Robot F. Kennedy

In this episode, we explore one of ur-symbols of the American Dream: homeownership. In the United States, home ownership is a symbol of the prosperity Americans are promised. It’s been a status symbol separating the middle classes from the poor for much of American history. Why? And how does one tax policy, the home mortgage interest deduction, play upon our collective dreams of Americanism. In this episode, we talk about vacation homes, reparations, Mark Twain, returns on investments, writing letters to curry favor with racists, and guillotines. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES Six Policies Economists Love (And Politicians Hate), Planet Money Podcast http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/07/19/157047211/six-policies-economists-love-and-politicians-hate Does High Home-Ownership Impair the Labor Market?, Peterson Institute for International Economics https://piie.com/publications/wp/wp13-3.pdf Study: Higher levels of homeownership can kill jobs, Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/w

This is the third of a multi-part series on climate change, the President’s withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, and the politics and rhetoric that surround it. This week: where are we headed? What scenarios are likely to play out in the decades ahead, as the climate becomes the arch-issue of the future? In this episode we talk about body heat, globalism, the Cretaceous coastline, healthy debt-to-GDP ratios, and Apple CEO Tim Cook. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES Paper: “Global risk of deadly heat”, NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE https://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate3322.html Right now, about 30 percent of the world’s population is exposed to deadly temperatures at least 20 days out of the year. By 2100, that number could reach 74 percent if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, or 48 percent with drastic cuts to global emissions. Articles ”A new book ranks the top 100 solutions to climate change. The results are surprising.”, Vox.com https:/

This is the second of a multi-part series on climate change, the President’s withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, and the politics and rhetoric that surround it. This week: what are we seeing today? Who are the leading voices on climate action in the public, private, and religious spheres? In this episode we talk about Gaia from Captain Planet, Carl Sagan, a couple of popes, and Elon Musk. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES Elon Musk's Unbelievably Simple 12-minute Killer Break Down on Climate Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKCuDxpccYM Musk concluded that if we wait to make the transition, we could see “more displacement and destruction than all the wars in history combined”. He then described civilization as being designed to be “super sensitive to climate change” due to the popularity of coastal cities. Laudato Si, Pope Francis, Climate Change, and Economics https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/18/guardian-view-on-laudato-si-pope-francis-cultur

This’ll be the first of a multi-part series on climate change, the President’s withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, and the politics and rhetoric that surround it. First up on the agenda: context. Where is climate denialism coming from? How did we get here? How did a seemingly cut and dry, scientific topic become so partisan? We have some theories: human beings’ natural short-term biases, the anti-science worldview of the religious right, the Supreme Court case of Citizens United v. FEC, and maybe, just maybe the Vietnam War. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES Q: Why does the American Right seem so uniquely averse to climate science? - An accident of special interest/party affiliations (aka the Carbon Bubble)? - Is part of it “motivated ignorance”? https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/5/15/15585176/motivated-ignorance-politics-debate - The GOP is the world’s only major climate-denialist party. But why?, Vox.com, Dec 2, 2015. https://www.vox.co

The election of 1920 was all about a ‘return to normalcy.’ The American public was weary from the Great War. Are there parallels we can draw from the 1920 election to the national mood going into the 2020 election? Will the Democrats promise a return to normalcy? Or does it run counter to everything the Democratic Party holds dear? In this episode we discuss the Battle of the Somme, Senator Kamala Harris, cowboys, primary challengers, Bill Clinton, and the Resistance against President Trump. This is Robot F. Kennedy.

As soon as we stopped recording episode ten, about the mechanisms by which President Trump may be removed from office, we realized we left out a huge conversation: what comes after? In this episode we discuss the post-Watergate reforms of the 1970s, our wishlist of post-Trump reforms, land mines, Frank Sinatra’s party affiliations, killing off the -gate suffix, and the tyranny of cattle. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES * Post-Watergate Campaign-Finance Reforms: https://www.infoplease.com/us/history/post-watergate-campaign-finance-reforms

What's the Trump Administration endgame? In this episode, we discuss the 25th Amendment, impeachment, the "Rally Around the Flag" effect, the British Raj, our lack of law degrees, and bet on the next steps in this insane week. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES Any references we give will be out of date by tomorrow at 10am, so we're going to hold off on show notes this week. Hope you don't mind.

