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A controversial 2001 academic paper suggested that there’s a connection between Roe v. Wade’s legalization of  abortion in 1973 and the reduction in crime that followed a generation later in the 1990s. With crime again rising  in a post-Roe America, Mark and Joe discuss the Donohue-Levitt hypothesis, the many alternative explanations  offered since its publication, and whether it’s even possible to know the truth of the matter. (Recorded July 22, 2022.)

It’s strange to think that laughter –  involving the involuntary and sometimes loud expulsion of air, and which sometimes renders us helpless, struggling to breathe and with tears streaming down our faces – is a helpful evolutionary adaptation, but it is.  Joe humors Mark with an explanation of how this came to be. (Recorded July 8, 2022.)

The COVID-19 pandemic killed millions of people around the globe and devastated cities that experienced the seismic shock of a severe economic downturn that emptied downtowns and shuttered many businesses. Many cities have still not returned to the pre-pandemic normal.  Mark and Joe contemplate what our biggest cities may look like in a work-from-home world. (Recorded June 17, 2022.)

Mark can’t fathom how it’s legal to take out a big loan to buy a company, then transfer all that debt to the newly-acquired company and force it, in effect, to pay off its own purchase price via draconian cost-cutting measures that can destroy it in the process.  He challenged Joe to make the case for such transactions.  Together, Joe and Mark try to make sense of leveraged buyouts, vulture capitalism, and the “barbarians at the gate” who employ these tactics. (Recorded May 27, 2022.)

On a recent tour of college campuses with his daughter, Joe noticed how many more women were on campus than men, so he asked Mark whether this was true, and if so, why.  Join Mark and Joe as they discuss the very real phenomenon of declining college enrollment, why it disproportionately affects men, and what that portends for college education, for gender roles, and for the economic and cultural health of the nation. (Recorded May 13, 2022.)

Sports are not only big business, they’re emotionally meaningful to millions of people throughout the world. But why? Aren’t there so many better and more important things to do with our lives? Mark asked baseball-loving Joe what it is we get from watching sports, individually and collectively. Joe and Mark cover all the bases before sliding home with the news that, done in moderation, watching can yield great gifts. (Recorded April 29, 2022.)

The U.S. Senate’s recent unanimous passage of a resolution to make Daylight Saving Time permanent would save us the annoying chore of adjusting our clocks twice a year.  But is it the right thing to do?  Mark and Joe review the history of timekeeping in the United States and the relative merits of Daylight Saving Time and Standard Time, before deciding which they prefer.  Do not sleep on this episode of Mansplaining! (Recorded April 15, 2022.)

 It’s a choice  a lot of us face every day: whether to give cash to a panhandler on the street or instead donate that money to a charity that serves the homeless and tries to get them off the street.  Mark asked Joe to decide which method is better, and Joe’s research into “paternalistic” versus “agentic” giving led to some soul-searching about his own charitable instincts. (Recorded April 1, 2022.)

Let’s face it: some people are  never, ever going to take a COVID vaccine.  A member of Joe’s family is one such person, and he really wanted to know where that point of view came from, so he asked Mark for help.  Mark and Joe discuss the anti-vax position, the larger phenomenon of distrust that’s central to understanding it, and how we can work to navigate a seemingly unbridgeable ideological divide. (Recorded March 18, 2022.)

If there were a list of intractable problems our country faces, homelessness would certainly be on it.  The solution proffered by many advocates – more affordable housing – seems simple enough, but there’s a reason why problems like homelessness are not easily remedied.  Joe and Mark talk about homelessness in America today, its many root causes, and why it requires solutions that go above and beyond simply building more housing. 

There’s been a lot of chatter in the media lately – no doubt influenced by the publication of two recent books on the subject - about whether the United States is on the brink of a second civil war.  Having each read one of the aforementioned books, Mark and Joe discuss whether Civil War v2.0 is likely anytime soon and, if it were to happen, what such a conflagration might look like.  (Recorded February 18, 2022.)

For the last few decades, Americans have taken it as gospel that crime has been falling, a belief that’s supported by reams of data.  But what if the data is being manipulated by police commanders so that it looks better than it really is?  Joe and Mark wade into the sea of crime statistics to see how they’re gathered and whether they’re trustworthy. (Recorded February 4, 2022.)

U.S. diplomatic personnel stationed in Havana, Cuba first reported it more than five years ago: a piercing, high-pitched sound, often followed by headache, nausea, and vertigo.  Since then, such incidents have been reported all over the world, including in our nation’s capitol.  To date, the U.S. government has no good explanation for the strange phenomenon known as Havana Syndrome.  Mark and Joe examine this unsolved mystery and run through possible causes. (Recorded January 21, 2022.)

You know those good deeds you do for others and others do for you?  What if somebody told you that every one of those acts is actually selfishness in disguise?  Well, that’s what some scholars think about altruism, and it rubs Mark the wrong way, so he asked Joe about it.  Join Joe and Mark as they examine whether altruism exists and the reasons why it need not be subject to a purity test. (Recorded January 7, 2022.)

 It’s hard not to be  demoralized by the news these days, what with a worldwide pandemic still raging, climate devastation upon us, and a completely dysfunctional political system seemingly unable to address these issues or lift us out of our national doldrums.  But take heart; the news isn’t all bad.  Mark and Joe discuss some things that are going right in the world, and why a dose of wise optimism might be warranted. (Recorded December 17, 2021)

In all the thinking you’ve done about viruses lately, whether it be COVID or the flu or just the common cold, did you ever wonder whether they’re alive?  Mark has puzzled over that question for years, so he asked Joe about it.  Join them for an audio primer on what viruses do and whether they deserve their own branch on the tree of life. 

Joe started his first Spotify playlist nearly ten years ago and never looked back.  It completely changed the way he consumed music, and now he fervently hopes it doesn’t go the way of the 8-track tape.  Mark takes Joe through the history of the digital music business, whether today's streaming model is sustainable, and what the impacts are on the music industry, artists and consumers. (Recorded November 12, 2021.)

Mark and his wife want to find a larger apartment in Seattle, but the rents are ridiculous.  Joe owns an apartment in New York only because of the legacy of dead in-laws.  Housing costs are sky-high in many places in the USA and show no signs of abating.  Joe and Mark explore why this is the case and what we can do about it.  (Recorded October 29, 2021.)

 We’ve been told, seemingly forever, that driverless cars were just around the corner, but we never seem to turn that corner, leading one to wonder: is this really happening?  Mark and Joe cruise down the highway of autonomous driving technology, taking care not to crash into unidentified objects along the way. (Recorded October 15, 2021.)

JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter novels, has been labeled a TERF — a "trans-exclusionary radical feminist" — by trans activists who object to her gender critical views.  Joe and Mark examine this dispute, the fissures that separate the trans and feminist communities, and why there ought not to be a cold war brewing between them.