Virtually Speaking

Seriously good stuff. An accessible master's class in economics. In this combined and lightly edited rerun of conversations recorded June 2012 and Feb 2013, Jay Ackroyd and Stephanie Kelton, Professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City discuss Modern Monetary Theory. In a far ranging conversation, they consider the differences between the budgets of households and sovereign states, both domestic and foreign, the platinum coin concept and the nature of fiat currency. Follow @deficitowl @JayAckroyd Read Stephanie at New Economic Perspectives:  http://bit.ly/LFG3bq  http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/01/short-history-of-the-debt-ceilinggovernment-shutdowns/

Recorded earlier today. Tom Levenson - filmmaker and Prof of Science Writing at MIT - hosts Emily Anthes. author of Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts. They'll discuss animals and biotechnology.   In her just released book -  Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts - Emily explore's how genetic engineering, cloning, prosthetics, neural implants, and other technologies are shaping the future of the world's wild things. Along the way, she investigate more than a few strange critters, including a glow-in-the-dark cat, a bionic bulldog, and a remote-controlled cyborg beetle. Follow @emilyanthes @tomlevenson @sherryreson (Producer) Links: http://emilyanthes.com/ http://inversesquare.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/on-fluorescent-fish-pet-prosthetics-roach-cyborgs-and-the-ethics-of-engineered-animals/  

Political Satirist Culture of Truth offers "Clueless!" - commentary on today's most ridiculous moment from the Sunday morning talk shows. Read the full Bobblespeak Translation here. Read today's Most Ridiculous Moment here.   Follow @Bobblespeak http://moonshinepatriot.blogspot.com/2013/03/meet-press-march-17-2013.html

Two members of our media panel discuss developments of the week, countering the narratives of the traditional media, highlighting issues neglected or misrepresented or otherwise messed with on the Sunday morning broadcasts. This week: growing and sudden recognition that Obama really IS spending all his time begging the Republicans to join him in cutting benefits. Avedon Carol writes about American politics, captured media, captured gov't, censorship and health care.  Read Avedon's Sideshow. Follow @Avedon_Says VS Host and producer - and IT pro - Jay Ackroyd joins Avedon. Follow @JayAckroyd Plus satire from Culture of Truth, author of the Bobblespeak Translations. Links: http://avedoncarol.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/when-your-head-tells-you-to-run.html http://avedoncarol.blogspot.com/  

Host Jay Ackroyd chats with LA Times Business Columnist Michael Hiltzik about his book "The New Deal: A Modern History" and the public understanding of  Social Security and /Medicare as 'safety net' for US citizens most in need, when they were intended to set citizen funds aside in a safe place where they can't be "lost" by private sector institutions in "panics" or "bank failures" or "bubbles" or "depressions."   Follow @LATimesHiltzik @JayAckroyd   Links http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-columnist-mhiltzik,0,3041600.columnist http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Michael-Hiltzik/39608033 http://books.simonandschuster.com/New-Deal/Michael-Hiltzik/9781439154489  

Jennifer Ouellette hosts  theoretical astrophysicist Janna Levin. They chat about the latest on black holes, the sounds of the early universe, Alan Turing and Kurt Godel, how writing fiction is different from nonfiction science writing, her unusual career trajectory (including how she met her musician husband), and so forth. Janna Levin (http://www.jannalevin.com) studies black holes, chaos, and the early universe; is the author of "How The Universe Got Its Spots" and "A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines"; the latter won a PEN award. She's given a TED Talk on the sounds of black holes (http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/1095) and has appeared on The Colbert Report, Through the Wormhole, NPR, RadioLab, and other venues.

Political Satirist Culture of Truth offers "Feelings!" - commentary on today's most ridiculous moment from Meet the Press. Read the full Bobblespeak Translation here.   Follow @Bobblespeak http://moonshinepatriot.blogspot.com/2013/03/meet-press-march-10-2012.html

Two writers from our media panel discuss developments of the week, countering the narratives of the traditional media, highlighting issues neglected or misrepresented or otherwise messed with on the Sunday morning broadcasts. David Dayen writes about state and national issues at Salon.com. Since 2004, his work has been cited by the LA Times, the New York Times and the Washington Post and he has been a guest on NPR, Pacifica Radio and Air America. Follow @ddayen David Waldman scrutinizes the US Congress and hosts Kargro in the Morning for Daily Kos. Follow @KagroX  

