Books Shows Tunes & Mad Acts

When McDonalds posted a sample budget to demonstrate to employees how they could live on minimum wage (including a second job), it triggered a hostile reaction from media, comedians, and everyday people. Here, we take a look at the estimated expenses, and consider how realistic they are, especially in light of comments on social media from workers around the country. We review briefly the intentio...

Bulgakov's science fiction novella, The Fatal Eggs, set in 1928 post-revolutionary Soviet Union, is an absurdist satirical tale of dead chickens, monstrous frogs, bureaucratic bungling, and a miraculous red ray of life. Bulgakov struggled in obscurity, and many of his works were banned because of "ideological nonconformity," but he has now been recognized as an outstanding Russian writer of the 20...

Studs Terkel was a Chicago broadcaster, author, and actor, whose oral histories came to represent the voice of Americans during the 20th century. His book, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, was celebrated as a masterpiece of American thought and feeling and a presentation of real people. Despite being published in 1974, its stories, a few of whic...

When you start adding things up, it's not looking very good for baseball right now. Sports journalist Andrew Pridgeon and I talk about the truncated 2020 season, the coronavirus risk to the players and their families, attitude of the owners and commissioner, the unrelenting blackout policies, cost of viewing packages, and number of big names dropping out. And that's just this year. What about the...

Computer scientist Brian Kernighan joins us to talk about Dennis Ritchie, creator of the C programming language and co-developer of the Unix operating system along with Ken Thompson. Ritchie never sought the limelight, but his impact on the computer world is still visible everywhere from a multitude of operating systems to programming languages, search engines, car engines, and websites. Brian tak...

Commercial real estate broker Scot Ginsburg of the prestigious tenant rep firm Hughes Marino joins us to talk about what is happening and is likely to happen with office space. Are we going back to the office? Will available sublease space skyrocket? How will landlords react to a potential economic downturn? Scot shares what indicators are appearing on the horizon in California and elsewhere. He a...

Published in 1982 and set in 1996, The White Plague, written by Frank Herbert, the acclaimed author of Dune, describes the unleashing of a female-specific virus created by a bioterrorist (before the word was even known) seeking horrific revenge for the murder of his family. Whew. The book is a pretty hard read, but you can appreciate it with this episode and save a lot of time. Thoughts? Comments?...

From disasters with ice cream and cheese sauce to exploding milkshakes and smoothies, to garbage and blueberries ending up where they shouldn't, and inevitable Ranch dressing nightmares, work catastrophes can be really funny when they are on someone else's watch. We recount and make some observations about training and management, though mostly we just laugh. A good time-for-a-break episode. Relat...

Behavioral scientist Natasha Ouslis explains how diversity training can backfire, as well as irritate and shame your employees. Implicit bias testing and training focused on the individual are especially flawed. Instead, companies can take positive steps to improve their workplaces by targeting negative behaviors and procedures that restrict access and opportunity. She outlines the components of a...

Joanna Ross's science fiction book The Female Man published in 1975 is still hailed as one of the most influential feminist books. It concerns four women in four different worlds, one of which is "utopian" because all the men have been killed. Another is dystopian because men and women are engaged in a literal battle of the sexes. Many find the book's criticisms of patriarchy still highly relevant...

Pop music aficionado Dan Stalcup joins us to talk about Adam Schlesinger, musician, singer-songwriter, producer, who passed away on April 1st from COVID-19. The list of Adam's contributions seems to surpass what one man could create: co-founder of the bands Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, and Tinted Windows, writer of Crybaby, Josie & the Pussycats, and for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend along with dozens of sh...

For a change of pace, we talk about a different working species today—dogs! We introduce four avalanche dogs, three from Mammoth Mountain and one from June Mountain, as profiled in the book Working Dogs of the Eastern Sierra. We discuss breeding, puppy assessment, training, personality, and the zest that they bring to their work. We also review the origin of Eastside K-9, the nonprofit that provid...

We discuss Mary Shelley's life and her 1826 dystopian novel set in 2073 after a plague has wiped out everyone but one. Shelley's turbulent life had tragic elements of love betrayed, financial woes, and the loss of children and lovers. She used all of it in her writing along with explorations of the Romantic era and individualism. We also take a peek at a feminist literary analysis of the opening s...

