Slate Technology

Listening to podcasts has become my way to have my own moment and space while riding out the pandemic at home with my family. I’ve learned that discovering new podcasts is very hit-or-miss. This podcast is a delightful find—each episode has a fascinating topic that is well-researched and supported with interesting sources. The hosts have a clear delivery and (seemingly to me) their presentation is mostly scripted and well-edited, which means there’s not a bunch of filler or banter, and the podcast becomes about their topic and not their personalities. Listening to each podcast does provide an escape, as I really need to focus on the information to process it, which takes me away from current events.

Great all-around history podcast tying current events to past historical events. Even manages to avoid political tones so it’s something we all can enjoy. Well worth the listen!

There was TV show on PBS 40+ years ago called Connections with James Burke. It was fascinating! He traced ancient inventions to surprising modern developments. (You can tell time today because ships got lost at sea, etc.) This podcast is in the same vein but kind of in reverse where we look at a modern problem and discover that, centuries ago, the same problem existed. Often the solutions that fail today, failed back then. And, of course, some succeeded.

Enjoyed the Familiar Tune episode although they did Sousa a little dirty by ultimately suggesting he didn't mean anything he wrote in regards to amateur musicians or commonfolk losing inspiration to play music themselves. More importantly, they discounted his central argument which is that fewer people *per capita* would be playing music after the phonograph, and on that point Sousa was absolutely correct even by the podcasters' own account of how common musicianship was at the time. Overall the show is still very compelling and seems to fairly represent the different sides of the arguments around technology, and that fairness is very hard to find. Good job guys please keep it up

I am confused because TBD frames their episodes like deep dives into current tech issues but turns out to be less than 20 mins of surface level reporting when you count in the enormous amount of ads they play (seriously?! Ads at the start and then again right after the intro??) Their stuff on AI for example basically summarizes what NYT and others already report on without adding anything new. If they framed this podcast as a brief morning report type show i wouldnt be upset. Otherwise i would love to see longer episodes that set up the history of the topic and then an actual deep dives into the issue that plays both sides. And picking weird but interesting original topics instead of regurgitating the mainstream topics that already get reported on