He's cool — he's podcasting.

I'm launching a NEW PODCAST. We need to change the conversation.

I'm talking directly with people I disagree with, people I look up to, and you -- the listeners.

Egg prices? Tariffs? DOGE? We're tackling all your big questions.

This is Gavin Newsom. Subscribe now ➡️… pic.twitter.com/WdzGeqdvZ4

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) February 26, 2025

"Your brain knows bullshit," said Joe Rogan.

"You could kind of bullshit someone for an hour, but... hour two and hour three.... that's when the real you comes out.... How much are you bullshitting the world?...[T]he narrative about Trump has always been that he's bullshitting everybody.... But that's him, that's the, the guy's right there. You could talk to him about everything and anything. He's right there.... Your brain knows bullshit...."

Context (from the full transcript at Podscribe, which I edited a bit for accuracy):

"He starts way back at the very beginning—Episode 164, on the Velvet Underground, for instance, opens with John Cage going door to door in Santa Monica..."

"... offering to sell housewives lessons in music and art appreciation. Hickey plays no interviews—it’s just his research, painstakingly arranged to make a point. At first, these essays were of manageable length—half an hour for Episode 4, discussing 'Choo Choo Ch’Boogie,' by Louis Jordan. ('In the nineteen-forties and early fifties, the train still meant freedom, still meant escape, and even once that had vanished from people’s minds it was still enshrined in the chug of the backbeat, in the choo choo ch’boogie.') But the transcript of even that episode is four thousand words long, which, multiplied by five hundred, would give you two million words of content, and would best Gibbon by half a million. (Winston Churchill’s six-volume history of the Second World War clocks in at around 1.25 million words; the Bible barely hits three quarters of a million.) And, in any event, Hickey’s ability to control his material has begun to gloriously unravel as he has proceeded. A recent episode—No. 165—is devoted to 'Dark Star,' by the Grateful Dead, and it clocks in at well over four hours and 38,458 words. At this pace, Hickey will eclipse every literary project in history; the current plan is to reach the five hundredth song sometime late in this decade, but that presupposes he can keep writing what amounts to a book every fortnight or so. We shall see."

Writes Bill McKibben, in "A Music Podcast Unlike Any Other/Andrew Hickey has embarked on a heroic and wild effort to tell the history of rock music in five hundred songs" (The New Yorker). Much more at the link.

I'm thrilled to see a New Yorker article on "The History of Rock Music in 500 Songs," which I've been recommending to you since September 2021, with this post. There are 8 more posts of mine, just click on the "Andrew Hickey" tag.

"In the first episode of Archetypes released since the Queen’s death, Meghan recalled her 'adolescent embarrassment' at being naked at a Korean spa with her mother as a teenager."

I'm reading "Meghan podcast hits out at films’ ‘toxic’ Asian stereotypes" (London Times).

She may have suffered "adolescent embarrassment" long ago, but she's far beyond embarrassment now. She's got a very popular podcast, and now, championing Asian women, she's citing her experience on "a trip to a Korean spa with her mother where swimwear was not allowed.

"Slightly salty deep bite."

It's a podcast — about the Person of the Year, calling Jill “Dr.”, the deep and the shallow, who cares that Elvis died, writing to annoy, and "Earthlings." Listen here (or go wherever you go for podcasts and subscribe!):

 

"I'm beginning to see the light."

 

 It's a podcast. 

 Topics: "Dolly Parton, Tony Hsieh, Shel Silverstein, children’s books, luck, Buffalo Bill Cody, mediocre white men, Netflix murdering movie theaters, the collective mind, the Spelling Bee puzzle, the word 'headpiece,' Darkmonth."

Listen here or — better yet — use the iTunes app and subscribe. Or use one of the other podcasting apps and subscribe.

"It's getting better all the time."

 

It's a podcast. 

Topics: "An old aphorism, comic strips, John Lennon, toxic positivity, Biden’s rhetoric, Biden’s dogs, Cher’s elephant, emotional support animals, COVID restrictions on religious schools and figures on New Yorker covers." 

Listen above or — better yet — go to your usual podcast place and subscribe.

"First, there is a monolith, then there is no monolith."

 

It's a podcast. 

Topics: "A Zen mountain, the 'vanishing' monolith, Trump’s wall likened to a Christo project, the fiction of ‘The Crown,’ David Brooks’s notion of the 'rotting' GOP mind, lax grooming in COVID times, learning from hermits in COVID times, and the memory of smells."

