Shaping Opinion Tim O'Brien

Catholic artist Eric Armusik joins Tim to talk about the current trend at the Vatican to embrace ugly art at the expense of so much beauty it could showcase. Eric paints classical figurative art. His work is reminiscent of the old masters. His works are inspired by grand and vivid murals that he first saw in Gothic cathedrals as a child. But what caught my attention was a social media post from Eric that highlighted something we all may have noticed but may not have thought much about, which is how the Vatican seems to have gotten away from this sort of beauty and realism in its own art.



https://traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/shapingopinion/Vatican_Art_II_auphonic.mp3











Check out this FULL EPISODE at YouTube:   https://youtu.be/St9f7UwZe3U



Check out this FULL EPISODE on Rumble:  https://rumble.com/v4u5wll-whats-going-on-with-vatican-art-with-eric-armusik.html



LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos as soon as they are posted: https://www.youtube.com/@shapingopinion/videos



Stay up to date by signing up for the Shaping Opinion Substack here:  https://shapingopinion.substack.co



Find the full audio show wherever you get your podcasts: Apple — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shaping-opinion/id1371714253 Spotify — https://open.spotify.com/show/6yOg769bSm9hJn9zhwkunl



For all episodes and to learn more about Shaping Opinion at: https://shapingopinion.com



Follow the Shaping Opinion Podcast on all social platforms: Twitter/X - @Shaping Opinion, Instagram - @Shaping Opinion, on Facebook at Shaping Opinion and don’t forget to join the “Shaping Opinion Podcast Listeners” Group on Facebook.

Links from Our Conversation:



* Erik Armusik’s Website - https://www.ericarmusik.com

* Vatican Proud of Ugly Sculpture in Audience Hall - https://www.oliverduerr.de/en/society/vatikan-zeigt-sich-stolz-auf-haessliche-skulptur-in-audienzhalle/

* Contemporary Catholic Art Doesn’t Have to be Ugly. Just look at this new cathedral, Catholic Herald - https://catholicherald.co.uk/contemporary-catholic-art-doesnt-have-to-be-ugly-just-look-at-this-new-cathedral/

* The Vatican’s Cosmic Nativity Scene, Tradition in Action - https://www.traditioninaction.org/RevolutionPhotos/A915-Pre.htm

* Pope Welcomes Artists, Including Andres Serrano, Artnet - https://news.artnet.com/art-world/pope-francis-artists-andres-serrano-vatican-2328251

Author, writer and advocate Brooke Siem joins Tim to talk about her own experience with doctors prescribing anti-depressants to long-term negative effects. Brooke is an advocate for the practice of safe de-prescribing for psychiatric drugs. In 2022, she published a memoir on her own struggles with antidepressant withdrawal. The title of that book is called, “May Cause Side Effects.”



https://traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/shapingopinion/Are_Doctors_Overmedicating_Kids_with_Brooke_Siem_auphonic.mp3











Brooke is also a chef who co-founded New York City’s Prohibition Bakery in 2011, and in 2017 she was crowned a Food Network “Chopped” Champion. She tells a behind-the-scenes story that illustrates her struggles with anti-depressant withdrawal.



Check out this FULL EPISODE at YouTube: https://youtu.be/VWyBFtVnmDc



Check out this FULL EPISODE at Rumble: https://rumble.com/v4t4il3-are-doctors-overmedicating-kids-with-brooke-siem.html



LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos as soon as they are posted: https://www.youtube.com/@shapingopinion/videos



Stay up to date by signing up for the Shaping Opinion Substack here:  https://shapingopinion.substack.co



Find the full audio show wherever you get your podcasts: Apple — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shaping-opinion/id1371714253 Spotify — https://open.spotify.com/show/6yOg769bSm9hJn9zhwkunl



For all episodes and to learn more about Shaping Opinion at: https://shapingopinion.com



Follow the Shaping Opinion Podcast on all social platforms: Twitter/X - @Shaping Opinion, Instagram - @Shaping Opinion, on Facebook at Shaping Opinion and don’t forget to join the “Shaping Opinion Podcast Listeners” Group on Facebook.