Does the idea of copyright protect the interests of artists and creators? Does it add billions of dollars to the US economy every year? Or does it stifle expression, innovation, and economic growth? In this episode, we discuss the public domain, Google’s spiders, the capital of the Galactic Empire, the Statute of Anne, Jiminy Cricket, and Motown. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES The Goodlatte Bill Hollywood-friendly copyright bill passes House of Representatives: https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/27/15452668/copyright-selection-accountability-goodlatte-bill-passes-house Congress is trying to give even more power to Hollywood: https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/3/15161522/mpaa-riaa-copyright-office-library-of-congress-dmca-infringement Copyright length in the United States https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-duration.html Star Wars / Hidden Fortress Comparison https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g8r0LhpMzk In 19th century Germany, “they had Kant, Mozart, and Goethe AT THE SAME TIME” The missing Enlighte

What’s happening at town halls across the United States? Is there a popular groundswell of resistance and opposition to President Trumps agenda building momentum on the Left? Is it sustainable? Would a “Tea Party of the Left” be a constructive or destructive force in American politics? In this episode, we welcome our first guest co-host—Sarah Ullman, a filmmaker, activist, and co-founder of the grassroots SuperPAC, One Vote at a Time. We discuss our experiences in recent months attending town halls and political protests, we’re tough on CA Senator Dianne Feinstein, we talk about 2018, the instant messenger handles of our youth, and further destroy the idea that the government is or should be run like a business. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES: Sarah Ullman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesillysully One Vote at a Time: https://www.onevoteatatime.us/ LA Times: Sen. Dianne Feinstein gets an earful at Los Angeles town hall, but sticks to her centrist guns http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la

1912 was a really important year. For Progressives, it was the year that a century-long agenda was formalized as the party platform of the Bull Moose Party. It served as something of a checklist of legislative achievements that we’re still working through today. And the man that spearheaded this new agenda and a new (albeit short lived) political party? Theodore Roosevelt. What are some of the progressive victories Teddy never lived to see? What has yet to be accomplished? If TR were alive today, what are some new progressive ideas he might champion? In this episode, we discuss anarchists, World War I, an automatic minimum wage, free energy, WEED, paid family leave, and Eddie calls Nick a hippie. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES: Jason Kander’s tweet: https://twitter.com/JasonKander/status/854327448137334785 “2017 isn't about Trump. It's about regular people standing up to Trump. This is the birth of a new progressive era in American history.” Progressive Party Platform of 1912: http://teachingameric

Humans are animals—animals with rights. So what kinds of rights do non-human animals deserve? The right to liberty? The right to nurse their young? The right to socialize? In this episode, we interview two animal rights experts and ask them about chimps, cats, and personhood. We discuss common law, Jurassic Park, Ancient Rome, Woolly mammoths, and the Animal Welfare Act of 1966. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES This episode is Part 2 on the topic of animal rights law, and its future impact on the way our society handles artificial general intelligence. You can listen to the first part here: https://soundcloud.com/robotfkennedy/3-an-act-of-nature Professor Sarah Schindler is currently a Fellow at the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She is an expert in the areas of land use law and urban policy, and teaches at the University of Maine School of Law. Professor Sarah Schindler: https://lapa.princeton.edu/people/sarah-schindler Twitter: https://twitter.com/SBschindler Steven Wi

