https://simplecast.com Everything is Arbitrary It's time to question everything you took for granted. This podcast takes you through the history of pervasive ideas to imagine how everything could have turned out so differently were it not for some arbitrary decisions, moments, ideologies, and beliefs. 2019 Everything is Arbitrary en Tue, 16 Jun 2020 22:00:12 +0000 Sat, 30 Jan 2021 12:06:32 +0000 https://everything-is-arbitrary.simplecast.com Everything is Arbitrary https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/588bef6b-d81f-424b-aece-ddad6d4bd45b/7ca397a9-90b8-4a9b-a0ee-cacd994b0523/3000x3000/2021-logo.jpg?aid=rss_feed https://everything-is-arbitrary.simplecast.com episodic It's time to question everything you took for granted. This podcast takes you through the history of pervasive ideas to imagine how everything could have turned out so differently were it not for some arbitrary decisions, moments, ideologies, and beliefs. Erin Stewart yes https://feeds.simplecast.com/ujp6Qmoq analysis, anthropology, culture, debunking, education, history, ideas, ideology, myths, overthinking, philosophy, science, social science, sociology Erin Stewart erin.stewart@outlook.com 694a17b5-7f91-490b-a47e-3578c9d0f41d Weddings Music from Danosounds.

Sources:

]]> Tue, 16 Jun 2020 22:00:12 +0000 erin.stewart@outlook.com (Erin Stewart) https://everything-is-arbitrary.simplecast.com/episodes/weddings-yZEyyZwN Music from Danosounds.

Sources:

]]> Weddings Erin Stewart 00:45:44 Planning for the best day of your life often starts at childhood and ramps up upon engagement. It gets super expensive! That's if you're allowed to have a wedding at all. This episode covers the stereotypical wedding, and the history of wedding traditions which vary from violent, exclusionary, cute, and bizarre. Some of these traditions are also not all that traditional. Planning for the best day of your life often starts at childhood and ramps up upon engagement. It gets super expensive! That's if you're allowed to have a wedding at all. This episode covers the stereotypical wedding, and the history of wedding traditions which vary from violent, exclusionary, cute, and bizarre. Some of these traditions are also not all that traditional. feminism, weddings, anthropology, marriage, marketing, history, engagement, tradition yes full 8 1 ca702292-6c47-4c88-ad2c-b3f4b940d855 Colour Music from Danosongs

This gif from Wikicommons is what to cast to mind when the topic of a prism dispersing a beam of white light comes up.

Sources:

]]> Tue, 26 May 2020 22:00:05 +0000 erin.stewart@outlook.com (Erin Stewart) https://everything-is-arbitrary.simplecast.com/episodes/colour-_8VtZS9N Music from Danosongs

This gif from Wikicommons is what to cast to mind when the topic of a prism dispersing a beam of white light comes up.

Sources:

]]> Colour Erin Stewart 00:36:46 When we see colour, we’re creating colour. Different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation hit our eyes, and then it’s up to the brain to interpret what we’re seeing. And then it’s up to our language, culture, and historical moment for us to be able to label it, and give meaning to it. Learn about alternative ways of seeing, feeling about, and using colour through the lens of internet memes, ancient texts, artist palettes, Isaac Newton’s discoveries, gender reveal parties, and more. When we see colour, we’re creating colour. Different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation hit our eyes, and then it’s up to the brain to interpret what we’re seeing. And then it’s up to our language, culture, and historical moment for us to be able to label it, and give meaning to it. Learn about alternative ways of seeing, feeling about, and using colour through the lens of internet memes, ancient texts, artist palettes, Isaac Newton’s discoveries, gender reveal parties, and more. interpretation, art, wavelengths, the dress, pop psychology, color, culture, colour theory, visual perception, color theory, physics, vision, psychology, colour, language no full 7 1 8d2fd714-7f0d-4169-9a8d-20bc40150aa4 Purebred dogs Music via Danosongs.

Sources:

]]> Tue, 10 Mar 2020 21:00:06 +0000 erin.stewart@outlook.com (Erin Stewart) https://everything-is-arbitrary.simplecast.com/episodes/pure-bred-dogs-PHGoK89q Music via Danosongs.

