Podcast 500

Podcast 500. Commemorating 500 podcasts in Podcast 500. What started as a distraction after getting fired from a radio job back in 2009 has become a business, and an unparalleled creative outlet. From the first Bob Davis Podcast in 2009 to Podcast 500, you can follow up on podcasts you missed or want to hear again, by entering the subject matter in the search window. Or, you can listen to this podcast. Podcast 500 takes us back through The Dillinger Road Trip, through Wisconsin’s backroads in the middle of the night, the trip to the Jersey Shore, the great first Summer Sounds podcast, and to The Bonnie and Clyde podcast (my personal favorite). Day to day news, politics, society and culture are among the many subjects discussed in these podcasts which can be far ranging and deep, and prescient. Since the acquisition of Mobile Podcast Command Unit 8, barnstorming the country in search of … something. First the west, from Minnesota to California and back, visiting Calistoga California, through a spring snow storm in Wyoming. Then east during the summer of 2015 to Washington DC, many political coverage events, the EAA air show in Osh Kosh, Sturgis and then the campaign trail in late winter 2016, from Iowa, to South Carolina, all the way to Florida, the gulf coast through the deep south to Texas, back to Minnesota. If you haven’t heard all the podcasts this is a good sample of many of them, although there are many I didn’t include in this podcast. Thanks to all the listeners and subscribers, supporters and sponsors who have made The Bob Davis Podcasts possible. Podcasting for me has been a labor of love. It is generally a solitary pursuit. I spend a lot of time out there by myself recording sound, back in the studio producing and always looking for the next topic idea for a podcast. Sponsored by X Government Cars.

Podcast 447

Ted Cruz In Saint Paul. This podcast takes you inside a political event in Saint Paul on a cold winter night. From heading out in Mobile Podcast Command Unit 8, to making coffee in Mobile Podcast Command, parked with the media trucks, to trying to sneak into restricted meetings, interviews with Cruz Minnesota Organizer Mandy Benz, State Representative Cindy Pugh, an unidentified (by her choice) Cruz advance planner, to 2nd District Congressional Candidate and old friend Jason Lewis, put headphones on and follow me. The brand new media story line is that Texas Senator and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination Ted Cruz is running second to Donald Trump and therefore ‘could be the guy’. Two months ago the Senator sent his father, this time he came in person, with reporters clustered around the door he was supposed to walk through, while technicians set up cameras on a riser in the back of the small Harriet Island indoor pavilion. As people filled the room, a giant screen showed campaign videos complete with all your favorite national talk show hosts talking about how great Ted Cruz will be when he becomes president. An introduction from a local preacher, more videos, and finally the main event…Senator Cruz throwing ‘red meat’.  Boy, can he sling it! From rescinding Obama’s executive orders, to ‘utterly destroying ISIS’, this crowd loved it. Cruz’ strategy is to organize and concentrate on winning the Iowa caucuses, and use that momentum to win in enough key Super Tuesday states in the mid south, out west and along the eastern seaboard to gain the momentum to win the nomination, and the presidency. Can he do it? Or is he the new flavor of the month. We’ll know when people start to vote in roughly a month. Sponsored by X Government Trucks and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul

Podcast 429

Politics as Sport. Millions of people watched the most recent Republican debate on CNBC this week, and everyone is talking about how the candidates ‘really gave it to the moderators’. The moderators had it coming, but was this a surprise? Do you mean say the media is biased? Really? How shocking if true, right? Meanwhile this week a US Destroyer sailed past man-made islands claimed by China provoking quite a response. While the US should challenge Chinese ‘ownership’ of these islands this is just the kind of incident that creates foreign policy crises seemingly ‘out of nowhere’. To add insult to injury House Republicans this week voted to increase federal spending by 50 billion dollars in 2016 and something like 30 billion in 2017. (Editor’s Note: Republicans were shocked and dismayed in the 1970’s when President Carter’s budget deficit hit 45 billion.) Talk about the GOP betrayal of their voters? No, let’s talk about media bias, again. Republican and Democrat candidates running for their party’s nomination to run for president – technically not running for president yet – continue to play to the biases and fears of their most vociferous supporters, as part of a sick and dangerous symbiosis between media, pollsters, and politicians. People watch to see who will be ‘thrown off the island last’. Indeed, politics is being covered not as sports as covered, but is in fact a sport in itself. Why not talk about video games and fantasy football at the debates? The election is already a fantasy football league or video game, or reality TV show, anyway. With most people getting their news in shards from social media, google searches, You Tube and other sources like this, the story about three deep space objects hiding behind the moon is perceived with the same credibility as the story of US Special Forces and Navy Helicopters being deployed to Syria, where they may be as likely to get into combat with Russians and Chinese troops as they are to fight ISIS. We’re ‘Cruisin For A Bruisin’ in the United States if this is how we expect to elect the next President, and subsequently run the country. Don’t forget to join The Bob Davis Podcasts and Jason Lewis for a live podcast Saturday, Halloween at 11:00 AM in Lakeville, Minnesota at the Main Street Cafe. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. (Editor’s Note: I refer to Russia Today, which is a propaganda outlet for the Russian Government as Russia Times. It’s RT or Russia Today.)