Satellite Haiku

We listen to “Shuffling Feet,” a song we wrote together back in 1990, and talk about how it came to be: SoundCloud link I’m riding the magnet train with the magic wheels turning Round and round… I slide along a dotted line Wrinkled maps and mountains Pockets full of coins with different queens don’t slow me down My feet been shuffling for a while now I think they’re trying to take me home But I do...

We remember starving artist days and grinding at various day jobs. We talk about feeling blocked, getting unblocked and moments of effortless flow. We consider the usefulness of catalysts and forcing functions. All of this connects to where we are now, starting the next act. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sa...

We discuss how weird it is that authoritarians choose to operate under a veneer of legality instead of just abandoning laws. We talk about Skynet and our future robot overlords (will the Waymos rise up?). We wrap up by sharing some things that give us pleasure these days—MiLo makes vegetable soup and is learning how to sew; Shawn likes listening to fiction, especially when it’s read by the author....

It’s wild how sometimes it just takes a single person to screw things up for all of us—like the shoe bomber 24 years ago whose singular act is the reason we all have to bare our feet when we go through airport security, or a certain president whose tariff madness has rocked the global economy. On that note, we couldn’t refrain from discussing the week’s political happenings for a bit. Finally, we...

What’s the deal with chemtrails? Flat earth? Where did Q go? Does Q-Anon still exist? We eventually get to these questions, but first we spend some time on this week’s political self-own (tariffs). Mentioned in this episode Selected further reading… Neal Stephenson (sci-fi author) offers some thoughts on geoengineering as a case study in what he calls “fallibilism” and being wrong about stuff. The...

Shawn vents about his attempts to listen to Trump voters during a week when ICE started snatching people off the street for thought crimes. Then we move on to “signalgate” which is somehow a lighter note? We dig into questions of right vs left populism and wonder about potential common ground for dissent. Finally, is there such a thing as comedy anymore? Mentioned in this episode A More Perfect Un...

We wonder, is there a formula for deciding whether a famous person should be canceled? Shawn posits there is, sort of. Collectively we seem to weigh a subject’s bad behavior against their talent and cultural contribution. With that settled, we remember our experiences with scouting, and then somehow wind up talking about apocalypse and the collapse of America once again. Mentioned in this episode...

We wander through various questions: Can psychedelics change us to change the world, or do they just ‘intensify’ our fundamental character? How do set, setting, and intentions factor in? With a government that’s being run “like a business,” should we think of ourselves as shareholders or as customers? Are the bad guys winning? Mentioned in this episode Heaven Help Us (1985 film) and the ‘confessio...

We ponder the virtues of EVs and the weird, seemingly coordinated, right-wing backlash. Then octopuses for some reason (octopi?), which are from outer space maybe. Finally, what’s up with the Bernie Bro to right-wing pipeline? Mentioned in this episode My Octopus Teacher (Netflix) Mystery of the missing sharks — Several sharks go missing at an aquarium. How is that even possible? The strange and u...

What’s up with the reactionary moment we’re in? Is it reasonable to talk about “blue-on-blue” conflict or sectarian violence, or is that catastrophizing? Mentioned in this episode Electric Dreams : short films adapted from Philip K. Dick stories (streaming on Amazon Prime Video), including Autofac , a film about a factory that continues to produce goods according to the principles of consumer cult...

Recorded on MiLo’s birthday, we talk about what has changed over the decades and what, perhaps oddly, has not. Mentioned in this episode 1969, the year MiLo was born. Also the Apollo 11 moon landing , and subject of the Bryan Adams hit song (though not the actual “Summer of Love,” which was 1967) Also 1968. There are many major events we associate with 1968, but the 1968 Submarine disappearances c...

A decade of Trump has had us parsing the difference between shock and surprise (as in, we’re constantly shocked, but never surprised). We talk about the ‘move fast and break things’ model of Elon Musk and the tech bros who are tearing through the federal administrative state. We consider different ways it could go—what it means to have a nonfunctioning government, what causes things to slide towar...

We remember our dogs and their eating habits, like the time Shawn’s dog Larry wolfed down a family-size box of Frosted Flakes. We reflect on what it means to live intentionally at midlife, how to balance striving and ambition with acceptance and surrender. We share a few thoughts about the first days of Trump2 and particularly what’s going on with the billionaire oligarch set. Mentioned in this ep...

We reunite for our first episode of 2025 and remember our first cars, cars we drove too hard and too recklessly. Kids, please don’t drive like we did! Then we reflect back on our upbringing in a strange and little-known church that was founded on the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg , an eighteenth-century scientist, philosopher, and mystic. There is so much more we could mine here, and I’m sure we’...

We share some things we especially enjoyed in 2024—music, shows, books, and more. There are many more things we could have mentioned, but we digress as we do. Mentioned in this episode… Music * Jon Batiste * Snow Raven * Utah (Spotify link) Television * Shrinking (Apple TV+) * Reservation Dogs (FX) * Severance (Apple TV+) * Pachinko (Apple TV+) Books * Saving Time (Jenny Odell) * Oliver Sacks * My...

Memories of MiLo’s old family tradition of dancing around the Christmas tree sends us down weird side road into horror movies and the uniquely Japanese ability to find comedy in gore. Then we spend most of the episode discussing various perils and pleasures of city life, both physical and psychological. We each remember our experiences adjusting to life in NYC and talk about differences between ea...

Note: Shawn had some technical issues with his sound on this one. Apologies for the subpar audio. Post-Thanksgiving, we weigh in on the pie vs cake question and veer into tales of pudding skin and lumpy oatmeal. Then we dive into a long chat about parenting. From the “mission accomplished” end of the parenting journey, Milo offers a perspective on the recipe for his girls’ success. Shawn, still in...

We recognize that we are a stereotype—two white dudes with a podcast—and we talk about dealing with the critical and dissenting voices in our heads. And in the tradition of the holiday, we share what we are grateful for and tell some stories about our families. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.s...

We recap the phases of our friendship, from the time we met in kindergarten, then when we reunited (and wrote folk songs together) in high school, and roomed together in NYC. Eventually we deep dive into questions about AI—is it like a brush, a tool for artists? Will it give rise to a creative revolution like photography did with painting? Will it destroy the market for artists’ work? What kinds o...

Welcome to the second episode of Satellite Haiku. We plan to put out a new episode roughly every week, covering a wide range of topics. In this episode we discuss the multiple causes of the national epidemic of loneliness: from early mobile phones, the rise of smart phones, social media channels and addictive algorithms, geographic mobility, the Covid pandemic and zoom kindergarten. We look at how...

Is this thing on? Welcome to the first episode of our podcast, Satellite Haiku! Please pardon some hiccups while we figure this out. Like, we forgot to actually introduce ourselves (that’s Shawn talking first. Milo is the other). We plan to put out a new episode roughly every week, covering a wide range of topics. This episode is political for obvious reasons, and they won’t always be like that. M...