Monday Morning Media

What should we be watching? Reading? Listening to? Tell us in the comments.

Comments

[Jason Cavanaugh]

For information relating to the war in Ukraine, I recommend:

https://www.understandingwar.org/

For pictures and videos of the war, a twitter user @RALee85

[Jimmy the Dane]

I enjoyed understandingwar.org content, but was sad to see they started blasting away the usual "company line" with their daily analysis about 3 weeks ago.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Can you elaborate? I genuinely have no idea what you think the "usual 'company line'" is here.

[darkknight9]

Your eyelids. Monday morning is for sleeping! 🙂

[MatthewSlyfield]

I will second this recommendation.

[AmosArch]

Maybe some music or medication or breathing exercises? Or at most light fictional stories? Do you need someone's crap take on the news du jour echoing in your head all day?

[MoreCurious]

Alan Furst novels. I'm not aware of any novelist who can describe the atmosphere, tension, and pain of wartime Europe as well as he does.

[TwelveInchPianist]

I find Fox News tends to have a good, accurate, and well-presented summary of the day's stories.

[Lee Moore]

I prefer the Mail Online. Full of fact. Full of fantasy. Great fun.

[Mr. Bumble]

Anything except another long winded article by Ilya Somin.

[Sarcastr0]

One of my favorite podcasts is In Our Time, a weekly roundtable of dives into history/science.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl

Most recommended eps: Mamalukes, Hatshepsut, and The Fighting Temeraire.

[loki13]

Podcast: Against the Rules (Michael Lewis).
If you want to understand America today, start with this podcast. Only three relatively short seasons, so you can catch up with all of them.

Website: BBC News. Especially the live updates regarding Ukraine. Not first, but always informative and without the hype.

Read: Snow (Orhan Pamuk).
Great author, and the best translation of his work.

Watch:
HBO Max: Pass on the The Batman, and watch Drive My Car. Leave it to the Japanese to channel Chekhov better than anyone previously. If you like Wes Anderson, the French Dispatch is totally worth it.

Netflix: Tick Tick Boom (the story of the making of Rent).

Amazon Prime: The Neon Demon. What if Hollywood really was trying to get you? WHAT IF THEY WERE?

Theater: Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. What if Adaptation and Being John Malkovich had a baby, but THE BEES?

[Jerry B.]

+1 for BBC News. Certainly, less biased than most major U.S. outlets.

[Lee Moore]

A low bar.

The BBC is certainly biased but it's a bit subtler than the US networks. Not subtle enough to fool Churchill though, who was complaining about its bias as far back as the 1930s.

[loki13]

In my experience, the people who complain loudest about a lack of objectivity are the same ones who primarily consume overtly biased media, and then gloat about how unaffected they are by it while parroting what they have been told.

YMMV.

[Lee Moore]

Perhaps you should get out more ?

I came across this, this morning :

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220426-could-menstrual-leave-change-the-workplace

It's a plea for "time off for your periods" (which may or may not be a good idea.) Obviously written by a wokey as "they" is used instead of "she" throughout. But fine, no reason why such articles should not appear on the BBC. We await a balancing article from a crusty old curmudgeon who takes a contrary view 🙂

But the interesting thing is that the story is nested within the BBC's "Worklife" section, dealing with, well, worklife. And it turns out that that section is called, and has a whole logo displaying, "Equality Matters"

Now bias basiclly consists of two elements -

(a) bias as to the slant of your story, ie favoring one opinion over another, and / or

(b) bias as to the selection of your story, ie which stories you choose to run, and which ones you choose to ignore (Hunter's laptop, one step forward please)

This little, nay trivial, story displays both in spades. There is, as I say, a whole section called "Equality Matters" :

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/equality-matters

There are, of course, no corresponding sections called "Liberty Matters" or "Business Efficiency Matters" or "Capitalism Matters" or anything like that. That's story selection.

