We Solved A Lot Of The World's Problems Today

This episode is a bit of a rambler! The guys cover a ton of topics and jump around a bit so hang on for a wild ride as we dive into vegan cooking, tackle pop culture, get into sports, talk about racism, update everyone on politics, crack the code on technology, jump back to politics, and close things our with a gold old fashioned rant against social media!

(00:00:25) Introductions - The guys catch up with each other briefly before diving into this week’s topics.

(00:04:29) Cooking - Chris talks about his first vegan bologna experience and making stuffed peppers with homemade cream cheese, then realizes he forgot to invite Andre to the Vegan Mac n Cheese contest, then the guys get distracted by comic books and movies about comic books…

(00:11:24) Pop Culture - Chris talks about his Marvel-filled weekend, Andre shares his excitement about the upcoming Marvel shows, the guys get into a deep discussion about financially supporting “evil” corporations like Amazon and Walmart, the impact of these Amazon on small businesses, Andre points out that economies of scale have downsides and people have to choose.

(00:23:05) Sports - Andre can’t help but bring up the NC State @ UNC- Chapel Hill game but admits he likes Kevin Keatts, the guys talk about their excitement around the XFL’s initial success, Andre talks about his sports addiction and why he doesn’t watch European futbol anymore.

(00:32:07) Life - The guys just can’t stay away from the topic of racism, so Chris talks about how he thought racism was American-made, Andre talks about how black people bring the seasoning to a culture.

(00:35:30) Politics - Andre gives his take on the latest debate, the guys talk about why he doesn’t think Bernie will win, Chris gives his recent voting history, the guys discuss the recent panic over the Corona Virus, Andre points out how comedy can shine a light on real issues.

(00:48:46) Technology - The guys discuss the negative impacts of technological advances on society with a focus on laziness and Tesla Motors’ liability for Autopilot crashes.

(00:55:00) Politics… again - Bernie owns three houses and his wife closes a school, the guys ask why do we only focus on the 1% and talk why the people in charge make the rules to exclude every one else, Andre makes fun of Cary’s new dynamic left turn lane, the guys lament the lack of decent public transportation in North Carolina, Chris blames the lack of expected users while Andre says a larger scale system that spans multiple counties could work, Chris explains why Dave will always be his favorite fantasy.

(01:19:23) Social Media - Andre admits to having started using Pinterest and justifies it by calling it “social search”, the guys share stories about the negative effects of social media on friendships and work relations and talk about companies taking advantage of social media networks, Chris and Andre agree that LinkedIn sucks now.

(01:38:08) That’s a Wrap! - The guys wrap things up with Andre heaping a bunch of praise (deservingly) on Chris for his technical work on the podcast (though this is possibly the worst Andre has sounded since we started, and Chris did totally upload a version of the podcast without the intro music or several of the topic changes, which has since been corrected…), Chris gives a long-winded story about how he lucked his way into audio production. The guys will be off next week while Chris drives from Arizona to North Carolina in a box truck with his dad!