Note: Sound distorted in first 15 min.Alan Boyle - Science Editor, NBC.com - hosts Golden Spike Board members Doug Griffith and Taber MacCallum. They'll talk about achieving affordable, reliable, and frequent human expeditions to the Moon.Doug Griffith combines an aerospace engineering degree, two decades as a military and civilian pilot, with an aviation-focused law practice.Taber MacCallum is Chief Executive Officer, Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Paragon Space Development Corporation. Follow @b0yle @GoldenSpikeCoRead Cosmic Log http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/06/17212896-beyond-nasa-meet-the-folks-who-are-planning-trips-to-the-moon-and-mars?litehttp://goldenspikecompany.com/

Jay Ackroyd hosts American evolutionary biologist and sociobiologist Robert L. Trivers, Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University. Trivers stopped by to discuss issues he explores in his new book The Folly of Fools,  a treatse on the role deception, especially self-deception, plays in human (and other specie's) lives. http://www.roberttrivers.com/Robert_Trivers/Welcome.html Link: Implicit Association Test https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/Share Demonstration test from Project Implicit, which gauges prejudicial attitudes or beliefs about certain groups of people.

Political Satirist Culture of Truth offers "Impasse!" - commentary on today's most ridiculous moment from Meet the Press. Read the full Bobblespeak Translation here.   Follow @Bobblespeak Link http://moonshinepatriot.blogspot.com/2013/03/meet-press-march-3-2013.html

From our media panel, Dave Johnson & Stuart Zechman discuss trends and current developments, countering the narratives of the traditional media, highlighting issues neglected or misrepresented or otherwise messed with on the Sunday morning broadcasts. Tonight: the Budget Control Act, Sequester and the dramatically falling deficit. Culture of Truth provides the most ridiculous moment from the Sunday morning legacy media. A Fellow with Campaign for America's Future and a Senior Fellow with Renew California, Dave Johnson writes regularly at Seeing the Forest and Alternet. Follow @DCJohnson A provocative member of the commentariat, movement liberal, entrepreneur and technologist, Stuart Zechman uses Twitter as a primary communications tool. He posts at Avedon’s other blog, TIME's Swampland, Yves Smith’s Naked Capitalism and the Daily Howler.  • Follow @stuart_zechman

Jay Ackroyd talks with Janine R. Wedel, professor of Public Policy at George Mason University. Typically, specialists in Public Policy receive their training in Political Science, Government, Law, or History, but Wedel received a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. This unique background, the study of human behavior, has given her work an originality that have made her one of the most astute observers of the sweeping changes occasioned by the fall of the Soviet Union and the spread of globalization. Wedel’s first book, The Private Poland (1986), was an ethnography of the everyday lives of Poles living under Communist rule in the former Eastern Bloc. domination and how they were able to create a functioning society, often with the active support of an inept communist regime. Wedel’s most recent book, The Shadow Elite, picks up where Collision and Collision left off. She argues that the wheeler-dealers who could operate with impunity in the old Soviet Bloc have become the model for a new kind of social actor: the flexian. Instead of playing any single role—diplomat, entrepreneur, journalist—flexians are in and out at the same time, using the respectability of public office to mask their self-aggrandizement, or leveraging their apparent neutrality in support for highly partisan policies. Wedel represents the flexian as the embodiment of an emerging social order in which the common good is increasingly sacrificed for private gain. Follow @janinewedel Links http://janinewedel.info/ http://janinewedel.info/shadowelite.html  

Drawing from The Bobblespeak Translations, each week political satirist Culture of Truth presents 'the most ridiculous moment' from the Sunday morning legacy media, generally Meet the Press. This week: "sequester' or blind and irresponsible budget cuts. Read the full transcript from Feb 24 here: http://moonshinepatriot.blogspot.com/2013/02/meet-press-february-24-2013.html Follow @bobblespeak

Bruce Schneier returns to talk about his new book, Liars and Outliers.  He and host Jay Ackroyd discuss the nature of trust and its relationship to a well functioning and stable society. Two yrs ago, Schneier spoke with James Fallows. Listen here. Links http://www.schneier.com/book-lo.html http://www.schneier.com/ http://www.techsoc.com/liars.htm http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2010/03/26/virtually-speaking-with-jay-ackroyd-james-fallows-