The Connect2 Podcast

Transgender is currently a hot button issue at this time and lots of people have strong opinions on the topic.  Unfortunately most of those opinions, on both sides of the topic are not strongly founded on science.  The research, for the most part, appears to be quite limited and often flawed.  Many of the studies approach the topic from a political approach which leaves big holes in the conclusion...

Mark and Jeff discuss how people thing of themselves and how they form the identity that makes them who they are.  We also discuss the politics of identity and the confusion regarding gender pronouns, where it started and where it has ended up as a political thing.  As usual we sample coffee, tell some dad jokes, discuss what we learned this week and contemplate the media that we have been consumi...

In this episode, Mark and Jeff discuss Mark's recent trip to Las Vegas where he went to see U2's last show at the Sphere (spoiler alert.... it was amazing) and then attended the Wedding and Portrait Photographer's conference (WPPI) one of the biggest photography events in the world.  As usual, the guys discuss what they learned this past week as well as what media they are consuming.  As a bonus,...

Mark and Jeff discuss the major decision from Apple to kill its autonomous EV project.  Over 10 years of development and $10 Billion and a staff of 2000.  Staff will be reassigned and scattered amongst Apple projects.  As usual, we sample coffee, tell a couple of dad jokes, discuss what we learned this week and review media we consumed.

Positive thinking has long been thought of as important to your health and wellness.  Mark and Jeff do a deep dive into how that works and what positive thinking means to them.  As usual we discuss things we learned in the past week (often space related), a few corny dad jokes and media we are consuming.  Check out our facebook group for links to the topics we cover (we basically fact check oursel...

Mark and Jeff discuss the concepts of Corporatism vs Capitalism vs the need to regulation in modern western societies.  In particular discussing where capitalism and be made accountable for decisions that affect society and the environment.  As usual there are a few dad jokes, things we learned in the last week and media we a currently consuming.

Back after a week's hiatus, Mark and Jeff discuss the significance of synchronicity and it's impact on your life.  When are things coincidences and when are they more than that?  We also discuss things we learned this week including tales of time travel and what media we have been consuming.

In this episode Mark and Jeff discuss fake bands and in particular the virtual band Gorillaz.  A band that has had a fair bit of success and was created as a bit of a thumb towards the music industry.  The band has a complicated and detailed back story for the animated band members.  Gorillaz is the brainchild of Damon Albarn (from Blur) and Jamie Hewlett (a graphic artist known for Tank Girl)

There are a lot of misconceptions about what ASMR is and why people might like it.  Mark and Jeff discovered that ASMR is not really what they thought it was and its a little odd/unusual, bordering on fetishness.  Today's episode is a little shorter than usual but in this episode Jeff/Mark used an additional microphone to capture some ASMR trigger sounds.  Unfortunately this podcast is recorded in...

Mark and Jeff explore the famous photo essayist W. Eugene Smith and his life, particularly when he went to Japan to cover something called Minamata disease.  One of his most famous images was taken there and there was a feature film based upon his life and travels to Minamata starring Johnny Depp.  The movie is excellent but did not do well at the box office and is a little harder to find.  Worth...

Dr. Temple Grandin is know for two things, her autism and how she has used it to help inform her professional career in Animal Science.  She has singlehandedly changed the food processing industry by making it significantly more humane.  She is a fascinating individual and the main topic of this podcast.  As usual we discuss what we learned in the past week, as well as what media we have been cons...

Mark and Jeff take stab at predictions for 2024.  Recorded during the Christmas break, Mark and Jeff discuss what they were most surprised about from last year as well as predictions (with differing confidence levels) for 2024.  This episode covers a lot of territory and is pretty free ranging.  Enjoy and have a happy new year!!!

Mark and Jeff discuss how a retirement age of 65 was originally arrived at.  Hint, it's not what you expect and its not scientifically arrived at.  The original reason for a social security program was to support people whose physical jobs were something they could no longer do to support themselves, but few were expected to take advantage of the programs at the time they were introduced.  Times h...

Bryan Johnson is a Silicon valley millionaire (almost billionaire) who sold his company at the age of 34 and now focuses on his anti-aging quest through the Blueprint protocol.  This protocol is an open source method of trying to extend your life based upon empirical data and evidence based science.  He sounds a little crazy (and he may be) but there is something to what he is proposing. It's also...

Most small businesses do not have pension plans or easy ways to extract their business' value.  To that end sometimes small businesses think they should buy their building to reduce their costs or at least having their payments to back to them.  There are pitfalls to this approach and anyone considering doing it should really think it hard and carefully.   Mark and Jeff discuss and provide context...

As part of our series on Neurodivergent (or suspected) celebrities, this episode dives into the enigma that was Stanley Kubrick the auteur film maker known for feature films such as the Shining, 2001: A Space Odessey, Eyes Wide Shut to name a few.  A man obsessed with detail, his meticulous attention to all aspects of a film would often mean they would take a long time to come to fruition.  He wou...

In the past week and a half there has been much turmoil at OpenAI, the company that has developed and launched ChatGTP (as well as Dall-E). Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI was fired on Friday Nov 17, 2023, subsequently tried to come back only to have the board decide not to hire him, hired by Microsoft and then rehired back on the following Tuesday.  It is big tech news because ChatGPT has taken the...

Mark and Jeff do a deep dive into the Artist known as Banksy.  Where he came from what he did and what seems to drive him.  Banksy is a complicated artist whose identity is not known (although it was recently revealed!).  His work is all political with lots of pranks.  He did a documentary in 2011 that was nominated for an academy award.  He has also done a huge amount of political commentary both...

Elon Musk is a complicated person.  Some people idolize him, others think he is a villain.  He has attributes of both and although he gets some visionary things accomplished because he is relentless, he would be a very difficult person to work for.  It is easy to understand how some of the things he had done can be interpreted more than one way.  Mark and Jeff discuss some of his accomplishments a...

Mark was interested in a biography of Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson as a result of a podcast from Scott Galloway and Kara Swisher (Pivot).  He has been reading the book and feels the criticism by Kara Swisher on the writer is poorly founded (actually it feels like she was reading some other book).  Her critique is that Walter Isaacson never states if he liked Elon, but that seems to have completely...

As people age, at some point in time you need to deal with either an aging relative or your own inevitable demise.  Many people try to avoid thinking about it until too late.  In this episode, after we talk about some space stuff, we discuss common issues as people age as well as how to plan for the future.  It is a difficult issue that sometimes only gets discussed or resolved when a medical cris...

This is a correction on the podcast file that was uploaded on Oct 24, 2023 which seems to have had the previous episode incorrectly uploaded.  Thanks to a listener for noting the error.  Enjoy Streaming has fundamentally changed how we experience music as well as the economic landscape.  A music genre that was once dominant in the 70's and 80's now is  a relatively uncommon sight on the charts.  T...

Just over a week ago, there was a vicious attack by Hamas on Israel that has horrified the world.  This terrorist act has led to a significant conflict re-igniting again in the middle East (it has basically been there for a long time but it flared up again).  Mark and Jeff discuss some of the issues and why both sides are in untenable positions and how everyone loses in this conflict.  This is a r...

In this episode, Mark and Jeff discuss what music they listen to, how to discover new music as well as old formats and what they used to do.  They also sample some coffee, tell some dad jokes, discuss what they learned this week and what media they are consuming.  Check out the podcast's facebook page for links to referenced topics at https://www.facebook.com/Connect2podcast

In this episode, Mark and Jeff discuss how they manage dealing with the incredibly fast pace of technology change.  They also discuss what they learned with past week, Jeff recites a poem, a few dad jokes and they also discuss what media they have been recently consuming.