Downers

EPISODE 69 // This hour, we talk about Dr. Francine Patterson’s scientific work with Koko, the gorilla who passed away recently. Fame in science is discussed, snake oil is sold, and words are spelt. We cover the criticism the scientific community has levied against Patterson’s work; we talk about the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against her by her coworkers. At one point a halting description of the scientific method is given. All that and more, and Jack's continued reference to that one test-taking scene in 1997's MEN IN BLACK,  on Downers!   Plugs this week:   Iyengar yoga… yoga with ropes! (Kate) Owlboy and Celeste, two indie platformers (Hao) N/A (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio on Twitter // it's actually proprioception

EPISODE 68 // With the eruption at Volcán de Fuego claiming 114 lives this past month in Guatemala, we dedicate this hour to VOLCANOS. We attempt to process our awe of our natural geology; we attempt to confront the very majesty of Earth. Also, at every wedding you should try to make the evening news.   Plugs this week: Swimming shorts (Hao) Hiking Glacier Point at Yosemite (Jack) V.E. Schwab's DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC (Kate)   @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com // long time no see

EPISODE 67 // This week we talk ALLERGIES. We've all got them! How do we cope? Also, we check in with each other after a long period of not recording, including some hot details about Jack's west-coast road trip.   Plugs this week: Metal straws (Kate) John Steinbeck's EAST OF EDEN (Hao) Eating less meat (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio on the old twittersphere

EPISODE 66 // This week Jack and Kate are gone but in their stead is Chelsea, who is looking for teacher work so contact her via #chelsea on Twitter. Beside that we are talking TAYLOR SWIFT AND KARLIE KLOSS: why they might be in a relationship, why they are definitely in a relationship, and the queer semiotics of Taylor Swift's artwork. Also: Chelsea's long relationship with horses and dogs. We went all over the map. We had a whole hour to fit.   Plugs this week Steven Universe (Chelsea)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio

EPISODE 65 // Gwern.net has published a list of small ways in which ordinary life has gotten better. Wow! That's very much up this podcast's alley! So we discuss, we note, we nitpick. We talk spaced repetition, planned de-obsolescence of planned obsolescence, fake holidays, and phone tag.   Plugs this week: saltwater shoes (kate) david bowie subway cards (hao) sega dreamcast (jack)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio

EPISODE 64 // We devote the hour to the life of Sylvia Bloom, a legal secretary who passed away at the age of 96 this month and donated $8.2 million to charity. What was her life like? Is something like this still possible now? Just exactly how many friends did she have brunch with? Also: a special DUMPLING CORNER. All this and more… on Downers!   Plugs this week:   KeepCup™ (Kate) The CVS near Atlantic (Hao) Typewriters (Jack, who is a monster)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio  

EPISODE 63 // We cleared out all the items left on Terrible Things: Spring Cleaning. The elderly! Discourse on the internet! And much more!   Plugs this week: ASUS computers (Jack) Aloe plants (Kate) Spring in New York City (Hao)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio

EPISODE 62 // The three of us spent a long weekend in Austin without any internet and we wrote down all the queries we meant to Google. On this episode WE GOOGLE THEM: horses with Cushing's, Taylor Swift conspiracy theories, SEO spam, and more. Only an innovative groundbreaking podcast like ours would insert so many sounds of mechanical keyboard typing into an audio file.   PLUGS THIS WEEK The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club (Hao) Dae Jang Geum [translation: Jewel in the Palace] (Jack) Coconut-flavored La Croix (Kate)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio

EPISODE 61 is devoted to two different news articles about Ralph Nimmons, one in 1992 ("Black Is Victim of Beating By Hasidim in Crown Hts." in the New York Times) and one in 2018 ("Cops identify 'shoplifter' who died after grocery workers sat on him" in NY Post, and others). What must have his life been like? Why is it that Crown Heights is such a flash point for race relations in Brooklyn? Join us on the New York City local crime beat!   Plugs this week:   Learning Hangul on Duolingo / Heroin (Jack) The League of Women Voters in LA (Hao) Performing a play on the Final Fantasy MMORPG (Jack)

EPISODE 60 is devoted to the architectural style known as BRUTALISM – what is it, why can it feel punishing, and how can WE punish the people responsible for inflicting such awful buildings on us. But first an incredible round of heavy downbeat tapas in the morning.   Plugs this week: Muji's freeze-dried strawberries (Kate) Spring (Hao) Not having palm trees (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio // stay tuned for our manscaping episode

EPISODE 59 // It's another philosophy episode! We devote Act II of our podcast to David Chapman, the philosopher who wrote meaningness.com (an online book) and has dedicated his life to figuring how to live life with purpose and all sorts of other good stuff. Along the way we talk eternalism and nihilism; like a high-school student angry at his chemistry teacher, we are striking a balance. Also we do a special Clare (April) Corner in Act I. So that's cool too.   Plugs this week: Allbirds shoes (Kate) Thai curry paste (Hao) Buddhism for Vampires (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio // #linkedfemale