USD econ prof Ryan Ratcliff joins us to talk about unemployment, its various measures, and the shape of the potential recovery (is it a V, a U, a swoosh, or none of the above?). He explains the ripple effect of a recession, why the stock market seems out of sync, and why economists fight. He also offers some career advice for aspiring economists and various jobs they could hold. Finally, he explai...

Attorney Lisa Bildy joins us to talk about the freedoms that are put at risk by mandatory diversity statements that are growing in popularity from law societies to universities to other employers. With a nod at the history of totalitarianism, she explains how these nice-sounding initiatives actually work to undermine real diversity and how they threaten the foundations of our democracies. As an ex...

This gothic short story spawned a bunch of fictional viruses from Earth Abides to the Stand and the Red Plague. It concerns Prince Prospero who welds himself into his castle with 1,000 of his best mates to party and wait out the disease. On the night of a masquerade ball, as the huge ebony clock tolls midnight, an uninvited guest appears, ending the party. We also consider the first Gothic novel,...

Boston band Ward Hayden and the Outliers, formerly Girls Guns and Glory, join us for a candid conversation about what it takes to sustain a hard-working touring band for 15 years. We talk about the band's work ethic, day jobs, staying healthy on the road, the forced intimacy of touring, the relationships that grow out of creating music together, and the experience that they hope to offer their fan...

Under attack? Or feel like you are? These specific, practical tactics allow you to respond powerfully but with dignity, and to model good behavior so we can disarm bullies and engage in productive dialogue. Times may have gotten uglier, especially online, but good can come from conflict if we utilize the longstanding tools of effective argument, debate, and discourse. Don't let fear of difficult c...

A survivor in 2073 looks back at a plague that killed off most of humanity in 2013. He describes to his great grandchildren what the world was like then with wireless communication, monorail transportation, over population, inequities, and how civilization collapsed under the terror of an uncontrolled pandemic. London wrote this in 1910 (!). We also take a brief look at his career and work. A lite...

Former attorney and pilot R.D. Kardon joins us to talk about her novel Flygirl in which she describes the obstacles that lie in the path of an ambitious female pilot, particularly twenty years ago when R.D. herself was rising through the ranks. We talk about gender and racial bias, and R.D.'s cat weighs in about hate. A timely episode about the career damage and personal hurt inflicted by discrimi...

Music publicist Howard Bloom joins us to talk about his new book Einstein, Michael Jackson and Me: A Search for Soul in the Power Pits of Rock and Roll, a free-wheeling romp through the music scene of the 70s and 80s. Bloom discusses his marketing strategy of delving into a musician's story to understand their drive and who they speak for. He talks PMRC's attempted censorship, John Mellencamp, Mic...

Science fiction readers have long been electrified by Stewart's 1949 novel Earth Abides, a post-apocalyptic story of a small community near Berkeley after most of humanity is killed by disease. Stewart was a diverse writer with a strong interest in history, name, place, and the environment, but this thoughtful novel is his most famous work and inspired Stephen King's The Stand, various musical eff...

Recent episodes about entrepreneurship have reminded me of this phase of my teenage life when I was trying to make enough money to get back to college so I took any kind of odd job I could get, from dishwashing to housecleaning to detassling corn and even some jobs that lack description. A funny personal episode about my own dirty jobs. Got a dirty job? Contact the show at: https://www.discreetgui...

TV producer, Dave Barsky, talks about Dirty Jobs and its seven seasons featuring dangerous, bizarre, and, yes, even filthy, jobs. The show was fun and sensational, full of vicarious thrills, but also serious in its intention to honor men and women who do these behind-the-scenes jobs that require real skill and training. Some of that came from host/apprentice Mike Rowe who would argue that the US h...

In February 2020, Twitter erupted with the theory that Dean Koontz's novel Eyes of Darkness had foreshadowed the Covid-19 pandemic with its Wuhan 400 virus. We review some goofy conspiracy theories, as well as dissecting the plot of the novel (spoilers galore), and finish with a brief review of Koontz's career, his writing style, his many pen names, and his own witty comments on Twitter. A fun, sh...