Third Space Podcast

After a couple months' gap, Bennett and Daniel return from eventful holidays in this pregnant 2025. It's not pregnant with a child, but with possibilities, of course. In semi-journalistic fashion, they recount Bennett's first meeting with Cosmo, Daniel's current thoughts on fatherhood, Bennett's move into a new house, his newfound Renaissance man capabilities, and lay the groundwork for a discussion on the effects of screens on kids and how to handle their exposure.

With the 2024 US Presidential election looming, the media lying, the campaigns exaggerating, and everyone bringing their biases to the table, Bennett presents Daniel with clarity through the one medium that speaks directly to the human soul: poetry. He accrues poems about the candidates, issues, and events relevant to this election, brilliant specimens of art and language, and Daniel analyzes them (and tries to pick which are secretly written by Bennett). They try to keep it fair and balanced to protect your delicate political sensibilities, but also have a good laugh at politics and poetry.

With the arrival of summer and intense heat, Bennett brings a relevant Mind Your Morals to the podcast pertaining to hot dogs. Not the food; no, the act of leaving dogs in hot cars unattended. When, if ever, is it acceptable, and under what circumstances? Bennett and Daniel attempt to balance animal welfare and property damage, discuss legal and scientific data, and consult internet comment sections for some answers.

Bennett and Daniel discuss one of the most annoying aspects of travel: airport security. This valiant system costs trillions of man-hours, billions of dollars, and even confiscates Bennett's toothpaste, which undoubtedly really pisses off the terrorists. Or, perhaps, it's just a gargantuan waster of time and money for little or no benefit. The negatives, positives, and possible technological alternatives are examined in this episode.

Bennett discovers a game that somewhat embodies an old video game idea he had: exploring flooded ruins. Daniel and Bennett discuss this setting, underwater video game controls, human-computer interfaces in general, and then a piece of current tech in the news: Neuralink. How does it work, and how might it be used in the future, either for good (helping the disabled, de facto telekinesis, and music composition) or ill (brain hacking, puppeteering, or ad-beaming)?

Bennett grills Daniel with a very personal but not very tempting Mind Your Morals that deals with the "content creation" site OnlyFans. Would he be okay with his wife posting on the site if it meant a huge boost in income? What about under certain milder circumstances? We also discuss moral topics about purity, harm, self-exploitation, and technology.

Bennett briefly flexes his professional handegg knowledge in discussing the upcoming Level 3 Super Bowl, then leads Daniel on a somewhat Valentine's Day-themed adventure... an Adventure in Etymology, of course! And lastly, Daniel discusses the Pain Gate Theory, which postulates that pain can be mitigated with what is essentially physiological distraction. Is it real? How does it interact with psychological distraction or mitigation of pain?

After a nice, lengthy holiday break, Bennett and Daniel return to report on how their 2024 is going thus far. Daniel's is boring, but Bennett's has started off pretty crappy, with incapable men, illogical women, and a whole lotta snow. After that, Bennett tries his darndest to convert Daniel to veganism using the strongest arguments he can, to a surprising degree of success.