But when we get to the main Equality Matters page, we see the other kind of bias too - it's all from the wokist point of view. Just look at the story titles. And look at the description of what Equality Matters is all about :

"A global solutions-based approach to the subject of inequality, highlighting the people, places and ideas that are trying to make these issues a thing of the past."

Yup, I can really see Scrooge signing on to that. Why it's almost as if the "solutions" are cost free. It's all totally one eyed.

Returning to the original tale, time off for period pains can be framed - as it is - as pro-equality. But it can be framed just as well as anti-equality - people who don't have period pains, or even periods, don't get extra time off. But only the first view is represented.

Thus Equality Matters is an obvious example both of story selection bias, and when you drill down into the content, slant bias. No attempt is made to conceal this. Because it's written and presented by people who genuinely don't know that there might be a different take to be had. Or that if there is a contrary opinion, it must be held by antediluvian old white men, who will be dead soon and so can be ignored. Which is really the Rev Kirkland's view of "unbiased coverage."

[loki13]

Oh, and a Youtube channel recommendation. Well, two of them:

1. Crash Course. Yeah, I know they are for AP courses, but they are a lot of fun and informative. The John Green World History ones are ... well, delightful, even if the tell you things you (mostly) already knew and (mostly) already remember.

2. How to Drink. Look, the host (Greg) has to do stunt episodes for the clicks sometimes, but he's informative, funny, and does a really good job explaining cocktails 101. Come for the bar lessons, stay to see if Greg will get sloshed this episode.

[Sarcastr0]

Yeah, I don't much drink and I enjoy How to Drink.

YouTube-wise, I really enjoy One Hit Wonderland, which goes through this history of many a one hit wonder band.

[loki13]

OMG! I was going to recommend Todd In the Shadows, but thought that might be a bridge to far for this blog.

[Sarcastr0]

Yeah, he can be a bit...young Millennial humor, but his content is well researched and quite legit.

[Commenter_XY]

I just learned about the fine art of sake drinking. Never knew there was elaborate prep. And depending on sweetness, dryness, blandness - your sake is either warm or chilled. Learned a lot over a hibachi dinner. Oy, the headache. 🙂

[Don Nico]

Watch NHK TV if it is available in your area.
Otherwise the NHK website has many on-demand features about Japanese technology, culture, and business
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/program/?type=video&,

[apedad]

YouTube:

I like Numberphile and Chris Ramsay (...say not sey).

[KenveeB]

I'd heard Tick Tick Boom described as the making of Rent, which confused me when I actually watched it and Rent is only briefly mentioned in the prologue and epilogue. It's actually a mostly autobiographical musical that the author of Rent wrote earlier in his career about his time as a struggling young artist. They mix the stage show with snippets of his life at the times he's writing it. Some bits about Rent are alluded to, but it's not ABOUT making Rent. If you can watch it with that in mind, it's a much better show. And Andrew Garfield really shows his chops as an actor. He's very good.

[loki13]

Good point- I was trying to go with what was more known, but you're totally right. (And Andrew Garfield was amazing in it.)

[Nelson]

+1 on Tick, Tick, Boom

[John F. Carr]

A coworker has recently recommended to me Martha Wells' "The Murderbot Diaries" series. Sadly, I am a decade or so behind on my science fiction reading and can neither confirm nor deny that the books are good.

[Eugene Volokh]

I'd echo that -- I've read them all, and like them very much.

[Nelson]

They are quite good and are relatively short. They would be great in-flight entertainment.

[Lee Moore]

I quite enjoy 538. Unlike most other lefty platforms, the contributors come across as pretty sincere - ie their cluelessness is genuine and sweet natured, not hackery. So you get a pleasant insight into what is going on in the heads of young intelligent liberals. A ghastly tangle of wires, obviously, but informative.

By way of illustration I cite this article (from today) :

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-being-anti-science-is-now-part-of-many-rural-americans-identity/

It's interesting and not the same old same old, and obviously sincerely meant. But elephants tramp through the 538 living room tooting on their trunks, quite unnoticed. In an article the theme of which is - why do deplorables distrust "science" ? - we are told how the clever, if somewhat patronising. experts at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission have been managing to persuade their local "anti-science" rubes to overcome their irrational aversion to "science."

But the writer mentions en passant that it is this self same Commission which is responsible for the problem now needing to be solved. Its past super-sciency policies are, er, no longer operative. Instead of conceding that the local rubes have good, rational, justification for scepticism of the current version of "science" that is being visited on them, given the need to walk back previous versions, a reporter with her eyes open would be questioning why the Commission having already screwed up twice before, is so confident that it's right this time. Not as a policy matter, but as the same sort of psychological analysis to which she is subjecting the rubes.

Why are these experts so confident ? And then if she wants to take it national, as she obviously does, why are these scientific experts so confident, as a rule ? Is there something in the expert psyche that breeds overconfdence ?

Perhaps it is related to the tendency in all humans to see what we wish to see, and not to see what we don't wish to see. Which is frequently and entertainingly available for public inspection at 538, which I recommend as way more fun than CNN et al.

[SimonP]

There is a strain of "liberal" political commentary that is less blithe than the mainstream opinion commentary you'll find in the WaPo and NYTimes. These commentators are far more critical of the incompetence of the Democratic establishment and have been flashing warning lights for a long time about its inability to get its head out of its ass. According to these commentators, the core problem with the Democratic establishment right now is that their message is pitched toward an "elite," "mass-affluent" class of coastal/urban liberals, which isn't a formula for any kind of success at the federal level (and is barely effective even in many blue states).

They're saying a lot of things that I think that conservatives would agree with, when it comes to Democratic leadership. I hope they manage to persuade a change in course before we, as a country, fully hand the reins over to the fascists on the right.

[loki13]

You say that, and it is true. There are people who think the problem is that the establishment Democrats are "too liberal." But there is another strain as well, SimonP.

If you look around and talk to a lot of younger progressive/liberal voters, you'll find a very different strain. They think that the problem is, in fact, the exact opposite. The real problem is the centrism of the Democratic establishment. That, since the DLC and Clinton, we've had a succession of Centrist/Moderate Democrats (Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama, Clinton, Biden) cut from roughly the same cloth- eager to compromise with the GOP and to advance moderate policy goals at the expense of core progressive principle (such as the "Grand Bargain" extended by Obama and refused by the GOP).

To them, based upon their lifetime, what is the point in moderation? The GOP will refuse everything, and still tar centrist policies as socialist and communist (and, apparently, "grooming" now). So centrism is a failure.

If anything, I'd say that among younger people on the left, there is a strong movement towards .... the left. But that's solely based on what I've seen, given that many of them are far to the left of me.

[Ridgeway]

It is more than a little ironic how much these young people resemble the Boomers they so despise.

I'd argue that we are in the process of re-living the 1960s and '70s right now. If you go back and watch Firing Line or other political talk shows from the period with your eyes closed, you would be hard-pressed to distinguish them from today's. The big question is whether we are playing at regular speed, 1.5x or faster.

[Lee Moore]

It is more than a little ironic how much these young people resemble the Boomers they so despise.

It is a truth universally acknowleged that we are most conservative on matters we have experience of, and most radical on matters we know nothing of. Since young folk know nothing about anything, they are bound to be willing to entertain all sorts of silly ideas that a moment's encounter with reality would disabuse them of. Wisdom is acquired by years of experience, though even then, it escapes some.

This is not particular to the current crop of young folk. It was ever thus - though the present practice of delaying the moment at which they are required to present themselves at the coal face, pick in hand, until they are in their mid twenties, obviously extends the joys, and folly, of childhood a bit longer than when you were sent down the mines at the age of 12.

Those were the days 🙂

[Absaroka]

There is a youtube channel that does a 15ish minute weekly news report from WWII, i.e. this week's episode covers the week of April 23, 1943.

It's interesting to hear it in that context, where you get the POV of the time, without knowing the future. And there is a lot of interesting stuff I haven't heard before - 15 minutes a week for 5 years makes for 65 hours of content.

