The June edition of the ICBW podcast is now available for download or streaming.  Part 1 discusses various "insurgent" political candidates running in the current US election cycle, including LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt (who still appeared to have qualified for the November runoff election at recording time), as well as several extremist primary winners elsewhere in the country.  Part 2 reprises another round of our ongoing debate over the nature of modern democratic partisanship, in the US and elsewhere.  Part 3 covers a recent case of outrageous police misconduct in the UK, and public response to it.  Finally, part 4 explores the social implications of AI in fields such as mathematics and the arts.  As always, listeners are invited to participate in the discussion via comments on this post.

 The May edition of the ICBW podcast is now available for download or streaming.  Part 1 covers recent developments in AI, part 2 briefly revisits the topic of space exploration, and part 3 compares the political radicalism of modern Internet "influencers" with their radical counterparts of a half-century or so ago.  As always, listeners are invited to contribute to the conversation via comments on this post...

 The April edition of the ICBW podcast is now available for download or streaming.  Part 1 covers the conflict with Iran; part 2 discusses various alleged ill effects of social media, from "addictiveness" to predation on children and the vulnerable to mobbing and canceling; and part 3 considers the late Paul Erlich and other quasi-scientific prophets of doom.  As always, listeners are invited to participate in the discussion via comments on this post.

 The March edition of the ICBW podcast is now available for download or streaming.  In part 1, we discuss the conflict in Iran and current immigration policy developments in Spain and Britain.  In part 2, we cover the recent free speech case in British Columbia, with digressions into Daylight Savings Time and various alleged cases of wrongful criminal conviction.  And in part 3, we delve into the risks of widespread use of AI, in the context of the dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon.  As always, listeners are invited to participate in the discussion via comments on this post.

 The February edition of the ICBW podcast is now available for download or streaming.  In part 1, we discuss civil unrest in Minnesota, Iran and elsewhere, and the general question of how to deal with religious illiberalism in modern liberal societies.  In part 2, we discuss JD Vance, high-speed rail vs. self-driving cars, and Bari Weiss' takeover of CBS.  As always, listeners are invited to participate in the debate via comments on this post.

 The January edition of the ICBW podcast is now available for download or streaming.  Part 1 discusses the latest developments in Venezuela, Iran and Gaza before revisiting our old chestnut topic, free speech.  Part 2 revisits a related old chestnut topic, academic freedom, as well as another recently discussed one, fraud in government-funded programs.  As always, listeners are invited to participate in the discussion via comments on this post...