Attack Ads! The Podcast

One cannot create stuff, especially topical, new stuff, without occasionally having to go back and update folks, just to keep them informed.  Here we go with just that in this Episode 292: FollowUpDate. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/11/episode-292-followupdate.html

Conspiracy theorists are bad enough; they speculate when they simply don't know for sure.  Worse, though, are those who would paint all such theorists as crackpots even when their theories have yet to be substantiated.  I cover this election conspiracy in this Episode 291: On Conspiracy. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/10/episode-291-on-conspiracy.html

Have you ever wondered why some things happen? Have you further considered exactly what kind of control other entities have over your life? I've done the same, as I'll share in this Episode 290: The Agency of Mushrooms.  Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/09/episode-290-agency-of-mushrooms.html

Have you ever wondered why so many of your friends feel things in general have deteriorated over the years? Worse, has this been happening more and more at the same time the talking heads seem happier and happier about how bad things were, but how great things are now? You're not alone. I explore possible factors that explain this split in opinion in this Episode 289: Time Bandits and The Curse of...

How good is online search?  A better question might be how good could it be if the suits in the executive suites let it get good?  We may never know, sadly, and that's the topic of today's Episode 288: On The Tips of Our Fingers. Find the Show Notes page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/08/episode-288-on-tips-of-our-fingers.html

It's one thing to reduce the weight of our things with new materials and construction techniques. It's quite another, though, to lighten them so much that their functional lives are compromised, leaving one with useless junk. I explore all-too-often tension between long-lived and lightened in this Episode 287: The Ephemeral & The Ethereal. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blog...

We've all heard the saying: never meet your idols.  Well, folks, let me give you one very real example of a fallen idol in this Episode 286: The Great Granny Patches Gambit. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/07/episode-286-great-granny-patches-gambit.html

Why do so many of the companies that provide us with stuff need to be ginormous?  For that matter, why must too many of them outright abuse their workers?  I look at this just a bit in this Episode 285: Laboring Upstream On the River of Shit. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/07/episode-285-laboring-upstream-on-river.html

Has anyone ever wondered what might happen if untruths both large and small continue to be used by people to sell shit, perhaps in diabolical ways, and "increase engagement"?  Actually, several have, years ago.  And now we're close to living that dystopia, on which I comment in this Episode 284: Bath Bombing the Internet. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/06/e...

In this Bonus Episode I read excerpts from former President Theodore Roosevelt's 1910 Commencement Address to the graduates and staff of the Sorbonne in France (referred to by some as the "Man In The Arena" speech). Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/06/bonus-episode-teddy-roosevelts-1910.html

I completely realize that my insistence on correcting other people's mistakes is a complete mistake on my part.  Still.  I do it.  For me, forget about capital, and concentrate on usufruct.  It's something I do here in this Episode 283: Privilege Requires Usufruct! Find the Show Notes at:  https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/05/episode-283-privilege-requires-usufruct.html

Modern advertising and military propaganda efforts share quite a few common elements.  How many they share should surprise and even shock us all.  I explore this topic in this Episode 282: Many Voices Make Lies Work.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/05/episode-282-many-voices-make-lies-work.html Find the Show Notes for Episode 34: https://attackadspodcast.blogspo...

Using computers that can more or (mostly) less function as if they were "intelligent" is all the rage today, especially in business.  Why hire a person when a machine can do the job?  Others are goofing around with these machines as well, including my own brother.  I explore some of his recent goofs in this Episode 281: My Brother's Experiment. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blog...

Definitions can be difficult sometimes, especially when the word you are floundering to define doesn't really have a concrete definition, but rather a multitude of different applications and associations.  It's best then to define something with double negatives, as I try to demonstrate in this Episode 280: Sky Father The Uncrumbly. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/202...

Categorizing certain things is important.  Over-categorizing them, though, can be more damaging to one's understanding than not categorizing things at all.  Lately, I've realized that categorizations have impeded understanding our world to the point that perhaps we should just jettison certain categorizations altogether.  Hence, Episode 279: Why Capitalists Don't Exist. Find the Show Notes at: htt...

I've mentioned before that advertising often takes advantage of those it targets psychologically, triggering latent vulnerabilities in all of us.  Maybe it's more than just psychology, though, that makes ads tick.  I explore one possibility in this Episode 278: The Magical Manipulation of Desire. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/02/episode-278-magical-manipul...

Sometimes, the difference between entertainment between two countries is profound due to cultural differences.  Today, I'd like to suggest that there are differences well beyond culture that affect two peoples, even those separated by a common language, in this Episode 277: Ratcheting the Ridiculous. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/02/episode-277-ratcheting-...

For reasons I hope to make clear soon, advertising is not foremost on my mind right now.  I made a realization that a great change will quite possibly befall us, and… I have no idea when.  To understand my thinking on this, though, I feel it's necessary to give some background.  Hence, some background in this Episode 275: Nullius In Verba. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot....

What's that phrase?  One step forward, two steps back?  For every positive step our society takes, it seems there are invisible forces trying to drag every step in a quite negative direction.  I'll explore one example of just this in this Episode 274: Our New Normal… Is Abby. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/12/episode-274-our-new-normal-is-abby.html

I never cease to be amazed at how bad some corporate decisions are… until I finally figure out why those bad decisions were probably the best way for the company to make more money.  I explore one revelation concerning my need to connect a simple device to the internet, only to be forced to chat support, in this Episode 273: Chattel Trapped in Chat Hell. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspo...

There are far more thinkers whose writings can explain phenomena better than most; but thanks to ruthless historical suppression, those thinkers are not even considered.  I'd like to frame a few economic problems many of us are facing today to the philosophy of Henry George in this Episode 272: Henry Saw This Coming. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/11/episode-272...

Just in case you don't get enough advertising in the privacy and sanctuary of your home, good news! Refrigideezers will soon show you ads on a screen on the door! It's true! I react to this silliness in this Episode 271: Baffling Ripples of Synergy. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/10/episode-271-baffling-ripples-of-synergy.html

I lately find myself dwelling on not the existence of new technology, but on questions about how we humans should treat it. After all, nothing in our cultures or languages has evolved to accommodate, for one example, ASoLs. In the interest of discussing these geegaws and thingamajigs with someone who actually not only uses them, but doesn't actively hate them, I have a chat with KMO as we start th...

Every so often, a book emerges that gets a lot of buzz from the media and gets tongues wagging.  Sadly, too often those books say things that stretch credulity to the breaking point and start to smell a lot like a massive propaganda campaign stuffed into a hardcover.  I follow the abundant evidence of one such book being bunkum in this Episode 269: An Abundance of Lies. Find the Show Notes Page at...