Michael Olcott

writer/producer

[Acyn @Acyn]

Mamdani: The powerful have always known their answer. America, in their view, is an arena of supremacy, where only a select few are allowed freedom, where not all are created equal. America, if you ask them, becomes less the more people it welcomes. America, they will tell you, belongs only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin. The rest of us, they insist, should be grateful for merely being allowed to visit.

How small they are, how weak, how unoriginal. 

At every moment in our past, those who led through exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich themselves by turning us against one another. Division is the oldest trick in politics, and the cheapest. But time and again-including 250 years ago-those forces of division have been vanquished by the forces of progress.

And yet today, too many of our leaders do not believe in a vision of this nation as an asylum for the persecuted-but rather as one that persecutes those seeking asylum.

As we mark 250 years, what do we see? 

We see a city of contradictions within a nation of contradictions. We see the wealthiest country in the history of the world— one where children go to sleep hungry while the world's first trillionaire hungers for more. We see monopolies that dominate every industry and oligarchs who buy elections. We see masked agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans. We see a nation whose immense wealth has been built by those with calloused, dirt-streaked hands —those who toil on factory floors and chisel into stone —and we see a nation that has allowed so much of that wealth to be held instead in the soft hands of a precious few.

[Cruke 🏳️‍⚧️ @hoegivemefaith]

arena started cheering "we want boston" and at least 5 people near me were like woahhhh no who said that

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs. Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.

[Isaac Saul @Ike_Saul]

This piece is interesting. I also think it's deeply flawed. One thing I've noticed, and h/t to @arijoe19 for articulating it so well, is that computer code is a really structured language, and software is a defined problem space with a lot of defined patterns, so software people tend to think everything is a pattern and AI being really good at their job makes them overestimate how well it can do everything else.

The truth is there is a lot more disorder, unpredictability, and humanness in so much of our lives — and our work — that I don't think AI applications will always (or even often?) be able to account for.

Matt, for instance, lists journalism as a job in trouble thanks to AI (not that our industry needs more trouble). And it's true that AI can read documents fast and do incredible research and even write clean copy and edit -- it will probably eliminate or reduce the need for some jobs!

But you know what it can't do? It can't work a source over for years on end. It can't / doesn't / won't bear witness to live events. It reminds me of the famous Good Will Hunting scene, where Robin Williams is chastising Matt Damon about being such a smart ass but not being able to describe what the Sistine Chapel smells like. Damon is the AI.

I say this as someone who has experimented a ton with the latest versions of ChatGPT Matt is writing about here. I can feed it limitless writing of mine from my archives and then have it write a take about a new current events story; I've tried, actually, because if it were good it would save me hours of work every day. But it is *always* useless. Not sometimes; always.

Why? Because the AI still can't predict when certain emotional elements of a story drive me away from a previously held position; because it doesn't know what happened to me that week, or what stories I've read about the topic at hand, or an experience my grandmother had that my family always talked about that informs my view on, say, antisemitism or Israel. It just predicts where I'd land on an issue based on what I've written before, which is actually not a great way to understand humans who are always moving in new and different directions.

It just doesn't know. People think humans are finite numbers of neurons and processes and thoughts and learning but I think that is wrong — we are all constantly changing every day, every second, thanks to new inputs and new experiences.

So yes, I buy that AI will be able to read documents better than your typical lawyer. But can it build a relationship with a client? Or look at a jury and guess what argument might move them to "guilty"? Or know when to cross the lines with a judge or when to step back? I don't really think so. And those limits, to me, are so under-discussed in this dialogue that it kind of discredits everything else.

[WHYY @whyy]

This week on Peak Travel, we talk to @RickSteves about the best ways to travel, his tips to avoid crowds, and his new book "On the Hippie Trail"

https://t.co/g1RvK0vHm4 @tariro

[Josh Hart @joshhart]

Don’t want to hear no more Brady comparisons

[Museum @DailyClassicArt]

Frederic Edwin Church - "Aurora Borealis" (1865)

[Apple Podcasts @ApplePodcasts]

For some football fans, the real action isn’t on the field, it’s in the parking lot. 🚗

On the season two premiere of @whyy’s Peak Travel, host @tariro talks to the spirited fans who turn tailgates into a sport of their own.

https://t.co/HD3TD7lGIZ

[The Tennessee Holler @TheTNHoller]

🔥 🗣️STURGILL SIMPSON: “This toxic patriarchal energy is an age coming to an end… that energy is clawing for its survival bc it knows it’s dying. We’re heading to something beautiful, we just have to go through some dark shit first. So love everybody.” (H/T @BassOutdoor)

[Jaylen Brown @FCHWPO]

Yall got weird energy

[Radiohead videos @raradiohead]

Radiohead
Let Down

[WHYY @whyy]

Peak Travel has taken the Gold at the @signalawards for Best New Podcast of 2024! We're honored to have been awarded this jury prize in a category with some stiff competition- including Trevor Noah and CNN!

Listen to Season 1: https://t.co/exCOJ2sooR
Season 2 coming in January!

[WHYY @whyy]

Peak Travel is a finalist in three categories for the @signalawards and voting ends TODAY!

Environment & Sustainability https://t.co/M2C2PS8OUf
Best Conversation Starter https://t.co/7cBAPX0psb
Best New Podcast! https://t.co/hI0kVPp8O6

[leon alpuche @skyferrori]

caroline polachek on the brat remix album:

[Michael Olcott @mikeolcott]

@fritzo There he IS! Lovely running into you in this cesspool.

[PRX @prx]

More than 20 podcasts distributed by PRX are finalists in the 2024 Signal Awards @SignalAwards, including @NYBG Plant People, @WHYY Peak Travel, and @LongLead Long Shadow.
Congratulations to our partners and to all producers making defining shows.
https://t.co/wmnbEC1msl

[AIR @AIRmedia]

SoundPath Webinar: How @whyy Makes the Peak Travel Podcast

🗓️ Thursday, October 10
🕐 11am-12pm PT/ 2-3pm ET
👤 Presenters: @TomGrahsler, @mikeolcott, @mwinberg_, and @bibianacorrea_
🎟️ Free for AIR members/$25 for non-members: https://t.co/Eqs6Xqrp45

[Carlos A. Lopez @LosTalksPats]

WE ARE IN A NEW ERA OF #PATRIOTS FOOTBALL!

[Michael Olcott @mikeolcott]

@jamesdunseith I don’t get it, but I know YOU know!