Pilgrims and pardons.

 

Today's podcast arrives late — due to technical problem with my host (Anchor). 

But here it is! Topics — Pardons, pilgrims, vacuuming, canceling.... 

This isn't an open thread — go one post down for that. Comments here are just for the podcast!

"Mystery metal monolith."

It's a podcast. Listen here... 

 

... if you haven't already subscribed on your podcast app. 

Topics: "Trump’s non-bombshell, Trump’s subversion, Rudy’s movie, kids and COVID, Madison’s #1, Hillbilly Elegy, Biden loyalists want taking care of, the monolith of the Canyonlands, Trump’s non-weird 90-second press conference."

"The brain is not for thinking."

 

It's a podcast. 

Topics: "Biden is boring, Biden and the media, Washingtonians want to party again, Trump’s failing fight, the brain isn’t for thinking, Tom Cotton for President, and the 'Floor Frame' sculpture in the Rose Garden."

It would be nice if you'd subscribe to the podcast. You can find it at Spotify — here — at Google — here — at Pocket Casts — here — at iTunes — here — or at Radio Public — here.

"A mamlish memento"/"A less mamlish memento."

It's a podcast in 2 forms! 

Topics: "A transgender writer dies, 2 Latin words, a little Shakespeare, a Bible story about Hell, a NYT spelling game, the bad word 'nappy,' the mysterious word 'mamlish,' what’s new in Pompeii, the desire for a crisply clear election result, and the love of a soft misty morning." 

The first form — "A mamlish memento" — has music! 3 full-length songs. But you can only listen to this on Spotify — here. Consider subscribing! 

The second form has the music left out, so I'm calling it "A less mamlish memento," and you can listen here: 

That has me mentioning the music that's about to play. I was learning how the music function works. I'm not sure many people want the intrusion of music, so it was just an experiment.

You can also subscribe to the podcast (without the music) at Google — go here — at Pocket Casts — here — at iTunes — here — or at Radio Public — here.

"What if you had to argue...?

 

It's a podcast. 

Topics: "Bad arguments, bad evidence, irony, Trump’s struggle, Amy Coney Barrett’s first death penalty case, hypocrisy, Kyle Rittenhouse, problematizing the UW rock, not casting an autistic actor, Michael J. Fox and Parkinson’s and gratitude."

"Blobby globs."

It's a podcast. 

Topics: "Misunderstanding viral media, Biden’s modest calmness, Kamala’s prosecutorial problem, divine conversation." 

Extra topic: Rudy's handkerchief.

"Gazing at intransigence."

 

It's a podcast. 

Topics: "Still counting the votes, Democratic Party in-fighting, NYC school shutdown, Matt Yglesias doesn’t quite tell his story, gambling on whether Melania wants a divorce."

"Against Thanksgiving."

 

It's a podcast.

Topics: "Biden and embarrassment, Mo Willems and aging, kids and coronavirus, the war on Thanksgiving, shunning the Trumps, ogling in Pakistan, and the depiction of bad people as ugly."

"Pretzel in pocket."

A very short podcast for reasons explained in the first minute.

Topics: "Pretzels, height, crabs, white-presenting voters, roll-off voters, Wikipedia, Billie Eilish, George Harrison, David Bowie, Chrissie Hynde, Emanuel Macron."

"The limbo of desperados."

 

It's a podcast. 

Topics: "Obama’s book, Kamala Harris as VP, Timothy Leary, art and free speech, Trumpsters vs. anti-Trumpsters, Hispanic voters and socialism." 

This is a thread to talk about the podcast. The next post up is the café (i.e., open thread).

"The wheel's still in spin."

 

It's a podcast. 

Topics: "Coddling baby-adults, winning the culture war, Dylan’s losers, calling kids fat, walking the war out of your system, the museum’s accidental honoring of male supremacy."

"That's just an alabai."

 

It's a podcast.

Topics: "Elon Musk and COVID, my dream about Biden, Alito and the erosion of rights, colossal dog statue in Turkmenistan, the largest statues in the world, Meghan McCain mocks Trump, a cheeky interviewer in Nebraska, Trump adjust to losing, Harvard and affirmative action." 

Episode title appropriates a line from this: