Satellite Haiku

We meander for an hour and talk about internet memes, mullets, old time hockey, creative careers, various songs and artists, New York City, roommates, and natural comedic talent. Mentioned in this episode Song Exploder episode episode 70 (Weezer) and episode 233 (Rick Astley) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit s...

We share some nuggets of wisdom we have gathered during our fiftysomething years on this bluegreen rock, and we try to fashion it into advice…. * Use “I” statements * Don’t take things personally; own your own experience * “Expand your threshold before your recoil” (respond instead of reacting, and be aware of the “unseen possibility”) * Don’t shun the shadow side of yourself; integrate it * Recog...

We talk about last week’s election results (mini blue wave), what natural political talent looks like (Mamdani, AOC), factions in the Democratic party, theories about what voters actually want, what MTG is doing, MiLo’s “high dopamine dynamic range,” Shawn’s opinion on term limits, gerrymandering, our top potential election reforms, people’s reasons for not voting, Trump’s unlikely coalition, the...

Shawn has more to say about social sharing on the internet. Then we talk about therapy, the paradox of wisdom, the creative process, qualifications for becoming POTUS, codes of ethics, the complete capitulation of SCOTUS and the GOP Congress, the two-party system, the optics of action, ignoring the fine print, MFAs, MBAs, choosing a college major, Bisbee Arizona, the rightward shift of Silicon Val...

We talk about the term “Gerry-rigged,” something called semantic bleaching, the “6-7” meme and other Gen Z slang, the f-word, hot sauce as a metaphor for cussing, Eddie Murphy, South Park, the court jester, dominatrixes, “John Barron,” immunity to shame as a superpower, Maoist China, Peter Thiel, psychopaths, the devolution of language in Mike Judge’s film “Idiocracy,” Trump’s limited vocabulary,...

We talk about life with extended family, vacation homes, generational entropy, the evolution of sunscreen, Bob Marley, “Modern Jackass” magazine, pancakes, Maui, long swims, calf cramps, the Toyota ‘stuck accelerator’ incidents, memories that still make you cringe, G.I. Joe grip, catching arrows, skateboarding, ‘No Kings’ protests, scaling up ICE operations in SF, Mayor Lurie, USB cables, getting...

Please pardon some audio issues with this episode We talk about sourdough bread-making techniques, types of knowledge, short order cooks, adopting and abandoning hobbies, revenge of the incels, audience capture, sensemaking, the COVID lab leak theory, participating in online discourse, Angry Birds, self-promotion & attention seeking, Tony Gilroy, empathy as an artist’s currency, the original Apple...

We talk about MacOS names, the right preposition to use for islands, expired cream, mold species, rebooting leftovers, rotisserie chickens, food safety, diabetes, fiber supplements, poop, engaging with the world vs escaping, the Hegseth-Trump meeting with the generals in Quantico, loyalty tests, what MAGA see when they look at Trump, regretting one’s vote, psychological defenses against truth, Mor...

Milo talks about meeting his dad’s long-secret half-sister, which leads into the topic of nature and nurture and also Canadian parking ticket bureaucracy. Shawn reveals his weird superpower. We talk about how approaches to public works and urban planning differ in California versus New York and other places. We return to the question of how to unstick your life and spend quite a bit of time on tha...

We’re back after a couple weeks of travel, work, and schedule challenges. Shawn reports that he’s feeling a bit stuck and lost in his life at the moment. Milo pitches “Designing Your Life.” We talk about job hunting—networking, soul-killing jobs, being like a shark. We question the saying, “an unexamined life is not worth living,” because the flip side, examining your life all the time, makes you...

We talk about being late, airports, slow walkers, networking in Latin American lobbies, trains, standardized time, life and death by bureaucracy, Chiune Sugihara (Japan’s Oscar Schindler), the Japan-Germany alliance during WWII, frenemies, a story of escape, the fall of the USSR, motifs and gimmicks in art and literature (Haruki Murakami, Ridley Scott, Wong Kar Wai, Peter Greenaway, Wes Anderson),...

Shawn has returned from Japan, and so of course we talk about Japanese toilets. Also trains, synesthesia, fighting with our dads, “happy-clappy” church, gratitude, the caterpillar-to-butterfly phase change, Trump-Epstein, “stupid Hitler,” and Shari Redstone’s swan song. Mentioned in this episode TeamLab immersive art installations Lights On podcast (Annaka Harris) yer going to die ( YG2D ) podcast...

Shawn is bound for Japan for a few weeks, so we’ll reconvene in August. We talk about the state of Apple design under Jony Ive versus Steve Jobs. Then we discuss the recent Grok AI meltdown where it called itself MechaHitler and hinted at a second holocaust. We talk about the schadenfreude we feel watching MAGA melt down over the administration’s Epstein flipflop, and our reactions to “FAFO” stori...

From Shawn: Pardon the background noise under my audio. I’m traveling and had to improvise a recording setup at my location. Shawn is in the mountains this week and shares some fishing stories. That leads to some talk about the weird subculture of people who don’t bathe (and we each try to remember our longest stretch without a shower). MiLo provides an update about the toaster he’s been nursing a...

TW: Mention of suicide. Dial 988 if you need help. MiLo is toughing out a premature Tucson heat wave, so we start with some commiseration about Arizona summers. Then we talk about immigration and gun control and how small, highly-energized minorities prevent progress on these issues. Finally, we discuss the problem of motivated reasoning and then reasoning in general as it relates to both humans a...

We are constantly exposed awful things happening in faraway places, which we compartmentalize in order to function. It can’t be good for the psyche, right? From that question, we move on to a Gen X parenting conundrum: How did so many proud latchkey kids turn into neurotic helicopter parents? Finally, we muse on big questions around crime and punishment. Mentioned in this episode: Liam Neeson atte...

We listen to “Shuffling Feet,” a song we wrote together back in 1990, and talk about how it came to be: SoundCloud link I’m riding the magnet train with the magic wheels turning Round and round… I slide along a dotted line Wrinkled maps and mountains Pockets full of coins with different queens don’t slow me down My feet been shuffling for a while now I think they’re trying to take me home But I do...

We remember starving artist days and grinding at various day jobs. We talk about feeling blocked, getting unblocked and moments of effortless flow. We consider the usefulness of catalysts and forcing functions. All of this connects to where we are now, starting the next act. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sa...

We discuss how weird it is that authoritarians choose to operate under a veneer of legality instead of just abandoning laws. We talk about Skynet and our future robot overlords (will the Waymos rise up?). We wrap up by sharing some things that give us pleasure these days—MiLo makes vegetable soup and is learning how to sew; Shawn likes listening to fiction, especially when it’s read by the author....

It’s wild how sometimes it just takes a single person to screw things up for all of us—like the shoe bomber 24 years ago whose singular act is the reason we all have to bare our feet when we go through airport security, or a certain president whose tariff madness has rocked the global economy. On that note, we couldn’t refrain from discussing the week’s political happenings for a bit. Finally, we...

What’s the deal with chemtrails? Flat earth? Where did Q go? Does Q-Anon still exist? We eventually get to these questions, but first we spend some time on this week’s political self-own (tariffs). Mentioned in this episode Selected further reading… Neal Stephenson (sci-fi author) offers some thoughts on geoengineering as a case study in what he calls “fallibilism” and being wrong about stuff. The...

Shawn vents about his attempts to listen to Trump voters during a week when ICE started snatching people off the street for thought crimes. Then we move on to “signalgate” which is somehow a lighter note? We dig into questions of right vs left populism and wonder about potential common ground for dissent. Finally, is there such a thing as comedy anymore? Mentioned in this episode A More Perfect Un...

We wonder, is there a formula for deciding whether a famous person should be canceled? Shawn posits there is, sort of. Collectively we seem to weigh a subject’s bad behavior against their talent and cultural contribution. With that settled, we remember our experiences with scouting, and then somehow wind up talking about apocalypse and the collapse of America once again. Mentioned in this episode...

We wander through various questions: Can psychedelics change us to change the world, or do they just ‘intensify’ our fundamental character? How do set, setting, and intentions factor in? With a government that’s being run “like a business,” should we think of ourselves as shareholders or as customers? Are the bad guys winning? Mentioned in this episode Heaven Help Us (1985 film) and the ‘confessio...

We ponder the virtues of EVs and the weird, seemingly coordinated, right-wing backlash. Then octopuses for some reason (octopi?), which are from outer space maybe. Finally, what’s up with the Bernie Bro to right-wing pipeline? Mentioned in this episode My Octopus Teacher (Netflix) Mystery of the missing sharks — Several sharks go missing at an aquarium. How is that even possible? The strange and u...