Mansplaining

Send us a textFor decades, American suburbia has resembled one continuous green lawn stretching across property boundaries in every direction. Indeed, lawns are part of the fabric of American life. When was it that we all decided to put grass around our homes, and why? Joe and Mark ramble through America's iconic yardscape to dig up the history of grassy lawns, why they took hold here, and whether recent anti-lawn proclivities will eventually take root or be RoundedUp and killed like yesterday's crabgrass. (Recorded June 13, 20025.)

Send us a textBullet trains have been a major component of transit systems in places like Japan, China, and Europe for decades. Why hasn't high-speed rail taken root in the supposedly forward-thinking United States? Mark and Joe set off on a journey of discovery through issues like inadequate infrastructure, population density, and the usual economic and political obstacles before reaching its terminus in America's ongoing, dysfunctional love affair with cars.  Daunting as these challenges are, there's still a way forward, if we have the will to get there (a big if). (Recorded May 30, 2025.)

Send us a textTo meet the increased demand for carbon-free electricity that might mitigate the climate crisis that is already upon us, nations the world over are reconsidering nuclear energy.  Mansplaining listeners of a certain age remember the No Nukes movement that gained steam after frightening meltdowns at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.  What they may not realize is that nuclear power remains an important piece of the world's energy portfolio.  Joe and Mark assess nuclear's risk profile to determine whether it's part of the problem or part of the solution. (Recorded May 11, 2025.)

Send us a textRecent estimates are that the United States has a shortage of housing volume of 4-7 million homes. A problem of that scale doesn't happen overnight and involves decades of neglect and inaction.  With the chronic lack of housing likely to be a major issue for the foreseeable future, public policy experts have been brainstorming about potential solutions, and a few have dusted off an idea that's older than the Republic: a tax on the value of land without regard to the buildings and other property improvements on it.  Mark and Joe trace the history of the land-value tax, the difficulty of implementing it, and whether it can be part of the solution to our housing crisis. (Recorded April 18, 2025.)

Send us a textLike its cousin AGI, quantum computing, which harnesses the quantum states of subatomic particles to perform impossibly difficult computations at lightning speed, is a new-ish technology that many of its proselytizers believe is thisclose to reality.  The “quantum supremacy” of this new technology over classical computing promises stunning breakthroughs in areas as disparate as drug development, materials science, weather forecasting, and cybersecurity. Is it for real, though? Joe and Mark discuss the coming quantum revolution, the ways it's likely to change our lives, and whether it'll arrive quickly enough to be the subject of a future episode of Mansplaining. (Recorded March 28, 2025.)

Send us a textThe New York Yankees' recent relaxation of half-century-old rules about facial hair got Joe to thinking about dress and codes generally.  Why do they exist?  Where do they come from?  Mark takes Joe on a historical tour of dress codes, from ancient Rome and China through medieval Europe and Tudor England, ending in the modern era of school uniforms and casual Fridays.  As our heroes discover, attire-related restrictions are less about affirming people than about keeping them in place, serving as effective instruments of social or class control—and sometimes symbols of resistance. (Recorded March 14, 2025.)

Send us a textYou know them by their brand names, like Ozempic, Trulicity, or Mounjaro. They're the GLP-1 receptor agonists that were originally formulated for Type 2 diabetes but have caused a revolution in the treatment of weight loss. As more research rolls in, they're also looking like game-changers for treating conditions as far-ranging as heart disease, dementia, and substance use disorders. Do they represent a medical breakthrough on the level of penicillin, or are they too good to be true? Joe and Mark review the pros and cons and consider how some things in life can be truly double-edged swords. (Recorded February 28, 2025.)

Send us a textState lotteries are a 12-figure business in the US of A. Americans spend more money on lottery tickets than on books, video games, recorded music, movie and sports tickets combined. Of course, lottery revenue is allocated to public goods like schools and parks, but it's a double-edged sword, as lotteries are disproportionately funded by the poorest third of households, i.e., the people who can least afford them. Mark takes Joe through the checkered history of lotteries, their pros and cons, and the role they might play in the lives of all those people who trade their hard-earned dollar for an elusive dream. 

