I used to think the same thing, because that seems logical, because you're a logical person, but for a fundamentalist's mind, it's not the case at all.

ISIS themselves have stated in their magazine "Dabiq" that the war and bombing is the smallest concern for their motivation. Sam Harris reads this magazine, and about 29 minutes in to this podcast, the magazine goes out of it's way to mention that US/Allied invasion is not the motivator.
https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/what-do-jihadists-really-want/
The truth is much scarier than my rational imagination could have ever come up with.

Most extremists also aren't people who have been affected by war and just want revenge or have mental war scars. The people flying the planes in 9/11 for example were western university educated, engineers, doctors. And other extremists often have grown up in western countries.

These people are fanatics

There are two issues here.

Radicalization is the first part of it. And while terrorism, is loud, scary and happening now, it's impact is quite small to the well-being of society as a whole.

The second part, however: the erosion of progressive values over generations, is a much bigger threat to everything society has fought and bled for over centuries.

I've been listening to a lot of Sam Harris podcasts lately, and once you have grasp of the statistics, urgency and severity of what is happening and what the future holds, then you realise Penn is very very wrong on this one.

The solution is not immigration, but foreign aid. We need to erode their fundamentalist ideologies in their own countries, not the other way around.

And no I don't have Islamophobia, my fear is completely rational and based on reason.

I love his standup, but hate stuff like this. I wish he'd quit the rambling podcasts and just craft more traditional jokes, so in that sense I agree entirely.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Sift of the week. Marc Maron had a lawyer from the EFF on to discuss this in a recent episode: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-713-george-c-wolfe-daniel-nazer

Adam Carolla was being sued by patent trolls who claimed to own the patent on making podcast episodes available for download. He refused to settle, which is what they want. They only dropped the suit once they realized he doesn't make enough money to make their suit profitable.

People and companies buy up patents like this for the sole purpose of suing anyone they can because there is no penalty for them to sue anyone they want, and in most cases anyone they sue will settle because they can't afford a defense or it will be less costly to just pay them.

It's madness, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

Vocal fry. It drives me nuts. I had to stop listening to [[a popular language podcast]] when it occurred to me that the host does it constantly.

*quality
See also: http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/how-propaganda-works/

Just a note, the John Oliver video in the links is not the abortion law one being discussed in the podcast.

Congrats on 10 years. I had my doubts
Podcast is a great idea. Id love to see them on a normal basis. *quality

I listened to Sam Harris' podcast where he makes that remark about Carson, and I should say I did not find any "slanderous hysterical charges" against people he disagrees with. I found his arguments to be extremely well reasoned.

Does anyone have any other instances of Harris slandering his detractors? I'm genuinely curious here.

I find podcasts the most intrusive for ads because often I'm listening to them while doing something else that doesn't afford me easy access to the player controls. I can't stand being trapped for minutes at a time forced to listen to someone drone on about fucking squarespace.com.

I don't refuse to watch tv shows with ad breaks or youtube videos with sponsored content, but I've absolutely dropped some of my favourite podcasts just because they got the wrong kind of sponsorship.

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Podcast sponsorship sometimes works like this, with the presenters promoting products that they actually like and use. I agree it's the way to go.

You really do. Iain M. Banks was an amazing writer.

Excession is probably my favourite, along with Look To Windward and Use Of Weapons.

His non-sci-fi work is fantastic too, especially The Crow Road (any book that opens with the sentence "It was the day my grandmother exploded" is instantly brilliant IMO).

He was also a wonderful speaker. Listen to this (skip to 29:32 if you haven't read Use Of Weapons, it spoils the whole plot) http://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2012/oct/12/iain-banks-book-club-podcast?fb_ref=Default. I love his analogy of writing fiction is like playing a piano and writing SF is like a massive pipe organ.

Steven Tobolowsky's podcast is worth checking out:

http://www.slashfilm.com/category/features/slashfilmcast/the-tobolowsky-files/

(shout-out to my NPR peeps!)

She is also co-host of on-again-off-again #1 health podcast DVDASA and best-selling author of a novel titled "Insatiable: Porn. A Love Story."

She's surprisingly refreshing.