Note: The first episode shown during the Second Quarter 2013 was a rerun of #362 on March 25, 2013.
Episode #632: Not Before I Have My Pancakes
First Broadcast: 4/1/13
Repeated: 8/5/13
New York in the 70s, non-standard work schedules, Headline News, funding the Postal Service, and voter ID laws are some of the subjects we discuss in this meandering episode. There might be others in there, but let's leave it at that.
Episode #633: The Demi-Monde
First Broadcast: 4/15/13
What is Cthulhu? How do you pronounce it? What was "Cut Piece"? Who is Marina Abramovic? What is "The Maybe"? What is art? What is National Geographic saying about the 1980s? These, and many other questions may be answered tonight... or maybe not.
Episode #634: I Hope It's a Carrot
First Broadcast: 4/22/13
We briefly mentioned Gunsmoke, and then we moved on to carriage horses, filibusters, the "losing" gun control vote in the Senate, and the origins of the Second Amendment. Almost a vacation compared to what else was going on this week.
Episode #635: Hyper Fearful
First Broadcast: 5/6/13
Mayor Bloomberg defends his police commissioner's racist "Stop-and-Frisk" policy because he's still afraid of 9/11. President Obama is keeping scores of people detained indefinitely in Guantanamo Bay because he's still afraid of 9/11. If airlines today had the same rate of accidents and attacks as they did in the 1980's, many Americans would go completely apeshit because they're still afraid of 9/11. Is the U.S., as a nation, still so psychologically rattled by the events of September 11, 2001, that it's become incapable of living by its own ideals of "free people", which by their very nature entail accepting at least some amount of risk in everyday life? The jury may still be out.
Episode #636: The Show Must Go On
First Broadcast: 5/13/13
In this episode, we finally surpass Gunsmoke for sheer number of episodes, and discuss TV westerns, the First Amendment, Spanish conquistadors and the Inquisition, religious freedom, reality television, genocide, and debaucherous Roman emperors, to name a few subjects. I'm sure there were more, but 'nuff said.
Episode #637: Picture-less MTV
First Broadcast: 5/20/13 Transmission experienced several audio dropouts of unknown origin.
Repeated: 11/11/13
Commercials from back in the day, Aubrey Plaza, Doing Nothing, beatniks, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Dean Martin, A Man And A Woman, and Turner Classic Movies occupy our thoughts this week. What? It doesn't have to be politics every time.
Episode #638: Slacking Solar Panel
First Broadcast: 6/3/13
Repeated: 9/23/13
Organic computing, Voyager, New York State's hurricane safety tips, proposed steel gates for Manhattan, a Japanese flood gate that looks like a brilliant idea, the Fukushima nuclear plant, "Stop and Frisk," private prisons, the school-to-prison pipeline, and Carl Sagan's thoughts on how humans fit within the universe all occupy our thoughts this week. It all made sense at the time, at least.
Episode #639: Massive Spying
First Broadcast: 6/17/13
After some speculation about how the Supreme Court might rule on gay marriage, we discuss the recent revelations of just how much the National Security Agency is spying on people in the United States, and anyone else who might happen to use the Internet. This is bad, for starters, because it puts our government's spying powers on par with those of the East German Stasi, something today's Germans are very able to recognize. The ACLU & NYCLU wasted no time in filing a lawsuit to stop this spying in its tracks. I can only hope that action isn't too little, too late.