Since the 1790s, the United States has had six different party systems, or voter coalitions. As the country heads into its seventh party system, what will the New Republican and New Democratic parties look like in 2050? Will the Democrats and Republicans be around at all? In this episode, we cover the Whigs, Abraham Lincoln, Bernie Sanders, hip and healthy 120 year olds, a Hispanic plurality, the Apple Store in Shanghai, and the Seventh Party System. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES John Adams’s letter to Jonathan Jackson (1780). http://thefederalistpapers.org/founders/adams/john-adams-letter-to-jonathan-jackson-october-1780 // The Republican Party is dying. The Democratic Party is dying. Everybody’s dying. Republicans control 32 state legislatures. List of U.S. State Legislatures: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_state_legislatures The Day The Republican Party Died (The Atlantic, May 2016): https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/the-day-the-republican-party-died/481

How did the original First Amendment in the Bill of Rights get lost to the sands of time? Don’t you want to know what the ONLY unratified amendment of the original TWELVE in the Bill of Rights was all about? In this episode, we cover Congressional apportionment, Puerto Rico, Mitch McConnell’s game of Risk™, China’s National People's Congress, and nihilism. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES Steve King’s horrible, racist tweet: https://twitter.com/SteveKingIA/status/840980755236999169 Congressional Apportionment Amendment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Apportionment_Amendment The amendment was written by James Madison in 1789. Between 1791 and 1796, it was only one state short of ratification. As of 1992, it is the only one of the original twelve amendments that failed to gain the necessary 3/4ths ratification. Congressional district with the most people: Montana At-large (994,416) Congressional district with the fewest people: Rhode Island's 1st (526,283) The Permanent Apportionment Act

Would it be wise for humanity to clarify its ethics regarding the treatment of animals before artificial general intelligence (AGI) knocks humanity off the top of the pyramid? In this episode, we cover the intellectual property of monkeys, Ireland, the Book of Genesis, slavery, dolphins, 3D printed food, and robots who program pain for themselves. Also, Nick and Eddie call BS on themselves at least once and plan on a sequel episode with interviews of experts in the field of Animal Rights law. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES: • A monkey took a selfie, and the ownership of it was not...clear • NPR: Monkey Can't Own Copyright To His Selfie, Federal Judge Says • http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/07/462245189/federal-judge-says-monkey-cant-own-copyright-to-his-selfie • Washington Post: “USDA abruptly purges animal welfare information from its website” • https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2017/02/03/the-usda-abruptly-removes-animal-welfare-information-from-its-web

How do you measure the success or failure of a president? Maybe it’s the one practice from the business world that Donald Trump seems least likely to carry over. In this episode, we look at KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators. We pick apart some of the KPIs that are commonly used to measure presidencies, and suggest some new and novel ones we might use. Also featured in this episode: Martin O’Malley, obesity, aliens, the staggering decrease in worldwide combat deaths since WWII, Ronald Reagan, and sex. This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES Key Performance Indicator (KPI): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_indicator Overweight and Obesity Statistics, National Institutes of Health (NIH): https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/Pages/overweight-obesity-statistics.aspx Nine Years of Apple's iOS SDK generated $60 billion, 1.4 million jobs: http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/03/07/nine-years-of-apples-ios-sdk-generated-60-billion-14-million-jobs The Washington Post, Our infant

Will automation destroy 3 million more jobs before the next presidential election in 2020? In this episode, we talk George Washington, AI, automated flour mills, Uber, autonomous semis, and the Teamsters. Inaugural episode (kind of). This is Robot F. Kennedy. SHOW NOTES Oliver Evans designed the first automated flour mill in Delaware in the 1780s. He secured the third U.S. Patent in 1790. Evans’s mills eliminated 80-100% of the required labor force. The “Evans system” was adopted at Mount Vernon in 1791. * http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/evans_hi.html * http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/overview-of-the-gristmill/ Summers: Yes, the Robots Are Coming to Take Our Jobs: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/03/summers-yes-robots-are-coming-take-our-jobs In 1840, a Boston bootmaker (cordwainer) Jeremiah Horne broke ranks with the Boston Journeyman Bootmaker’s Society. He filed a complaint with the county attorney, and they arrested the union leaders on charges of cri