The 'community' tab there has a daily news blurb as well.

There are some subseries as well. The 'War Against Humanity' one is unpleasant but important to see. The current one discusses, inter alia, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Some facets of that - surrounded, living in basement ruins fighting a doomed battle against an overwhelming foe - makes me think of Mariupol (and in one of those strange echoes of history, of Stalingrad, covered a few months ago).

[Ruqt]

".... a place where Norse, and French, Irish, Welsh and the Saxon dialects of England would be regularly heard on the street." Dublin in the 1100s as described by David Dickson in Dublin The Making of a Capital City (2014). Filled with surprises from Viking settlements, international trade including white slaves, colonization by England, immigration by the unwanted Irish, Trade Guilds, taxes, tariffs, largest importer of French wine, monarchs and Protestants of many beliefs and predispositions for cruelty, barring of Catholics, Popish plots by foreign educated Jesuits, famines, homeless, infants left at hospital doors, debtors' prisons, institutionalization of charities to feed the poor and offer maternity care - all prior to 1800. "Dublin" exposed my lack of knowledge about Ireland, reinforced the ageless nature of some recurrent themes of civilization and may shatter many stereotypes about popular beliefs about Ireland as well as human history.

[Yatusabes]

At home we disconnect the WiFi before dinner and reconnect when the work day starts. We shun TV / streaming programs with an occasional movie (action, uplifting, biographies). We have returned to basics and embraced a GIGO lifestyle.

We wake at 4 am, hit the gym, back home by 6 am, cook breakfast from scratch (clean nutrition) and work by 8 am. Our large screen TV (62”) gets used as an external monitor for the laptop. We cook together, do dishes together, read science (e.g. genetics, virology, physiology, immunology), biographies (e.g. CS Lewis, CK Chesterton, Catholic saints), gardening and cooking books (iPad pdfs or epub), pray together as a family the Rosary, Liturgy of the Hours, prayers before meals, and during meals we talk to each other. Music is usually classical (piano), opera (Maria Callas), Latino music (Celia Cruz, Gloria Estefan) and old time hard rock (e.g. Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Boston). Bed by 8 pm.

We are not on any social media platforms and enjoy engaging those around us. It seems to be catching on: I started a “breakfast club” for our fellow gym rats / acquaintances, where we gather at a local diner Saturday mornings once per month to support each other. Church also helps us feel surrounded by friends considering we are a married gay couple.

[loki13]

Massive respect!

I have incorporated 90 minutes of exercise daily into my life, which has made it immeasurably better ... but I just can't quite books and film. They're so good! 🙂

[loki13]

quite=quit

My kingdom for an edit button.

[Yatusabes]

Congrats! 90 mins is perceived as a “sacrifice” or “deal breaker” by most folks. I reason health = wealth. I want to avoid joint disorders, statins, hypertension, lower cardiovascular risks, and generally be able to walk, run, have strength into my 90s. Today at the gym after working out, a man in his 60s, retired cop, spoke to me about how he lost 30 pounds. He is muscular, amazing traps, guns for biceps, slim waist and very rugged, built dude. He said he was tired of always being tired, and tackled the gym and his nutrition. He is now in his mid 60s, and gets stares by everyone in the gym. Looks amazing with a full head of white hair

Keep at it! It pays in spades.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I'm glad to hear that you're happy with your lifestyle. It sounds absolutely unbearable to me. (Especially the part about using your TV as a monitor!)

[Ed Grinberg]

https://vdare.com/radio-derb
https://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/RadioDerb/page.html
I highly recommend this podcast.

[Ed Grinberg]

Here's a fine sample:
https://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/RadioDerb/2017-04-14.html#06

[Sarcastr0]

BTW, I like this new feature, and think it should be a regular Monday thing like our open threads.

Or maybe monthly to let our 'this was great' banks reload.

[loki13]

I agree! That said, maybe have a "non-political" or "non-partisan" disclaimer?

