Podcast Central

[Northwestcoug]

"The Dropout", by ABC news. It tells the Elizabeth Holmes story, and is based largely on the 'Bad Blood' book by Carreyrou. It's a short series, about 5 episodes, and done pretty well. The reporter interviews some of the head people of Theranos at the time. Sadly, no Holmes interview though.

Not 'Serial' caliber, but good enough to finish.

[jay santos]

Broken Record, a Malcolm Gledwell and Rick Rubin project is a good one. Light and fun with some great stories and insights into the music industry.

[Commando]

I just picked up the Conan O'Brien podcast-"Conan Needs a Friend" or something. It's fantastic.

[Sullyute]

Just finished “The Dream”. Fantastic podcast on multi-level marketing. Talks about the history, how the FTC tried to stop them, but Dick DeVos as the finance chairman for the Republican Party met with Gerald Ford (both from Michigan) and was able to get a win for Amway. Since then, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush W, and Trump have all taken money from and shilled for Amway or other multi-level marketing companies. Madeleine Albright made $10MM pushing Herbalife. They note that a BYU related academic has found 99% of MLM participates experience a net-loss as product distributors. Utah also has more MLM headquarters per capita than anywhere in the world. Very interesting podcast, highly recommend.

[CardiacCoug]

Just finished “The Dream”. Fantastic podcast on multi-level marketing. Talks about the history, how the FTC tried to stop them, but Dick DeVos as the finance chairman for the Republican Party met with Gerald Ford (both from Michigan) and was able to get a win for Amway. Since then, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush W, and Trump have all taken money from and shilled for Amway or other multi-level marketing companies. Madeleine Albright made $10MM pushing Herbalife. They note that a BYU related academic has found 99% of MLM participates experience a net-loss as product distributors. Utah also has more MLM headquarters per capita than anywhere in the world. Very interesting podcast, highly recommend.

I’ll definitely listen to that one.

I’ve always been fascinated by MLMs and by medical quackery. In the early days of the internet I used to spend hours reading articles at quackwatch.org and mlmwatch.org

Why just sell stuff when you can sell “the dream”?

[Bo Diddley]

I’ll definitely listen to that one.

I’ve always been fascinated by MLMs and by medical quackery. In the early days of the internet I used to spend hours reading articles at quackwatch.org and mlmwatch.org

Why just sell stuff when you can sell “the dream”?

My last boss sells Amway. He actually does pretty good with it, and continues to build his business. I think right now he makes $1000/month or so. I've traveled with him for business, and I've seen him strike up conversations with people after hours. It's like he's a missionary for Amway.

[CardiacCoug]

My last boss sells Amway. He actually does pretty good with it, and continues to build his business. I think right now he makes $1000/month or so. I've traveled with him for business, and I've seen him strike up conversations with people after hours. It's like he's a missionary for Amway.

Yep and that’s one of the worst things — working for an MLM can infiltrate and poison every relationship you have.

That would be so stressful to view everybody in your life as a sales target.

[Green Monstah]

I’ve been listening to Root of Evil. It’s aptly named. It is disturbing on so many levels. But I can’t stop listening.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I know I am late to the party, but the Malcom Gladwell - Revisionist History podcast is fantastic.

[Green Monstah]

I know I am late to the party, but the Malcom Gladwell - Revisionist History podcast is fantastic.

I've also heard of a really good one released by This American Life called Serial. So good.

[old_gregg]

I’ve been listening to Root of Evil. It’s aptly named. It is disturbing on so many levels. But I can’t stop listening.

this one was pretty good.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I've also heard of a really good one released by This American Life called Serial. So good.

Savage.

[Art Vandelay]

I've also heard of a really good one released by This American Life called Serial. So good.

Ha that might be the funniest post GM has ever had. Well done.

I listened to all 12 episodes of Serial on my drive up and back to Utah.

I'm in Cardiac's camp: Adnan did it, but there's not enough evidence to convict.

While it's difficult to understand why his attorney didn't have the girl in the library testify at either trial, it's unbelievable that his attorney didn't do more to combat the cell phone timeline at trial. As I understand it, that was the key demonstrative used by the prosecution at trial. They put up a blow up of the call log with adjacent blanks and then filled the blanks in with the testimony of Jay. But as discussed, ad nauseum, the cell tower pings don't match up with Jay's testimony until about 6 pm. That is a huge sword with which to lay waste to the prosecution's demonstrative (and entire theory of the case). As a trial attorney, I always make damn sure any demonstrative I use is rock solid, because the other side has every right to use my demonstrative. I can't understand why defense counsel wasn't shredding that demonstrative to bits with the cell tower info.

That said, I felt the podcast was a bit disappointing as a whole. Koenig was quick to dismiss things she found unimportant or unhelpful and quick to embrace things she liked. She spent at least half an episode debunking the Best Buy location by "proving" the absence of any pay phone, only to later admit that the building plans show a pay phone in the Best Buy vestibule. Her conclusion is that "maybe there was a pay phone there." Maybe? Really? And why wasn't that noticed on the plans the first time they viewed them? Confirmation bias?

Notably, Koenig does not then go back and admit that the Best Buy parking lot could not be ruled out as a place where the murder happened and is possibly a strength and not a weakness of Jay's testimony. There were a handful of similar issues throughout the podcast, though I can't remember them off the top of my head.

I don't see a post where the HBO doc " The Case Against Adnan Syed" has been discussed. I goes even deeper than Serial did. It reconfirms my theory (which is in line with DH). The documentarian obviously feels Adnan is innocent, but does a good job of pointing out numerous facts that should lead a rational person to having some "reasonable doubt". Just the fact that his incompetent attorney Christina Gutierrez was disbarred should alone allow for a retrial, IMO. The doc does a much deeper dive on the cell phone data--which the way it was presented only strengthens Adnan's position of innocence

Edit: I forgot to add the most compelling narrative that was made in the doc- Jay lied not because he did it, but because he was fed the story by 2 cops. It was insinuated that the cops told Jay what to say, how to match his whereabouts to the cell data and the times when Adnan could have killed Hae. This may have been done to allow Jay to get off of drug charges.

[BigPiney]

I know I am late to the party, but the Malcom Gladwell - Revisionist History podcast is fantastic.

I agree. He is great.

[Northwestcoug]

I've also heard of a really good one released by This American Life called Serial. So good.

Ha that might be the funniest post GM has ever had. Well done.



I don't see a post where the HBO doc " The Case Against Adnan Syed" has been discussed. I goes even deeper than Serial did. It reconfirms my theory (which is in line with DH). The documentarian obviously feels Adnan is innocent, but does a good job of pointing out numerous facts that should lead a rational person to having some "reasonable doubt". Just the fact that his incompetent attorney Christina Gutierrez was disbarred should alone allow for a retrial, IMO. The doc does a much deeper dive on the cell phone data--which the way it was presented only strengthens Adnan's position of innocence

Edit: I forgot to add the most compelling narrative that was made in the doc- Jay lied not because he did it, but because he was fed the story by 2 cops. It was insinuated that the cops told Jay what to say, how to match his whereabouts to the cell data and the times when Adnan could have killed Hae. This may have been done to allow Jay to get off of drug charges.

I haven't watched it yet. I heard they had to revise it a bit after the Maryland Supreme Court overruled a lower court's decision to retry the case. Did that come up in the documentary?