The Sport of Life: Chats w/ Comedians, Filmmakers, Sports Figures, Musicians, & Intellectuals

University of Texas at Austin faculty member Sam Woolley, whose expertise focuses on the use of propaganda in new media and emerging technologies, chats with Trey Elling about MANUFACTURING CONSENSUS: UNDERSTANDING PROPAGANDA IN THE AGE OF AUTOMATION AND ANONYMITY. Topics include: The book’s goal (1:12) How propaganda initially came to be (2:20) Jacques Ellul’s influence on Sam’s belief’s (6:05) Defining computational propaganda (8:55) Social media bots (12:43) ChatGPT (16:06) Governments loving Facebook & Reddit for computational propaganda (17:53) Propaganda-bred apathy (20:55) Democratizing propaganda being bad for democracy (22:39) Why social media is bad for civil discourse (24:41) What he’s taken from recent #TwitterFiles & congressional testimony revelations (28:04) Treating social media companies as public utilities (31:07) If its possible to quantify the number of social media bots (34:02) Encrypted messaging like WhatsApp as a propaganda tool (38:23) The danger of automated political influencers (41:56) How journalists have been crucial in Sam’s understanding of political bots (45:28) Journalists leaning on social media posts for articles (48:33) Journalists using bots for good (49:29) Bots writing news stories (51:24) ChatGPT usage at the college level (52:52) China using social media to spread propaganda abroad (57:29) Why Sam is still optimistic about the future (59:00)

In the second of a two-part conversation, investigative journalist and bestselling author Jeff Guinn chats with Trey Elling about WACO: DAVID KORESH, THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS, AND A LEGACY OF RAGE. You can find part 1 of this interview HERE. This time around, the focus is on the 51-day seige, and fatal mistakes made by ATF- and FBI leadership. Topics include: How the ATF ended up on the Branch Davidians’ trail (1:22) How ATF agents were misinformed on two crucial elements before the initial raid (6:10) The ATF’s plan of action (9:30) Why the Treasure Department reversed their decision to nix the ATF’s planned raid (13:34) How the ATF’s raid lost its element of surprise (16:55) Whether choppers fired on the Branch Davidian compound during that initial raid (21:14) What the ATF agents who took part in the raid still resent the most (27:01) The no-win situation for the ATF agents on the ground that day (30:50) Two conflicting internal factors at play when the FBI took over (32:09) The likelihood of the FBI ever apologizing for mistakes they made in Waco (41:16) Whether Koresh close to surrendering before that final, fateful day (41:36)

Award-winning investigative journalist and bestselling author Jeff Guinn chats with Trey Elling about WACO: DAVID KORESH, THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS, AND A LEGACY OF RAGE. In the first- or a two-part conversation, Jeff and Trey discuss the evolution of the Branch Davidians and David Koresh's rise within the religious organization. Topics include: The book's genesis (1:26) 20 ATF agents going on-record about Waco for the first time (2:51) How the group originally settled in Waco, TX in the early 1930s (5:44) Legally becoming the “Branch Davidians” (8:24) Koresh’s early days with the Branch Davidians (12:00) Koresh’s first taste of a gun fight (18:41) How the Branch Davidians got into illegal firearms in the early 1990s (21:00) Koresh’s sexual proclamations and the cost of losing Marc Breault as a follower (25:44) Why some defend Koresh’s pedophilia (29:12)

Yale School of Medicine physician and researcher F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE, chats with Trey Elling about HOW MEDICINE WORKS AND WHEN IT DOESN’T: LEARNING WHO TO TRUST TO GET AND STAY HEALTHY. Topics include: Goal with the book (0:00) Pharma’s role with patient mistrust (1:57) Pharma’s influence on doctors (6:49) Generic drugs not such an easy fix (10:22) How medical errors commonly lead to death (12:34) Surrogate outcomes (15:50) Getting patients to change their minds for GOOD reasons (17:44) Combatting motivated reasoning (20:44) The “biggest secret in medicine” (26:22) Factoring in side effects when considering a drug (29:32) Doctors’ responsibility to help patients with despair (31:28) Randomized controlled trials, aka RCTs (37:48) How RCTs go wrong (44:19) The difficulty with replication (47:29) Why “open data” isn’t already the standard with RCTs (50:35) The problem with the “middle man” in patient care (53:39) An alternative to the current US healthcare system (57:06) How patients can move closer to doctors by embracing uncertainty (1:00:15)

Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin chats with Trey Elling about PUNK PARADOX: A MEMOIR. Topics include: Goal with the book (0:00) His first taste of live music (2:40) Trauma in rural Kansas in 1976 (4:18) The initial appeal of punk (7:57) A love for The Jackson 5 (10:25) The ugly reality of punk in 1984 (12:11) How lizards are like lead singers (13:41) A change in Bad Religion’s crowd in the late ‘80s (16:22) Bad Religion’s Christmas Songs album (17:21) The concept of “selling out” (18:35) Putting his academic career on hold for the band (21:31) Recovering from a string of traumas in the mid-1990s (23:04) Fostering his children’s love for music (25:35) Brett Gurewitz’s break from the band in the late 1990s (27:29) The one Bible verse he quoted in PUNK PARADOX (29:28) An interesting factoid about ants (33:11) The Milwaukee Bucks’ NBA championship in 2021 (34:28) Rooting for an outspoken Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers (36:30) Whether Greg is still ‘punk’ (40:26)

New York Times bestselling author James Rickards chats with Trey Elling about SOLD OUT: HOW BROKEN SUPPLY CHAINS, SURGING INFLATION, AND POLITICAL INSTABILITY WILL SINK THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. Topics include: Book's goal (0:00) The magnitude of the supply chain (2:50) The new science of supply chain management (7:19) The start of an ongoing trade war between the US and China (11:39) How Covid 19 contributed to supply chain problems (15:34) Vaccine mandates and the supply chain (20:07) Cargo ships and the supply chain (25:56) A major truck driver shortage (29:24) Energy and supply chain management (32:00) China as the biggest loser in a global supply chain failure (34:35) Apple moving some semiconductor production out of Taiwan (44:08)

Standup comedian Gianmarco Soresi chats with Trey Elling, ahead of his shows at Cap City Comedy Club on January 6th & 7th. Get tickets HERE. Topics include: Performing in Austin (0:00) Suffering through the Whole 30 diet (1:47) Cutting his teeth in NYC at LOL Comedy Club in making it to the Comedy Cellar (3:45) Feedback (5:45) Taking a comedy class at Caroline's Comedy Club (7:49) How to pull off dark humor on stage (11:26) Receiving validation from other comedians (16:06) Working out a gun violence joke (18:26)

Heather Radke, a writer and contributing editor/reporter at Radiolab, chats with Trey Elling about BUTTS: A BACKSTORY. Topics include: Heather's goal with Butts (0:00) The gluteal cleft (2:13) Why humans evolved to have butts (3:31) How the butt is a Swiss Army Knife (5:26) Male peacocks and the female human butt (7:07) The modern objectification of the female butt beginning with Sarah Baartman 200+ years ago (10:56) Scientists' creating racial hierarchy with butts (and more) in the 1800s (14:44) The bustle in the late 1800s (17:16) The flapper of the 1920s (20:20) Josephine Baker's butt nearly ending European civilization (23:50) Attempting to define "normal" in the mid-1900s (26:08) The model responsible for how many clothing companies determine the fit for women's pants (29:23) Buns of Steel (32:29) The start of 'fat fitness' in the 1980s (35:53) Sir Mix-A-Lot and Baby Got Back (38:13) Why women's butts have been more openly discussed since around 2000 (42:59) Beyonce and "Bootylicious" (46:30) 2014 as the 'Year of the Butt' (49:20) The next big thing in butts (51:22)

Dr. Rick Johnson chats with Trey Elling about NATURE WANTS US TO BE FAT: THE SURPRISING SCIENCE BEHIND WHY WE GAIN WEIGHT AN HOW WE CAN PREVENT--AND REVERSE--IT. Listen to part one of their conversation HERE. Topics in part two include: Why sugar/fructose can fuel problems like ADHD (0:00) Drinking vs eating fructose (10:42) Fructose in vegetables and fruits (17:51) Dairy and the 'survival switch' (22:11) Exercise and the 'survival switch' (24:24) Obesity rates increasing while sugar consumption have decreased since 2000 (27:53) Rick finishing the book, and this chat, with 'An Ode to Sugar' (31:33)

Physician, researcher, and author Dr. Rick Johnson chats with Trey Elling about NATURE WANTS US TO BE FAT: THE SURPRISING SCIENCE BEHIND WHY WE GAIN WEIGHT AND HOW WE CAN PREVENT--AND REVERSE--IT. Topics include: The book's goal (0:00) When & why excess weight is beneficial to animals (2:32) Why humans evolved to be so sensitive to fructose (8:40) Uric acid's connection to fructose and weight gain (17:36) Negative health effects of fructose consumption beyond excess fat (26:17) The line where salt goes from good to bad (35:05)