Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio

Brian Gongol

Podcast: Updated weekly in the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning. Subscribe on Stitcher, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or iHeartRadio

Please note: These show notes may be in various stages of completion -- ranging from brainstormed notes through to well-polished monologues. Please excuse anything that may seem rough around the edges, as it may only be a first draft of a thought and not be fully representative of what was said on the air.

Breaking news to watch

Segment 1: (10:18)

It's either this, or debates in which all the rivals are seated around a table with a giant timer in front of each.

Oh, and with nobody in the studio audience to whoop and holler like it's some kind of hootenanny. https://t.co/PwVujM2Kq6
— Brian Gongol (@briangongol) September 12, 2019

Segment 2: (14:20)

As a Gen Xer, I worry that our politics are going to jump straight from Rolling Stones to Spongebob without ever taking a spin through Pop-Up Video.
— Brian Gongol (@briangongol) September 13, 2019

Two sentences that really say far too much:

"It's still not clear how the bill will be implemented."

"Mr Newsom told the Wall Street Journal that he planned to continue negotiating with companies hoping to be exempted from the bill."

Alarming.https://t.co/qWFPGJnyEq
— Brian Gongol (@briangongol) September 13, 2019

How does the future look if large numbers of workers prefer flexibility so much that they substitute it heavily for compensation?

Does cost disease kick in? Do high-skill jobs follow the trend? Is flexibility already implicit in "upper-class" jobs anyway? https://t.co/fTUJ5kMME9
— Brian Gongol (@briangongol) September 12, 2019

Segment 3: (12:23)

Question: Should wealth be taxed?

Answer: Just tax consumption and let the creative forces of capitalism do the heavy lifting for you. https://t.co/ETgQc3yTQL
— Brian Gongol (@briangongol) September 12, 2019

Le sigh. If only we had more voices like Coolidge today. https://t.co/fKi7NuxFmr
— Brian Gongol (@briangongol) September 12, 2019

Segment 4: (12:29)

Hypothesis: If you didn't live through the 80s, you won't recognize the base level of formality then-present in much of ordinary life. Some of it was contrived, which is what made the adult slacker a film archetype. That's what @JonahNRO struggles to explain to @jackbutler4815.
— Brian Gongol (@briangongol) September 12, 2019

I stand by what I've said for a long time: The biggest tech companies, deep down, would rather be regulated as public utilities, with guaranteed market dominance and a captive regulatory environment:https://t.co/RU0g5DNjcT
— Brian Gongol (@briangongol) September 13, 2019

Segment 5: (11 min)

It's like the problem of autonomous cars. 95% of car crashes are due to human error...but we've built up a (terrible) baseline expectation that they'll happen.

But the minute a self-driving car hits a trash can, the masses go nuts because it's a *new* risk.
— Brian Gongol (@briangongol) September 12, 2019

Segment 6: (8 min)

Show me a 50/50 split between dividends and inducement prizes, and I might be in.

Inducement prizes: Because canning and longitude weren't going to invent themselves.
— Brian Gongol (@briangongol) September 4, 2019

The process matters at least as much as the outcome. https://t.co/iXl0fQCLKo
— Brian Gongol (@briangongol) September 13, 2019

Revised and updated for the Chicago Dog, which is literally the only hot dog I will ever eat:

Pickles
Tomatoes
Poppy-seed bun
Nuclear-green relish
Celery salt
Yellow mustard
Ketchup
Onions (many do; I don't)
— Brian Gongol (@briangongol) September 12, 2019