Totally Classic

This week, Chicago-area-met friends Andy & Brendan interrogate the popular regional claim that the city with big shoulders is under being invaded (by ICE). They explore how many actual options there are (and different layers of evidence and proof to assess said options) for who exactly is assaulting the second city. Does novelty, federal intent or citizen action lead the way? What do YOU think? originally recorded on 1...

This week, Andy & Brendan bring the plane in for a landing on this epic, three-part discussion of what may well bring about the downfall of humanity! It's the end of the world as we know it... and we feel... fine? ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude & CoPilot all have distinct and pronounced and self-confessed Progressive bias (meaning the most extreme cohort in the bipartisan array) which is, if unregulated (and even worse, if unr...

This week, Andy & Brendan, continue the conversation on whether AI Bias could end us, as we know "us," or end us, entirely? Does the Progressive bias (which exists within ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude & CoPilot), specifically, threaten all in any unique fashion? Is the programming of relativistic or utilitarian ethics inevitable, in the modern context? Are all ethics relativistic? AND HOW do we ascertain the rate and manner o...

Andy & Brendan are joined by their first guest, Jacob Ward*! This week, they discuss the existential dangers of AI bias - on cognitive processing, on outsourcing of evaluation, on fight or flight And shaping the very grounds of understanding and meaning the human family has relied on since time immemorial! Will it the be the end of us all? The liberation of us all? The subjugation of us all? Or something else altogether? ...

Andy, a Progressive & Brendan, an Independent, both agree that the Indigenous people of North America were abused, lied to, killed and conquered in many ways unconscionable.  We don't agree on whether verbal land acknowledgments are in any way net benefit to anyone, including said Indigenous persons of North America.  But we will talk about, will reason and feel our way through it together, and see how we come out the other s...

Andy & Brendan start the new season off with a bang, pow, whammo!

Are Progressives the worst? The worst political subcohort in the US? The worst political movement in the world? All-time, world history?  Andy, a progressive & Brendan, an independent, are besties and love talking about the sort of thing that supposedly gets you fired and spat on. IT DOESN'T NEED TO!  On Totally Classic, we talk about all the things peopl...

This week, Andy & Brendan & Charlie (& Charlie?) all survey the season 2 behind us - the intentions met, the debates unsettled and the conclusions shared.  Charlie, by the by, is an AI (Google's NotebookLM) who not only summarizes and highlights our season but also enters into conversation with the hosts of Totally Classic.  Will AI have as many biases and blind spots as your average human? Will Brendan flirt with or ...

This week Andy & Brendan - two patriarchs - try to examine if one of the credos of their age is a worthwhile one - The Patriarchy: Smash or Pass?  Is Patriarchy inevitable - evolutionarily, biologically, under religious dictum or secular examination? Is Patriarchy based in oppression or responsibility? Can Patriarchy BE egalitarian?  From craftivism to Max Headroom, from wage gaps to age gaps, from the dawn of everything to t...

In keeping with the plethora of retrospective coverage of the 5 year anniversary of Lockdowns in March of 2020, Andy & Brendan return to, in many ways, ground zero for the podcast where divergent viewpoints are explored on every topic people claim cannot be discoursed with rancor. What, if anything, did we all learn the past 5 years?   From somatic sensations to celebratory cessations, from masked kids to life on the skids, fr...

This week, Andy & Brendan launch into the trifecta session of trying to ascertain not merely the answer to the question, but even agreeing on what the question is asking! Meaning this week they can actually start referencing evidence and parsing out whether it's ever ethical... by its own standards as well as classical medical and social ethics.  From they/them to we/us, from anorexia nervosa to gender dysphoria, from executi...

This week, Andy & Brendan return to interrogate the question of gender-affirming care, and their conversation reveals that the societal discord over the practice is rooted far deeper than mere political squabbles... into the depth of how semantics are proven or disproven, into what truth itself is. Needless to say, they have, in part two (of three? of four? of 44?) come to either agreement or resignation of difference on what t...

This week, Andy & Brendan - as humans, parents and citizens of the nation whose highest court in the land just heard arguments on "gender-affirming care" bans (U.S. v. Skrmetti) - explore with great curiosity whether such care is A) accurately termed and B) ethically applied? 

In this part one (of two) on this question, much time is spent on defining terms - for how can one agree on whether affirming something is ethical if you...