Election 2024 Episodes

Well, We’re in the Valley of Doom. Here Are Some Paths Forward.

5.15 | 11.15.24

I published the previous episode of Soonish in early October, and if you listened to that one, you’ll remember that I spelled out four scenarios for how the election could unfold. The fourth scenario was one where Donald Trump wins both the electoral college and the popular vote, with a margin big enough to claim he has a mandate for change. I called that the Valley of Doom, and like it or not, that’s the scenario we’re in. Now that we know which path we’re really on, it’s time to think through through what’s next. And what’s more important to me than endlessly dissecting the Democrats’ mistakes is figuring out how to understand the political moment we’re in now and how to respond to it. To talk it al through, I reached out this week to two people who helped me think about those questions from two different directions. Our “top-down” thinker this week is Jamais Cascio, a futurist and scenario planner based in California and a familiar voice to listeners of this podcast. He explains how the concept of BANI (brittleness/bendability, anxiety/attention, nonlinearity/neuroflexibility, and incomprehensibility/inclusiviness) can help us cope with the baffling changes going on around us. And our “bottom-up” thinker is Rose Friedman, co-founder and executive director of a Vermont nonprofit called The Civic Standard, where citizens of all political stripes are coming together to prove that we don’t have to give in to strife, division, and loneliness.

Harris, Trump, and the Four Valleys

5.14 | 10.08.24

Why does every presidential race lately get described as "the most important election of our lifetimes"? Because it's true. In any election where Donald Trump is on the ballot, Americans are faced with a world-changing choice about whether we want the democratic experiment to continue. Right now, four weeks out from the 2024 vote, it's totally unclear which choice we'll make, but it's not too soon to be thinking about the possible consequences. This episode of Soonish walks through four plausible post-election scenarios, with the main outcomes driven by who wins the popular vote and who wins in the electoral college. These are the "Four Valleys"—the Valley of Hope, the Valley of Survival, the Valley of Greed, and the Valley of Doom.

Other Recent Episodes

Introducing The Rabbis Go South from the Hub & Spoke Expo

5.13 | 09.22.24

The next regular season of Soonish is still coming. But meanwhile I wanted to bring you something really special that I think you’ll like. It's first episode of a new podcast from Hub & Spoke called The Rabbis Go South. It’s a documentary that we’re presenting as part of a new project we’ve cooked up called the Hub & Spoke Expo. The Expo is our way of working with independent audio creators who are making limited-run series, as opposed to the ongoing podcasts that make up the rest of the collective; Rabbis is our very first Expo series, from documentary filmmakers Amy Geller and Gerald Perry, and it chronicles a little-known episode in the history of the 1964 civil rights summer, when 16 rabbis went to St. Augustine, Florida, to help the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a brutal battle to desegregate the city.

Welcome to Technofeudalism

5.12 | 07.05.24

I’ve been arguing on the show since 2019 that the companies that run the big technology platforms—Facebook, Google,  Amazon, and the rest—have far too much wealth and power. In the world these companies have built, we exist only to generate behavioral data. We supply that data through our decisions about what social media posts to click on and what stuff to buy and what videos and songs we consume; the companies hoover it up and use it to craft and curate more content they know we’ll like, so that they can sell us even more stuff.  This unimaginably profitable business model has been called “surveillance capitalism”—but that term doesn’t feel right, since surveillance is usually covert, and these companies are doing what they do right out in the open, with our willing participation. This week on the show, we bring you an interview with Greek economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis, who has a better name for it: technofeudalism. 

The Otherworldly Power of a Total Eclipse

5.11 | 03.18.24

The most important piece of advice David Baron ever got: “Before you die, you owe it to yourself to see a total solar eclipse.” The recommendation came from the Williams College astronomer Jay Pasachoff, a beloved teacher and textbook author, after Baron interviewed him for a 1994 radio story. Baron listened—and it changed his life. He saw his first eclipse in Aruba in 1998, and has since become a true umbraphile. The upcoming eclipse of April 8, 2024, will be the ninth one he’s witnessed. A veteran science journalist and former NPR science correspondent, Baron joined Soonish from his home in Boulder, CO, to talk about his 2017 book American Eclipse: A Nation’s Epic Race to Catch The Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World. It’s a dramatic account of the total eclipse of July 29, 1878, which crossed through Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Texas and drew a fascinating cast of characters into its path, including a young Thomas Edison.

Looking Back at 50 Episodes of Soonish

5.10 | 02.19.24

After a long hiatus, Soonish is back for a celebration. It’s the 50th full episode of the show! (I’m not counting a few bonus episodes in that total.) Tamar Avishai, creator and host of the Hub & Spoke podcast The Lonely Palette, joins this time as co-host to help me take a look look back at the first 49 episodes of the show. She quizzes me on the accuracy of many of the technology forecasts and predictions I offered along the way. And she prompts me to explain how the show has evolved since its launch in 2017, why it’s become more political than I ever expected (it’s the democracy, stupid), and where it’s going in the future.

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I Have Seen the Future of Displays

3.06 | 08.07.19

We geek out on a new piece of computer hardware—Apple's Pro Display XDR—and learn along the way how innovations in the technology of image reproduction can alter the very way we see the world. READ MORE

The Future is Clear

2.07 | 02.27.18

What's ubiquitous but invisible, versatile yet temperamental, goopy when it's hot yet brittle when it's cold, as old as civilization yet as new as the screen of your smartphone? The answer is glass. READ MORE