Podcast #36: Jerry Mander

Author and activist Jerry Mander reflects on a long life of technoskepticism and how it relates to the current global moment.

By Mo Lotman | January 5, 2021 | Advertising, Community, Culture, Economics, Environment, Media, Podcasts, Society | Capitalism, Coronavirus, Environment, Exploitation, Globalism, Grand Canyon, Image, Indigenous Rights, Internet, Media, Native Americans, Nature, Power, Propaganda, Television, The Sierra Club

Read more  

Podcast #32: Josh Golin on Marketing to Kids

Josh Golin, Executive Director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, fights a metastasizing marketing machine that has swept kids into its orbit of consumerism and surveillance.

By Mo Lotman | June 19, 2019 | Advertising, Community, Culture, Education, Ethics, Family, Law, Media, Podcasts, Privacy, Psychology | Activism, Advertising, Alexa, Amazon, Baby Einstein, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Children, Citizenship, Commercials, Community, Consumerism, Critical Thinking, Digital Nanny, Disney, Echo Dot for Kids, Ed-Tech, Edward Markey, Environment, Fast Food, Hello Barbie, Internet, iPads, Josh Hawley, Marketing, Mattel, Movement Building, Obesity, Pornography, Schools, Scree-Free Week, Screen Time Action Network, Screens, Smartphones, surveillance, Technology in Schools, TV, Violence, YouTube

Read more  

Podcast #31: Roald Hazelhoff’s Environmental Citizenship

Southern Environmental Center founder Roald Hazelhoff gives us a tour of his unique educational and community-building work.

By Mo Lotman | May 2, 2019 | Community, Culture, Environment, Family, Podcasts | Alabama, Art, Birmingham, Birmingham-Southern College, Children, EcoScape, Education, Endangered Species, Environment, Garbage, Garden, Mosaic, Museums, Native Plants, Partnerships, Pollution, Preservation, Recycling, Reuse, Sculpture, Southern Environmental Center, Stewardship, Stone, Students, Waste, Water

Read more  

Undoing Dystopia: a Review of Douglas Rushkoff’s Team Human

A review of tech and social critic Douglas Rushkoff’s latest book, Team Human.

By Geoffrey Dutton | April 25, 2019 | Automation, Community, Culture, Economics, Philosophy, Relationships, Society | Algorithms, Amazon, Boston, Capitalism, Civilization, Convenience, Corporations, Douglas Rushkoff, Economics, Efficiency, Enrico Moretti, Environment, Ethics, Evolution, Extraction, Human Nature, Mechanomorphism, Neutrality, New York, Silicon Valley, Socialism, Team Human, Technologists, Venture Capital, Wages

Read more  

Podcast #29: Jim Keenan on Environmentalism, Justice, and Faith

Father Jim Keenan of Boston College discusses Pope Francis’s views on environmentalism and social justice, and how those resonate across belief systems.

By Mo Lotman | March 27, 2019 | Community, Economics, Environment, Ethics, Family, Human Rights, Philosophy, Podcasts, Religion, Society | Abuse, Accountability, Amoris Laetitia, Bioethics, Boston College, Canon, Capitalism, Cardinals, Catholicism, Charlie Curran, David Satcher, Disease, Divorce, Ecumenicalism, Education, Environment, Equality, Gender, Genetic Engineering, Greed, Hierarchy, Honesty, Image, Immigration, Interdenominationalism, Jesuits, Justice, Labor, Laudato Si, Malaria, Marriage, Mother Teresa, Ordaining Women, Ordination, Paul Ramsey, Playing God, Pope Francis, Pope John Paul II, Poverty, Power, Privilege, Protestantism, Sexual Abuse, Sexuality, Social Justice, Socialism, St. Ignatius, Stewart Brand, Surgeon General, Sustainability, The Bible, The Jesuit Institute, Theology, Transportation, Tuberculosis, Working Class

Read more  

Podcast #27: Robert Lustig on Biochemistry and Health

Author and endocrinologist Robert Lustig explains the neurochemical difference between happiness and pleasure and how it’s been exploited to make so many of us fat, addicted, and depressed. Then, he reminds us how to reclaim our health.

By Mo Lotman | February 27, 2019 | Cognition, Environment, Family, Food, Health, Medicine, Neurology, Podcasts, Well-Being | Academia, Addiction, Adolescence, Alcohol, Amino Acids, Aristotle, ATP, Availability, Behavior, Biochemistry, Caffiene, Calories, Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, Cavities, Cell Death, Child Development, Chronic Metabolic Disease, Chronic Renal Disease, Clinicians, Cocaine, Computers, Connection, Connectivity, Contentment, Contribute, Coping, Cortisol, Dementia, Dentistry, Depression, Diabetes, Diet, Dieticians, Doctors, Dopamine, Drugs, Dyslipidemia, Endocrinology, Enjoyment, Environment, Exercise, Exposure, Facebook, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Flow, Food, Food System, Fructose, Giving, Glucose, Happiness, Health Care, Heroin, Hypertension, Hypothalamus, Information, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Marketing, Metabolic Syndrome, Metabolism, Mindfulness, Mirror Neurons, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Money, Multitasking, music, Myelin, Neurons, Neurotransmitters, Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Obesity, OCD, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Opioids, Peer Pressure, Personal Responsibility, Philanthropy, Pleasure, Polycystic Ovarian Disease, Prefrontal Cortex, Processed Food, Profit, Propaganda, Quantification, Refining, Regulation, Religion, Reward, Sales, Seizures, Seratonin, Sleep, Sleep Deprivation, Social Security, Stimulation, Substance Abuse, Substances, Sugar, Suicide, Taking, Taylorism, Technology, Tolerance, Tryptophane, Utilitarianism

Read more  

Podcast #24: Michael Zimmerman Gets Philosophical on Tech

In a wide-ranging conversation, philosopher Michael Zimmerman contextualizes our technological journey within the history of Western thought.

By Mo Lotman | January 9, 2019 | Artificial Intelligence, Culture, Employment, Environment, Ethics, Knowledge, Philosophy, Podcasts, Religion, Society | Acts of Enclosure, Addiction, Agriculture, Ancient World, Anger, Aristotle, Arnold Toynbee, Artificial General Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Authenticity, Axial Age, Behavior, Bible, Bolsheviks, Boundaries, Buddhism, Capitlism, Carolyn Merchant, Christianity, Civilization, Control, Craving, Creativity, CRISPR, David Loy, Death, Decadence, Deep Ecology, Delusion, Desire, Distraction, Earth, Ease, Embodiment, Engineering, Environment, Eternity, Exploitation, Exponential Growth, Facebook, Fake News, Fate, Finitude, Fire, Francis Bacon, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gnosticism, Golden Rule, Google, Greed, Hatred, Hegel, Heiddeger, Hubris, Human Nature, Humanness, Immaturity, Immortality, Industrial Revolution, Infantilization, Isaiah, Islam, Jaron Lanier, Karl Jaspers, Karl Marx, Knowledge, Lab-Grown Meat, Life, Loss, Martin Rees, Marxism, Master-Slave Dialectic, Meaning, Meat-Eating, Mediation, Medieval World, Metallurgy, Mind, Mining, Modernity, Money Economy, Morality, Mortality, Native Americans, Nature, Nazis, News, Nihilism, Obesity, Pain, Pascal, Peter Thiel, Philosophy, Plato, Playing God, Power, Production, Progress, Propoganda, Protestant Reformation, Ray Kurzweil, Reincarnation, relationships, Religion, René Descartes, Resentment, Resources, Respect, Sailing, Security, Self-Mastery, Silicon Valley, Smartphones, Socialism, Soviets, Spirituality, Splintering, Steve Jobs, Suffering, The Overman, The Singularity, Trade, Traditional Societies, Transhumanism, Twitter, Utopia, Wealth, Wildfires, Will to Power, Wisdom, Wonder

Read more  

Podcast #20: Huei Peng and Driverless Cars

A tour of autonomous vehicle testing track Mcity with director Huei Peng answers many questions, and raises others.

By Mo Lotman | September 26, 2018 | Automation, Environment, Government, Podcasts, Privacy, Safety, Society, Transportation | Ann Arbor, Automation, Autonomous Vehicles, Chauffeur, Commerce, Convenience, Driverless Cars, Driving, Efficiency, Engineering, Environment, Ford, GM, Greg McGuire, Higher Education, Lidar, Mcity, Mileage, Research, surveillance, Toyota, Uber, University of Michigan

Read more  

The Problems of Industrial Meat: A Primer

Industrial meat production has extraordinary costs to animal welfare, the environment, and human health. Acknowledging the immorality of these practices gives us an opportunity to align our behavior with our more humane ideals.

By Samantha Maxwell | April 25, 2018 | Agriculture, Environment, Ethics, Food, Health | Antibiotics, Beef, Chicken, Cows, Diabetes, Environment, Factory Farming, Food, Free-Range, Greenhouse Gases, Humane Practices, Hunting, Industrial Agriculture, Industrial Meat, Industrialization, Killing, Meat Production, Mechanization, Methane, Morality, Obesity, Organic, Pigs, Pork, Poultry, Protein, Slaughter, Superbugs

Read more  

US Finally Washes Its Hands of Antibacterial Soap

After years of arguably no benefits and known risks to antibiotic resistance, antibacterial soap is finally pulled from the shelves.

By Lorenzo Migliorato | August 16, 2017 | Economics, Environment, Health, Safety | Antibacterial Soap, Antibiotics, Bateria, Consumer Products, Environment, FDA, Germaphobia, Hand Washing, Hospitals, Johnson & Johnson, Mark Webber, Market Diversification, Pathogens, Stuart Levy, Timothy Burke, Triclosan, Unilever, Wastewater

Read more