Grace and Paul finally got a little quiet time and sat down for a lengthy discussion. This is a long one ranging across a number of topics including what we think the next few years might hold, the institutional decisions to flatten the country instead of the curve, the betrayal of the people by allowing the mass-disabling long COVID, the futility of a vaccines-only strategy, and what we might expect from monkeypox now that it’s been allowed to spread unchecked while authorities scapegoat gay men and ignore decades of knowledge about this virus.
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The Podcast feed is here.
This episode is also on YouTube here. It is audio-only. Note that because I often use brief clips of copyrighted music, YouTube may insert ads or block viewing in some locations (for example, some episodes can’t be viewed in Cuba). Even if a video can be played now, there is no guarantee YouTube won’t change these permissions in the future.
The Podcast episodes playlist on YouTube, which should show all available episodes, is here.
The Grace and Paul Pottscast Archive Index
I (Paul) sat down for a free-ranging conversation with my son Joshua, age 13. I prompted him with a few questions:
How have the past two years been for you, since March 13, 2020 when we began our isolation?
What are some positive things you remember about that time?
What are some negative things you remember about that time?
Has this time made your relationships with family members better, or worse? And in what ways?
Joshua has a YouTube channel you can find here. He is also on Discord and Twitter.
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
This episode is also on YouTube here. It is audio-only. Note that because I often use brief clips of copyrighted music, YouTube may insert ads or block viewing in some locations (for example, some episodes can’t be viewed in Cuba). Even if a video can be played now, there is no guarantee YouTube won’t change these permissions in the future.
The Podcast episodes playlist on YouTube, which should show all available episodes, is here.
The Grace and Paul Pottscast Archive Index
This is the conclusion to our multi-part Conversation 63, which started with part 1 in early August, 2021. Grace leads this discussion with three main points, which she has summarized as follows:
First of all, this is not a matter of personal responsibility, but a matter of sound governance and leadership.
The second point carries some subtleties, but is basically that there are three ways (four, if you count doing nothing) to respond to a novel viral public health threat: Eradication, Elimination (nearly the same as eradication), and Mitigation. Absent context, these stratagems are morally neutral. But in this context, ideally Eradication, but at least Elimination is, and was, the only moral course.
Third, your virtue isn’t going to save you, or us. Terrible things befall virtuous people. Terrible people escape earthly justice all the time. This is not a matter of religious faith, or sympathetic magic, but of knowledge and trust.
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
Note that I recently changed our server to support HTTPS. All future podcast links will use HTTPS, and HTTP requests to our server should be automatically redirected to use HTTPS.
This episode is also on YouTube here. It is audio-only. Note that because I often use brief clips of copyrighted music, YouTube may insert ads or block viewing in some locations (for example, some episodes can’t be viewed in Cuba). Even if a video can be played now, there is no guarantee YouTube won’t change these permissions in the future.
The Podcast episodes playlist on YouTube, which should show all available episodes, is here.
The Grace and Paul Pottscast Archive Index
On a beautifully cool spring day, Grace and I went for a walk and talked about the plants coming back to life in our garden, the black-capped chickadees, and five widely-believed but false myths about COVID-19, which are based in part on wishful thinking, in part on anti-vax and pro-vax talking points, and in part on our understanding of other diseases. These myths are:
COVID-19 is best countered by sanitizing surfaces.
We can achieve herd immunity.
COVID-19 will become endemic like the common cold.
Long COVID is not a big deal.
The after-effects of COVID-19 are mild so re-infection is not a big deal.
The hard truths we must accept instead are:
COVID-19 is not typically transmitted by contact with surfaces.
We will not be able to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19, either through vaccination or infection.
COVID-19 will not shift to an acceptable endemic state.
So-called long COVID is not rare, not mild, happens to both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, and is not a product of hypochondria.
The after-effects of COVID-19 infection are not yet fully understood, but evidence suggests they are very dangerous and may be cumulative, leading to hepatitis, diabetes, cardiac problems, severe vascular damage, and damage to the immune system allowing opportunistic infections.
So, what do we do next? Grace has realistic but unpopular policy proposals: ongoing masking, improved ventilation, and filtration. It starts with risk mitigation, and identifying and resisting the gaslighting going on all around us, including workplaces, institutions, and government.
The music clips are from Thomas Dolby’s song “Radio Silence,” originally released in 1982. This is the original version of the song. A re-recorded version called the “guitar version” was included in the US vinyl releases. The 1984 US CD release restores the original version.
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
Note that I recently changed our server to support HTTPS. All future podcast links will use HTTPS, and HTTP requests to our server should be automatically redirected to use HTTPS.
This episode is also on YouTube here. It is audio-only. Note that because I often use brief clips of copyrighted music, YouTube may insert ads or block viewing in some locations (for example, some episodes can’t be viewed in Cuba). Even if a video can be played now, there is no guarantee YouTube won’t change these permissions in the future.
The Podcast episodes playlist on YouTube, which should show all available episodes, is here.