We talk with Shannon Golden about Kony 2012. Shannon provides some insight into the situation in Uganda while Chris cynically revels in the implosion of Invisible Children.
We talk about the Mike Daisey/This American Life fiasco. Arturo defends liars, as usual, while I, er, Jon, stands strong as a defender of truth.
After a quick ASA recap from Jesse and Arturo, we talk about the challenges of writing—and academic writing in particular—and whether diversity on television can make a difference.
First, Arturo jumps off from a recent New Books in Sociology episode to ask whether or not sociology is too set in making repetitive and uncreative arguments.
First, Chris gives a shout out to Sociological Images for their post on Push Up Bikini Tops at Abercrombie Kids, which inspires a discussion about gender and childhood culture.
Second, a discussion about Ebooks, Amazon, DRM, and the fate of public knowledge.
We start off talking about Charlie Sheen and celebrity (yeah, sorry), and then transition into a discussion about the iPad and music, and technology and qualitative data analysis. We thought we were done then, but we kept on talking about the sad state of rock music today and then NPR versus the right wing. We decided to keep the whole thing.
This week, Eric Plemons joins the conversation and Jose Marichal makes a return visit as well. After introducing the Improv Hotline at 612.242.AGIL, we have a discussion about teaching social theory, the value of reading original texts, and the challenges of tuning out distractions for sustained reading and writing. Our final segment is a lengthy discussion of the impact of the 2010 midterm elections.
By the way, be sure to watch the feed because we’ve got another new episode we recorded last week coming your way in just a few days. Editing is hard.
Second, we talk about Stephen Colbert’s Congressional testimony. Don thinks it missed the mark, we compare Colbert and Stewart, and discuss the complexity of satire and irony in politics.
Arturo talks about his journey into the world of online discussion forums and blog comments
Phil Davison, who has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology, a bachelor’s degree in History, a master’s degree in Public Administration…and a master’s degree in Communication.
This week Jesse, Jon, and Arturo (on location at the Denver airport) talk about What the Tea Party Really Wants by David Brooks and Gail Collins. Topics include: the success of Glenn Beck; morality and the market; the idea that “everybody’s to blame” for the sad state of the economy; and the power of catchy anecdotes against data and experts.
We have three segments this episode:
