Distant Perspective Podcast

The tightrope stretched across Niagara Falls on June 30, 1859 drew a huge crowd of onlookers. Who would be crazy enough to try to walk a tightrope across one of the world’s greatest waterfalls? To the amazement of the gathering throng, the answer was soon forthcoming. Jean-François Gravelet, who went by the stage name The Great Blondin , soon appeared on the small platform at the end of the rope....

Carmen and I took a little road trip this week, enjoying the freedom our new pollution-free electric SUV has given us to explore more of Costa Rica. Just a four-hour round trip ride on gorgeous roads through valleys and mountains sits a beautiful spot on Rio Celeste. It’s called Llanos de Cortés. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bo...

Winter in North America always sends huge flocks of birds south to our Central American paradise. While the peskiest of these snowbirds fly in on the aluminum wings of jetliners, uncountable hoards of real birds do it by flapping their real wings. It’s an amazing feat of nature that, despite its annual re-occurrence, always enthralls me. How these spin-offs from the dinosaur era, that weigh a mere...

See the full Cinematic Trailer Here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit distantperspective.substack.com

I believe that I can quite safely say no other federal agency comes close to the brainpower of the staff at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Throw in an enormous dose of bravado combined with positive attitude toward the common mission to explore space (and what it means for our planet), and you have an invigorating workplace. I was fortunate enough to serve a four-year-plus stin...

I've been informing the world for decades. Now I'm using that massive knowledge base to generate wildly out of control stories based on true crimes. To see the whole video for Breaking The Weak Link, just go to garywestphalen.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit distantperspective.substack.com

It started five years ago, with a mysterious package that arrived at my front door. A box about yay square. It had my name in the “Deliver to:” space. [Odd Thing #1: The box is from the Galaxy telephone company and I have an iPhone.] I am wondering if I have been the lucky recipient of a shipping error, or maybe this is a promotional stunt. I may have just scored something. Inside the box is a pai...

In an unusual circumstance, Christmas and Hanukkah agree on this year’s date and the New Year is only lagging by six days. Okay, I know. That part is normal. The point is; there’s a lot of holiday in our immediate future. It’s a good time to step off the treadmill of life, and take a look around at the gifts you have already been given. For us this year, it has meant spending time with friends we’...

I wrote last week about a publishing deal for my book Breaking The Weak Link . It took almost two weeks to uncloak the fact that the otherwise legitimate publishing company was employing a scam technique known as “pay to play” on me. It’s a deal (at least, in this case) where the publisher requires the author to pay money upfront for marketing services to “prove” that the book has potential. The p...

“My job is to figure out how they’re going to screw you,” the lawyer says. He is a friend of one of the members of my local writer’ group. A publishing lawyer for at least a significant part of his career, he has seen it all. But, before we get to the lawyer, you need to know why I am talking to him in the first place. It is around 9:30 in the morning, ten days before the lawyer conversation, when...

Second only to “That’s one small step for man…”, the most famous phrase to come out of the NASA space era is “Failure is not an option”. The phrase, which curiously was spoken only in movies and books (never in real life), encapsulated the Can Do attitude that permeated the moonshot program of the 1960’s and early 70’s. It may serve as a great rallying cry, but the concept of never falling short o...

I found myself in the mountain town of Highlands, North Carolina for a wedding last week. I remember spending time in this town on more than one of my million miles worth of motorcycle adventures over the years. Back then, Highlands was a quaint little town with homey restaurants and inexpensive lodging. Now I’m struck by how different - how foreign - how overwhelmingly expensive - everything is....

In the 1987 movie, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, an advertising executive played by Steve Martin finds himself stranded by a series of epic travel failures as he tries to get home for Thanksgiving dinner with his family. He ends up in the company of a slovenly and over-bearing traveling salesman played by the late John Candy, who sells shower curtain rings. Their flight is delayed, then rerouted...

Sewell Setzer III killed himself at the age of 14, and his mother believes that an AI chatbot is to blame for encouraging him to “Come home to me.” In a wrongful death lawsuit filed in Florida , the boy’s mother claims he fell in love with an online chatbot. She says the artificial character, based on “Game of Thrones”, dragged his mental state into a very dark place and ultimately suggested that...

Thanks for reading Distant Perspective! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit distantperspective.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit distantperspective.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit distantperspective.substack.com