Links from Our Conversation:



* May Cause Side Effects: A Memoir: Siem, Brooke: 9781949481891: Amazon.com: Books

* Brooke Siem - Brooke Siem Brooke Siem

* Learn Happy Substack: www.brookesiem.substack.com

* Brooke Siem: What This Famous Chopped Winner Is Doing Now (mashed.com)

* What I wish I had known before I stopped taking antidepressants, and before I started - Washington Examiner

* Why we should stop casually prescribing antidepressants to teens (nypost.com)



 

Author and crisis manager Evan Nierman joins Tim O’Brien to talk about cancel culture and its attacks on comedians and comedy in general. Will it kill comedy as we know it? And how can you defend yourself if the “cancel vultures” attack?



https://traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/shapingopinion/Cancel_Culture_Raw_Audio.mp3











Check out this FULL EPISODE at YouTube: Is Cancel Culture Killing Comedy?, with Evan Nierman (youtube.com)



Check out this FULL EPISODE at Rumble: https://rumble.com/v4sxg5i-is-cancel-culture-killing-comedy-with-evan-nierman.html



LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos as soon as they are posted: https://www.youtube.com/@shapingopinion/videos



Stay up to date by signing up for the Shaping Opinion Substack here:  https://shapingopinion.substack.co



Find the full audio show wherever you get your podcasts: Apple — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shaping-opinion/id1371714253 Spotify — https://open.spotify.com/show/6yOg769bSm9hJn9zhwkunl



For all episodes and to learn more about Shaping Opinion at: https://shapingopinion.com



Follow the Shaping Opinion Podcast on all social platforms: Twitter/X - @Shaping Opinion, Instagram - @Shaping Opinion, on Facebook at Shaping Opinion and don’t forget to join the “Shaping Opinion Podcast Listeners” Group on Facebook.

Links from Our Conversation:



* Amazon.com: The Cancel Culture Curse: From Rage to Redemption in a World Gone Mad: 9781510777194: Nierman, Evan, Sachs, Mark: Books

* Cancel culture is no laughing matter: Comedy on the edge | The Hill

* Jerry Seinfeld slams political correctness, extreme left for ruining comedy (smh.com.au)

* Bari Weiss and Her Resignation from the New York Times - Resignation Letter — Bari Weiss



 

Attorney Mark Chutkow joins Tim O’Brien to talk about an unprecedented case where the parents of a mass shooter are prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to prison. Is this a one-off or a sign of things to come? That’s just one of the questions we discuss.



https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Parents_of_School_Shooter_Convicted_auphonic.mp3











Check out this FULL EPISODE at YouTube:     https://youtu.be/LIgv_NK9PL4



Check out this FULL EPISODE at Rumble: https://rumble.com/v4s33lo-unprecedented-parents-of-mass-shooter-convicted-with-attorney-mark-chutkow.html



LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos as soon as they are posted: https://www.youtube.com/@shapingopinion/videos



Stay up to date by signing up for the Shaping Opinion Substack here:  https://shapingopinion.substack.co



Find the full audio show wherever you get your podcasts: Apple — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shaping-opinion/id1371714253 Spotify — https://open.spotify.com/show/6yOg769bSm9hJn9zhwkunl



Learn more about Shaping Opinion at: https://shapingopinion.com



Follow the Shaping Opinion Podcast on all social platforms: Twitter/X - @Shaping Opinion, Instagram - @Shaping Opinion, on Facebook at Shaping Opinion and don’t forget to join the “Shaping Opinion Podcast Listeners” Group on Facebook.

Links from Our Conversation:



* Mark Chutkow - https://www.dykema.com/people/mark-chutkow.html

* Michigan School Shooter Sentenced to Life in Prison without Parole - https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/ethan-crumbley-sentencing-oxford-shooting-12-08-23/index.html

* Michigan School Shooter’s Parents Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison - https://apnews.com/article/james-crumbley-jennifer-crumbley-oxford-school-shooting-e5888f615c76c3b26153c34dc36d5436

If you follow us on social media or have subscribed to our new Substack page you may already know we’ve been on hiatus in recent months. Most of the episodes you have heard since the start of the New Year have been encore episodes.



Today, we have some good news. Starting next week, you will be seeing and hearing Shaping Opinion 2.0!



https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Preview_-_Shaping_Opinion_2.0.mp3











We’ve used the last few months to revisit every aspect of the podcast and make improvements.



For background, we started the Shaping Opinion podcast in March 2018 when podcasting was just hitting its stride as a popular new sensation. The big commercial companies had started to pay attention, but at that time, independent podcast producers like us dominated. There were well less than 500,000 podcasts in the world, and almost all of them were audio in nature.



In short, it wasn’t as hard then to make a dent as it is now. As a result, we experienced some immediate interest in what we were offering, and steady audience growth over the years. In the process, we released roughly 300 original episodes that have won us awards, attracted listeners from all over the world, but mostly in the U.S., and a few listeners who you might even consider celebrities.



My favorite feedback, though, has been from individual guests.  Almost every guest has been glad he or she participated. Consistently, they have told me they enjoyed the interview experience. They have appreciated that we do our homework and don’t just ask the “typical” questions. It’s a conversation that they themselves have tended to see as a break from the grind of doing the same-old media interviews.



Tim O'Brien



If you were to ask me, though, what was the focus of the Shaping Opinion podcast, my answer would have been much different in 2018 than it is now. Back then, I envisioned it being a true-crime type of podcast only focusing on big, historic PR events. I found out pretty quickly you can’t do a weekly podcast on that. So, we expanded our focus.



The tagline, which was fitting, was, “We talk about people, events and things that shape the way we think.” And we did, broadly speaking.



In the process, we found ourselves talking about such a range of topics week after week, that our audience would come and go by topic. If we interviewed NFL Hall of Famer Larry Czonka one week, we may have gotten thousands and thousands of new listeners who are football fans. But they went away the next week when we interviewed someone else who had nothing to do with sports.



This pattern has repeated itself throughout the life of the podcast.



At the same time, the podcasting landscape has changed. Major commercial enterprises have entered the podcasting space and have dominated it while further growing it into a multi-billion-dollar industry.  Along with that, they made the video format almost a requirement. Ironically, independent podcasts have continued to drive the industry’s growth as well. There are now well over one million podcasts available for free to the growing world of podcast listeners.



Those listeners have so many options, they seek clarity. They want to know where your podcast fits, what it offers. Today’s podcast listener, unlike the listener of 2018, wants to know up front where we fit in the larger mosaic of podcasts.



And that is where we started as we conducted an analysis of what the Shaping Opinion Podcast must be, and what it will be going forward.



And now here we are. Next Monday marks a new day for the Shaping Opinion Podcast.



Here’s what you’ll notice first.



We’ll be on video! You will find the Shaping Opinion podcast on YouTube and Rumble,

Economist, professor and author Paul Rubin joins Tim to talk about the impact of socialism on the future, particularly among young people who tend to be the most supportive of it, but who stand to lose the most because of it. This is the focus of his new book called, “A Student’s Guide to Socialism: How it will trash your lives.” This episode was first released January 4, 2021.



https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/157_-_What_They_Wont_Tell_You_About_Socialism.mp3











If you want to see where socialism has been tried and failed, you don’t have to look far. Venezuela is one current-day example. The country sits on one of the world’s largest deposits of oil, yet people in that country have to wait in long lines for gas, the prices for gas are high and the quality of life is among the lowest in the world.



Or, you could look toward history, from the Soviet Union, to Cuba, to countries from Eastern Europe to South America and Africa. The examples of socialist failure are many.  But if you look for examples of where socialism has been successful, you can look, but you won’t find many if any.



The effects of socialism aren’t just a poor standard of living, but massive human misery, that history has shown, has led to the establishment of dictators and small rich oligarchies who rule the masses under the thumb of socialism.



At the same time, the concepts of socialism have long had a certain appeal to young people and oppressed peoples. Socialism has a certain seductive quality for some.



Paul Rubin has spent decades teaching young generations about basic economic principles, and has spent no small amount of time educating young people on the risks of socialism.

Links



* A Student’s Guide to Socialism: How it will trash your lives, by Paul Rubin (Amazon)

* Paul Rubin, The Independent Institute

* How are socialism and communism different?, History.com

* Capitalism v. Socialism, PragerU.com



About this Episode’s Guest Paul Rubin

Paul H. Rubin is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Economics Emeritus in the Economics Department of Emory University and a former Professor of Law and Economics at the School of Law. He served as editor-in-chief of Managerial and Decision Economics. In addition, he is associated with the Mont Peleron Society, the Independent Institute, and the American Enterprise Institute, and a Fellow of the Public Choice Society and former President of the Southern Economics Association. Professor Rubin was Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers under President Reagan, Chief Economist at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Director of Advertising Economics at the Federal Trade Commission, and Vice-President of Glassman-Oliver Economic Consultants, Inc., a litigation consulting firm in Washington. He has taught economics at the University of Georgia, City University of New York, VPI, and law and economics at George Washington University Law School. Professor Rubin has written or edited several books, and has published over one hundred articles and chapters on economics, law, and regulation.



Much of Professor Rubin’s writing is in law and economics, with a focus on tort, crime and contract issues. His areas of research interest include law and economics, industrial organization, transaction cost economics,