Podcast 207

If nothing changes. If nothing changes…nothing changes. Does it feel, sometimes, as if things seem like they are about the change, but they don’t? Sometimes there are long periods of ‘stasis’. Some interpret this as a positive, but it can be negative. While the media thrives on making viewers and listeners think huge changes are right around the corner; Prosperity is just ahead, War is about to break out, Disease threatens us all, then…nothing. With the jobs numbers last week, the the ongoing situation with slow or no economic growth, the slow down in the foreign affairs situation, the political pundits talking about a wave election for republicans one week, and no wave the next, Mitt Romney making noises again, and Hillary Clinton talking about running, it sure feels like 2008, or 1999? The world is on the verge of great era. Advances in manufacturing, communications, robotics, autonomous agents, software, medical science, even physics may be forming the building blocks of a world those of us born in the 20th century will not recognize. But getting there means huge changes, and getting through those changes will not be easy. We are living through a low ‘stasis’ point. Our leaders, republican and democrat, do not know what to do. We don’t know what to do. Everyone seems to be looking to someone else to solve problems, and yet problems never seem to get solved. The language remains the same; systemic problems in the labor force, a collapse – or boom – on wall street, republicans are against democrats and so on. A change agent is coming. Call it a black swan event, singularity, or whatever you want. We can’t know what and when it will be, but a catalyst that begins a period of upheaval and change is inevitable. Take what you hear on the day to day news with a grain of salt, and look for that catalyst. Sponsored by Baklund R&D

Podcast 173

One last look, and listen, of July 4th, 2014. If you live in the Upper Midwest, the North East, the Rockies, anywhere in the United States that had a tough winter, you might agree summer seems to have quite a hold on most Americans this year. July 4th is the peak of summer in the United States, especially in the Upper Midwest. We just can’t seem to get enough of it. So, The Bob Davis Podcasts takes one last look. Well, one last listen. In the process, it suddenly seems this might be the last fourth of July before real change sets in; the kind of change you can’t predict and may not want. Concepts that seemed so new and fresh six or seven years ago, don’t seem so new and fresh these days. In the midst of fireworks at the lake, over heard summer conversation, the fire, and a grand finale, I offer one hastily drawn list of what is fading and what is outmoded. After all, its summer. We don’t want to work too hard! Sponsored by Baklund R&D

Podcast 19

This is The Lost State Fair Podcast. Hear an update after the fallout of Chicago’s loss of the olympics and an an audio piece done at the Minnesota State Fair fair 25 years ago, as promised in podcast 20. My friend Ted Golbuff, Alan Searle and I did interviews for and recorded this piece for fun at the Minnesota State Fair in 1982 (?). It’s amazing because people really do sound different today.

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