Send us a textHere are a couple sobering numbers: The typical American has only $8,000 in the bank, and the median savings for the age cohort approaching retirement is only $120,000. Neither is anywhere close to adequate. Might a fiscal cliff be approaching for millions of retirees? Joe and Mark do a deep dive into the scary numbers outlining Americans' financial distress and declining optimism about the future, consider some reasons how and why we became so uniquely bad at saving, and ponder whether this phenomenon is something new or simply a return to the perilous days of yore. (Recorded January 31, 2025.)

Send us a textYou've probably used a map app like Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze to help you get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible.  But did you ever wonder how they work?  Did you ever wonder whether we should slavishly follow their directions or be skeptical and consider external factors like our own prior driving experience?  Well, wonder no more.  Mark and Joe take the fastest route that starts with paper maps, brings them past an obscure  mathematician's brilliant idea, stops for gas to consider the wonders of GPS and crowdsourcing, and arrives at the destination of Clarityville (population: you). (Recorded January 16, 2025.)

Send us a textThe year 2024 brought more than its share of misfortune to your Mansplaining co-hosts, what with the double whammy of layoffs and a terrible election result.  But in the spirit of turning the page to the New Year, Mark asked Joe what he's feeling good about in 2025 and beyond, from multiple perspectives (personally, locally, nationally, and internationally). With hopefulness in short supply, Joe soldiered on with some reasons to be cheerful, but it soon became apparent that a more expansive, proactive definition of "hope" was in order. (Recorded January 3, 2025.)

Send us a textIn continuation of a Mansplaining tradition of holiday-themed conversations, Mark and Joe consider how we might heal our deepening political rupture and bring peace to a divided nation.  It's a daunting task that may take years, if it happens at all.  Making it happen involves redressing the loneliness and isolation wrought by a decades-long breakdown in civic trust.  Government has a role to play, but mostly it requires individuals to turn away from the purveyors of fear and disunion, listen to our fellow citizens, and plant the seeds of hope in a jaded body politic. (Recorded December 20, 2024.)

Send us a textThose of us above a certain age remember that flying didn't used to be such an ordeal.  Once upon a time, people enjoyed flights that had comfortable seating, decent food, and no extra fees for checked bags.  Might the coming technological innovations restore some of the fun in flying?  In a special bonus segment and addendum to Episode 101, Joe and Mark look back at the good old days of air travel, then look ahead to what the near future might hold. (Recorded December 6, 2024.)

Send us a textThe bankruptcy filing of Spirit Airlines underscores the existential problem for air carriers.  After driving many of its competitors out of business with its no-frills model of below-cost fares, bare-bones service, and nuisance fees, Spirit still couldn't make a profit.  How did we get to a place where the only thing shrinking faster than the number of airlines still in business is the amount of legroom in their cabins?  Joe and Mark tell the fateful story of air travel, in which the one-two punch of deregulation and September 11th led to a TKO of airlines and passengers alike. (Recorded December 6, 2024.)

Send us a textAfter considering why companies run out of ideas in our last episode, Joe put the same question to Mark about why so many of our favorite pop and rock music artists seem to run out of ideas.  Mark and Joe ponder whether this is a real phenomenon, and if so, what might cause it.  Turns out that early-career creativity is a complicated amalgam of neural plasticity, free time, and the commercial imperatives of a pop music industry that skews young.  And yes, Clayton Christensen's ideas about the innovator's dilemma might also apply to musical innovation. (Recorded November 15, 2024.)

