Podcast 506

Future Shock. As the 24 hour news media and talk radio fixate on gorillas and high school election antics, its hard to get a conversation going about the future. Is the future potential leaders want the future we should have? Is it the future we want? There are developments almost everyday now with autonomous cars, robotics, materials, aviation, and communications; the building blocks of a future wave that will leave nothing untouched and unchanged. A series of stories from today’s headlines shedding a light on one potential future and a question; Planners and government officials are  diverting resources to bring about a vision of the city of tomorrow, which is really the city of the early 1900’s. Is this what you want? Will the driverless car, autonomous software and machines, robotics, and other developments make trains, buses and the standard bureaucracy heavy city, state and federal government ‘obsolete’? If so, why is so much time, effort and authority expended to see that we plan for and create a urban spaces, and that suburban villages and towns conform to a vision of a city that probably never existed and never will. Driverless cars will render the amount of space needed for freeways and parking ramps obsolete. Remote technology, robotics and other technologies may mean that people will not have to travel to large office complexes for their work, with increasing freelance employment. What are our so called leaders talking about? Minimum wages, government controlled health insurance and trains. Trains. Why are we planning for 1940’s Chicago when reality could be closer to Jefferson’s vision than Robert Moses? The old world is being torn down and a new one is being built that will be very different from what we know. Do our leaders understand this? Future Shock. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and X Government Cars.

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Podcast 503

Slipping Into Summer. Hard to believe, after a long upper midwestern winter, that we are Slipping Into Summer. As the Memorial Day Weekend approaches, some thoughts about the origins of ‘Decoration Day’, Arlington National Cemetery, the Civil War, and our modern day commemoration of those who have given their lives in service to the United States. This is not a national holiday of celebration. It might be suggested it is in fact supposed to be a sober, if not somber day to reflect on the sacrifice of those who did not return home. Some people confuse Memorial Day with Veterans Day. If you’re on the radio, or in public media that is a mistake you will make once. On Veterans Day we honor all those who have served. On Memorial Day we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. With all that, it is still the beginning of summer — even though summer doesn’t start until June 21st — and for kids still in school it means a week or so of school left, depending on how many snow days may have accrued during the brutal winter. It brings back memories for this podcaster. Memories of summers that stretched out like a sea of opportunity and ended all too quickly on Labor Day. In the Upper Midwest, this time is ‘GO’ time, especially for kids, because our summers are so short and sweet. The end of May can be cold, rainy and unfriendly and quite uncomfortable if you are opening the lake cabin and putting in the dock. The end of May can also be warm, sunny and friendly, and Memorial Day kicks it off with its ad hoc parades, and BBQ’s … the first three day weekend of the summer. So people might be forgiven for not remembering some of us will be privately thinking about those they lost, who will not be able to enjoy the great spring weather, the parades and BBQ’s. Here’s to them. Sponsored by X Government Cars and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. (Editor’s Note: In describing the mast of the USS Minneapolis, which is at Lake Calhoun, I confused the Cruiser, USS Minneapolis with two US Navy Submarines currently in service. The USS Minnesota is a Virginia Class Submarine, and the USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul is a Los Angeles Class submarine.)

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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.

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