Telekinetic

(1:40) Mitch introduces Greg LeRoy, Executive Director of Good Jobs First. (3:13) Greg notes that America's state and city governments spend roughly $70B/yr in economic development incentives to corporations, who often use those incentives in turn to pay no taxes on property or income over the course of their local operation, thus failing to deliver returns on the public's investment. He cites a depression-era Mississippi scheme as the origin of America's "tax break industrial complex", coinciding with the birth of "site location consulting companies" like Fantus, as the building blocks of a "second war among states" which has since produced net losses as a rule rather than an exception. (5:20) Greg explains how these tax incentives regularly go to corporations who are bound for the region anyway, given how little a local tax code contributes to the cost structure of company operations. (7:50) Greg notes that the highly-publicized Amazon HQ2 site competition is simply a rare public glimpse into the kinds of self-defeating dog-and-pony shows that occur hundreds of times each year, in secret. (10:36) Good Jobs First maintains a database of "mega deals" -- incentive plans over $50MM for one project -- and the average cost per job across such deals is $658,000, borne entirely by taxpayers. His message here is that such deals are, if nothing else, programs designed to transfer wealth from taxpayers to shareholders. (18:38) We discuss a particularly preposterous case study in the second war among states, occurring over the course of a decade between Kansas and Missouri vying for Kansas City job growth. In the end, the two states had collectively spent $321 million to lure 6,000 jobs one way and 5,500 the other way, netting a per job tax incentive cost of $642,000. Greg makes the important note that government eventually learned its lesson, and has since created an interstate regulation prohibiting either state from using tax dollars to draw jobs across the border in the Kansas City region. (27:12) Mitch's hot take: Americans yearn so much for familiar identity (which manufacturing and other blue-collar jobs promise) that many would simply ignore or willingly dismiss the obvious math that says these tax incentives are hurting their communities. Greg recalls the early part of his career, researching the tax breaks that incentivized plants to close and companies to move, and agonizing over the loss of direction and purpose those victimized towns felt. His solution: make the community the source of familiarity and identity, not the employer. Invest in education, health & wellness, good transit, clean air, and the stickiness of the city will stand above any corporate temptation.

(1:38) Mitch introduces Ben Sharp, the force behind progressive metal act Cloudkicker. (3:09) Ben reflects on the influences and innovations that shaped his "bedroom music" hobby -- a classification barely old enough to drink, as it references the 21st century transition from traditional lo-fi homemade music to the studio-grade technologies that place the means of music production almost entirely within reach of anyone owning a home computer. Among other influences, Ben cites the creation of EZdrummer (an application allowing for drum sounds and tracks to be programmed via computer) as a major stepping stone towards his independence as a one-man band. (7:27) Mitch plays a 20-second Cloudkicker clip to emphasize just how readily the music comes across as a 4 or 5-member group in a studio, when in fact it's just Ben and his laptop. (10:49) We address the democratization of music production over recent decades, as Mitch pegs a traditional studio album in the low-to-mid five-figure range. Ben, by comparison, estimates he spent less than $500 to produce (and effectively, distribute) his 2008 album "The Discovery". (12:56) We consider how much of stereotypical musicianship is gained, lost or changed when an artist circumvents the traditional tribulations of being in a band -- whether it's the local scene you absorb, the people you become linked to by chance, the touring and gear hauling, etc. (21:05) We break into our undergrad philosophy bag to debate what counts for creativity and artistry, and whether any objectivity deserves to be a part of the conversation. (24:55) Mitch's hot take, dragged up from his naive 19-year-old perspective attending psuedo-art school: the purest artist, hypothetically, is the one devoid of any external influence. Ben quickly pops the bubble by pointing out that virtually all art is motivated by emotions and experiences, hence the hypothetical uninfluenced artist wouldn't have much reason to create art at all.

Genevieve Miller opens up about food scarcity & insecurity. We examine the neglect of socioeconomic infrastructure, and how filling bellies inexplicably takes a backseat to filling potholes.

Dr. David Zetland discusses water markets and water economics. We learn that, instead of turning water into wine, our modern-day saviors must turn water into accountable behavior.

Jenn Sydeski guests. We chat about babytech, and how the proximity of a parent's "village" has dissipated over millennia... only to transform into an omnipresent digital collective.

Alex Cherones guests. We rub the dark underbelly of cybersecurity, and harp on a recurring theme that humans just love to learn the hard way -- a lesson cybercriminals are happy to teach ad nauseam.

Dr. Brett Stoudt guests. We marvel at the military-grade technologies empowering police to be everywhere at once, and how their Kafkaesque aversion to accountability turns any free world into an e-carcerated state.

Veronica Ahern guests. We anticipate adtech's influence on the quantification of consumers, while considering how algorithms continue to expand & exploit the gaps in our perceived reality.

Gary Walker guests. We trade data points while pontificating on the pursuit of remote work as a cultural shift; not just towards location-independent labor, but the rebalancing of personal space & time.

Tracey Zimmerman & Ryan Gialames guest. We map the progress of online learning over recent years, and what its growth means for the 70% of students who can't afford to hit the pause button on real life for five years.

Jamie Skella guests, as we lay claim to being the 2,487th podcast to discuss the madness of contemporary politics. Luckily, Jamie has an ace up his sleeve: he created a better way to vote.

The essential Telekinetic episode. Carlos Pardo guests, as we dive into the enigmatic concept of transportation avoidance as a cornerstone of mobility and urban planning.

Welcome to the show that goes nowhere fast. What is Telekinetic? It's where we explore the destruction and replacement of human movement. It could be telecommuting, delivery culture, virtual reality, job automation -- if there’s a trip being made by knowledge that used to be made by people, we're here for it.