Sources:

]]> Purebred dogs Erin Stewart 00:52:15 Dogs are the super-cute, ancient friends of humans. And how they look and what they're like have been shaped by humans. Find out about the arbitrary standards that define breeds, and the problematic underpinnings and monstrous results of these standards. Dogs are the super-cute, ancient friends of humans. And how they look and what they're like have been shaped by humans. Find out about the arbitrary standards that define breeds, and the problematic underpinnings and monstrous results of these standards. symbiosis, pets, domestication, aesthetics, animal, genetics, philosophy, ethics, eugenics, dogs, animal rights, biology yes full 6 1 3c297a33-ea15-4dad-9943-e0ea28bb48c3 Breakfast Sources:

]]> Tue, 28 Jan 2020 21:00:07 +0000 erin.stewart@outlook.com (Erin Stewart) https://everything-is-arbitrary.simplecast.com/episodes/breakfast-iPztDarF Sources:

]]> Breakfast Erin Stewart 00:49:06 The story of breakfast is not a scientific story. It's a story of religion, industrialisation, colonisation, imperialism, marketing, indigestion, and panic about acidosis. Find out how breakfast began, how it got to be equated with health, and why it's a weirdly moral meal. The story of breakfast is not a scientific story. It's a story of religion, industrialisation, colonisation, imperialism, marketing, indigestion, and panic about acidosis. Find out how breakfast began, how it got to be equated with health, and why it's a weirdly moral meal. industrialisation, colonization, health, tea, society, vitamins, economics, orange juice, nutrition, slavery, coffee, kelogg, cereal, marketing, breakfast, trade, religion yes full 5 1 97012466-d0fe-4bac-90be-94e79336fa85 Mathematical Models Royalty free music from Danosongs.

Read more about the Seven Bridges of Königsberg:

Links about weather modelling:

More about the sad story of the Mars Climate Orbiter:

What's wrong with opinion polls:

And how we don't grieve in five stages:

 

]]> Tue, 21 Jan 2020 21:00:21 +0000 erin.stewart@outlook.com (Erin Stewart) https://everything-is-arbitrary.simplecast.com/episodes/mathematical-models-d3xaSAwm Royalty free music from Danosongs.

Read more about the Seven Bridges of Königsberg:

Links about weather modelling:

More about the sad story of the Mars Climate Orbiter:

What's wrong with opinion polls:

And how we don't grieve in five stages:

 

]]> Mathematical Models Erin Stewart 00:40:41 Models are pervasive, but you don't see them. They affect our lives in a range of ways: weather forecasting, political polling, search engines, bridge design, insurance costs, economic crashes, crashes on Mars... In order to make them we have to pick and choose what data to abstract and what to ignore. And sometimes those choices can be arbitrary. Listen to mathematician Lindon Roberts talk about the problems with mathematical models, and why we use them anyway. Models are pervasive, but you don't see them. They affect our lives in a range of ways: weather forecasting, political polling, search engines, bridge design, insurance costs, economic crashes, crashes on Mars... In order to make them we have to pick and choose what data to abstract and what to ignore. And sometimes those choices can be arbitrary. Listen to mathematician Lindon Roberts talk about the problems with mathematical models, and why we use them anyway. yes full 4 1 f78ec41b-d785-4399-9e8e-07acf91042e5 Generations Royalty free music from Danosongs.

 

Source links:

https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/ask-steve-generation-gap-video

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/9e6bzr/the_myth_of_the_antiwar_baby_boomers_polled/

https://www.jstor.org/stable/23043288?seq=1

http://www.localhistories.org/toilets.html

http://marcuse.faculty.history.ucsb.edu/classes/201/articles/27MannheimGenerations.pdf

https://search.proquest.com/openview/d6c050ba2ec2da1f83c71a6dcec449de/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=47867

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20171003-proof-that-people-have-always-complained-about-young-adults

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewjosuweit/2017/10/22/5-industries-millennials-are-killing-and-why/#543eb4d344e4

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/comment-boomers-and-gen-y-aren-t-so-different

https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/dont-call-us-millennials-because-were-not-20171220-h07qqo.html

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tuna-makers-look-to-hook-younger-consumers-1543766400

https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2015/04/oregon-trail-generation/

https://tcf.org/content/commentary/a-new-silent-majority-low-income-and-minority-millennials/?agreed=1

]]> Wed, 15 Jan 2020 00:42:41 +0000 erin.stewart@outlook.com (Erin Stewart) https://everything-is-arbitrary.simplecast.com/episodes/generations-Ba7Abf_j Royalty free music from Danosongs.