Google had quite a run, from its market-leading search engine to Gmail to the Android operating system.  For the longest time, it seemed like a veritable fount of innovation.  But in recent years, dogged by antitrust lawsuits, it looks less like a forward-thinking innovator and more like a tired dinosaur trying desperately to hold onto its piece of the profit pie.  Why does that same evolution happen to so many companies?  Looking for answers in Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma and its subsequent critiques, Joe and Mark discover that the modus operandi of established companies might be more about fear than anything else. (Recorded October 25, 2024.)

When the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious affirmative action programs, it conveniently left standing the legacy preferences employed by colleges and universities that are described by some as affirmative action for rich, white people. Is it fair that schools are now forced to ignore the race of their applicants but are still allowed to favor the children of wealthy alumni and donors?  Mark and Joe examine the history and impact of legacy admissions policies in American colleges and universities and consider the arguments that there are good reasons for retaining them. (Recorded October 4, 2024.)

Every time the power goes out in Seattle, Mark wonders whether his city fell victim to malicious hackers.  It's a legitimate concern, since bad actors have been messing with America's energy systems for years.  But how credible is the threat of foreign hackers causing catastrophic damage to critical civilian infrastructure like our electrical grid and drinking water? Joe and Mark log into the wild and woolly world of infrastructure hacking and learn that it's a two-way street, with the deterrent of “mutually assured computer disruption” awaiting anyone who goes too far. (Recorded September 17, 2024.)

The CDC and Surgeon General recently released reports highlighting twin epidemics that are plaguing young people in our country.  For boys, it's loneliness and social isolation; for girls, it's persistent sadness and hopelessness.  Why are young people so sad and lonely?  Mark and Joe discuss whether loneliness is inheritable, how much of the blame we can pin on the distorted view social media provides of reality, and how, in the land of plenty, we can help our kids get the one thing they need the most: human connection. (Recorded September 6, 2024.)

It's been said that fusion power is 20 years away, and always will be.  Why is it taking so long?  Well, it turns out that generating temperatures as hot as the sun is hard to do here on Earth, as is controlling the fusion reaction so it doesn't vaporize everything it touches. Joe and Mark ponder these and other challenges to producing fusion energy, and whether any of us is likely to live long enough to see it become part of a carbon-free electrical grid. (Recorded August 16, 2024.)

We'll have a full episode next week, but in the meantime Joe is here with our very first White-Hot Take: brief remarks on JD Vance's recent assertion that the Democratic Party is under the control of "childless cat ladies."

The Supreme Court's recent controversial ruling about presidential immunity appears to rely on a shadowy notion of executive branch power called the unitary executive theory.  After gaining currency in conservative circles for decades, the unitary executive may now be poised to go from theory into reality, thanks to the right-wing SCOTUS supermajority.  Mark and Joe trace the theory's lineage, whether evidence for it exists in our founding documents, and the implications of its newfound legitimacy. (Recorded July 26, 2024.)

It wasn't so long ago that human fertility was likened to a ticking time bomb, with overpopulation leading to famine and ecological collapse.  More recently, we've heard that declining fertility rates are the real problem, bringing forth a shrinking workforce and economic ruin.  Is negative population growth something to worry about? Joe and Mark examine demographic history and trends, what declining fertility means for women and children, why the Goldilocks “just right” level of fertility is unsustainable, and whether that's a problem for humanity. (Recorded July 12, 2024.)

For decades, Americans have moved south chasing cheaper homes and better weather.  But after years of unremitting heat and more frequent hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods that have disproportionately devastated those destinations, you might wonder whether people start moving back whence they came.  In a follow-up to Episode 74 (The Weather Forecast is Calamitous), Mark and Joe assess the likelihood that a reverse migration of displaced climate refugees will happen anytime soon. (Recorded June 28, 2024.)

Just as colleges are finally being forced to pay their long-exploited student-athletes commensurate with the revenue they generate for their schools, we're beginning to hear about private equity firms investing in college sports programs.  Joe and Mark give it the old college try in analyzing the implications of this development on college athletics specifically and higher education generally (hint: they ain't good). (Recorded June 14, 2024.)

