Attack Ads! The Podcast

In this final sharing of Will Storr's book, The Status Game, I give a glimpse into the tyranny of the cousins, people amongst us who seek to correct behavior in ways that should sound familiar.  Watch what you say in this Episode 231: The Status Goldfish. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/10/episode-231-ssg-status-goldfish.html

Have you ever read a very old book and wondered how the author could keep the argument flowing through the miles of print?  I know I have.  Today I explore the degradation of our modern attention span with this Episode 230: Erasing Typographic Man. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/10/episode-230-erasing-typographic-man.html

Status is important to all of us.  To maintain relative status for everyone, we need to keep those around us in check.  Sometimes we must bring out the biggest means of checking behavior and, like the title of this Episode 229, Sing a Song of Derision! Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/09/episode-229-sing-song-of-derision.html

My hatred of advertising brought about my study of it. What I could never anticipate was the shared hatred that every now and again in history flares up and prompts so very many to complain, if not to act against it. Here is one such collection of complaint and solution from over a century ago in this Bonus Episode: The Advertising Nuisance.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/08/bonus-episode-advertising-nuisance.html

We brag about living in a "free" country.   Private industry, however, has too often more freedom to suppress speech than we do to exercise it, at least on "their" platforms.  I vaguely allude to this in today's Episode 228: My Eight-Legged Monkey Dance. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/08/episode-228-my-eight-legged-monkey-dance.html

Yes, we humans are obsessed with playing games.  They’re harmless fun, giving winners some bragging rights; in that way they resemble the most important game we play, the Status Game.  I discuss this Greatest Game in Episode 227: The Games of Our Lives. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/07/episode-227-games-of-our-lives.html

For almost a decade now, I've shared intrusive surveillance crap with you done in the name of advertising and marketing. Worse, today I need to revisit that crap to show that it's now a probable reality. Thus, Episode 226: Categorization & Confirmation.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/07/episode-226-categorization-confirmation.html

It really is possible to improve our lives by adopting less onerous practices.  Keeping us from this better life are obscene fortunes earned by those who provide more onerous practices.  I discuss some of this Episode 225: Why We Can't Have Nice Things. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/06/episode-225-why-we-cant-have-nice-things.html

I could do every episode sharing crud that attempts to score points against collective action… crud that spouts from mouths paid by people most likely to suffer should collective action occur.  I present two in this Episode 224: Categorically Errory. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/06/episode-224-categorically-errory.html

I've described before how ideas originated in academia have caught society’s collective popular vision.  How much of that content, though, was intended to benefit only the wealthy?  I explore this in Episode 223: The Counterintelligentsia Strikes Back! Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/05/episode-223-counterintelligentsia.html

Too few realize that answering the cocktail party question “what’s the best [something] ever?” requires taking into account how many on earth are affected by it.  I attempt to answer this question in this Episode 222: The Most Important Invention Ever.

Most of us can relate: if we do something too often, specific memories of doing that thing are often lost until something triggers us to remember. Well, I read a lot. Here are some titles I forgot to mention in this Episode 221: Books I've Quietly Read.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/04/episode-221-books-ive-quietly-read.html

Once we learn about all the intrusive technologies foisted upon us just to stuff ads in our earholes and eyeballs, paranoia comes naturally.  How much is enough?  When does our paranoia match reality?  I muse that in this Episode 220: Snitches Get Riches. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/04/episode-220-snitches-get-riches.html

We are taught from childhood to save, because a penny saved can lead to a penny earned.  What happens, though, when others have investments that take every penny we have?  I explore this in Episode 219: "Not Totally Without Historical Significance." Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/03/episode-219-not-totally-without.html

Who can we trust in the “sciences”?  In this episode, I offer academic research—later discounted by evidence—for years considered sacrosanct simply because it protects a hidden agenda of political economy.  Hence, today's Episode 218: Why (r > g) Matters. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/03/episode-218-why-r-g-matters.html

I have to say, it's exciting to witness a change in political winds almost the moment it happens…especially when it concerns legality in the world of online advertising! I share this change in the weather in this Episode 217: Chopping At The Golem. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/02/episode-217-chopping-at-golem.html

We all like to eat. There are, sadly, very profitable reasons to keep the various processes dictating how the food we buy is created well hidden. Today I point out just some of the lowlights you find alongside Episode 216: The Dirt Road To Serfdom.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/02/episode-216-dirt-road-to-serfdom.html

Everybody likes to suggest changes that will fix problems found in everyday life. What we don't often have, though, is a clear idea of whether those utopian changes will—or won’t—work. I present one example in this Epiosde 215: The Libertarian Delusion. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/01/epiosde-215-libertarian-delusion.html

Advertisers scheme ways to spread filth; but low-margin retailers can't stop these intrusions without angering shareholders. This creates a creeping tendency toward abominations in stores. I give a chilling example in this Episode 214: Medium unCoolers. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/01/episode-214-medium-uncoolers.html

Advertisers want to know you because pitches to receptive audiences sell product. But before surveillance technology existed, how did they do that? To help, there’s an obscure but key theory to know in this Episode 213, one named The Audience Commodity. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/01/episode-213-audience-commodity.html