Uranus McUranusface
Uranus McUranusface
All about your favorite planet, a great book recommendation podcast, AI harm, Atomic Habits called out, and other podcasts and links to make you think.
Welcome to Hurt Your Brain #185, the place to get podcasts and links that will make you think.
That email subject line will hopefully make sense after listening to The Allusionist below. Go ahead and do that ASAP.
If you are reading this during the busy holiday weekend (in the US at least), bless your heart. You are the best and I hope you will feel rewarded with the audio treasures below.
But first, I learned something I need to share. Did you know ants don’t ever have a proper sleep, and instead take hundreds of one-minute naps throughout the day? Ants are pretty wild. This all made me realize that ants really get the shortchange around idioms. Bees get “busy as a bee,” “queen bee,” “the bees knees,” and “the birds and the bees.” Ants get “ants in your pants.”
If you are celebrating the 4th, enjoy the holiday, don’t blow your fingers off, and enjoy the treasures below. Included are two mini-playlists I hope you like.
PODCAST RECOMMENDATIONS
The Big Idea: A delightful short episode about everyone’s favorite planet to say, Uranus. Never has an episode packed in so much learning and entertaining creativity into such a small space. Helen Zaltzman and partner in crime Martin Austwick do not disappoint with their several bits (including two songs) about Uranus.
“Although, Uranus is a ringed planet covered in methane and ammonia, so it does really lend itself to bumhole and wizz. Sorry.”
“Uranus had a complicated family life. The Greek gods so often seemed to have incredibly toxic relationships. And he was a really shit dad. Uranus was an absolute arsehole.”
Strong Sense of Place: Museums — A Gathering of Muses, A Clutch of Curators
The Big Idea: If you like travel and you like books, this is totally the podcast for you. These are excellent conversations between Melissa Joulwan and David Humphreys, a couple who are self-described introverts who love adventure. Each episode revolves around a place, with five book recommendations that flesh out the people there (but not travel guides). It’s a perfect mix between fiction and non-fiction titles.
This first episode I checked out is actually about museums in general, and I found the discussion and recommendations to be pretty fantastic.
Just two days ago we were in DC at the Smithsonian museums, so this was perfect.
Second episode I checked out was about Japan [site with transcript], which was just as excellent. As a bonus treat for me, it contained an interview with Tillie Walden, author of On a Sunbeam, a graphic novel I really enjoyed (and who happens to be great friends with co-host David).
Overall, a new favorite show and you should absolutely look through their feed at locations that interest you.
Pale Blue Pod: Carl Sagan in a horse barn
The Big Idea: Look, I’ll recommend anything that talks about Carl Sagan. Still the number one science communicator in my mind and this episode will help you understand why.
It’s never a bad time to listen to the famous Pale Blue Dot clip.
The deal with Atomic Habits (episodes below)
I read Atomic Habits by James Clear about two years ago and enjoyed it. I found it to be full of straight forward tips around habit forming, but admittedly this book is exactly why I have a rule of not forming a full opinion around self help/productivity type books until a year later. It’s easy to get high on the ideas, harder to make real lasting change. The actual impact this book has had years later is minimal, but I still love the idea of thinking about what kind of person you want to be and doing the things that type of person does.
If Books Could Kill did a interesting “takedown” of Atomic Habits in a recent episode. I was ready to get a little defensive while listening, but it’s honestly a fair review of the book: basic tips with useful framing here and there, repetitive blog style writing, and most damning, data cited that doesn’t hold water when examined. With that said, I’m glad they admit this book is harmless compared to books like The Secret or Nudge.
As some nice whiplash, right after this I listened to an interview between organizational psychologist Adam Grant and Atomic Habits author James Clear (on Grant’s podcast Re:Thinking). I found Clear to be likable and he didn’t overextend what he is trying to say.
I think it’s worth listening to both as a way to get an idea of what to ignore from Atomic Habits and what you can take away from it, because all said and done it’s worth checking out even just for one solid pearl. Both episodes can be enjoyed equally!
Your Undivided Attention (episodes below)
The Big Idea: A pair of episodes from Your Undivided Attention that were my favorite in the Ethics in AI listening list from Podcast Brunch Club. Well worth listening to both if you want to know what is happening, what guardrails need to go in place ASAP, and why you should be concerned (LOL as if we need more reasons).
I had never heard of this show, but the hosts have a mission to discuss how technology can be harmful and are behind the The Social Dilemma on Netflix. They are fantastic communicators and know their stuff.
Quote that sums up their view: “And AI is going to bring some incredible things, right? We will probably get much closer to solving cancer or parts of climate change, inventing new materials, creating new yeasts, which eat plastics. But the point we're trying to make is, no matter how good your utopia you create, if your dystopia is bad enough, it doesn't matter.”
Listen to their episode The AI Dilemma [website with transcript] or watch the viral talk on YouTube here.
Listen to their episode Synthetic Humanity - AI & What’s At Stake [website with transcript]
PODCAST LINKS
Feed warmer campaigns for your podcast. A great article from Arielle Nissenblatt appearing in Podcast Marketing Magic. I did a fun visual to go with it!
Podcasts Could Unleash a New Age of Enlightenment. I don’t agree with everything here but some interesting points worth engaging with.
OTHER LINKS TO MAKE YOU THINK
Science: Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulness. I’ve had this saved as a bookmark for no joke, a few years. Finally got around to it and it’s a delightful quick read. I was completely sold at the preface and anyone into science will love this.
How My Father and I Drew a New Life. A literal title and a great short read.
You can hear the word “Green Needle” or “Brainstorm” only based on which one you think about. I don’t understand anything. Btw, basically anything interesting I see on Twitter anymore comes from this account so it might as well be the only thing you follow.
FOR FUN
Having a little too much fun stressing out Bing/GPT-4 using its new ability to recognize images...
I’m currently typing this during a road trip on America’s least favorite highway, I-95.
Alright that’s all for today. Please like or comment (or reply) if you want to share any comments. See you next time.