip. The excitement of travel gives way to scanning the news and wondering what to talk about in this podcast. Hence, Podcast 536-Midnight Thoughts. Midnight Random thoughts perhaps? But. No. Specific observations about the role of podcasting and transcending the nonsense in day to day politics. In fact the more I talk about politics the more I feel physically revolted by it and physically almost unable to talk about it. Why? Because what is going on distracts and obscures. Our politics in the United States no longer enlightens and illuminates. Our politics is no longer a soaring bird, but a slithering ‘thing’ down in the mud and dirt and grime. It’s depressing, boring, frightening and at the same time ridiculous. While I have not lost my passion and interest in what is going on politically, I find more people inexplicably joining tribes committed to convincing those in the opposing tribes with one ridiculous argument after another, spitting out what has been drummed into them hour after hour from social media, 24 hour cable TV news, talk radio and so on. Not wanting to harp on those same themes, all I can say is it is truly Orwellian; like there really is a little man behind a curtain pulling on levers. For me, the antidote to all this is travel; actually witnessing events. When you see it go down ‘for real’, you realize many things you see and hear are designed for video. The protests at the conventions? If you were there you had to go find them because you could hardly tell they were happening. The guy climbing Trump Tower in New York? If you were on Wall Street, or on the subway, or in the Bronx you didn’t even know it was happening. Did it? Did it mean anything? What’s important? I think it’s a the conversation podcasters have with their listener/subscribers one on one, based on the inner thoughts we share. It’s one of the things podcasting can do that radio doesn’t do anymore. Maybe the best thing we can do is provide a venue that helps you have that conversation. The news these days seems more like greek theater and less like, well news. Reporting on events, gathering facts and making observations based on those facts. You all know this, because I talk about it too much. I realized while traveling and while thinking about this podcast tonight that so much of what is happening in 2016, I’ve already done detailed podcasts about. For example, podcasts about the death of the conservative ‘movement’ over the years, and we’re just starting to see people write and talk about it. So, use the search window to listen to those podcasts. Meanwhile, the travel podcasts, the podcasts reporting on breaking local news, the podcasts about deeply felt emotions are the ones that resonate with me and hopefully with you. Finally, all this feels like its leading up to something; some big thing that is epoch changing, and you know, historically pivotal. Something we’ll talk about for decades after. As the rain comes down, it’s fun to be back in the studio and talk it out. Sponsored by Karow Contracting and Hydrus.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:30 — 90.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 499 – The Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show – 26

Podcast 499 – The Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show – 26. Throughout this week the theme running through the podcasts has been the tribal nature of politics in the United States these days. There’s a great story in Gibbon’s ‘The History of the Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire’ about how Chariot Racing in Rome evolved from a convivial affair to a feral, bloody sport. It began with the idea that some Chariot teams would carry different colored flags to differentiate themselves. This progressed to ‘tribes’ supporting the various colors, and this eventually evolved to the point where there were pitched battles between the different groups supporting different chariot teams. Eventually the different groups began political pressure groups. These days, people seem to be supporting candidates, or joining cults of personalities. You’re for you’re guy no matter what. Depending on what tribe we belong to, we get our information from sources that confirm our worst fears. When we discuss politics with people in different tribes, discussions quickly devolve into arguments and fights. Not only are we not making progress, we’re making ‘regress’. Modern media and news sources online aren’t making the situation any better, since an individual’s newsfeed on FaceBook or YouTube or Twitter doesn’t expose that person to anything that isn’t part of their friends list, worldview or political orientation. Snark, insults, and shouts only add to alienation and separation of today’s political ‘chariot teams’. The radio show is posted here in digital quality sound. As I keep posting shows on here on the Bob Davis Podcasts I am learning each week’s radio is a good summary of the general trend of news and discussion for the week. Thanks for listening! Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating and X Government Cars.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:44 — 113.8MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS