The Conversation

[Matterplay1]

This is a podcast series that I've been listening to for a while. The authors of the series have made it their business to go about North America interviewing people who have something interesting to say about the future. Conversations have included those with many people that those of us in the OA project have heard from, or heard of, like Tim Cannon, Robert Zubrin, Max More and so on, plus plenty of the usual libertarian crowd (why does libertarianism get such big play in SF, anyway? that's a topic worth our discussion at some point), including a few I hadn't heard of (Oliver Porter could well be a NoCoZo spokesbeing), but there are others like Wes Jackson and Jan Lundberg and particularly Joseph Tainter who also merit OA attention but haven't been discussed much here (though the interview with Tainter didn't come across as convincingly as his books do -- those, are worth a read for anybody who is interested in the future). Then there are people like John Zurzan, who could easily be a speaker for OA's Prim movement, or Phyllis Tickle, who presents a rather surprising view on religions in society that we might incorporate at some point. Then again there are some things that are not immediately OA relevant but are nonetheless fascinating, like Scott Douglas, who informs us that the state of Alabama has special amendments in its constitution (the longest state constitution in the USA) that are intended to prevent public transit, and discusses the side effects of that...

In all, some interesting bits & worth a listen here and there.