‘funny,’ not funny

Jim starts by sharing his weight loss hack for getting on the scale in the morning, which leads into a discussion of The War of Jenkin’s Ear, which leads into a discussion of the role of money in the creation of multicultural cities, which leads to a talk about barter, goats on drones, the library of things, torx wrenches, rat tail files, super yachts & the economy, and tries to get back...

Dan Cantor, drummer, songwriter, producer of rock, folk, hip hop, and world music, visits the podcast to tell tales of recording overseas and in his studio, problems with travel and food, the power of rap music, and more. References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S2~dot~02-Dan-Cantor/ All song clips included with permission from Dan Cantor.

Lionel and Jim discuss the end of summer, Mark Leyner, Kate Bush and the return of the 80s, New shows, old movies, Sherlock Holmes, Wars and our sense of humanity, The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, and how to save the world with either a new religion, compassion for future generations, or AI.References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S2~dot~01-The-Will-of-Landru/

Lionel and Jim talk about what makes a great character in a story. What works? What appeals? Why do some fall flat? Why do some capture us? They also speak a little about their upcoming discussion of The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot~27-Imperfect-people-being-uncomfortable/

Sarah Elkins has been in science fiction fandom since putting on a Doctor Who convention in the 80s. She joins the podcast this week to continue our coversation about science fiction and feminism. We discuss books by Vonda Macintyre, Ann Leckie, Octavia Butler and more. References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot~26-Sarah-Elkins/

Amy Robinson is our guest on the pod this week. Amy is a creator of puppets, an engineer, a mom person, a creative thinker and maker of things, and a knower of cool books and refined queries, a frequent guest on The Morning Stream. You can find her brand of puppets at peeperspuppets.com . We talk about creativity, puppets, coding, and narcolepsy. References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/...

Thank you to Patron Sarah Elkins for suggesting the book The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood to us. We spend most of our time trying to suss out the meaning of that tremendous book by James Gleick in this episode. Discussed are entropy, encryption, memory, logic, and language. In short we manage to mangle a lot of deep thinking. References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot...

Julia Tenney joins us again with a conversation about feminism and science fiction and what makes a science fiction story feminist. We discuss Starhawk, Margaret Atwood, Marge Piercy, Vonda N. McIntyre , Ursula LeGuin, and decide we need more reading material to continue this conversation at a later date. Send us book recommendations from the contact form on our website. References: https://funnyn...

Lionel and Jim talk about Riverside.fm , our podcasting platform, Claude Shannon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon, Lionel’s new home full of stuff, Swat Teams & Active shooter drills in Boston, Jim’s short story in progress about the super volcano under Yellowstone park, Lionel’s new synthesizer, inspirational musicians and what is accessible in music, and burger...

Dar joins the pod to tell us about her experience writing What I Found In A Thousand Towns, her songwriting and creative process, her experience in Beacon New York with Roger Ailes, the remarkable Jaimie Raskin, our relationship to art, the environment, and each other, Active Citizenship, and so much more. I could not find the live performance of The Mark Rothko song. If someone knows where it is,...

This interview was mind blowing. Phil is creating 24 hours of music 5 minutes at a time and it's amazingly good. Lionel and I talk with him about his very detailed process and the story behind some of the songs starting at 12am and continuing until 2:59am as of the time of this podcast. That may sound confusing, but all becomes clear as we talk with Phil. Listen to the full project here: http...

From man hole covers to equal protection under the law, Lionel and Jim go to town over subjects in which they have little to no expertise. They go down the rabbit holes of International Law, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, legal personhood, the Bill of Rights, natural rights, abortion, guns, and other things they just can't help talking about. References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego....

We were graced with the voice over artist Walter Dixon on our podcast. We discuss the process of narrating an audiobook, the days of radio and cutting tape, Leo Kottke, and the emergence of AI on the audiobook scene. Visit his work at https://dixonvoice. References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot~18-Walter-Dixon/

Julia to the rescue! There are too many books and authors to list here, but we cover a lot of new possible reads. Julia also brings some worthy shows to our attention. We start our conversation about the 14th Amendment, T he Second Founding by Eric Foner, and Allow Me to Retort by Elie Mystal but find our way back to sci-fi and fantasy before things get too out of hand. References: https://funnyno...

Lionel and Jim discuss Mastodon, social media, or lack thereof, USB alarms going off in Lionel's headphones, and modern modes of communication. They talk about the possible dwindling need now for office space for businesses and universities in the new reality. Jim gets Lionel to list is college band names. Bladerunner 2049, Cowboy Bebop and The Fifth Element come up. In they end they decide t...

Lionel and Jim discuss the novel Uprooted by Naomi Novik the novel The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins the novels Anathem and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson John Coulthart's unusual website: johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/ The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes Chris Burden's (not Eric Burden's) sculpture The Other Vietnam Memorial

David decided after graduating NYU in the late 80's that he did not want a traditional desk job. He joined the Seafarers International Union as an unlicensed deckhand. Eventually he joined the Sailors' Union of the Pacific and finally got his officer's license in 2013. He has sailed all over the world on US flagged vessels. He worked as a licensed deck officer in the Masters, Mates...

Lionel and I talk about my upcoming lecture on Speculative Fiction and Society, Laurie Anderson, why agriculture may have been a bad idea, and more.

Lionel and Jim discuss a lecture by Nick Weaver of Berkley regarding crypto currency and blockchain from the computer security perspective. You can view the lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9nv0Ol-R5Q We also talk about Lionel's college tour of the Northeast, and his experience at an actual Chris Chandler show.

We had a nice sit down with the intrepid Chris Chandler who joined us from a park bench near his current home in Austin because there was construction going on in his dwelling. We talk about his life as a troubadour poet, Texas, Georgia, and when you are really in trouble with the police. References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot~11-Chris-Chandler/

Bob Loy is Director of Orchestra Personnel and Librarian at Opera Philadelphia. We discuss classical music in the time of the pandemic, production of orchestral, opera, and chamber music, and music in general. Bob was a wonderful guest and we know he has many more stories to share. We hope to have him back soon.

Lionel and Jim discuss Jim’s exodus from Spotify, Napster, the business of music, the DMCA, common misused words like non-plussed, fixing the mess that still is email, the idea of Merit in Jim’s Wakeful Wanderer novels, Malcom Gladwell, and Moneyball. The audio mix on this was terrible. Jim is too loud, Lionel is too quiet. After trying his best to mix this one, Jim decided to move to...

Lionel and Jim discuss the French Toast Alert System, Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Disposessed , William Gibson’s The Peripheral , Jim’s adventures with Spotify and streaming, and Jim’s theory about the movie The Social Network .References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot~08-Meet-The-Pope/

Lionel and Jim discuss finding office space, The Rings of Power, Tolkien and England, Station Eleven HBO adaptation, The Expanse finale, Company Email, and Jim's reflections on having joined a cult. Mentioned: The Rings of Power, William Morris, Gary Gygax, Coal: A Human History, Station Eleven, The Expanse Book series, Uncoverage by Una Morera, My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgård, Correc...

Lionel and Jim talk about the dawn of broadband and the internet in Texas and New England, invasive technologies, Jim’s novels, and more.