Night Call

Latest Episodes:

126: The Mystery Of Sweet Peach Sep 14, 2020

Show notes

First it’s a night call about Esoteric Catholicism! Then we get into The Vow more deeply. In the second half we are joined by Samer Kalaf from Defector to discuss haunted New Hampshire and haunted new media. Then we get a truly weird tip about a youtube user named sweet peach and speculate about what the hell these weird animated videos are attempting to do. Plus the conspiracy about frequencies that make you go crazy and the trend of online it girls succumbing to conspiracy theories.

Notes

How to tell if you're in a high control group
Camp Nowhere
To Be Magnetic
Subscribe to Defector defector.com
Defector Twitter twitter.com/defectormedia
Samer's Twitter twitter.com/samer
An assortment of chihuahuas: tororo/maguro
Popo and Pom
Sweet Peach Youtube
Reddit thread on SP
Webdriver Torso
NH Magazine ghost article

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Turn On Tune In Tenet Aug 31, 2020

Show notes

Tom Cruise’s crazy trip to the movies to see Tenet prompts Night Call’s finest thoughts on Christopher Nolan’s latest movie that none of us have seen. Then we investigate Halo, the Amazon device that says it can read emotions, and debunk its dubious, dangerous claims. Two listeners provide us with their very different experiences with Kratom, off last week’s discussion. Then we are joined by food writer Katherine Spiers of Smart Mouth podcast and newsletter to talk about community fridge projects in LA, the immorality of food waste, the Black Panthers’ breakfast program, and how to support small local restaurants when the government has failed everyone during a pandemic. On an all new Night Call!

NOTES

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124: Kratom’s Basilisk Aug 24, 2020

Show notes

Molly and Emily delve into the world of kratom, the Midwest’s favorite legal drug! What is kratom and why are opioid users using it to get off opiods? Molly’s tales of caffeine psychosis. Will Emily try kratom for the pod? The outlook is good! For the second half we are joined by Tess and special guest tech journalist Nitasha Tiku to talk about unfriendly AI, the singularity, the paperclip experiment, the dark enlightenment and more! Why racist workplace culture thrives in Silicon Valley, and how employees get punished for calling it out. Are the promised imminent human linked neural networks just gonna be more vaporware? Who is Roko and what is their basilisk? Bad machine learning, racism at Pinterest, and other algorithmic fables about the limits of rationalism, on a new Night Call!

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123: A Midsummer Night’s Fall Aug 17, 2020

Show notes

We take a night call about Evangelion and neurotic artificial intelligence from a listener that gives Emily a great excuse to explain Eva to Molly and Tess. Then it’s the saga of Jordan and Mikalya Peterson, the Canadian father daughter grifter team. All meat diets, gothic intrigue, Russian doctors inducing comas for benzo withdrawal, the Numa Numa song and maybe even...murder? For the second half of the show we are joined by writer and comedian Joan Ford to talk about her new Twitch show Fall Talk, cosplaying as girlboss Michael Myers, and why Halloween starts in August this year (hint: it’s a lot like the fireworks surplus). Get cozy with a pumpkin spice latte and your favorite Halloween candy for an all new Night Call!

FOOTNOTES

Evangelion wiki on the Magi supercomputers https://wiki.evageeks.org/Magi

Out of This World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_This_World_(TV_series)

Peterson and pronouns https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37875695

Peterson family meat diet https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/08/the-peterson-family-meat-cleanse/567613/

Jordan Peterson explainer thread https://twitter.com/RationalDis/status/1293292933807058948

Cider of doom https://www.reddit.com/r/enoughpetersonspam/comments/8x1tgw/jordan_peterson_drinks_apple_cider_causing_him_to/

Herman Cain "boo!" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/13/herman-cain-twitter-democrats-joe-biden

Joan Haley Ford https://twitter.com/joanhaleyford/

Joan on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/joanhaleyford

Early Halloween candy https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/halloween-candy-hitting-stores-early-2020

Fall Talk premiere link https://twitter.com/joanhaleyford/status/1294025388104904704

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122: White Claw Nights Aug 10, 2020

Show notes

A night call from a data scientist offers more accurate information about how our phones are “listening” to us. Then we take a road trip of the mind to the haunted Clown Motel in Tonopah, Nevada and find out why the graveyard next door is doubly haunted for reasons not related to clowns (hint: plague).

Then a night email prompts a fun chat about the sentience of A.I. as Molly puts forth the theory that the A.I. revolution could be stopped by making the robots neurotic. Another email endorses delicious fresh milk.

For the second half we get back into Italian Futurism and end up talking about the Bon Appetit debacle and the politics of food. After a serious discussion about food and fascism it’s cocktail time as Emily, Molly and Tess reveal our favorite non-milk beverages for the summer, both alcoholic and non. All this and Excited Pig, on an all new Night Call!