Over the past several years, bail reform laws—changes to the criminal legal system to reduce unnecessary pretrial detention, especially for non-violent offenses—were implemented in jurisdictions throughout the country, and many advocates for criminal justice reform welcomed these changes as long overdue.  There ensued a backlash, howerver, in which conservatives blamed recent increases in crime on bail reform and claimed it led to a rash of opportunistic recidivism by folks who should have been behind bars pending trial.  But did bail reform really cause an uptick in crime?  Mark and Joe separate the facts from the hyperventilation. (Recorded May 25, 2024.)

Neuralink, Elon Musk's neurotechnology startup, recently live-streamed footage of a paralyzed man with a brain implant playing video chess using only his mind.  According to Musk, that's just one of many medical applications for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).  But it is BCI's non-medical applications that are generating controversy among ethicists, in the way they aspire to create a symbiosis between people and AI meant to keep humanity from falling too far behind machines.  Joe and Mark assess the state of BCI technology and whether the coming age of human-computer hybrids is cause for excitement, trepidation, or both. (Recorded May 10, 2024.)

A common argument among sports fans is whether coming through “in the clutch” — where an athlete is said to raise his or her level of performance in the most important moments of the game — truly exists.  Some cite chapter and verse of their favorite players doing spectacular things under intense pressure to bolster their argument for its existence, while others insist with equal vehemence that clutch is a figment of the imagination, unsupported by the data.  Well it's the bottom of the 9th, folks, and Mark and Joe go deep on whether clutch is fact or fiction. (Recorded  April 12, 2024.)

"Inflation will be with us for years to come." "You can't lower inflation without raising unemployment." "Supply chain disruptions will cause a recession." These are some of the fables told in recent years by economic forecasters.  Their job is to use empirical methods to explain why certain things happen in the economy but they're notoriously bad at it, their predictions no more reliable than that of a palm reader.  Why is this so?  Joe and Mark assess their record, offering some explanations for why it's so terrible, and consider how “the dismal science” might step up its game. (Recorded March 22, 2024.)

Electric vehicle charging stations were recently installed in the parking lot of Joe's apartment complex, and that got him thinking about how our country's transition to EVs is going.  Have Americans been sufficiently incentivized to go electric?  Are there enough public charging stations to accommodate growing demand?  And what are the implications for America's rickety power grid?  With only a single charge, Mark takes us on a road trip through the history of EVs and forecasts when we're likely to see a critical mass of them on the road. (Recorded March 8, 2024.)

In recent decades, the Democratic Party has hemorrhaged support from the working-class white voters who once formed the backbone of its New Deal coalition.  While Dems have maintained a slight electoral majority over the last three decades, they've struggled to enact their agenda in a minoritarian political system.  What might it take to turn a slight edge into a durable governing majority, and which politician might lead them to that promised land?  Joe has his eye on John Fetterman, and he and Mark discuss Fetterman's career, the issues he champions, and whether he heralds the return of blue-collar liberalism. (Recorded February 23, 2024.)

This podcast has spent a lot of time on AI, whether in connection with its effect on the workplace, its application in products like drones and cars, its ability to create art, or how it's changing robotics.  But it hasn't addressed the inevitable idea raised by all those breakthroughs, which is how humanity will reckon with machines when they're smarter than we are.  Until now, that is.  Mark and Joe think about what artificial general intelligence and the singularity might require in the way of ultra-careful design and containment strategies. (Recorded February 2, 2024.)

January always seems to bring a spate of articles about how the new year will be “The Year of This” or “The Year of That.” 2024 has already been christened by some as “The Year of Robots.” It sure seems like we've heard that refrain before, and yet robots are still not part of our daily lives. Why not? Joe and Mark discuss the history of robots, two reasons why their development lags behind that of AI, and whether we're failing to notice a golden age of robots all around us because we're expecting them to look like Robby or C-3PO. (Recorded January 12, 2024)

Mansplaining continues a tradition with its 4th annual holiday-themed episode, though this time it's with a more personal question than we usually tackle on this podcast.  What are you thankful for?  Mark shares a story about an event from his childhood that changed the trajectory of his life, while Joe offers a short list consisting both of things that give his life meaning and things that are front of mind.  Think about your answer as you listen to ours.

