The Price of Panic over COVID-19 (23m) – Episode 414

Episode 414 has Skyler giving his commentary on a new website he discovered called “The Price of Panic”. From their introduction: “The negative effects of lockdown are too often dismissed as small sacrifices, necessary to keep a highly deadly disease from spreading. These sacrifices are, in fact, neither necessary nor small, and the disease is only a threat to a minority of the population that can be protected without lockdowns. Sometimes, when major harms become hard to ignore, they are lamented as further damage caused by Covid, even though it is our panic-driven measures that are to blame. This is an effort to bring focus to the magnitude of suffering taking place around us because of lockdowns.”

Grand Juries, John Oliver’s Class, Edward Snowden’s Residency, New Organ, & COVID-19 (22m) – Episode 410

Episode 410 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following news stories: from ABC News, “Breonna Taylor grand jury members say they were not presented with homicide charges”; from NewsTimes.com, “John Oliver donates to two charities after Danbury sewer plant renaming” (Episode 360); from Reuters, “Russia gives whistleblower Edward Snowden permanent residency rights”; from LiveScience.com, “Scientists discover new organ in the throat”; and from Newsweek, “Over 27 Million People Have Recovered From COVID-19 Globally”.

Social Media Companies, Conversion Therapy, & Wizard’s Fourteenth Rule (24m) – Episode 408

Episode 408 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: the obligation that social media companies have to ensure US election integrity; the manipulative and abusive practices that are gay conversion therapy from the right and body conversion therapy from the left; and the conclusion to the Wizard’s Rules mini-series with Wizard’s Fourteenth Rule: “In this world, everyone must die. None of us has any choice in that. Our choice is how we wish to live.”

The Great Barrington Declaration (24m) – Episode 406

Episode 406 has Skyler giving his commentary on The Great Barrington Declaration, “a proposal drafted at the American Institute for Economic Research in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and signed there on October 4th, 2020. It advocates an alternative, risk-based approach to the COVID-19 pandemic that involves “Focused Protection” of those most at risk and seeks to avoid or minimize the societal harm of lockdowns.” Skyler signed the declaration as a “concerned citizen” after recording this episode.

SC Planned Parenthood, Rape Death Penalty, Betelgeuse, & Blindness Gene Therapy (36m) – Episode 404

Episode 404 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following news stories: from PostandCourier.com, “US Supreme Court rejects SC’s effort to cut off public funding for Planned Parenthood”; from alJazeera.com, “Bangladesh approves death penalty for rape cases after protests”; from BGR.com, “Betelgeuse is 25 percent closer than scientists thought”; and from CTVNews.ca, “Gene therapy brings back 8-year-old Canadian boy’s sight”.

Ménage à Priest, Teen Consent, Nigerian Civil Asset Forfeiture, & Plastic-Eating Enzymes (30m) – Episode 399

Episode 399 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following news stories: from PENNLive.com, “Priest had threesome on Louisiana church altar, police say”; from BBC.com, “Children not able to give ‘proper’ consent to puberty blockers, court told”; from WashingtonPost.com, “Nigeria abolishes special police squad after nationwide protests”; and from ScienceDaily.com, “Plastic-eating enzyme ‘cocktail’ heralds new hope for plastic waste”.

Niggas, Tolerance, “Adults in the Room” & Wizard’s Thirteenth Rule (30m) – Episode 398

Episode 398 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: the maintenance of the n-word (nigga, nigger) with and by the black community; why tolerance is not abiding the presence of people you agree with; when there have ever been “adults in the room” at the White House, he wonders; and continuation of the Wizard’s Rules mini-series, Wizard’s Thirteenth Rule: “There have always been those who hate, and there always will be.”

Work or Starve, Homeownership, Effects of Inequality, & Do Good and Evil Exist? (27m) – Episode 395

Episode 395 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following questions from Quora: “Why do capitalists say that capitalism is voluntary when it is not because if you do not work, you die?”; “Why does the government encourage homeownership?”; “How does inequality affect the economy?”; and “Does good and evil exist? Are they merely social constructs?”