E21. "Prohibition" - Can you blame an addict for not following the law?

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Named “Top 15 Podcast” for 2020!

STORY SUMMARY: Set in the future, an addict takes a cab to an isolated part of town. He goes to a private, illegal club to break the law; he orders meat. The club is raided by the police, who kill a patron during their interrogation of her. The meat-eating addict sneaks away, knowing he will break the law again.

DISCUSSION: Story with so many layers. First, the contrast between the “humane” society that has banned meat eating, but the brutality of the individual police. Do more serious laws allow for more brutal policing? Also, is this man protesting, or is he simply an addict? Seems to be just be an addict. Are there natural rights? If so, is eating meat one of those natural rights? Does it matter if the reason the law was passed was to protect animals, or to prevent climate change? If a law is passed you disagree with, does it change your behavior? Do you leave the party where they are eating meat? Does it depend on the level of the crime they are committing?

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E20. "How The Cockroach Lost Its Voice" - When cockroaches could talk, and humans were still unhappy.

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Named “Top 15 Podcast” for 2020!

STORY SUMMARY: An older and younger (talking) cockroach climb to the top of the highest thing, the refrigerator, to overlook their world. The older roach tells the child that the humans he sees can talk, and also have a 3rd eye inside of them that allows them to imagine the future and remember the past, and this is what makes them unhappy all the time. An angel moth comes down and takes away the roaches ability to speak forever.

DISCUSSION: A children’s story, but one with a good lesson, about having the ability to think about the future, but not let it trouble you or dwell on it. Do other animals have this “3rd eye”? Maybe dogs or others do, to some degree. It has made humans successful because we can remember errors, and plan for future problems. It’s a trade off, but a good one. The key is to not worry so much.

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E17. "A Change Of Verbs" - What if you just said what you meant?

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Named “Top 15 Podcast” for 2020!

STORY SUMMARY: The main character is a passive University Professor with a nagging wife. For some reason he decides today will be different and he goes through the entire day saying, and doing, what he actually feels. The day goes amazingly well, with classes, with colleagues, and he decides this will start a new chapter in his life.

DISCUSSION: Mixed reactions on this story. On the one hand, isn’t it his own fault for not always saying what he meant and letting people walk over him. Did this unhappiness come on slowly? He doesn’t treat his wife very well, and, perhaps, too much of his attraction is only physical. Is this just an extrovert writer telling introverts, if you just were more like me, you’d be a happier? Isn’t this all on a scale, you have to balance saying what you mean, with being respectful of others.

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E7. "Are You Him?" - If someone is crying, are you the kind of person that would stop?

La Gattara Cat Lounge & Boutique
in ,

STORY SUMMARY: A well dressed, older, black man is walking to work in a University town when he sees a college age white girl sitting on the curb crying. He decides to sit with her, and comfort her. As others walk by we are made aware of the daily micro-aggression of racism he must put up with every moment of his life. And yet, it’s clear he is able to shrug these aggressions off and live a wonderful life without anger. In the end, we find out the girl just found out her father has died. She wonders if the man is the angel of her father come to comfort her one last time.

DISCUSSION: Super interesting story showing the cumulative effect of racism and how it pervades so many decisions. It’s a bit sad that the only way to create a caring black character is to get enough of their backstory to be sure they don’t have shady motives, while a white person wouldn’t have to prove their motives. The main character is just a man, but might as well be an angel he both makes us aware of the hundreds of decisions he has to make every day taking racism into account, while still not being hateful and trying to help others. Just a wonderful story about the way racism pervades every moment of life and decision-making.

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E6. "As You Wish" - If you could change anything about yourself, would you ever stop?

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STORY SUMMARY: Children’s story that starts with a bunch of old tattered stuffed animals being found in a trunk by a woman. She can talk to the stuffed animals and says she will fix them back up. At first, the requests are simple, fix a torn ear, replace a missing eye… but later, the stuffed animals ask for more changes. The unicorn wants its horn removed. The panda wants to be less fat. The zebra wants its stripes removed. The final character, Sad Bear, who is always sad because he has a frown sewn on, is offered the chance to have his frown removed. He declines the offer to fix his sadness, because, he says, it is who is is, and he is okay with who he is.

DISCUSSION: This is a story about what we change, and how we accept others, and ourselves, as we are. What is an acceptable change? Fixing vision and teeth are fine, of course, but what about taking anti-depressants or body augmentation? Can we be accepting of others when the choose to make changes that we think are silly, or superficial? When it is okay to be clinically depressed, and simply accept that as who you are, or does it have to be fixed?

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E5. "Pretty Pragmatism" - Can a good idea come from a horrible source?

La Gattara Cat Lounge & Boutique
in ,

STORY SUMMARY: The story takes place around a Senator who has proposed a bill that would require mandatory service for kids. He got the idea from the Nazi party, but means well in that it will get kids outside and teach them the value of volunteering. The bill goes over very badly and he now faces a formal censure from the Senate. He compromise is made and quietly withdraws the bill, in support of a supporting additions to the proposed annual budget.

DISCUSSION: Story does a good job of showing all the good things that came from sources that don’t live up to modern standards of morality. Does that mean we toss those ideas out, or those people out of our history books? Perhaps we simply teach a more complete version of history where people are not idealized. Even when we tell our history and role models to children, the explanations should be more complete. Can a good person have a good idea? Is a person all one thing, or all another? Singers and comedy people may be horrible people in real life, but does that make the art of lower quality?

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E2. "My Fellow (Immortal) Americans" - Don't you have a right to immortality?

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STORY SUMMARY: Sometime in the future, the President gives a speech to a group of wealthy donors. In this future, time is the only currency and, if you have enough of it, you can live forever. The focus of the President’s speech is about his opposition to the new labor laws that want to pay a higher minimum “time wage.” The President argues, it will encourage laziness, and is anti-capitalistic. That the hard working rich, deserve to live forever, and pass their accumulated years on to their children to do the same.

DISCUSSION: It’s an interesting concept, but not developed enough. For example, when someone does die, how do you decide who gets to have a the next kid in the world. It is a good story in that is brings up questions of economic inequality in a way that makes it more offensive. Also brings up an interesting question of if people did have to work only a little, to get paid a lot of time, would people become lazy? Are people inherently lazy?

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