There are a lot of misconceptions about what ASMR is and why people might like it.  Mark and Jeff discovered that ASMR is not really what they thought it was and its a little odd/unusual, bordering on fetishness.  Today's episode is a little shorter than usual but in this episode Jeff/Mark used an additional microphone to capture some ASMR trigger sounds.  Unfortunately this podcast is recorded in mono, so you won't get the full effect of the sounds in each ear but you can hear the sounds of the triggers chosen for ASMR.  Neither Mark nor Jeff were triggered by these sounds.

Mark and Jeff explore the famous photo essayist W. Eugene Smith and his life, particularly when he went to Japan to cover something called Minamata disease.  One of his most famous images was taken there and there was a feature film based upon his life and travels to Minamata starring Johnny Depp.  The movie is excellent but did not do well at the box office and is a little harder to find.  Worth your time as Johnny Depp does an excellent job portraying the difficult photographer that was Eugene Smith.

Dr. Temple Grandin is know for two things, her autism and how she has used it to help inform her professional career in Animal Science.  She has singlehandedly changed the food processing industry by making it significantly more humane.  She is a fascinating individual and the main topic of this podcast.  As usual we discuss what we learned in the past week, as well as what media we have been consuming.

Mark and Jeff take stab at predictions for 2024.  Recorded during the Christmas break, Mark and Jeff discuss what they were most surprised about from last year as well as predictions (with differing confidence levels) for 2024.  This episode covers a lot of territory and is pretty free ranging.  Enjoy and have a happy new year!!!

Mark and Jeff discuss how a retirement age of 65 was originally arrived at.  Hint, it's not what you expect and its not scientifically arrived at.  The original reason for a social security program was to support people whose physical jobs were something they could no longer do to support themselves, but few were expected to take advantage of the programs at the time they were introduced.  Times have changed and so have expectations.  Not Christmassy (sp?  is that even a word?) and not a rerun

Bryan Johnson is a Silicon valley millionaire (almost billionaire) who sold his company at the age of 34 and now focuses on his anti-aging quest through the Blueprint protocol.  This protocol is an open source method of trying to extend your life based upon empirical data and evidence based science.  He sounds a little crazy (and he may be) but there is something to what he is proposing. It's also important to note that he is not running this to make money.  He provides his entire system for free. 

Most small businesses do not have pension plans or easy ways to extract their business' value.  To that end sometimes small businesses think they should buy their building to reduce their costs or at least having their payments to back to them.  There are pitfalls to this approach and anyone considering doing it should really think it hard and carefully.   Mark and Jeff discuss and provide context on what business owners should consider when looking at buying real estate.

As part of our series on Neurodivergent (or suspected) celebrities, this episode dives into the enigma that was Stanley Kubrick the auteur film maker known for feature films such as the Shining, 2001: A Space Odessey, Eyes Wide Shut to name a few.  A man obsessed with detail, his meticulous attention to all aspects of a film would often mean they would take a long time to come to fruition.  He would often take an extraordinary number of takes and he would spend an inordinate amount of time sourcing historically accurate props and practical lighting effects.

In the past week and a half there has been much turmoil at OpenAI, the company that has developed and launched ChatGTP (as well as Dall-E). Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI was fired on Friday Nov 17, 2023, subsequently tried to come back only to have the board decide not to hire him, hired by Microsoft and then rehired back on the following Tuesday.  It is big tech news because ChatGPT has taken the tech world by storm and is valued somewhere in the region of $80 Billion US.  Mark and Jeff do a deeper dive into the background of Sam Altman and discovered some surprising facts about him.

Mark and Jeff do a deep dive into the Artist known as Banksy.  Where he came from what he did and what seems to drive him.  Banksy is a complicated artist whose identity is not known (although it was recently revealed!).  His work is all political with lots of pranks.  He did a documentary in 2011 that was nominated for an academy award.  He has also done a huge amount of political commentary both by his images, what they show and where they are placed.  He is a street artist that still does illegal works (sometimes), in the streets.