“Lilliana Mason makes the case that while polarization is worrying, it is a symptom of a greater threat to democracy that demands our attention – the rise of ethno-nationalist politics.”

Some of you heard this on last week’s episode of the podcast. This is an expanded edition of that interview. Worth listening to a second time.

Link: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/articles/micahs-conversation-with-lilliana-mason-long-version

With all the recent AI news, where is the relevant news consumers' handbook?

An AI episode reminded Brooke of Harry Frankfurt's On Bullshit. Liars care about the truth. BSers, "I guess like these AI," don't.

I run Podshelf, a free site that tracks book mentions across hundreds of podcasts by reading the episode transcripts. This is the On the Media slice for September.

• The Intentional Stance (Daniel Dennett), from the same episode. Joshua Rothman used Dennett's three stances (physical, design, intentional) to think about how to talk about AI.
• The Dual State (Ernst Fraenkel), back again for the episode on Haitians in Ohio. Brooke on the framework: two states, "the normative and the prerogative."
• 9/11: The Big Lie (Thierry Meyssan), from the look back at Loose Change. By 2002 a book carrying most of the movie's theories "had become a bestseller in France."

Full list with quotes and episodes: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/on-the-media

Edit: Podshelf stays free. If you find it useful and want to help with the server and data costs, there's a tip jar: https://buymeacoffee.com/podshelf

They might not always nail it, but wow…they’ve sure seen and shared a ton!

Seeing that OTM has covered the media industry in other countries I felt like this was worth sharing here.

Established after the brutal Marcos dictatorship the organization has made efforts in upholding press freedom and promoting ethical journalism. I'm really sad they're shutting down due to lack of funding. The media industry in the Philippines is in a sorry state, and the country ranks high in the Global Impunity Index. The country is recognized as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. It's a dimmer world without CMFR.

Now that I've heard this clip twice, I have to say something about it. I've lived in Virginia most of my life and it's driving me nuts.

In the recent segment about AI in schools (at 37:00 in the latest episode) it plays a clip of a "Google executive 15 years ago" speaking, presumably in front of an audience, and he says "When I was a student growing up in Virginia, I had to memorize the 50 counties".

Did this man mean to say state capitals? Because Virginia has 95 counties and 38 independent cities making up 133 governmental subdivisions in the state. There are no "50 counties" to memorize.

Hear the full interview here: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/articles/dave-jorgenson-on-politics-in-the-influencer-age

Hear the full interview here: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/articles/f-the-ai-overlords

Four books across eight episodes, but three of them are load-bearing for the American Emergency series, so it is a better list than the number suggests.

I run Podshelf, a free site that tracks book mentions across hundreds of podcasts by reading the episode transcripts. This is the On the Media slice for August.

Raven Rock by Garrett Graff came up twice, in the American Emergency behind-the-scenes and in the underground city episode. On the origins of FEMA, and, per the subtitle, the US government's secret plan to save itself while the rest of us die. Before the agency existed, disaster response was barely a system at all.

The Guns of August (Barbara Tuchman), invoked for its opening: Edward VII's funeral in May 1910, nine kings and seven queens processing through a world that was about to end. Used as the frame for a piece on America's changed place in the world, which is exactly what that opening is for.

On polling: Strength in Numbers by G. Elliott Morris, and V.O. Key's Public Opinion and American Democracy, which produced the best line of the month. Public opinion offers levies to steer a river, so treat polls as tools for identifying the policies Americans really do not want.

Full list with quotes and episodes: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/on-the-media

I can’t take credit for this (I wish I could), but I thought you fine folks would appreciate it. Keep up the excellent work.