Comedian and author Moshe Kasher joins the hosts to discuss cancel culture, stealing a gold mine, and tragic self-harm. They also explore an old award ceremony, a controversial newspaper story, the early days of cinema, and selecting a Roman lover. The speakers have humorous discussions about bone manure, promoting events with panoramas, and share personal anecdotes like a New Year's party with an Austin Powers impersonator.
Traditional civilizations may not have visited Earth due to overpopulation and resource depletion before reaching advanced stages of development.
In the past, people found entertainment in peculiar activities like corpse exhumation and shooting each other, reflecting changing societal norms.
Paved cast iron streets as an alternative to stone were successfully implemented in other places, with similar costs.
Deep dives
Shocking Suicide at Dunkerd
In a village called Dunkerd, a man named Mr. Isak Smith committed suicide by cutting his own cheek with a razor in front of his wife and children. He claimed to be innocent of a false charge that would affect his reputation and that of his family.
Duel at Savannah
A duel took place in Savannah between Dr. Charles Gannett and David and Thomas Daniel. They fired two shots each, but no one was injured.
Cast Iron Pavement
A resolution was presented in the Board of Alderman to have the streets in New York paved with cast iron instead of stone. This has been successfully done in other places, and it is believed that the cost will be the same as using stone.
The podcast discusses the concept of civilizations reaching a point of self-destruction before they can achieve space exploration
The podcast explores the Fermi Paradox, which hypothesizes that advanced civilizations in the universe may not have visited Earth because they go through a process of overpopulation and resource depletion before reaching the stage of space exploration. The speaker highlights the idea that as civilizations progress and strip mine their resources, they reach a point where they become unable to sustain their population or continue exploration. This theory suggests that civilizations either go extinct or regress to less advanced stages of development, like digging up dead bodies for entertainment, rather than advancing to space exploration.
The podcast shares stories of bizarre incidents and activities from the past
The podcast discusses peculiar incidents and activities from the past, highlighting how people found entertainment and diversion in peculiar ways. It mentions examples like individuals engaging in corpse exhumation, shooting each other for entertainment, and watching early films that primarily consisted of basic camera movement. The speaker points out that these activities may seem strange to contemporary sensibilities but were considered engaging and thrilling at the time. The podcast suggests that as time progresses, societies and entertainment preferences change, leading to new and different forms of amusement.
This week Dave Anthony picks a paper from a day in history and reads it to co-host Gareth Reynolds and comedian and author Moshe Kasher. His new book is Subculture Vulture: A Memoir in Six Scenes