The Big Life Questions Show

Chris and Doug meditate on the cycle of life, the conditions under which we'd like to extend it, and our future non-existence - or whatever happens after this wild ride we're on.  0.45 Study of Oxygen Therapy for Longevity 1.30 Chris's view of living forever 4.45 Doug's meditation on non-existence 10.15 Wealthy people trying to cheat death 14.45 Steve Jobs 16.45 People who are less afraid of death 21.00 Doug's Arrogance and the cycle of life   Links: Aging Journal - Oxygen Therapy Extends Longevity The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die

Doug and Chris (mostly) take a break from talking about politics to note the many things we have to be thankful for - despite the challenges of 2020. 1.50 Family. 6.10 Healthcare workers during Covid 7.00 Vaccines 10.15 Election Poll Workers 11.00 Dead People Voting 12.00 Joe Biden 16.00 Our Audience

Show Notes Here we discuss the significance of our second major Covid wave on our health, families, and emotional well-being 1.00 The emotional toll of the pandemic 6.15 Individual rights and social obligations 8.45 Are we headed for healthcare rationing? 13.20 The Virus Burnout Syndrome 16.00 How can we learn from our virus experience so far? 18.00 Wall Street Journal Mask Wearing Update Links PBS Interview of Biden Covid Task Force Co Chair

Show Notes Here's our expert analysis on the election results, recorded on Saturday morning shortly before the presidential race was called for Biden 0.45 Overall Reactions to Election Results 3.20 Why didn't Mitch McConnell want a stimulus bill? 4.20 Georgia - The Democrat's Silver Lining 6.45 Re-visiting our Pre-Election Predictions 9.15 Our strategies for watching the election results 10.50 The election turnout 13.20 How did the pollsters do? 16.10 The Planned Pennsylvania Crisis 19.00 Where Biden Won the Election 25.00 The Democrat's Messaging Problem 27.00 The Brilliance of Biden's Campaign Strategy

Show Notes We muse on the possible election results, to the extent that we can emotionally cope with that. And we make some analytical predictions about how things will go (in other words, we guess).  0.30 Possible election scenarios 6.00 Doug's swing state predictions 9.00 Texas 12.45 Post election day turmoil? 17.30 The future of Trump TV 19.30 The Contested Election Scenarios 29.00 Chris Calls the Election !!   FiveThirtyEight: Explore The Ways Trump Or Biden Could Win The Election

In this special Halloween edition, Doug and Chris are joined by John Gallant, a horror short-story writer, to discuss why many people enjoyed being frightened. 1.30 Introducing John 2.30 The Emotions of Horror and Fear 7.20 Sleeping With the Enemy 9.50 Coming up with Horror Story Ideas 13.15 Horror Story Plots 18.30 Chris recalls The Twilight Zone 20.30 The Magic of Stephen King 23.00 The Thing   Links On Writing by Stephen King

Show Notes We discuss the role of social media companies, how they impact our culture, how they play in our elections, and how much they should be regulated - or not. Plus conspiracy theories like Q-Anon 0.30 The moral obligation 2.30 Twitter and the Hunter Biden story 6.10 Facebook and its challenges 9.00 The cultural impact of social media 11.00 Q-Anon and conspiracy theories 14.30 The legal insulation of social media from fake news stories 19.00 Antitrust regulation and social media

Show Notes Here we explore how female political leaders are viewed and judged by the press and the American people, going back to 1984.  0.45 Female and Black presidents 1.30 Women and Men who come on strong 2.50 Gretchen Whitmer and the kidnapping plot 6.15 How women are unfairly judged 10.00 Mike Pence 15.00 Back to 1984 19.30 How is it going with men running the world? 21.30 The Lincoln Project

In this special episode, Doug and Chris explore the ramifications of President Trump reportedly testing positive for COVID-19.

Show Notes We cover the landscape of threats to our American democracy starting, of course, with Trump refusing to endorse a peaceful transition of power if he loses. 0.45 Peaceful transitions of Power 4.10 The Destruction of Truth 5.00 The Supreme Court Nominee 8.30 How the Media empowers Trump 12.30 Ohio 14.25 The Tuesday Debate 17.25 Florida 24.00 Income inequality in the US 26.10 A time for Hardball  

Show Notes We cover Bob Woodward's new book, Trump's decision to talk to him, and what real leadership looks like in a crisis. 0.45 Winston Churchill 2.30 The Woodward Book 4.00 Trump's "Concept of Leadership" 7.15 Lying when you know you're lying 12.00 Leading during a crisis 16.00 Why did Trump agree to talk to Woodward? 18.15 The Brutal Truth

Show Notes Here we continue our psychiatric analysis of the president who lacks a soul. More importantly, we assess how much ground - if any- Trump might lose by attacking dead soldiers 0.50 The Atlantic article boy Jeffrey Goldberg 5.40 Anonymous sources 8.00 Freebie movie recommendation 10.00 World War I 11.00 Trump's reaction to damaging stories  12.30 The "he just seems like an asshole" defense 14.20 The Vietnam Draft 18.15 Will Trump lose any votes over this?

Show Notes Trump seems to believe that social unrest and urban violence is helping his chances of getting re-elected. He seems to be running as an outsider, despite the fact that he is an incumbent President - and crime was at a 50-year low when he took office. Can he pull it off? 0.40 1968 and 2020 3.55 How can Biden get on offense? 7.20 Systemic racism in America 9.35 Armed white guys "helping out" on the streets 15.55 The Democrat's hand-wringing 20.45 Has Trump made racism more socially acceptable?    

Show Notes  Here we talk about the Republican National Convention and what we can expect - if we can actually call what Trump is about to do a convention. And we re-cap the DNC from last week. 1.00 What we can predict the Republicans will say 2.30 The Speaker Agenda for the RNC 3.45 The "New" Republican Party Platform 7.25 The "Cultural Icons" speaking at the RNC 10.15 Over to the Democratic National Convention 12.00 Biden's Life Story as a window into the American Story