Mark Olbert

For the tenth episode, your favorite pond dwellers decided to take a break from the normal, big-picture, topic-based discussions and instead shared their personal pet peeves, including both important as well as some silly issues.

This twentieth episode

This episode is a deep dive into the foundational requirement of a democracy – having elections and voting. Despite the founding (and often touted) principles of American democracy, it is shockingly inconsistent how we implement it. All U.S. citizens do n

It’s a fairly common trope – and often an overused campaign line – that government is “wasteful.” But what does it mean to be “wasteful” (or “efficient” for that matter), and is it true that governments aren’t good stewards of our money? As you can imagin

The intersection of religion and politics, particularly in the U.S., has presented a series of issues and challenges. Starting with a very brief overview of the origin and history of religion, and how it has impacted human societies, we then dive into how

In our current political climate, it seems like both policymakers and ordinary citizens are prone to use a label for something that sounds intelligent or interesting on the surface, but often masks a lack of substance or critical thinking. This matters mo

It seems like every public facility – whether it be a building, bridge, airport, school, or park – is named after someone. Naming public things is so common, so accepted as a practice, that we don’t even think about why we do it, let alone debate whether

This podcast focuses on paranoia, particularly its delusional form – why it exists, why it seems to be becoming a more common affliction, the dangers it poses, and what we can do about it.

Paranoia is thinking and feeling like you are being threatened

In 2011, then presidential candidate Mitt Romney famously remarked “corporations are people, my friend” when confronted by hecklers at the Iowa State Fair. He was mocked and derided in many circles for this comment, which seemed to represent a politician