Satellite Haiku

Shawn vents about his attempts to listen to Trump voters during a week when ICE started snatching people off the street for thought crimes. Then we move on to “signalgate” which is somehow a lighter note? We dig into questions of right vs left populism and wonder about potential common ground for dissent. Finally, is there such a thing as comedy anymore?Mentioned in this episodeA More Perfect Union — (progressive worker-rights organization doing good work to engage working class conservatives)Moral Foundations Theory — Jonathan Haidt’s framework for thinking about how people make moral decisions, which suggests some interesting differences between leftists and conservatives.The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, and the “dark forest hypothesis” it introduces as an answer to the Fermi Paradox. Maybe all intelligent life in the universe is hiding for the sake of its own survival.SETI@HomeThe “AFL-CIA” dark chapter of the AFL-CIO, mentioned in Whit Stilman’s film Barcelona This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

We wonder, is there a formula for deciding whether a famous person should be canceled? Shawn posits there is, sort of. Collectively we seem to weigh a subject’s bad behavior against their talent and cultural contribution. With that settled, we remember our experiences with scouting, and then somehow wind up talking about apocalypse and the collapse of America once again.Mentioned in this episodeApocalypto—2006 film written and directed by Mel GibsonAn ancient Aztec tower of skullsHitler’s Willing Executioners, by Daniel GoldhagenWebelos = WE BE LOyal ScoutsThree Days of the Condor—1975 Sidney Pollack political thriller starring Robert Redford and Faye DunawayA correctionEnnis Cosby, son of Bill Cosby, was murdered in Los Angeles in an apparent robbery attempt while stopped on the side of a freeway to change a flat tire. In a similar tragedy we mention in this episode, it was Michael Jordan’s father, James Jordan, not his son, who was murdered while sleeping in his car. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

We wander through various questions: Can psychedelics change us to change the world, or do they just ‘intensify’ our fundamental character? How do set, setting, and intentions factor in? With a government that’s being run “like a business,” should we think of ourselves as shareholders or as customers? Are the bad guys winning? Mentioned in this episodeHeaven Help Us (1985 film) and the ‘confession’ scene where Kevin Dillon’s character helps his classmates renegotiate their sin lists:Rebecca Solnit, A Paradise Built in Hell, The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

We ponder the virtues of EVs and the weird, seemingly coordinated, right-wing backlash. Then octopuses for some reason (octopi?), which are from outer space maybe. Finally, what’s up with the Bernie Bro to right-wing pipeline?Mentioned in this episodeMy Octopus Teacher (Netflix)Mystery of the missing sharks — Several sharks go missing at an aquarium. How is that even possible?The strange and unique octopus brain, and the evolution of the octopus (very much independently from vertebrates like ourselves)David Blain’s world record breath hold on the Oprah Winfrey show, and how he did it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

What’s up with the reactionary moment we’re in? Is it reasonable to talk about “blue-on-blue” conflict or sectarian violence, or is that catastrophizing?Mentioned in this episodeElectric Dreams: short films adapted from Philip K. Dick stories (streaming on Amazon Prime Video), including Autofac, a film about a factory that continues to produce goods according to the principles of consumer culture, even though there are few humans left on earth to consume what it produces.Artificial General Intelligence (AGI): “…a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that matches or surpasses human cognitive capabilities across a wide range of cognitive tasks.”The singularity: “a hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable consequences for human civilization.”Severance (TV Series) — What are the elevator tones telling us?Blade Runner Voight-Kampf test — Deckard/Rachael, Leon/Tyrell CorpA mother of a trans girl testifies in front of the GA State Senate, noting that the trans issue was, conceived, message-tested, and intentionally designed to mobilize voters.Dark Winds (TV show) - A Navajo police proceduralJake Auchincloss on the Ezra Klein ShowTristan Harris and Daniel Schmachtenberger on Joe RoganThe Age of Anger by Pankaj Mishra, a book that provides historical context and parallels for the current reactionary movement and widespread ressentimentJohn Ganz on reactionary modernism and the tech bro fascist turnThree Days of the Condor (1975) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

