Pol and Pop (Politics/Pop Culture)

We interrupt our usual schedule for this special episode-- the Trump verdict is in, and he's been found guilty on all 34 counts.  Woody and I discuss in our same-day reaction.

In part 2 of this 2 part conversation, we continue on with delving into the Trump trial, covering everything that happened from the beginning of the actual trial through to the end of the Stormy Daniels testimony.

Trump's trial is well underway!  In part 1 of this 2 part conversation, we start off with some undercard topics first: racial prejudice, treatment of animals, and various RFK Jr. news.  Since I didn't want this episode to be all undercard matches, I also included the first part of the title match, our discussion about the gag order! This episode is dedicated to Michael Garippa, my nephew...

In this episode, Woody and I delve into some side issues.  We delve into OJ Simpson and comparing his trial to Trump's, older athletes that are still playing or returning to their sports, local news about Key Bridge and Senator Cardin retiring. I'm experimenting a little bit with loudness normalization, since I feel like there's been too much difference between the quieter parts and...

In this, the final episode of Get 2 the Point, we start out by recapping the series.  Then, we talk about the U.S. Senate, including the history of the filibuster and the problem of aging Senators who don't have term limits.  After that, we speculate on where the U.S. political landscape is going from here.  Then we smoothly segue from discussing the Senate to discussing how various people ha...

In this episode, Woody and I get all caught up on current events again.  We start with a little more on the eclipse (mainly to hear about Woody's experience), then we address Iran vs Israel, the Trump hush money payments trial, new extreme Abortion laws in Arizona and Florida, how it seems like neither Trump nor Biden could possibly win (and yet...), and House Speaker Mike Johnson possibly be...

Sometimes, it's right in the middle of the day, and suddenly the moon gets right between you and the sun and it gets really dark out for a few minutes.  Likewise, we take a break from our usual series of politics and pop culture for this episode. I took a trip through Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas, scheduling it all so that I could see the April 8th...

Special note: I'm re-releasing this on April 8th, which is the day that a full solar eclipse is occurring across much of the middle of the United States.  If all is going according to plan, I'm out in Missouri now so that I can watch it from the zone of totality!  It's also part of a trip where I'm visiting six states in that west-Tennessee general area, all for the first time....

In this episode, I delve into the topic of High School education in the U.S., including more tape from my interview with Gary and Woody which I followed up on with further research.  Areas discussed include: ramifications (or the lack thereof) for bad behavior, racial disparities in suspension rates, diploma versus certificate tracks, bullying, and parents moving to better areas (with better schoo...

Even though politics has seemed relatively quiet recently, there's still a lot to discuss from the past two and a half months or so, in total.  So, in this episode, Woody and I tackle all of that-- both all the big things and all the small things-- and get up-to-date.

Happy Pi Day!  This seemed like a good occasion to get my latest episode edited by and put up on. Leap Day is a really big day for me.  So, not only did I make sure that one of my flashback episodes went up on that day, I also made a point to record this new episode on that day specifically, and go into my thoughts about it.  I trimmed out a lot, so hopefully it doesn't seem disjointed in par...

Special note: Daylight Saving Time in 2024 starts on March 10th... so I'm re-releasing this on March 9th.  Don't forget to set your clocks! -- In this episode, I address the terrible plan to switch the U.S. to permanent Daylight Saving Time.  I start out our journey by covering how humanity laid out the whole system of time that we use today, piece by piece over the span of several centu...

In case I don't have a new episode to schedule for the day instead, I'm at least putting this up-- Happy Leap Day! -- In this episode, I explain how representation of citizens works in the U.S. Government, how redistricting follows the census, what gerrymandering is, where it came from, why it's so bad in general, where things stand currently, and how things are only likely to get w...

Special note: I'm re-releasing this episode on 2/23/24, which is two years to the day after it was recorded. -- I sit down with politics enthusiasts and amateur experts Gary and Woody to ask them about the problems at the core of U.S. politics right now.  This helps me make sure we stay right on track, only addressing the most central, most important issues and not wasting anyone's time....

After making our predictions for the year ahead, Woody and I just continued our conversation and saw where it took us... which was all over the place from an abstract view of what happens after we die to just political commentary in general. This marks fifty episodes, not counting flashbacks... and a nice, general, deeper conversation to boot.  What better way to wrap up season 1 of Pol and Pop? ...

Will machines ever come to life and take over the world?  Here are the important basic facts behind what "you" are, ensoulment into a body, how computers work, how artificial intelligence works, and how it all ties together.  No wasting time here-- I cover everything you need to know about all of that in under 21 minutes.  Heck, I even throw  in a fun thought experiment about The Flash! ...

In this episode, Woody and I take a little while just before the end of 2023 to make some predictions about the events of 2024... politics, celebrities, sports, and who knows what else?  And then we segue into some deep philosophical discussion about souls and the nature of evil... no biggie, right?

Pol and Pop will be back with more episodes soon.  In the meantime, I've decided to use the available upload time for the current month to start re-releasing my eight episode limited series podcast from 2022, Get 2 the Point.  I'll be spreading these flashback episodes out over time along with new content. ---- General intro to the podcast, and how the U.S. Supreme Court just changed eve...

In mid-October, Woody and I recorded a three part Politics episode.  The first two parts were discussions about hypotheticals, like if JFK or RFK hadn't been killed.  We wrapped up the evening with a discussion of the news of the day.  As it worked out, the Birthday Words of Wisdom episode was almost exactly the right length to fill up the rest of my allotted upload time for the month, so I w...

In this two part episode, John Comberiate and I discuss the latest from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Loki Season 2 and The Marvels. Part 2 focuses completely on The Marvels.  Were you not particularly impressed by it?  Are you concerned about how things are going in the MCU at this point?  Well, you're not alone.  We try to address all of the problems here, both within scenes of the movie a...

In this two part episode, John Comberiate and I discuss the latest from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Loki Season 2 and The Marvels. Part 1 here mostly focuses on Loki Season 2... though there are some points in time throughout where we end up discussing some of The Marvels as well.  I blame it on the time-slipping. Full spoilers for Loki Season 2 and for The Marvels as well. Note: Tried somethin...

Since Woody's birthday fell on a Thursday this year, we figured it was a great opportunity to do something special about him.  So I interviewed him! We started off the episode with some quick thoughts on current politics, because that's just what we do, and then got going on the big questions.  Why do you believe what you believe, politically?  Why is there something instead of nothing? ...

In the second of three episodes recorded together in one evening, Woody and I discuss some hypothetical situations where a very small difference in events leads to a very large difference in outcomes. Here we discuss how things would have played out if Martin Luther King Jr. hadn't been assassinated, and how things would have played out if Robert F. Kennedy hadn't been assassinated.  Thi...

In the first of three episodes recorded together in one evening, Woody and I discuss some hypothetical situations where a very small difference in events leads to a very large difference in outcomes. Here we start off with discussing how things would have played out if Archduke Ferdinand had not been assassinated... thus completely averting World War I.  (Surprise-- things might have ended up far...

In this episode, I discuss the excellent modern 90's-style RPG Chained Echoes with John Comberiate.  Joe Comberiate was a bit busy with one of his kids when we were starting, so he joins us roughly halfway through. There are mild spoilers for Chained Echoes starting at the 49 minute mark.  I avoided major spoilers by either silencing or trimming out those parts.  So, there are some parts wher...