Podcast Review - December 2018

06 Feb 2019 podcasts · podcasts-review

Note: This post is very delayed (it should have been out on December 27th); It was stored as a note on my iPhone with a set of links. I have added a short summary of each podcast and why I liked like it other posts in this series. Let’s dive in!

• The Daily - Ethics of Genetically Editing Babies

  This is related to the story where a Chinese scientist claimed to have created / helped make (what even is the right word?) the world’s first genetically edited babies. After discussing this case and talking about what actually happened and why it might be suspect, the guest on this show goes on to describe why one or two reckless scientists like this person can actually end up forcing countries around the world to heavily regulate or even completely stop the research into this field because they don’t trust the scientists anymore. I think that that was a very succinct explanation of why things like this are bad, while also keeping in mind that more and more of the things that we consider impossible in our lifetimes will become possible and someone will do them. And our tolerance of innovation might very well be defined by our acceptance or rejection of these ground breaking events.

• The Daily - The Business of Selling Your Location

  Nothing new here for anyone who has given thought to how conglomerates like Google actually make money (from services like Gmail, Search, Calendar and Youtube) which are used for free by most people. This episode does mention some companies that collect a lot more than is clearly stated on the app (no surprise there) and how that data, if looked at person by person, can create a pretty good map of their life: where they live, the restaurants they frequent, the people they meet up with, and so on. P.S.: Stop using Google and all of it’s products; Pay for e-mail, use an open source browser. Those are some of the steps that I have taken to feel better about the providers I am using day-in-day-out.

• Future Perfect - How to be a better carnivore

  This is a great episode about how eating meat or fish isn’t the worst thing in the world. Lately, I feel like there has been this (almost) movement among a lot of people to Go Vegan and how this is somehow because they want to save animal life and so on. This episode is absolutely not about that. In fact, as the title says, it’s about killing animals that are to be consumed with consideration because (a) it’s a good thing to do (b) it actually makes fishes taste better (This episode specifically mentions fishes in Japan, and having eaten fish in Japan, I can confirm that fish dishes in Japan taste great even though they have less than about half the spices that a typical fish dish in India would have!)

• Future Perfect - How our drinking water could help prevent suicide

  Another interesting Future Perfect episode: Lithium in the water can reduce the number of people who suffer from depression! In fact, “Four of five studies reviewed found that places with higher levels of trace lithium had lower suicide rates.” There’s a bit of doubt and debate about whether this is a real thing or not. Irrespective of that, it is an interesting story and connects well to the story of the Fluoride Wars and how one person started a movement that convinced almost a whole town that putting Fluoride in the water supply is unnecessary and harmful to the residents!

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This is end of post 3 in this series!