Podcast 498

In Digital Media It’s All News. A tour through YouTube videos that predict the end of the world, a collision with a massive planet on a 3200 year elliptical orbit through our solar system, a massive conspiracy that includes mind controlling top entertainers like Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Coldplay and Kei$ha, FEMA camps and Walmart, and much much more. More of us get our news from videos on FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube on their smart phones everyday. As our devices get more and more powerful and sophisticated, digital media grows in reach and importance. Conspiracy theory videos some might think are ridiculous get millions of views. As we act more and more like tribes, we derive our information from sources our tribe approves of, sharing facts with only those in our ‘newsfeed’, or our list of friends, our tribes. In Digital Media It’s All News. With so many people watching it all, can our subconscious minds tell the difference between media designed to manipulate and media designed to give us facts? Do we have the discernment necessary to understand facts and context? What is the difference between the ‘real’ news and a conspiracy video on YouTube. Sometimes the videos on YouTube are done just as well. What is the difference between CNN and Fox and RT? Or InfoWars? Or a blogger you like. What prevents the kind of political action that solves problems. What happens when you go against your tribe? Are fear and ignorance driving the country, politically. You can’t stop it. No law passed will turn it off. We’re going to have to go through it, and somehow maybe learn the art of discernment. Meanwhile, gotta get back to the video about this planet coming it on the outer edge of our solar system. It’s gonna wreck everything. Sponsored by Hydrus Performance and Brush Studio in the West End, Saint Louis Park, Minnesota.

Podcast 448 – Andrew Davis

Andrew Davis. How will millennials change the political process? To find out, my favorite millennial Andrew Davis joins the podcast. He’s working on a new way to use television to examine issues, called The Millennial Project. So, in this very personal podcast, some history about the way father and son have interacted over the years on political issues, a discussion of this new television project and some of the problems selling the idea in Hollywood, what kind of content the Millennial Project will feature, and the political landscape for young adults in the United States in 2016. Specifically one of the new stories that will appear on the Millennial Project’s You Tube Channel is a hot button issue in Los Angeles. The center of this fight about property rights and the public commons is the famous Hollywood sign in Griffith Park. It’s a great backdrop for a piece on inequality, but in a city you usually never see featured in inequality stories in the mainstream media; Los Angeles. Specifically Hollywood. It’s also interesting to see where father and son disagree on some key issues, or at least how those issues should be treated by the media. While there are some key differences about younger adult’s perceptions of politics, work and life, and other generations of Americans, there are also some similarities that may surprise you, according to Andrew Davis. One of the things we talk about in this podcast is the fact that neither of his parents – career media types – wanted him to work in media. After graduating from college, working on Capitol Hill for at least 3 members of Congress, he decided there was an opportunity to develop in depth, detailed and substantive coverage of the issues and set out to do it. Our friends laugh when we tell them this story saying, “What did you expect? He was raised by media people!” Sponsored by Hydrus and Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate. Plus some out takes at the end.

Podcast 424

Retail Politics. The 2016 presidential election cycle isn’t yet in the primaries, but campaigns have locked in their rhetoric. Speakers are throwing out red meat at small gatherings of potential voters and political actives across the country, especially in the early caucus and primary states. This podcast takes you inside a political event in Minnesota where a surrogate for the Ted Cruz For President Campaign — The Senator’s Father — makes a speech. Sorry? Did you think these events would include substance, discussion of the issues, details on how to achieve goals, and detailed analysis of opponents? Media focus, polling, ‘cattle call’ debates, a desperate need for money to fuel bare bones campaigns, and propel candidates to the top of the heap before a single vote has been cast, has all but destroyed ‘discussion’ and ‘substance’. It may be early, but it’s already all about firing up the hopeful, the political active, getting the contribution, getting people on the email list, jumping on the plane or bus, and heading to the next event. Even local supporters and state legislators at the event are ‘on message’. The problem with retail politics and red meat is, do people have any better idea of what the candidates actually will do? What is a conservative? What is the plan for the country and why? What do Republicans stand for? Listen and find out. Sponsored by X Government Trucks and Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate.