Totally Classic

On this episode of Totally Classic, Andy & Brendan explore the question around the zeitgeist adage of our generation - "I'm spiritual, not religious." Is this a coherent claim? Is it a Buddhist Koan or a logical impossibility? They're synonymous terms in Merriam Webster, Thesaurus.com & Roget's alike:) Is this a falsehood that is simply a popularly accepted one? And, perhaps most fascinatingly, where does this very idea ORIGINATE from? Theosophy & entities & Christianity, oh my! originally recorded on 1/27/26

This week, Andy & Brendan examine the recent accusations against job board/social networking site LinkedIn, to get curious about whether the platform is biased against women. Is there evidence besides assertion? What would a non-misogynist algorithm look like? Is bias UNAVOIDABLE? All this and more on this weeks' Totally Classic. TOTALLY CLASSIC is a podcast where two friends with divergent perspectives talk about all the things people scream at each other about:) originally recorded on 1/13/26

In the third and final volley, Andy & Brendan integrate AI analysis to ascertain where they may be suffering from logical or ethical mismatch and if ANY ethical system supports affirmation of subjective self-claim. From freedoms gained to empathy employed to the conclusions empathetic understanding would support, it's all here on both sides of the table... on this week's Totally Classic! originally recorded on 12/23/25

Andy & Brendan dance back into the fray to examine by what means can anyone said to be (or not to be - that is the question!:) "transgender." Is it equivocation or a paradigm shift? Is it semantic colonialism or indigenous linguistic revival? Is it a delusion or is all of society deluded and this is clarity? All this & more on this week's episode of Totally Classic! originally recorded on 12/2/25

This week, Andy & Brendan ask a question of the modern semantic chaos moment where a sentence like "My gender is not my gender, because gender isn't gender, it's gender." exists and CAN have some cogent meaning! Does the claim make a coherent case? Can the modern novel proposal of gender exist and mean the same as transgender and not be self-defeating? Does subcohort "social reality" count as reality? This is a wild yes and no but yes but no but maybe but also... kind of a question!
What do you think?
 
 
Originally recorded on 11/18/25

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 11/4/25

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 unrecognized), could very well be the greatest and most extreme propaganda machine ever wielded against a citizenry in world history! Semantic colonialism, silent but violent farts and how the machines won't have to kill us all if they get us to kill each other! All this and more on this week's Totally Classic! originally recorded on 10/21/2025

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 of receipt of biased transmission, already? Or when would critical mass exist strongly enough to identify more than mere signal? And does Andy, a Progressive, see less of a problem with this bias than Brendan, a Christian & Independent? Let us know what YOU think! originally recorded on 10/8/25

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? WHAT DO YOU think? *Jake Ward is the author of the book The Loop: How AI is Creating a World Without Choices host of the PBS series Hacking Your Mind And a technology correspondent for NBC News & Al Jazeera America, as well as the former Editor in Chief of Popular Science magazine He publishes regularly on his Substack, The Rip Current. https://theripcurrent.substack.com originally recorded on 9/23/2025

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 side of our experiment in dialogue, curiosity and love!What do YOU think?