August 30, 2024
Friday Open Comments
Optimum recently recommended a podcast in the comments: the Plain English podcast hosted by The Atlantic editor Derek Thompson. I agree, having read Thompson’s writing occasionally in the past, and having recently clicked through on TwiX to learn of his podcast.
A good sample episode was this one, about the art and science of political persuasion:
I wasn’t mentally quite where Thompson began—believing everyone has their minds made up about everything in advance, and therefore, that changing others’ minds is impossible. But I have come to believe that changing minds is much harder than I would have believed as, say, when I was a 25-year-old.
But maybe my mind was unmade and then made up again. I never can quite tell. I’d like to think I’m reasonably open-minded. But what if I’m not? Maybe someday I’ll hear a podcast that persuades me of something or other about that.
As for the podcast, Thompson gives off a vibe that he approaches journalism with an open mind.
Good morning. Made it most of the way through another week, eh? I need to go to Walmart and return some jeans Vlad (E) picked out that are too long for him. He got a wart removed from his foot yesterday and was last seen moaning and swallowing painkillers.
I was just doing a function on my phone where it asks me if I want to delete apps I'm not using. After I do that, it asks me if I want to install new ones. That part has a list of apps, some with "Install" already checked, so I have to un-check them. The first two were TikTok and Temu.