Third Space Podcast

64: How Limitation Breeds Creativity

Are spiders or ladders more dangerous? Doctors or car crashes? Bennett interrogates Daniel to see if he can guess which of a variety of categories kills more people each year. Then, they discuss creativity and its relationship to freedom. Does more freedom generate more creativity, or, paradoxically, does the imposition of limitation? Bennett and Daniel play with the idea, tossing out some examples and possible reasons.

63: Power Hunters

Superpowers and Drawbacks returns after a bit of a hiatus, bringing discussion of candy bar births and crow supervillains. Then, Daniel and Bennett discuss the culture and practice of hunting. Is it moral to hunt? Which animals are okay to hunt, for what reasons, and should children be allowed to do it?

62: The Utility of Gossip

In this episode, Daniel and Bennett discuss the phenomenon of gossip. Is gossip inherently negative? Is there a way that gossip can be a good thing? What sorts of people are more prone to gossip, and what are Daniel and Bennett's experiences with it?

61: Thunder High on the Mountain

Alternate title: Come Hail or High Water. In this episode, Bennett recounts a very intense hiking experience that he classifies as perhaps the most physically demanding thing he's ever done. Daniel asks questions along the way, making for what is hopefully an entertaining story.

60: Independence Dad

Should we stop shooting fireworks on Independence Day to protect little Floofy's sensitive doggie mental state? What about the supposed veteran with PTSD who gets triggered by the explosions? Or is it reasonable to celebrate a cultural event with fireworks? Daniel and Bennett discuss. Daniel also brings back Father Bennett, this time presenting Bennett with three hypothetical fatherhood scenarios ranging from premonitions of doom to vegetarianism.

59: Extrawordal Communication

Daniel brings multiple fascinating language-related topics to this episode, including an idea borrowed from Malcolm Gladwell about how memory and language are intertwined. This leads Bennett and Daniel to examine other instances of language affecting memory, how culture ties in with language and behavior, and how aliens and AI might play into it all. This was a fun one that certainly contained some third space.

58: Fear in the Headlights

Daniel celebrates his last day of work (for the school year) apparently by recording a podcast. In it, he and Bennett complain about adult obligations like car registration and insurance, but then they transition to a discussion of fear. What does it mean to feel fear? Is it different from anxiety or panic? Do Bennett or Daniel have any phobias? This and more is discussed, so don't be afraid to listen.

57: Home Is Where the Hearth Is

Acknowledgement. In this episode, Daniel and Bennett discuss greetings and how odd they can be. Daniel satiates his curiosity about light bulbs and learns why we can't just have TV technology inside them (or can we?!). And finally, they discuss houses; what kind of house would be best? What room is the most important? How valuable is land? Are tiny homes a sinister social engineering scheme?

56: Tears of the Scientists

Well, Zelda came out, so of course Daniel and Bennett discuss it a little. But considering the length of the game, it will likely be a recurring mini-topic. Afterwards, Bennett forces a Daniel Does Science, this time asking: is it alive?! Daniel does a surprisingly good job assessing the living qualities of things like milk, blood, and mildew. This leads into a little bit of discussion on the educational system as well.

55: An Underrated Episode

Daniel introduces a new segment called Overrated Or Underrated Or Just Rated (OOUOJR) that really allows Bennett to flex his judgment muscles. Shopping malls, empathy, electric cars, and jerking before bed, among other things, all are judged. See if you concur.

54: MAID in Manitoba: Moral?

Mind Your Morals returns, this time with a topic that is a little closer to the real world than those of previous episodes: the practice known as assisted suicide, or more recently, Medical Aid in Dying (MAID). Bennett presents Daniel with situations ranging from the sympathetic to the slightly outlandish, and Daniel tries to weigh the weight weights of morality and whether people should be assisted in achieving their own deaths. 

53: Take the Birdpill

What do you think about birds? A simple question, but one that occupies Daniel and Bennett for half of the podcast. They then consider what a world might be like if cheap, nutritionally complete pills were readily available. Would restaurants disappear? Would fat people cease to be? Would it be overall a good thing or a bad thing?

52: Super Mario Woes

The recent Super Mario Bros. movie serves as the backbone of this podcast. Bennett gives his movie review, but the discussion spawns tangents about mind-over-matter, identification with characters in media, video game design, and sequelitis. And somehow we forgot to even say "So long, gay Bowser!"

51: Munchausen Syndrome

The snow melts away, leaving plentiful piles of pet poop, which Bennett complains about. Daniel muses on the sentience of AI and whether humans are the only beings with souls. And Bennett brings up Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, an interesting disorder that Daniel and Bennett speculate on in relation to some current societal issues.

50: Honey Mooning

Daniel returns from his honeymoon to discuss teenage risk assessment, Willene in the Ingles parking lot, and Io, the moon of Jupiter, with a little help from Bennett. The conversation then broadens to vacation and travel in general; why do people travel? What's up with the people who make travel part of their identity? Should we live in a van?

49: Father Bennett

Daniel conceptualizes a brand new segment for this episode: Father Bennett. Bennett is not actually a father, whether biologically or Catholically, but nevertheless Daniel presents him with a particular parenting scenario and has him explain how he would behave. This scenario involves Bennett's hypothetical teenage daughter wanting to wear somewhat revealing clothing, and Bennett handles the situation with tact and grace (in Bennett's opinion).

48: Robo-boobaloobs

Mind your Morals returns after a few episodes, this time examining the risque topic of strip clubs. Are they moral, either for the strippers, the patrons, or the owners? If not, on what grounds? What about weird futuristic scenarios with VR strip clubs and robo-boobs? Bennett and Daniel examine it all.

47: A Cough by Any Other Name

Daniel has a cough, which turned out to be Covid. If it wasn't called that, it wouldn't have mattered at all, but by that name, it meant wearing the Scarlet Letter of a mask. We talk about that a little, and then Daniel turns the tables on Bennett by asking him to defend poetry. And he actually does it, sort of. Enjoy the discussion and the return of the phenomenal jingle.

46: The Tragedy of Lost Smells... and Aliens

You can consider this the beginning of a new Third Space Podcast, one where we shift from roughly monthly multi-hour podcasts to weekly sub-hour ones. In this episode, we do a fair job at trimming down the time while still keeping a favorite segment: Superpowers and Drawbacks. We also discuss... aliens! And don't miss out on the super sweet AI-generated jingle. Maybe AI really will take over the world.

45: Chat3SP

In this episode of Third Space Podcast (3SP, see what I did with the title there?), Daniel enthusiastically introduces the conversational topic of ChatGPT, the recently popular AI chatbot. They discuss its function, potential, limitations, and the implications of AI bots for education and society; whether we will be overtaken by AI or tame it and be better humans with better tools.