I know that everything tends to have some type of political valence, but it would be nice to see people recommending things that they like without making it a veiled (or not-so-veiled) partisan argument.

(And yes, I am guilty of responding to a comment.)

[loki13]

Oh, and how many people think they will be clever by having some variation of, "Oh, my recommendation is {something other than media}."

Yeah, we get it. You're cool AND clever. Like everyone else who made the comment. Twenty years ago, you could brag about how you never watch television. Maybe not the thread for that?

[gormadoc]

I rarely contribute to the Thursday thread because it is so massive and it's hardened into toxic politics "discussion" (which means hurling insults about the Capitol riot).

[Yatusabes]

It is America’s new religion. Ironic considering Americans thumbed their noses at religion these last few decades. Apparently they wanted to create their own gods, run their own Inquisitions and make their own pronouncements on who was virtuous vs who was a deplorable. IOW, everyone wants to be Pope

[Sarcastr0]

Honestly feels more like sports than religion.

And that's not a complement - religion has ideals.

[Longtobefree]

"What should we be watching? Reading? Listening to?"
Nothing
Books
Live humans, face to face

[gormadoc]

Imagine being so performative anti-"current year" that you forget stage performances, dancing, and live music exist in the pursuit of dissing entertainment forms that have been around longer than most of us have been alive.

[Hank Ferrous]

Some of us choose books because they allow for a simpler, quieter life. Stage performances, dancing, and live music are well and good, but boil down to unnecessary noise and distraction. No need for a 'performative stance' when one does not use others' opinions as a measure of self-worth.

[M L]

Started watching The Chosen, it's a Christian show based on the gospels and actually really good. Apparently has been around for a few years, not new. You can stream it free from their website.

[Dilan Esper]

I recommend my own thread on the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department 4th Circuit case, which may provide the closest analogue to the Disney-DeSantis matter.

https://twitter.com/dilanesper/status/1517674679942623233

[Ben_]

Kotaro Lives Alone is a really nice little anime series on Netflix. It’s new. Netflix has many good anime shows like Ajin, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K (extremely funny with Japanese voice actors), Demon Slayer, One Punch Man, Erased, Parasyte, Death Note, and lots of others.

Amazon Prime has Toradora, Inuyashiki, Kokkoku, Grand Blue Dreaming.

YouTube has Naoki Urasawa's Monster.

If you want to be entertained I suggest one of those.

If you want to learn a little something I suggest Asianometry channel on YouTube. He does good, factual 15 minute reports on topics. The B1M channel on YouTube is another channel with short reports, this one talks about civil engineering projects.

[gormadoc]

I've been rewatching Star Trek series, TOS-VOY, but I found myself not really caring what happens in Voyager. DS9 still holds up, though it's even sappier than I remember.

[gormadoc]

Somebody said that Ash vs Evil Dead was on Netflix a few months back and that was a great watch. Made me remember how much I like Bruce Campbell so I watched Bubba Hotep, which was also great.

[Sarcastr0]

Yeah, VOY had some good episodes, but some spark was missing and I'm not sure exactly what.

A lot of the cast didn't get along, or hated the show, but other shows have had that and turned out okay.

[M L]

So far as you can reasonably avoid it, I don't recommend watching or reading mainstream news.

Side note, I just read this Fox News article: "Twitter has not been able to secure a “go-shop” agreement yet, which would allow it to look for other bids once it signs an accord, according to Reuters. The company could still accept another bid if Musk pays a break-up fee, it added." https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/25/twitter-shares-jump-5percent-on-reports-that-its-ready-to-accept-elon-musks-bid.html

Uhh, that should be "if it pays Musk a break-up fee." Minor details!

[John F. Carr]

I have been scanning the archive of the just-completed PBS Newshour around 8 PM recently is over so I can look for a segment that interests me. I used to watch the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour when I had an analog TV. France 24's English stream had some worthwhile content about the war but it's going back to regular programming.

[John F. Carr]

Insert "after the live broadcast" before "is over".