The proponents of effective altruism believe that, when it comes to charitable giving, we should use reason and evidence to make the greatest positive impact.  The recently convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried proclaimed himself an adherent of EA.  Should his exposure as a crook make us think twice about it?  Joe and Mark appraise whether EA is a valuable moral compass, a convenient smokescreen, or maybe something more complicated.

One of the most intractable issues in contemporary U.S. politics is immigration.  Politicians in both parties have talked about comprehensive immigration reform for decades, yet no legislation is forthcoming.  Is that because there's no good compromise to be had, or is it because one party (guess which one) has turned its back on all immigrants, even legal ones?  Mark and Joe compare notes on what sensible immigration policies might look like.

What if our entire reality—everyone and everything we see and experience—is an elaborate simulation, a virtual reality app designed by a technologically advanced civilization?  (Yes, just like in The Matrix.)  That's what simulation theory posits, and Mark asked Joe whether there's any “truth” to it (a fool's errand, if indeed we're living in said simulation).  Joe and Mark consider an idea that might seem the province of late night conversations in dorm rooms or pubs but has a surprisingly distinguished philosophical pedigree.  Is Mansplaining part of the simulation?  Perish the thought!

The annual commemoration of the “heroes of 9/11” got Joe thinking about the concept of heroism.  What does it take to be a hero?  Why do we anoint certain qualities as heroic?  And what better person to answer these questions than Mark, with his PhD in mythology?  Mark and Joe trace the origin of the idea of the hero in ancient literature, its modification by Christianity, the development of modern American notions of heroism, and how, at the end of the day, heroes are at heart an argument about the world.

All the fuss about the new generation of AI products based on large language models, with their ability both to ghost-write term papers and spew out occasional misinformation in so doing, makes you wonder whether artificial intelligence will ever live up to the second part of its name.  Joe and Mark discuss what it means to be intelligent, how close (or not) AI comes to that standard, and what it might take to design a truly intelligent machine. (Recorded September 15, 2023.)

Mark and Joe briefly played organized football as kids; for both, it didn't end well.  Today, Joe is a parent of a son who didn't play football and wouldn't have been allowed to, even if he had wanted to play.  Given the enduring uber-popularity of football, Joe asked Mark, who doesn't have children, whether he would let his hypothetical son play football.  Mark's answer marches down the frozen tundra of head injuries and the difference between actual and perceived risks before scampering into the end zone of clarity.  Would he or wouldn't he?  Tune in to find out.

In recent years, the media has been rife with stories about prominent scientists and labs manipulating research data.  Such behavior recently cost the president of Stanford University his job, and headline-grabbing findings in several disciplines have been discredited.  Is this the canary in the coal mine signaling a much larger problem?  Joe and Mark test the hypothesis that scientific data is hopelessly corrupted by examining the perverse incentives of the scientific industrial complex as well as the burgeoning infrastructure for investigating research discrepancies. (Recorded August 11, 2023.)

In a summer plagued by heatwaves, wildfire smoke, and biblical rainfall, it's natural to wonder whether this is the new normal for our weather.  Scientists warned about many of these particulars, but even they've been stunned at how quickly they're coming to pass.  Mark and Joe contemplate whether climate calamity will render vast swaths of the United States uninhabitable over the next few decades, and whether our getting used to once-in-a-century weather events happening with frightful regularity might be part of the problem. (Recorded July 28, 2023.)

