Central Air

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.centralairpodcast.comThis week: friend-of-the-pod Nate Silver prepares us for next week's elections and lays out why his model gives Democrats overwhelming odds to reclaim the House of Representatives and a nearly three-in-four chance to retake the Senate, despite the unfavorable map.Also this week, for premium subscribers: We talk about the spate of fake pollsters putting out made-up polls this cycle and we get Nate’s guidance for interpreting early returns on Election Night. In cocktail hour this week, we discuss Cheesecake Factory-gate and what kind of gay President Trump is.For that list of special opportunities to see us next week — online, and, if you are in New York, in person, go to www.centralairpodcast.com.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.centralairpodcast.comThis week: is it “depraved” to worry about whether AIs can feel pain? A lot of people in Silicon Valley really buy into the idea that they might be building the machine god, and they think this might even be a good idea, even if they also think we might end up enslaving the machine god and/or that the machine god might kill us all. Mike Solana, founder of Pirate Wires, joins us to help understand these influential weirdos and the influential weirdos they disagree with. We also, necessarily, talk some about what consciousness even is.In cocktail hour this week for paying subscribers:* SlutCon, an annual conference in San Francisco with lanyards and PowerPoints and what-not that is organized by an honest-to-god prostitute and which for some reason is popular among the AI safety crowd.* The Cornell Seven case — which, rather like Silicon Valley, is an object lesson in why straight people shouldn’t be allowed to do ketamine.* The bizarre conspiracy theory that James Talarico was in an mental institution, and how Republicans have mis-learned the lesson of the successful “they/them” ad.Upgrade your subscription at centralairpodcast.com to hear the entire episode.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.centralairpodcast.comThis week: with another “MeanToo” scandal in the news — that’s when a politician gets in trouble, not for sexual harassment but because someone thinks they were mean — we thought it was a good opportunity to ask Dave Weigel, Semafor’s intrepid politics reporter, whether anyone in Alaska is likely to care that Mary Peltola, Alaska’s Democratic candidate for Senate, called someone a “retard.”Plus: other developments across the Senate map and what kinds of candidate oddities matter these days, and in cocktail hour (for paying subscribers), we talk about the revealing conversation Nikole Hannah-Jones had with her daughter on “This American Life” over the weekend, and we close with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s likely ambitions to run for Senate or president.Upgrade your subscription at www.centralairpodcast.com.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.centralairpodcast.comThis week: first, we are obligated to discuss Josh's newly blond hair and if it's a sign he's in crisis. Then: are we in the midst of a gay crisis? The first gay treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has failed at his quest to keep the 10-year Treasury yield under 5%. The gays Donald Trump detailed to the Kennedy Center have failed to produce a vibrant-yet-MAGAfied performing arts center. And now "the makers of AI keep saying AI might kill us all” has really broken through to the general public.For paying subscribers: the absurdity of the president’s inflationary promise of $5,000 checks for every American (if they re-elect Republicans), the Calvinball rules of standing that have let the president build his illegal ballroom, and his sad and petty (and losing) campaign to get his name installed on the Kennedy Center, and Donald Trump Jr.'s sad and pitiful oligarch-funded second wedding. Finally, the AIs weigh in on Josh's hair and whether it carries a deep meaning.Upgrade your subscription — and see Josh's hair — at www.centralairpodcast.com.