Podcast 208

On The Road. 2700 Miles from Chicago, Illinois to Phoenix. The first leg of the trip takes The Bob Davis Podcasts from Chicago to the middle of Iowa, and a pouring rain. What is the take away from the IMTS; The International Manufacturing and Technology Show? For people breaking under a steady diet of doom, gloom and alarm from the media … for those who think ‘manufacturing’ in America is ‘dead’, this would have been a very instructive experience. Innovation in America is not dead. A manufacturing and technology show that filled Chicago’s McCormick Center, with big and small businesses from across the globe. The first experience of ‘The Big Trip’ is that innovative things are going on everyday in this country, it’s just that the people who run our media don’t understand any of it. If the United States ever is able to generate dynamic economic growth again there are many innovations that will produce many new products, each of them a revolution in itself. Slow growth means only the big companies have the cash to invest in new technology. It is hard to watch engineers, managers, academics and small business owners spend almost 6 hours in a workshop talking about these processes, and then find out our media has spent all day talking about an NFL player who beat up his wife. Sitting at a  ‘Pilot’ in Western Iowa right now, cursing slow upload speeds, and trying to decide whether to push on to Nebraska, or crash in the front seat of the Crown Vic. Follow the rest of the trip with podcasts everyday from the Road. Chicago to Arizona, and all the buffalo Jerky and Macadamia nuts you can eat! Sponsored by Sedation And Implant Dentistry of Saint Paul. 

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 201

Live from the Lake! A family celebration of music sparked thoughts about these summertime family rituals. Friends and families getting together at ‘the cabin’ or in their backyards in the upper Midwest, where summer is so short and so sweet. Whether it is a bar-b-que, bonfire, games at the lake, or someone’s birthday, family celebrations can be enriching for everyone involved. We live in a time of cynicism and negative judgement. Our media thrives on conflict. Yet, on this Saturday in August, 2014, a family, friends and neighbors gathered for a recital of beginning adult musicians and everyone got into the act. Some say ‘America’ is ‘lost’, beyond ‘redemption’ and that the country ‘we’ once new is dead. And yet, people are capable of doing truly incredible things. Whether it is art, crafts, or passing down lessons learned from elders on how to fish, or hunt, or just to play games, people are getting together and sharing with each other all over this country. And…it’s always been that way. We just never hear about it anymore. This is a chronicle of one Saturday in late August, at the lake in Wisconsin, and the lessons learned. Sponsored by X Government Cars.