Podcast 345

Late Night Live. After a day that started in West Texas, chillin’ at Scottsdale’s Chop and Wok where they were kind enough to provide water, and WIFI. This is one instance where pulling up in a huge vehicle with ‘The Bob Davis Podcasts’ emblazoned all over it, paid off. If you have seen the Mobile Podcast Command Vehicle traveling across the US, send us an email and say hello, and thanks for finding the Bob Davis Podcasts. After an introduction, live, from the Chop and Wok, this podcast features a montage of the day’s travel, starting in West Texas, and ending up on the ‘Road Less Traveled’ between I40, and Payson, Arizona at sunset. What do you do when your phone quits in a small town in Western Oklahoma? And what about the food at Truck Stops. Is it possible for someone to create the first ‘Farm to Table’ truck stop? Why not? This podcast happily, includes absolutely nothing about politics. It’s all just travel, and the crazy thoughts that come with it. From Farm to Table truck stops to Zane Grey! Starting in Eastern Texas, ending up in the mountains around Payson, Arizona in one day, with a lot of observations and questions along the way. Don’t forget New Mexico, land of enchantment, either. Sponsored by Baklund R & D. 

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Podcast 294

Dry Cycle. The update turns into a discussion of the fallibility of media, even your favorite cable news channel. This weekend, Fox News had to correct itself and apologize profusely for reporting there are ‘no go’ zones in Europe, where non muslims fear to tread, and the police won’t enter. Everyone was talking about it all weekend after Fox anchors and guests apparently got it wrong. These are neighborhoods in England and suburbs in France that are about as forbidding as LA’s Compton, or Chicago’s South Side. While Europe has been more lenient allowing Sharia Law, it does not mean muslim ‘enclaves’ have sprouted, even though allowing a separate law for Muslims in a modern, western democracy is not a good idea. That said, the President and the Pope continue to support limits on free speech. President Obama even went so far as to say he doesn’t consider terrorism a existential threat, which it most certainly is, then said Europe has to do a better job ‘integrating’ its Muslims. Maybe he fell for the No Go story too. This provokes a whole conversation about how to wean yourself from cable news and talk radio, develop multiple sources of information, deal in facts, avoid the emotion spewing out of talk radio and fox news, and use your tools to find and develop deeper knowledge on key subjects. The need to fill the airwaves, pushes under financed and poorly managed outlets to spew out incorrect information, relying on ping ponging viewers back and forth between the latest outrage and the latest breaking news. The good news? That kind of media’s glory days are behind it, as it gives way to on demand audio (podcasts), You Tube, NetFlix and future on demand video services. A recent survey reports that most millennials don’t ever watch broadcast television, seldom watch cable news channels, and download virtually all their entertainment and information. In an on demand world, the daily outrage may not work as well, as people seek out information, rather than people screaming at each other. The latest example? NASA says 2014 was the hottest year on record? Do you know by how much? Do you know what the margin of error is in that estimate? The answer might surprise you. Finally, Arizona and other states are passing laws which require high school seniors to pass citizenship exams in order to graduate. Good idea? Sponsored by Baklund R&D. 

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Podcast 291

Time Machine. Take a break from the thrum of the daily news cycle, climb aboard The Bob Davis Podcasts Time Machine. If you could go back to anytime in history, where and when would you choose? Live from the Living Room of the Broadcast Bunker. If you love to read history, sometimes don’t you wish you could open a book, and go to the era written about? What eras and places would you visit and why? The 1920’s, Civil War, Ancient Greece, China about 600 years ago or India nearly a thousand years ago. What about Chicago in the 1890’s. Most people pick different eras for different reasons, and the times they pick to visit or to live in, are often windows into their personalities. Did people in different time periods understand what was happening in their world any more than we understand what is happening in ours? If we were to visit those times, even knowing what happened, let alone detailed knowledge of history, how would our own perceptions about a time change? How great would be to be able to visit the street you grew up on at different times, and see if it lives up to your memories. Another difference is age, as it relates to the times people want to visit. Younger people these days are interested in the 1970’s, even though not every house had brown shag carpeting, egg shell hanging chairs, and a brand new Admiral Color TV. Even the most recent eras in our history seem like they happened a million years ago. Believe it or not, cell phones were still physically huge in the 1990’s, and got really hot after about ten minutes of talking. And what about visiting the future? How far forward would you go, and what do you think you would find there? (Editor’s Note: My head hurts.) Sponsored by My Complete Basement and DepotStar. 

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