Listen | Chris Aldrich

🎧 “The Daily”: ‘The Most Significant Campaign Contributions’ in U.S. History| New York Times

Listened to "The Daily": ‘The Most Significant Campaign Contributions’ in U.S. History from New York Times

We spoke with Neal Katyal, a lawyer who wrote the special counsel regulations, about the case against Michael Cohen and what it means for President Trump.

🎧 “The Daily”: The Rise of Right-Wing Extremism, and How U.S. Law Enforcement Ignored It | New York Times

Listened to "The Daily": The Rise of Right-Wing Extremism, and How U.S. Law Enforcement Ignored It from New York Times

In an atmosphere of seeming indifference on the part of U.S. law enforcement, a dangerous movement has grown and metastasized.

It’s tremendously painful that the optics of right wing extremism in the Obama administration was used as a means of allowing the alt-right, white supremacists, and neo-Nazis to rise unfettered in the United States. This is worse when one thinks of the death and destruction they have caused in relation to the obscene amounts of money that have been thrown at decreasing international terrorism within our borders.

🎧 “The Daily”: The Photo of the Yemeni Girl | New York Times

Listened to "The Daily": The Photo of the Yemeni Girl from New York Times

The story behind a portrait that brought a widely overlooked human catastrophe into devastating focus.

🎧 Before the Flood:The Mesopotamian Enuma Elish and Atrahasis | The Literature and History Podcast

Listened to Before the Flood:The Mesopotamian Enuma Elish and Atrahasis by Doug Metzger, Ph.D. from The Literature and History Podcast

BCE 1700-1500
The Enuma Elish and the Atrahasis, in circulation 3,800 years ago, were Mesopotamia's creation and flood epics, making them 1,000 years older than Genesis.

There are a few sections of these ancient texts which indicate that thousands (or more) were wiped out due to illness and disease that sound like a flu, a virus, or some other local pandemic. Gives pause to think about what the state of public health was at the time.

Enuma Elish and Atrahasis are indeed not well known, but I’ve actually seen quite a bit about them as the result of reading within the area of Big History.

I’ll have to do some digging but I’m curious if any researcher(s) have done synoptic analyses of these books and the Book of Genesis from the Old Testament. I’m sure there aren’t as many as there are of the synoptic gospels from the New Testament, but it might be interesting to take a look at them.

The obvious quote of the day:

The gods became distraught at the destruction they had unleashed. The midwife goddess, Mami, who helped raise the first generations of mankind, was particularly saddened, and “The gods joined her in weeping for the vanished country / She was overcome with heartache, but could find no beer”. Yes, it really says that.

As a side note, fermented beverages like beer were more popular throughout history than they are in modern America, because unlike now, prior generations of humans didn’t have the public health ideals or levels of clean drinking water that we do today. Thus beer and other alcoholic drinks were more par for the course because they were less likely to make you sick or kill you to drink them. Naturally the Mesopotamian gods must have been healthier for drinking them as a result too!

🎧 Episode 082 The Complexity & Chaos of Creativity | Human Current

Listened to Episode 082 The Complexity & Chaos of Creativity from HumanCurrent

How does chaos influence creativity? How can “flow states” help teams manage feedback and achieve creativity?In this episode, Haley interviews designer, educator and author, Jon Kolko. Kolko shares details from his new book Creative Clarity: A Practical Guide for Bringing Creative Thinking into Your Company, which he wrote to help leaders and creative thinkers manage the complexity and chaos of the creative process. During his interview, he explains how elements of complex systems science, including emergence, constraints, feedback and framing, influence the creative process. He also provides many helpful tips for how to foster a culture of creativity within an organization.

Quotes from this episode:

“A constraint emerges from the creative exploration itself….these constraints become a freeing way for creative people to start to explore without having rules mandated at them.” - Jon Kolko

“Framing is the way in which the problem is structured and presented and the way that those constraints start to manifest as an opportunity statement.” - Jon Kolko

“The rules around trust need to be articulated.” - Jon Kolko

“Chaos is the backdrop for hidden wonderment and success.” - Jon Kolko

Some interesting thoughts on creativity and management. Definitely worth a second listen.

I’ve seen the sentiment of “thought spaces” several times from bloggers, but this is one of the first times I’ve heard a book author use the idea:

Often when I write, it’s to help me make sense of the world around me.

—Jon Kolko

🎧 “The Daily”: What the West Got Wrong About China, Part 2 | New York Times

Listened to "The Daily": What the West Got Wrong About China, Part 2 by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

The U.S. misunderstood not only how China would respond to economic growth, but how the U.S. would respond to China.

🎧 “The Daily”: What the West Got Wrong About China, Part 1 | New York Times

Listened to "The Daily": What the West Got Wrong About China, Part 1 by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

Many in the United States believed that capitalism would never work without political freedom. Then China began to rise.

I listen to this and it reminds me of the wealth and growth in America in the early 1900’s in part because of the fact that the U.S. had a mixed-economy. Sadly it seems like we’ve moved away from that towards a more capitalistic economy. Perhaps it’s time to swing back?

Sadly, China may be taking advantage of their mixed economy, but they don’t seem to have the level of freedom we’ve got.

🎧 “The Daily”: Lost in the Storm, Part 1 | New York Times

Listened to "The Daily": Lost in the Storm, Part 1 by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

Houston’s emergency response systems, crippled by Hurricane Harvey, failed to reach people who needed help the most.

This is going to be a classic implementation of painful miscommunication.

🎧 “The Daily”: The Spy Who Provoked Putin | New York Times

Listened to "The Daily": The Spy Who Provoked Putin by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

Two intelligence officers were men of the same age and training. After the Soviet Union collapsed, one rose — and one fell.

🎧 “The Daily”: Bob Woodward on Trump, Nixon and Anonymity | New York Times

Listened to "The Daily": Bob Woodward on Trump, Nixon and Anonymity by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

The reporter sat down with “The Daily” to talk about what it took to get access to the White House and why he called his new book “Fear.”

l love that this is more about process and history with Nixon as well as covering “anonymous” sources (aka deep background) and what they really mean. There isn’t nearly the level of book promotion here that I might have otherwise suspected.