BRIAN TYLER COHEN: So I want to do a little bit of a lightning round here, because it’s not often I’ll get access to the president of the United States. So a couple questions here. Are aliens real?’
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in, what is it —
BRIAN TYLER COHEN: Area 51?
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: — Area 51. There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy, and they hid it from the president of the United States.
I did not wake up today expecting to hear Barack Obama casually confirm the existence of aliens before I’d had my tea. He dropped this little nugget on a podcast too. Major news being made or delivered on a podcast stopped being surprising to me a good while ago, but it still sometimes bemuses me.
Podcasts do seem to be the digital medium to which many journalists and modern-day “philosophers” gravitate. Journalism makes sense, especially given the gutting of newsrooms and radio news programs that’s been carried out over the past decade. As for the philosophers… well, put a microphone and broadcast platform in front of many a dude, and you will never get him to stop yapping about subjects. Whether he is actually qualified to speak on said subjects is irrelevant.
If Socrates were alive today, he would absolutely be a guest on Joe Rogan’s show.
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The gallery wall is nearly complete. We’re waiting for one more print to arrive, which should be here by end-of-week. Otherwise it’s a chill day of hanging out, with some writing and cooking tossed in. I’m making pickle brine chicken for dinner
READING: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES, Shirley Jackson
LISTENING: THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL, Nine Inch Nails