EPISODE 58 // Kate has big news! To find out what it is, you'll have to tune in!   Plugs this week: Wes Anderson's ISLE OF DOGS (Hao) Essential oils are bad for cats (Kate) Pet pigs (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com // downersradio.libsyn.com // oink

Episode 57 // It's time once again to pick up our sadness brooms and whisk away items on the list of terrible things. These are items that by themselves would not make a great episode BUT, put together into a single compendium of all things terrible, makes for one corker of an episode. Homophobia! Transphobia! Arachnophobia?? All that and more.   Plugs this week:   "Packing for Mars" by Marcy Roach (Kate) Sombra nerf anti-plug (Hao) Hyori's Bed and Breakfast (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio // everybody has to be a sexual being before they can understand the subject

EPISODE 56 // Once again we have traveled the world to bring you tall and fantastical tales of lands far away, far away from the United States that is, oh her in her glorious amber majesty. What is it about travel that makes us both joyous and nostalgic, sweet yet bitter? Who knows... who knows...   Plugs this week: Fitzyhere on Twitch (Hao) and double proxy hatch Zerg, the 2017 movie Maineland (Kate), CryptoHeads on Twitch (Jack).   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio // which places have you been to

EPISODE 55 // Spring is here and with it is the pressure to be Clean™. Join us as we run through a series of terrible things on Jack’s list. Certain things we could not figure out how to build an entire episode around, and so we’re going to read all of them out in this episode and talk about each other very briefly. How many will we run through? Which ones are we going to be pin for later? Just who precisely is Mammon? All this and more.   Plugs this week   The musician Dan Reeder (Hao) RachelAntonoff.com the uterus weatshirt (Kate) Downers (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio the tweet machine

EPISODE 54 // We don’t much about Virtual Reality but we can still be pessimistic about it! This week, we promise to come up with UNIQUE and DYSTOPIC scenarios for VR. We are challenging ourselves to go above and beyond, say, the plot of a BLACK MIRROR episode. Yes you might be tied to a VR pleasure machine forever; yes human interaction might all cease. We. Are. Not. Interested. In Those. Scenarios. What if VR made you vomit in a good way? What if VR lets you get married, but there are strippers at your wedding? What if a dolphin let gas loose into your face? All that, and more, on this episode of Downersssssss.   Plugs this week:   Jaron Lanier’s DAWN OF THE NEW EVERYTHING (Jack) [a book on Virtual Reality] Seedboxes (Hao) [for pirates] #thenavyiscoming Spotify’s Jazz Vibes playlist (Kate)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio // sorry the episode has been late two weeks in a row, work is stressing me out  

EPISODE 53 // What's Elon Musk up to and should be immediately suspicious of his power and wealth? That's the issue of the hour in this week's episode of Downers as we detail all the ways Elon Musk makes us sad. Is he a benevolent Iron Man or is he a specter of American capitalism run rampant? Find out... by listening!   Plugs this week: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle (Kate) Reading books (Jack) The lobster emoji from Unicode 11 (Hao)   @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com // if you know, use hashtag #iknow  

EPISODE 52 marks the one-year anniversary of our podcast! Our intros have evolved and so has the audio quality; it's all been possible thanks to our lovely listeners. We wanted to use the 52-episode mark to do a MIXED BAG on birthdays, and as always the episode quickly devolves into a surreal mix of etiquette about asking after people's plans and what rhino milk might taste like (grass).   PLUGS THIS WEEK Subnautica (Hao) Thinx period-proof underwear (Kate) Roasted cabbage recipe (Jack)   @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com   p.s. we're trying out new production tags at the beginning and the end of the show. they're supposed to sound cool and weird and uh hopefully you like them

Welcome back to the Marx Podcast, where we're just doing it one step at a time. THIS WEEK we pick a Terrible Thing: mental illness! And we also talk about one thing that's causing mental illness, which is techno-determinism. Hao's sorry about his terrible mic technique in this episode -- he was trying to make eye contact with Kate. He also put this episode up pretty late because there's a sprint demo tomorrow and ugh that's a whole thing.   Plugs: Virgin Marula Luxury Facial Oil - Drunk Elephant (Kate), loofahs (Hao), a moisturizer product made of snail trail (Jack).

EPISODE 50 IS ABOUT ANARCHY TYPES OF ANARCHY ANARCHY AS ILLUSTRATED IN URSULA LE GUIN's THE DISPOSSESSED IN HONOR OF ANARCHY THIS EPISODE DESCRIPTION HAS BEEN STRIPPED DOWN TO ITS BARE MINIMUM and not because its author is in a hurry to go to work Plugs this week: Eccentric Ape in Julian, CA (Jack), the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea (Kate), Overwatch League (Hao) but specifically NY Excelsior   @downersradio downersradio@gmail.com