The core idea of universal basic income (UBI) is to reduce poverty by providing people with periodic cash payments sufficient to get by.  Guaranteed minimum income programs for the needy have been around forever, but unconditional cash payments to every citizen have been tested only on a limited basis thus far.  Joe and Mark examine the best arguments for and against UBI before considering whether the thrifty logic of targeted payments to some is preferable to the broad acceptance achievable by identical payments to all. (Recorded July 14, 2023.)

Politicians love to pay lip service to taming the deficit, but when they're in power, they invariably do the opposite, cutting taxes and/or increasing spending.  And yet, despite all that seeming fiscal recklessness, the U.S. economy remains strong.  It makes you wonder: maybe deficits aren't such a big deal after all.  In the second of a two-part episode about our burgeoning national debt, Mark and Joe consider whether deficits matter by conducting a chronological tour of economic thinking, from classical liberalism to Keynesianism to neoliberalism to Modern Monetary Theory.  Is the Left right?  Is the Right wrong?  We've got some answers. (Recorded June 30, 2023.)

Every couple of years, our elected representatives play a game of chicken that's the subject of breathless headlines predicting dire consequences.  Will we or won't we avert financial disaster?  We're talking about the debt ceiling, of course.  All that hysteria makes you wonder what would happen to ordinary Americans if the United States actually defaulted on its debt.  In the first installment of a two-part episode, Joe and Mark discuss why the debt ceiling exists, what a default would mean, and what we might do to prevent one from happening. (Recorded June 16, 2023.)

It's getting more and more difficult to live one's life without owning a smartphone.  After holding out for years, Joe finally broke down and got one after both his employer and his favorite baseball team made it a requirement to have a mobile device to do business with them.  Joe asked Mark whether it will someday be impossible to be a citizen and functioning member of society without one.  Join Mark and Joe as they ponder the sacrifices necessary to go without, and whether that renders you (to use James Joyce's memorable phrase) "outcast from life's feast."(Recorded June 2, 2023.)

It appears we've been sold a bill of goods.  For the longest time, workers have been told that innovative new technology is going to improve productivity and lead to shorter work weeks and more free time.  This story has been told since the advent of the assembly line more than a century ago, through the rise of computers and the internet, and now in connection with AI.  And yet, the promised life of leisure never seems to materialize.  Why not?  Joe and Mark discuss a few possible reasons why Americans don't cash in their productivity dividend. (Recorded May 19, 2023.)

Though not strictly a partisan phenomenon, the knee-jerk NIMBY ("not in my backyard") reaction is an impulse that wealthy liberals and progressives employ in many different contexts, whether to protect their coastline views from offshore wind farms or to shut down the siting of a homeless shelter or high-density housing in their urban neighborhoods.  But where does this impulse come from, why is it so powerful, and what can be done to counteract its often pernicious effects?  As Mark and Joe learn, it all goes back to how the primitive fear response sometimes triumphs over our ideological commitments in ways that are difficult—but not impossible—to remedy. 

For the first time, Mansplaining tackles a question posed by one of its listeners!  This particular question doesn't have a single correct answer, but it does lend itself to spirited discussion about what is and is not a pop song, and the elements that make a pop song great.  Joe and Mark delve into that and much more before each disclosing their nominees for "Best (Written) Pop Song Ever." (Recorded April 13, 2023.)

The recent bankruptcy of a large regional sports network that carries the games of nearly half the teams in MLB, the NBA and NHL has some people wondering what happens when the old economic model that enriched everybody in professional sports  doesn't work anymore.  Mark is one of those people, so he asked Joe to look into the matter and predict what's next for pro sports. Turns out, it's a sobering story of cord-cutting, the digital transition, and the atomization of society. (Recorded March 24, 2023.)

Conservative politicians love their bogeymen, and you can make a good argument that the bogeyman du jour in American politics is critical race theory.  It's a constant topic in conservative media and the target of legislative bans in red states all over the country.  But do its critics actually know what the term means?  Joe doesn't think so, and so he asked Mark to mansplain it for the rest of us, with a focus on why it's been such a lightning rod for political controversy. (Recorded March 3, 2023.)