Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio
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
- Australian wildfires
Astonishing fire disaster in Australia
ABC News: "Roads remain cut off around the coastal town, in the far east of Victoria, where about 4,000 locals and holidaymakers have been stuck since the fire tore through on New Year's Eve." Australia's navy has sent a rescue ship.
Segment 1: (11 min)
BUT FIRST: The opening essay
Removing a dastardly figure from Iran's military chain of command may be in America's first-order interests. But what happens next? As Margaret Thatcher admonished: "How do you see the process from where you are now to where you want to be? Because, whatever you want to do, it's not only what you want to do, but how -- the practical way you see it coming about." What is the end goal? How is that to come about? Iran has 83 million people: The size of California, Texas, and New York combined. ■ It is never enough to say that the old policy wasn't working. There must always be an effort to answer the question: And then what happens next? ■ There are those who say things along the lines of "If you don't have a solution, you can't complain about the problem". That's untrue, and it's bad advice. Problems have to be named before they can be solved. But what is true is that things can almost always get worse, and they often get much worse much faster than we would care to believe. So whether staying the course or changing it, reasonable adults have to ask, "What happens next? How might things get worse? How will we know if we've gone wrong? Is this particular cure worse than the disease?" There may, in fact, be no easy or good answers to some problems. That doesn't change the need to carefully weigh what might go wrong.
The moral of the story: Two things can be true at the same time. The world can be better-off on a first-order basis with a killer like Qassem Soleimani gone. And it can also be more dangerous on a second-order basis if we haven't prepared adequately for the consequences.
Segment 2: (8 min)
Totally Unnecessary Debate of the Day
Totally Unnecessary Debate of the Day™:
— Brian Gongol Show (@briangongolshow) January 3, 2020
On which syllable do you place the emphasis?
Totally Unnecessary Debate of the Day™:
— Brian Gongol Show (@briangongolshow) December 28, 2019
Which caffeine-delivery device is your favorite?
Segment 3: (14 min)
The moral of the story:
Segment 4: (5 min)
Website reminder
The moral of the story:
Segment 5: (11 min)
The moral of the story:
Segment 6: (8 min)
The moral of the story:
Segment 7: (14 min)
The moral of the story:
Segment 8: (5 min)
The moral of the story:
Unsorted and leftovers:
This week
Hot (social) topics
Google Trends | Yahoo | Y-today | Yahoo Buzz | MSN | MSN UK | Alexa | Delicio | Lycos | Technorati | AOL | Google | Dogpile | Ask (wkly) | CBS | Bloglines | NYTLede | Twitter
By the numbers
Iowans continue a love affair with Black Velvet
The Canadian whiskey is the state's biggest seller. There are parts of the state where the local water supply could probably be converted to a BV supply, and a majority of residents might actually approve.
Make money
Economist | Fast Co | WSJ | CB
A century since Estonia's War of Independence
European history classes could stand to spend less time on obscure English kings and more time on the last two centuries in the Baltics.
The Baltic Republics are a trio of fantastic reminders that freedom and liberty aren't just useful in one aspect or another; they have to be comprehensive, including a market economy, security for individual liberties, and a right to self-determination without fear of invasion or coercion from the outside. The astounding growth of economic prosperity since those countries broke free of Soviet domination is amazing, but Estonia is doing exceptional work for the cause of personal freedom in the digital domain, too. Yet there remains an ever-present threat that Russia might do something stupid against them again. And without security at the state level, all of the other gains are tenuous at best.
Have fun
Yes, it's 2020. No, you don't have to make puns about "vision".
It's like the original dot-com boom, when everyone just slapped the letter "e" on things to the point of inducing nausea.
Clean up after yourself
"Let every new year find you a better man." - Benjamin Franklin
Ben Franklin inadvertently proves the value in non-sexist language and its ability to clear up ambiguity. But more importantly, it's good advice.
Mind your business
Spending 20% of his days on the golf course
Calvin Coolidge once noted that "Everything that the President does potentially at least is of such great importance that he must be constantly on guard [...] Not only in all his official actions, but in all his social intercourse, and even in his recreation and repose, he is constantly watched". The President would be well-advised to heed that advice today.
Quote of the Week
"My definition of 'win' is not binary. It is not a zero-sum game. Negotiation that leads to a winner and a loser rarely leads to a successful transaction, or another one down the road." - Sam Zell
"The liberal order will have to be fought for, compromised for, and rejuvenated. But I do believe it will be sustained. Because the values that undergird it genuinely are universal." - Kori Schake
Technology Three | The week in technology
National Weather Service forecasters in Las Vegas were embedded with other organizations for New Year's Eve, since the city is a huge destination for NYE events. The weather itself was pleasant, but the forecasters spent their time modeling things like what might have happened if a road crash caused a chemical spill. What a smart use of highly-skilled people. Even when the weather is nice, there's something useful for meteorologists to do around big events.
"Don't be evil" needs an upgrade
Washington Post: "But for Google, the debate around China was also existential. The Chinese market represents not just Google's best chance at another billion users, but also the future of innovation, talent and artificial intelligence." ■ At some point, it must be acknowledged that the right thing to do may not achieve a majority vote. If we expect individuals to do the right thing even when it might cost them something (and we most certainly should expect that), then we have to hold people in large businesses to the same standard. This is different from a debate about a company's "corporate social responsibility"; it's instead a claim that people do not leave their ethical standards at the workplace door. Ethics held only some of the time, when satisfactory conditions prevail and the consequences are cheap, are no real ethics at all.
Tornado researchers captured "groundbreaking" data in 2019
Using brand-new, state-of-the-art tools like drones that flew into tornadic storms and specialized portable radar systems, they got right up on top of the action with several tornadoes this past season and will be
Your role in cyberwar
Iowa news
Father pleads for peace after 14-year-old son is murdered
This is just gut-wrenching; his sense of loss must be unfathomable, yet he admirably chooses to use the unbearable grief as a platform to try to reach the broader community of metro Des Moines.
Contrary to popular opinion
Hyperbole is going to kill us all
Our political opponents in America aren't the enemy
They just aren't. But, regrettably, the President is feeding on the notion of rivals as malicious enemies. It's just not appropriate to compare Sen. Chuck Schumer to the Iranian government. It just isn't. As Dwight Eisenhower said about the Allied effort in WWII: "Nothing creates trouble between allies so often or so easily as unnecessary talk -- particularly when it belittles one of them. A family squabble is always exaggerated beyond its true importance."
What's the big idea?
More radio stations flipped to a religious format than any other in 2019
"Religious" might be the closest thing most markets have to the classic "full-service" format. And that's a point worth some pondering, particularly given the apparent strength of the religious format.
21st Century conservatism
Cities and the people
Tw/cities | CityLab | StrongTowns
Curiosity, competence, and humility
Have a little empathy
How are you feeling?
NIH | CDC | BBC | CNN | WebMD | Harvard
Inbox zero
Stop the deliberate ignorance
Tin Foil Hat Award
End civil asset forfeiture in 2020
Yay Capitalism Prize
Capitalist solution of the week
Kickers
Police catch I-80 driver with 1,500 lbs. of marijuana in back of a rental truck
In case you wondered what they're going to be giggling about on every radio morning show tomorrow...
New Year's under the fireworks
If you zoom in really close on this picture of a Chicago L train going under the fireworks, you'll see that all of the passengers are staring at their phones.
This day in history
HistCh | Infoplease | LoC | HistNet | NYT | Yahoo
One year ago
Five years ago
Ten years ago
Programming notes
Live read: iHeartRadio app
iHeartRadio app
Live read: Contests
Live read: Smart speakers (hour 1)
Smart speakers
Live read: Smart speakers (hour 2)
Smart speakers
Calendar events to highlight
Recap
Notes from the episode that aired on _____ 2020
🎧 Listen to the full episode from _____ 2020 here 🎧
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