Footnotes:

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121: Brains In Jars Go To The Minnesota State Fair Aug 03, 2020

Show notes

We start off with a night call about whether your phone camera knows which part of a photo you’re looking at (it does). More chat about phones and surveillance leads to Elon Musk’s Neuralink and a discussion of futurism (both kinds) and transhumanists. Then we get a night email from a listener in Key West about the bind faced by tourist towns with reopening. Emily makes a case for seeing the ocean safely. Then we are joined by comedian and podcaster Brandi Brown (The Bill Corbett Show) who tells us everything you want to know about the Minnesota State Fair, butter busts, her ongoing State Fair related feud with Amy Klobuchar and much more.

Foot Notes

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120: The Robopod With Meredith Whittaker Jul 27, 2020

Show notes

Emily returns with tales of a haunted hotel she stayed at in Mobile, Alabama. Then it's the #babywitches who hexed the moon, followed by a listener email about the queer Sapphic aesthetics of cottagecore. This of course leads into some discussion of Taylor Swift's new album Folklore, and how in a way it's always fall right now. We read a listener email about the struggles of international students right now, and another about working in a plastic surgery clinic during the pandemic. Then the girls are joined by Meredith Whittaker - Research Professor and Co-founder of the AI Now Institute at NYU. After working at Google for over thirteen years Meredith helped lead the Google Walkouts to end AI contracts with the Department Of Defense. We talk to Meredith about racism in tech, the biased badness of algorithms, and the human beings behind most "artificial intelligence." And, of course, Robocop. How can we organize to prevent tech companies from say, building war machines for the government? Plus one hot but easy tip for avoiding facial recognition software at protests. All this on the all new Night Call!

Footnotes:

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119: The NBA Dark Academia Web Jul 20, 2020

Show notes

A night call from a teacher about the back to school catch 22 facing all teachers and students right now. Tess blows the lid off the secret pandemic pod tutoring circuit. Then it’s the rebooted Unsolved Mysteries and the Howie Mandel Tik Tok teen conspiracy! Is Howie okay? Has Howie ever been okay? A night email about the club at the top of the Baltimore hotel featured in the new Unsolved Mysteries, and the Berkshires UFO sighting of 1969. For the second half we are joined by Jay Kang from the Time To Say Goodbye podcast to go deep on the NBA Bubble in our special sports segment Night Ball/Sports Call! Jay explains the NBA Bubble and we discuss why it’s such a bad idea from a labor angle and whether they’ll make it through the season. And we answer an Orlando-centric theme park question about the Aerosmith Rock N Roller Coaster at Disneyworld. We also take some questions for Jay related to his infamous Diva Rankings, and revisit them to see if he’s changed his mind about some of his more controversial positions on divas. (Emily will be back next week after completing leg one of her cross country road trip to see her mom.) All this and sports gambling on an all new Night Call!

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118: 364 1/2 Days (with Hannah Giorgis) Jul 13, 2020

Show notes

We kick it off with a night email from an anonymous listener working at an unnamed theme park about how unsafe reopening is. Then Emily explains “Dark Academia” the college themed Tik Tok teen trend that feels extra dystopian now that school reopenings are being threatened for the fall. Then we are joined by special guest writer Hannah Giorgis from The Atlantic to discuss Polish erotic thriller and viral hit 365 Days! Does this movie resurrect the erotic thriller as Night Call has been hoping it would? Or is it just a Polish rip off of 50 Shades Of Grey? Why would people flock to an erotic streamer like 365 Days during lockdown? Plus what are the sexiest movies and what have we all been watching lately? The mind reels, on an all new Night Call!

FOOTNOTES

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117: Starship Loopers Jul 06, 2020

Show notes

The girls are joined by writer Ezekiel Kweku for the top half this week. A Ghislaine news roundup and some television show fueled speculation about why Ms. Maxwell was staying in New Hampshire. Then it’s Randonautica, the creepy geocaching app taking Tik Tok by storm. Would any of us be game to follow a set of random directions to potentially enchanting surprise locations? Or does that sound like the worst idea ever? Then it’s a deep dive on the American flag with noted flag expert Ezekiel. Can the flag be reclaimed for good or is it out of bounds forever? For the second half of the show, Super Producer Joelle Monique joins us as we talk about Paul Verhoeven’s satirical adaptation of Robert Heinlen’s Starship Troopers. Is an obvious critique, like Verhoeven’s critique of fascism in Starship Troopers, always implicit in images or will it always go over some people’s heads? Does good intent matter if your image goes viral out of context as a GIF? Fascism, flags, and flaming bugs on an all new Nighy Call!

FOOTNOTES

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