Podcast 546

Podcast 546-What Is Next? Almost all media these days is advocacy journalism. It used to be called ‘yellow journalism’. Back in the day yellow journalism was characterized by newspaper publishers like William Randolph Hearst who, when an artist he’d sent to Cuba cabled Hearst the fact that the USS Maine had blown up because of an accident, famously replied, “You supply the pictures, I’ll supply the war!” Everywhere we turn these days we are bombarded with the surface arguments. The personalities, the propaganda, the arguing back and forth. It goes far beyond media bias. It has become media advocacy. Telling you and I who to vote for and why. Telling us what we are to believe in and what our country stands for, and why. It’s a fact of life on both sides of the fence. We end up going back and forth about nonsense, most of the time. For me to add to this noise, seems to be a waste of time. Of course I have my own point of view about politics these days, and I’ll try and save most of those observations for podcasts detailing state by state polls, or addressing specific issues when they need to be addressed. How you vote, who you vote for and why you vote the way you do is your business. The easy thing to do these days is turn on the microphone and bloviate about what happened on the campaign trail today. It is much harder to find something to discuss that goes beyond. Hence Podcast 546-What Is Next? How can we move to the next step in the country and the world. Not what happens after election day 2016, or Inauguration Day 2017. This question deals with what happens down the line. If we spent a fraction of our time actually trying to inform ourselves about issues we can know about, rather than consuming propaganda, we would be better citizens and better stewards of the future for the country. The answers to the things we can know about, aren’t in social media or even necessarily searchable. The answers are in libraries. We can’t be fully informed about an issue if we don’t even know what questions to search. So let’s get started answering the question, What’s Next? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Hydrus Performance.

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Podcast 542-Music

Podcast 542-Music. I’ve been threatening to do a podcast about music, so here it is. Finally. It turned out better than I thought it would, although I learned right away that I have entirely too many tunes on my computer for one podcast to do it justice. Music has the power to transport us from one place to another. I don’t think I am unique in suggesting that sometimes the best thing to do is to crank your ‘stereo’ (meaning computer, iPod, iPhone or whatever) to top volume and sit on the deck, just listening. This is an activity I don’t engage in often though. In producing this podcast, I had such a good time, I’ll have to spend more time listening to music in general. Of course, when the headlines and the political news, and the day to day crap – and that is what it is – gets to me, I can do more music podcasts. Don’t want to overdo it, but then again, it’s not done ’til it’s overdone, right? For the purposes of Podcast 542-Music, we’re gonna take a little journey from Soundtracks and Blues music, mid sixties pop to soul music and memories of sitting on the steps on summer nights listening to the radio, to the FM Rock or “Classic Rock” era, through the 80’s to some Trance and Dance music from today. Yeah. I forgot the 90’s even though a lot of tunes on my computer are from the 90’s. I could have done a podcast about each one of those eras, and had tunes left over. Finally, the only disclaimer here is that my experience of music is almost wholly inside the radio, that is working in radio, from the time I was about 12 all the way through to now. I think about music in terms of my podcasts, so I am a little weird. Also, these are not full versions of the songs, so you won’t be ripping music I paid for. Plus, I talk over a lot of it. But, it still flows pretty good. Sponsored by Hydrus Performance and X Government Cars.

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Podcast 540-The Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-40

Podcast 540-The Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-40. This week’s radio show addresses some questions about my assertions this election season is a bust. If I’ve learned one thing in years of talk radio, it’s that people want radio hosts and politicians to tell them what they want to hear. That all is well. That the new president inaugurated in January of 2017 will be the one they voted for, and that everything is going to get ‘fixed’ the way they want it. That’s not going to happen. Someone needs to say it, and often. In an election season characterized by the ‘lesser of two evils’ argument, if that is an argument, what if the lesser of two evils is a mistake. What if either choice takes us down a road we may not be able to come back from? That is why we all need to start thinking about building new political movements. The American political system is not working. I am not talking about the Republic, or the constitution. I’m talking about primary elections, controlled by the parties and mandated by state law. I’m talking about the way we choose our leaders. Changing that and putting pressure on political leaders is going to take organization and movements. No, making a few calls and knocking on doors, and going to meetings on Tuesday night once a month isn’t an organization. Why do we need to do this? In Podcast 540-The Bob Davis Podcasts Radio Show-40 I review again my fascination with western history, this week specifically my trip out to western Minnesota, and the deprivations of the settlers from the struggle with the American Indian to infestations of locusts of biblical proportions. Those people embraced the latest technology to handle a far greater challenge than anything we face. Our fear of new technology and obsession with recreating the 1950’s in this country, prevent us from ushering in a new age of opportunity and growth.  Finally, a review of some of the rants this week about the election and the candidates. Sponsored by X Government Cars and Hydrus Performance.

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