Recorded on MiLo’s birthday, we talk about what has changed over the decades and what, perhaps oddly, has not.Mentioned in this episode1969, the year MiLo was born. Also the Apollo 11 moon landing, and subject of the Bryan Adams hit song (though not the actual “Summer of Love,” which was 1967)Also 1968. There are many major events we associate with 1968, but the 1968 Submarine disappearances comprise a strange and lesser-known series of happenings from that year.Tilt-shift: “the use of camera movements that change the orientation or position of the lens with respect to the film or image sensor on cameras”Ken Burns: Vietnam: Ten-part series covering the early days of US involvement through the fall of Saigon.Kali Yuga: “…in Hinduism, is the fourth, shortest, and worst of the four yugas (world ages) in a Yuga cycle... It is believed to be the present age, which is full of conflict and sin.” (Wikipedia)Event horizon: “In astrophysics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer… Any object approaching the horizon from the observer's side appears to slow down, never quite crossing the horizon.”Moore’s Law: “…the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years.”Wake Up! (album by John Legend and The Roots) vs the films Don’t Look Up and Idiocracy as examples of art with a message.Voyager space probe containing a golden record with contents selected by Carl Sagan, and other Knowledge Ark projects designed to preserve knowledge for future generations.Dear America: You are waking up, as Germany once did, to the awareness that 1/3 of your people would kill another 1/3, while 1/3 watches. — viral quote wrongly attributed to German film director Werner Herzog.Being There and its protagonist Chance the gardener (Chauncey Gardiner) as a parallel to Trump.Louis C.K. “Everything’s amazing and nobody is happy.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

A decade of Trump has had us parsing the difference between shock and surprise (as in, we’re constantly shocked, but never surprised). We talk about the ‘move fast and break things’ model of Elon Musk and the tech bros who are tearing through the federal administrative state. We consider different ways it could go—what it means to have a nonfunctioning government, what causes things to slide towards true catastrophe (like civil war or sectarian violence), and what stops from going that far.Note to listeners: At one point in this episode, we talk about Caitlyn Jenner and remember the iconic Wheaties box of our childhood, and we accidentally misgender her. Apologies!Mentioned in this episodeEzra Klein and his eponymous ShowJohn Ganz / Unpopular FrontSecondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich — An oral history of the end of the soviet era, a collection of transcribed interviews.Marc Andreessen on Making Sense with Sam Harris, and on Matter of Opinion with Ross Douthat This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

We remember our dogs and their eating habits, like the time Shawn’s dog Larry wolfed down a family-size box of Frosted Flakes. We reflect on what it means to live intentionally at midlife, how to balance striving and ambition with acceptance and surrender. We share a few thoughts about the first days of Trump2 and particularly what’s going on with the billionaire oligarch set.Mentioned in this episodeJohn Ganz—public intellectual (not sure how else to refer to him) who writes in a clear-eyed way about politics and society, illuminating current events through historical and philosophical context. Shawn highly recommends three excellent pieces he put out this week: Mob Rule, Welcome to Vichy America, and Returning to Origins (revisiting the seminal work by Hannah Arendt). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

We reunite for our first episode of 2025 and remember our first cars, cars we drove too hard and too recklessly. Kids, please don’t drive like we did!Then we reflect back on our upbringing in a strange and little-known church that was founded on the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, an eighteenth-century scientist, philosopher, and mystic. There is so much more we could mine here, and I’m sure we’ll return to this in future episodes. Finally, we brainstorm possible skills we might develop for a post-apocalyptic world—not survival skills in the typical sense, but skills we could offer roving bands of marauders in return for their protection. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

We share some things we especially enjoyed in 2024—music, shows, books, and more. There are many more things we could have mentioned, but we digress as we do.Mentioned in this episode…Music* Jon Batiste * Snow Raven* Utah (Spotify link)Television* Shrinking (Apple TV+)* Reservation Dogs (FX)* Severance (Apple TV+)* Pachinko (Apple TV+)Books* Saving Time (Jenny Odell)* Oliver Sacks* My Stroke of Insight (Jill Bolte Taylor)Tech* Apple M-Series Macbook Pro This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

