Episode 118: The Pros and Cons of Gerontocracy
Send us Fan Mail You may have noticed that there are a lot of very old people clinging to positions of authority, from our current president (79 years old) to our former president (82 when he left off...
31 Aug 202542min
Episode 117: What Rousseau Might Say About the USA
Send us Fan Mail In The Social Contract, the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau suggested that democracy was feasible only in smaller polities where the citizens have shared common interests. What migh...
18 Aug 202545min
Episode 116: The Cemetery Industry is Not Dead Yet
Send us Fan Mail When visiting a few cemeteries recently, Joe was struck by how clean and well-maintained but desolately empty they were. That prompted him to ask Mark about the economic viability of ...
4 Aug 202534min
Episode 115: Will There Be Enough Water?
Send us Fan Mail Water seems to many of us like an unlimited resource, what with oceans covering 71% of the Earth’s surface. But less than 3% of the world’s water is fresh, and nearly a third of that ...
20 Juli 202557min
Episode 114: About Those Expiration Dates…
Send us Fan Mail What do the following household items have in common: A jar of aspirin; a tube of toothpaste; a clear plastic bottle; a package of KN-95 masks? Answer: they all expire on a certain da...
5 Juli 202538min
Episode 113: Green Lawn Origin Story
Send us Fan Mail For decades, American suburbia has resembled one continuous green lawn stretching across property boundaries in every direction. Indeed, lawns are part of the fabric of American life....
15 Juni 202559min
Episode 112: We’re Dawdling on High-Speed Rail
Send us Fan Mail Bullet trains have been a major component of transit systems in places like Japan, China, and Europe for decades. Why hasn’t high-speed rail taken root in the supposedly forward-think...
31 Maj 202536min
Episode 111: We Best Not Nuke Nuclear
Send us Fan Mail To meet the increased demand for carbon-free electricity that might mitigate the climate crisis that is already upon us, nations the world over are reconsidering nuclear energy. Mans...
13 Maj 202551min