 

Source links:

https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/ask-steve-generation-gap-video

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/9e6bzr/the_myth_of_the_antiwar_baby_boomers_polled/

https://www.jstor.org/stable/23043288?seq=1

http://www.localhistories.org/toilets.html

http://marcuse.faculty.history.ucsb.edu/classes/201/articles/27MannheimGenerations.pdf

https://search.proquest.com/openview/d6c050ba2ec2da1f83c71a6dcec449de/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=47867

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20171003-proof-that-people-have-always-complained-about-young-adults

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewjosuweit/2017/10/22/5-industries-millennials-are-killing-and-why/#543eb4d344e4

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/comment-boomers-and-gen-y-aren-t-so-different

https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/dont-call-us-millennials-because-were-not-20171220-h07qqo.html

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tuna-makers-look-to-hook-younger-consumers-1543766400

https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2015/04/oregon-trail-generation/

https://tcf.org/content/commentary/a-new-silent-majority-low-income-and-minority-millennials/?agreed=1

]]> Generations Erin Stewart 00:42:00 What's the difference between a baby boomer and a millennial? Social change happens over time, but everyone's character, opportunities, and world views don't uniformly change with it. This episode examines how our thinking about generations formed and evolved. And it looks at the ways our conversations about generations limits us. What's the difference between a baby boomer and a millennial? Social change happens over time, but everyone's character, opportunities, and world views don't uniformly change with it. This episode examines how our thinking about generations formed and evolved. And it looks at the ways our conversations about generations limits us. demographics, ok boomer, baby boomers, sociology, generation wars, history, millennial, population, social science, generation no full 3 1 677a9b49-aff6-49eb-99ab-efbd1d11dd30 BMI Apologies: I mispronounced Nick Trefethen's name. And possibly other names too. There was also an audio glitch at 24mins that's fixed now.

Royalty free music from Danosongs

Sources/Related Links:

]]> Tue, 7 Jan 2020 21:00:11 +0000 erin.stewart@outlook.com (Erin Stewart) https://everything-is-arbitrary.simplecast.com/episodes/bmi-5IMwHRnf Apologies: I mispronounced Nick Trefethen's name. And possibly other names too. There was also an audio glitch at 24mins that's fixed now.

Royalty free music from Danosongs

Sources/Related Links:

]]> BMI Erin Stewart 00:31:14 The BMI is not a measure of willpower. Or a measure of health. It was designed in the 1800s to work out the proportions of the average human and make predictions about what this theoretical person would get up to. Find out about what BMIs are useful for, as well as what makes it limited. The BMI is not a measure of willpower. Or a measure of health. It was designed in the 1800s to work out the proportions of the average human and make predictions about what this theoretical person would get up to. Find out about what BMIs are useful for, as well as what makes it limited. science, health, eating disorder, arbitrary, health at every size, weight, statistics, bmi, diet, fat activism no full 2 1 28787c82-54f3-4992-bb8a-c01f8596b366 Time Correction: although there were heliocentric theories (i.e. the Earth revolves around the sun) in antiquity, this was an unsettled matter until the Copernican Revolution.

 

Source Links:

 

And books:

  • David Graeber - Bullshit Jobs
  • Seneca - On The Shortness of Life

 

Music credits:

  • Elevate from bensound.com
  • Time Perception from purple-planet.com
  • Royalty Free Music by ANtarcticbreeze at soundcloud.com
  • Time Rider by | e s c p | https://escp-music.bandcamp.com, promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
]]> Wed, 1 Jan 2020 02:06:46 +0000 erin.stewart@outlook.com (Erin Stewart) https://everything-is-arbitrary.simplecast.com/episodes/time-r0s9pF7j Correction: although there were heliocentric theories (i.e. the Earth revolves around the sun) in antiquity, this was an unsettled matter until the Copernican Revolution.

 

Source Links:

 

And books:

  • David Graeber - Bullshit Jobs
  • Seneca - On The Shortness of Life

 

Music credits:

  • Elevate from bensound.com
  • Time Perception from purple-planet.com
  • Royalty Free Music by ANtarcticbreeze at soundcloud.com
  • Time Rider by | e s c p | https://escp-music.bandcamp.com, promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
]]> Time Erin Stewart 01:09:44 Clock time, yam time, overtime, daylight saving time, atomic time... We arrange our whole lives in time, it's something we can sell, something we can waste, something humans have come to order in a wide range of ways, and something we can measure with ridiculous amounts of precision. Find out why it's arbitrary and coercive, but also very cool, and a source of connection. Clock time, yam time, overtime, daylight saving time, atomic time... We arrange our whole lives in time, it's something we can sell, something we can waste, something humans have come to order in a wide range of ways, and something we can measure with ridiculous amounts of precision. Find out why it's arbitrary and coercive, but also very cool, and a source of connection. science, society, watch, clock, arbitrary, time, philosophy, history no full 1 1