In Lieu of Fun: #DogShirtTV

Wherein Eve Gaumond joins Ben to discuss strategies for getting new AI tools to break their own content guidelines for our amusement. John Hawkinson gets roped into explaining what a quantum computer is, and Joel Woodward drops by with questions about Dog Shirt TV's future as a revolution in morning television.

Wherein Ben and Holly Berkley Fletcher welcome Ammar Abdulhamid to celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad and discuss what comes next for Syria and the region.

Wherein Ben welcomes Shane Harris, who has discovered the secrets of candied bacon and told us all about it. Then we talked about Kash Patel and did a dramatic reading of one of his children's books.Check out Shane's reporting on candied bacon here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/bacon-the-bestkept-secret-in-washington/And read Ben's analysis of Kash Patel's child propaganda here: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-situation--the-plot-to-lie-to-children

Wherein Ben, left alone and bereft of a guest, vamps on Bitcoin, the nomination process, and the Feast of Sol Invictus. Antti Ruokonen drops in to ask after Ric Grenell, and Laura Donna weighs in on whether the audience is more of a Collegium than a Greek Chorus.

Wherein Ben welcomes Toomas Hendrik Ilves, former president of Estonia, to discuss Eastern European reactions to Russia and Trump. They also talk electronic government in Estonia, and Ben demonstrates one of the problems with e-government via a series of tech glitches.

Wherein Sarah Bond tells us about the Labor movement in ancient history. Check out her new book here: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300273144/strike/

Wherein Ben premieres his new show, Holly Berkley Fletcher premieres her new parody video, and we rant about presidential pardons.

Wherein Ben tells a spell-bound Holly Berkley Fletcher about his new paleontological discovery: Our hominin ancestors were fucking with us. Antti Ruokonen drops by to tell us why he's thankful for the Finnish education system.

Wherein Ben, Eve Gaumond, and Holly Berkley Fletcher try to plan future episodes by pondering what grim fate will befall us next.