Sure, now everyone (and their annoying friend) has a podcast, but not in 2009, when Maron got his start with WTF. "The podcast made me feel as if ... I could also come back from career humiliation in a way that could be creatively satisfying.” - The New York Times
“What began as a story about transcending cultural boundaries through sports has turned into a symbol of just how little China and the U.S. understand each other—and how little interest they have in trying.” - The Atlantic
Try this 40-year-old kids’ movie. Beneath The Goonies’ "awkward stereotypes and slapstick humor from 1985 lies powerful messaging about what it means to belong, to resist, and to imagine abundance in the face of systemic scarcity.” - Salon
You can tell what a culture values by who it labels a genius—and also what it is prepared to tolerate. The Renaissance had its great artists. The Romantics lionized androgynous, tubercular poets. Today we are in thrall to tech innovators and brilliant jerks in Silicon Valley. - The Atlantic
The prospect of speaking dolphin or whale is irresistible. And it seems that they are just as enthusiastic. In November last year, scientists in Alaska recorded an acoustic “conversation” with a humpback whale called Twain, in which they exchanged a call-and-response form known as “whup/throp” with the animal over a 20-minute period. - The Guardian
Technically speaking, an algorithm wrote the text, but a human had to prompt the algorithm. So who or what is the author? Is it the algorithm, or the human, or a joint venture involving both? Why does it even matter? - Noema
I’m not claiming that most people are saying “Let’s get rid of capitalism,” because it still delivers the bacon, to some extent. But I do think that many people are looking for a way to make it work better for everybody, and not just for the few. - Yale Review
When you listen to a steady rhythm, your brain doesn’t just process it—it reconfigures itself in real time. A new study introduces FREQ-NESS, an advanced neuroimaging method that reveals how different frequencies of brainwaves form dynamic networks across the brain. - Neuroscience News
“The structures are built using a range of materials and passive cooling principles. The facade of the Bima microlibrary in Bandung was built in 2015 with 2,000 discarded ice cream buckets.” - The Guardian (UK)
A professor of political science writes that there's “extensive research finding correlations between one’s tendency to believe in the bootstraps version of the American Dream and exposure to shows like America’s Got Talent, American Idol, and Shark Tank.” - Salon
“In the cutthroat world of food social media, recipe photos need to look not just good but incredible. People eat with their eyes, and that applies doubly when they’re choosing recipes to make from a vast online catalog that can often feel overwhelming.” - Slate
Maybe - but no sarcasm, please. "We already have umpteen animated takedowns – Robot Chicken’s fever-dream dismemberments, Family Guy’s fart-laced remakes – and they’re fine, in their way.” But not from the franchise itself. - The Guardian (UK)
