Totally Classic

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? 

This week, Andy - a progressive - & Brendan - an independent - conclude their discourse on the modern Progressive movement! Is it the worst? Is semantic gerrymandering more destabilizing than misinformation? Is moral relativism immoral? Can the subjective be the primary basis for cohesive society? AND WHO WOULD BE WORST, present day OR all time? All this and more on this week's TOTALLY CLASSIC! 

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 people say not to talk about! Are Progressives the worst? The best? What do YOU think?

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 argue with Charlie? Will AI be a better host than any of us!? Find out... on this week's Totally Classic!

This week, Andy & Brendan dig into their patrilineal inheritance, the loving sacrifice necessary for a healthy patriarchal paradigm & whether smashing ANYTHING is the answer.
From bumper stickers to dinnertime shushing, the beginnings of gender and the. endings of fun, from fathering for freedom to fathering for fetters, it’s all here on this weeks’ Totally Classic! 

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 the beginning of it all... it's all here in this weeks' Totally Classic!

This week, Andy & Brendan explore the regions nether and higher and interrogate the question about whether sex is sacred, profane, or something else entirely? 
From sex positive Christianity to sex negative Buddhism, from new age to new lovers, polyamory, polygamy and polyglot versions of "the talk"... it's all here in this episode of Totally Classic - "Is Sex Sacred?"

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, from zoom everything to doom everywhere, it's all in this week's episode of Totally Classic!

This week, in an experiment in brevity (30 minute episode this week, let us know what you think!), Andy & Brendan try to parse through a grand & oft-repeated assumption for almost a decade "Donald Trump is a racist."But... IS he? Neither of Totally Classic hosts are fans of his, but they are fans of truth. What is the evidence at hand to prove or disprove this catchphrase of the Anti-MAGA movement?