Memories of MiLo’s old family tradition of dancing around the Christmas tree sends us down weird side road into horror movies and the uniquely Japanese ability to find comedy in gore. Then we spend most of the episode discussing various perils and pleasures of city life, both physical and psychological. We each remember our experiences adjusting to life in NYC and talk about differences between east coast urban centers and the western cities we now call home.Mentioned in this episode:MiLo’s Odhner ancestry (the name originally referring to certain followers of Odin)Midsommar (2019 horror film starring Florence Pugh)Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre (2009 horror film, featuring Nae Yuuki)2LDK (2003) A Japanese film originally released as one of a pair of entries for something called the “duel project,” where the film’s director Yukihiko Tsutsumi and another Japanese filmmaker, Ryuhei Kitamura, were challenged to use the following template: feature-length film, set in one location with two characters, featuring a duel to the death, shot in a week or less. The two films were then screened as a “duel” where audiences voted for one winner.Oldboy (2003 Korean dark comedy)Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986 horror / dark comedy)Louis CK: “Homeless Guy” — This hasn’t aged super well and is a little hard to listen to, but the payoff, including how he incorporates the audience response, is worth it IMO.Jesus goes ‘Voldemort’ on a fig tree: The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it…When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered! (Mark 11:12-14, 19-21) Paolo Soleri, founder of Cosanti Foundation and Arcosanti and his book on the idea of a “Lean, Linear City”FORM (music festival)SFCASA — nonprofit that works with foster youth in the SF Bay AreaDutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom who has, through countless photos taken over decades, documented how we all dress alike: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

Note: Shawn had some technical issues with his sound on this one. Apologies for the subpar audio.Post-Thanksgiving, we weigh in on the pie vs cake question and veer into tales of pudding skin and lumpy oatmeal. Then we dive into a long chat about parenting. From the “mission accomplished” end of the parenting journey, Milo offers a perspective on the recipe for his girls’ success. Shawn, still in the thick of it with grade-school-age kids, shares a personal mantra that has helped him as a dad and with life in general. We dig into nature vs nurture, tackle picky eating, discipline, the importance of seeing your kids as actual people, and being present and curious and interested in who they are.Mentioned in this episode* Nature vs nurture studies using identical twins* The Accidental Twins (Netflix)* Parenting without Power Struggles, by Susan Stiffelman, MFT* Waldorf School Principles This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

We recognize that we are a stereotype—two white dudes with a podcast—and we talk about dealing with the critical and dissenting voices in our heads. And in the tradition of the holiday, we share what we are grateful for and tell some stories about our families. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

We recap the phases of our friendship, from the time we met in kindergarten, then when we reunited (and wrote folk songs together) in high school, and roomed together in NYC. Eventually we deep dive into questions about AI—is it like a brush, a tool for artists? Will it give rise to a creative revolution like photography did with painting? Will it destroy the market for artists’ work? What kinds of jobs are safe? Somewhere in there we ponder what it means to be an artist and what defines art.Mentioned in this episode…* The Onion bought Infowars LOL* Amusing Ourselves to Death (Neil Postman)* Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art - Ted Chiang in the New Yorker* The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894* John Baldessari - Influential artist who enlisted his students to be his ‘paintbrush’* Tristan Harris (featured in the documentary, The Social Dilemma) and his sometime collaborator, Daniel Schmachtenberger, who writes on “sensemaking” and lots of other stuff. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

Welcome to the second episode of Satellite Haiku. We plan to put out a new episode roughly every week, covering a wide range of topics. In this episode we discuss the multiple causes of the national epidemic of loneliness: from early mobile phones, the rise of smart phones, social media channels and addictive algorithms, geographic mobility, the Covid pandemic and zoom kindergarten. We look at how living in a world where a firehose of content is always in one's pocket—and at one's fingertips—necessitates a pivot to a reductionist mindset, where building a set of mental filters is required to protect our primitive brain functions. Also mentioned in this episode...* Laika the dog, the band (Spotify)* Shōgun 2024 limited series This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com

Is this thing on? Welcome to the first episode of our podcast, Satellite Haiku! Please pardon some hiccups while we figure this out. Like, we forgot to actually introduce ourselves (that’s Shawn talking first. Milo is the other). We plan to put out a new episode roughly every week, covering a wide range of topics. This episode is political for obvious reasons, and they won’t always be like that.Milo and Shawn discuss the election results, trying (but not completely succeeding) to avoid offering a diagnosis or postmortem. Milo comes with the perspective of a union member who spent many hours knocking on doors to get out the union vote for Harris. Both friends reflect on ways they still feel hopeful and how to start bracing ourselves (and preparing) for dark days that will come.One topic mentioned was the possibility of mass deportations, and how it might make sense to reach out to organizations that advocate for immigrants. SIREN is one that does good work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit satellitehaiku.substack.com