[bernard11]

I strongly recommend Bret Devereaux's http://www.acoup.blog.

Its focus is on military matters - strategy, tactics, etc. - historical, contemporary, and fictional as presented in various TV shows, games, and movies.

But it also ranges beyond that into a variety of historical topics not directly related to warfare - textiles, metalworking, and on and on. Really interesting stuff.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Agreed. I saw a link to it a few weeks back and found it extremely interesting.

[Jimmy the Dane]

For local content there is an older "progressive" newspaper (that is still mostly in printed form) that is probably the best source around. It is run by a bunch of hippies but they still send a person to each meeting of every local governing entity and provide decent real journalistic coverage. Of course, they have the usual junk that you would expect, but if you can just ignore that their coverage is superior to anything else I have seen.

For more political news on the state and federal level, I just go with what I will call "private aggregators" which are pretty much people with way more time then me who read lots of online content then filter it down to listserv content and links. This is probably the modern day equivalent of the direct mail the right relied upon for years in the 20th century. I have no idea of its actual reach, but my guess would be it is anywhere form 1-3% of those who are active on the right (or libertarian, right leaning) circles. The one thing I have NEVER seen any political candidate do is try to tap into these networks though. So either they are so informal there is no bother or perhaps so small they never register with the big campaigns.

[Commenter_XY]

Early morning consumption
Morningstar
Fox News
Times of Israel, Arutz Sheva
Japan Times
The Global Times (China)
substack - anything from Bari Weiss

I generally blow through these in about 30-40 minutes each morning. My hardest part is picking up signal from the noise.

[Yatusabes]

+1 to Bari Weiss

[Commenter_XY]

Yeah, she is making quite the impact.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

She has made an impact -- as a loud malcontent who makes everyone who associates with her regret it and for whom every association ends with a self-righteous huff -- dating back to high school (or was it junior high).

The patron saint of whiny right-wing misfits.

[Commenter_XY]

Be nice Arthur....we are only talking media consumption here.

[jdgalt1]

For topics of law in general, and also current events, I recommend the podcast vivabarneslaw.locals.com. It is by two attorneys, one in Montreal and one in Las Vegas. They lean fairly far right, and take the Russian side in the war.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Sounds like a couple of winners!

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Perhaps just the tonic for a certain class of disaffected losers.

[Nelson]

I've mentioned it a couple times before, but this is my hard sell for The Munk Debates (https://munkdebates.com/). Based in Toronto, they expanded from their Mainstage Debates as Covid restrictions shut down live events in Canada. While they have soon re-start their Mainstage debates, they added less-formal debates on significant issues, a Dialog series with an hour-long in-depth discussion with a series of compelling (and often controversial people) with a seasonal theme (their winter series is reason and rationality), and a weekly podcast addressing three important current world events.

Their purpose is civil and substantive debate and they manage both incredibly well. But tthey aren't afraid of controversial subjects or people. Steve Bannon, Laura Ingraham, Robert Reich, Niall Ferguson, Katrina vanden Heuvel, David Frum, Christopher Hitchens, just to name a few, are debaters.

Podcast debates include "The Federal Reserve needs to agressively fight inflation or risk its own credibility" (which was an amazing debate), "NATO is partly responsible for Russian aggression in Ukraine", "Covid-19 is everywhere; it's time to lift all restrictions for good", "Modern universities are a threat to democratic freedoms", "America is on the brink of civil war", and "Legalize all drugs" They also do more intellectual debates like "Humans have free will", "Let's engineer a better human", "Athens, not Rome, had a bigger impact on Western civilization", and "To realize humanity's full potential requires settling worlds beyond our own".

They have a free membership that gives you full access to all of their content. The people they bring in to debate are highly informed (even if not all are known names). It is absolutely brain-stretching and most presenters have well-formed arguments that make you think.

I can't recommend The Munk Debates highly enough for those who appreciate "civil and substantive" debate on significant issues. I have been equally impressed with their Dialog series and their weekly "current events" podcast.