040 - Project Genetrix (feat. Kelsey Atherton)
Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast
Release Date: 03/10/2023
051 - These People Are Not Your Friends (August Mailbag)
Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast
Questions Kyle and Jennie join me for an unusually strong mailbag. In this first part we talk the wild events of the last month in the presidential election, fielding several questions about what is and isn't different now that Harris-Walz has replaced Biden-Harris. Is "You're weird" a good strategy? Do they have their shit together at long last? Why does the campaign feel so different, and is that real or in our heads? This is the (free!) first half of a two-part episode; , so go ahead and sign up for as little as 1 American Dollar. It's worth it, I promise. Please support Mass for...
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050 - Biden's Brain, Trump's Ear
Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast
Questions Kyle and Jennie join me for a close look at three of the wildest weeks in recent American political history - we talk the Trump assassination attempt, Biden's brain, JD Vance, and (checks notes) former Buffalo Bills kicker Scott Norwood. You are currently listening to the first half (free!) of a two-part episode; , so go ahead and sign up for as little as 1 American Dollar. Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, . Contact me on Bluesky at edburmila.bsky.social. Thanks: QK, QJ, the bands that contribute music (, , ), Zachary Sielaff,...
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049 - Race to the Future with Kassia St. Clair
Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast
Kassia St. Clair, author of the 2017 best-seller and the Sunday Times Book of the Year follow-up (2019) joins me to talk about her new book, . It's the story of the utterly bonkers 1907 auto race from Peking to Paris, which didn't let things like the fact that roads and gas stations didn't exist stop some adventurous competitors from trying it. All 8000 miles of it. The widescreen artwork accompanying this episode is Kassia's map of Russia, laden with thread and post-it notes, which she references during our chat. Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, ....
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Minicast G2: Dundee United
Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast
In 1972 a middling team from the Scottish Premier League played four exhibition matches in Nigeria and distinguished itself so profoundly with its pitiful play (and boorish attitude) that its name became a synonym for stupidity. Grousing about how much your host country sucks while losing 4-1 to a team of amateurs called "Stationery Stores FC" leaves a pretty profound impression, I guess. The comedian through whom I became aware of this fantastic story . These podcasts are ad-free and self-produced; I value your support .
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Minicast G1: The Flying Boy trick
Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast
Question Kyle and Question Jennie join me as we discuss the 18th century fad of using the emerging understanding of the phenomenon of electricity to entertain. Men who considered themselves worldly natural philosophers and amateur scientists found it relatively easy to blow the minds of party guests by demonstrating some basic concepts that we're too jaded to appreciate today. Nowhere was this made clearer than with the Flying Boy stunt, aka the Hanging Boy. A child or small adult was suspended from the ceiling with non-conductive silk ropes. Then, electricity would be introduced into the...
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Minicast F3: Operation Washtub
Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast
Perhaps you've heard of Operation Gladio, the infamous post-World War II NATO program to train "stay-behind" agents to fight guerilla-style against a future hypothetical Soviet invasion of Western Europe. Believe it or not, the United States Air Force, briefly in partnership with the FBI, devised exactly such a program it carried out in Alaska between 1951 and 1958. This went beyond the planning stage - it was actually implemented. At least 89 civilians in Alaska were paid, trained, armed, and prepared to do...something...if the USSR charged across the Bering Strait and occupied what at the...
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048 - The Apple II Age (with Laine Nooney)
Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast
Dr. Laine Nooney (NYU) joins me to discuss the early days of personal computing - particularly how people figured out what to do with home computers after they became convinced that they needed one - in their 2023 book If you were alive in the pre-internet era, this book is both a great trip down memory lane and a new way to think about the usual hagiographic "Great Man" retellings of the early years of the industry. If you're a bit younger, you'll get great insight into just how not obvious it was what in the hell we would do with computers at home, even though it seemed like everyone wanted...
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047 - The Great American Transit Disaster
Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast
Professor and author Nicholas Dagen Bloom joins me to discuss his new book (University of Chicago Press). You know transit is a mess in the United States but take my word for it: after reading this book you will understand how and why in a brand new way. If you think you already know the story, you don't! Question Cathy is traveling the world, so Question Kyle and Question Jennie pinch-hit for her in a truly stellar Mailbag. Half of the Mailbag is included in this episode, and then the rest is available as bonus content on patreon, because capitalism. Please support Mass for Shut-ins,...
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046 - Assemble for Assemblies
Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast
Continuing a topic we broached on a recent bonus episode on Patreon, Questions Kyle and Jennie join me as we sort through the wonderful if baffling world of school assemblies submitted by listeners and readers. You have to hear some of this stuff to believe it, but suffice it to say America's educational system is very concerned about abstinence and marijuana. Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, . Contact me via twitter (), at least for now. I am on Bluesky at edburmila.bsky.social as well. Thanks: the bands that contribute music (, , ),...
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045 - All-Mailbag Episode 2023
Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast
Question Cathy returns for a long overdue dip into the mailbag. We hit a range of topics including: how the recent Supreme Court ruling will affect college admissions, 90s cultural fads, the mind-bending heat affecting much of the planet this summer, what the DeSantis campaign's flop tells us about the war on "wokeness," and how some state-level Democratic parties have gotten so much done with razor-thin majorities. Plus I drop the least obscure hints yet about my forthcoming book and we reveal the most appealing presidential candidate for a post-Biden Democratic Party. Cathy mispronounces...
info_outlineMotivated by the Chinese balloon story that recently if briefly dominated the news, Kelsey Atherton (@AthertonKD) joins me to talk about PROJECT GENETRIX (1956), a Pentagon scheme to float almost 600 balloons over remote parts of the USSR and China. Turns out balloons are not well-suited to espionage duty for reasons that should be obvious to anyone over the age of ten.
We also talk plenty about the recent balloon incident, the link between GENETRIX and the phenomenon of UFO sightings, and about how a crashed GENETRIX balloon is indirectly responsible for mankind's first photos of the dark side of the moon.
Check out Kelsey's substack, Wars of Future Past, and his recent contribution to Slate on the China incident.
Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via twitter (@edburmila).
Thanks: Kelsey, the bands that contribute music (IfIHadAHiFi, The Sump Pumps, Oscar Bait), Zachary Sielaff, Question Cathy, and all Patreon supporters, subscribers, and listeners.