Anxious Machine Rob McGinley Myers

I’ve always had a problematic relationship to the news, and I’ve struggled to navigate that even more since this pandemic began. I talk to my father about the night I yelled at him over his insufficient fear of the virus, and I look back on a 1954 essay by E.B. White about the disparity between his experience of a hurricane and the coverage he hears of that hurricane on the radio.
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Music: Blue Dot Sessions
Links: The Eye of Edna by E.B. White
Cancel Everything by Yascha Mounk

Like most people, I imagine, I've been having a lot of anxious thoughts these days. And I’ve been wishing I could get those thoughts out of my head. Then I remembered that I used to have a podcast called Anxious Machine.
So here’s my first episode in three years, part of a planned, ongoing audio journal. This episode starts with some thoughts about how this virus first entered my consciousness, how it felt to watch the movie Contagion with my daughter, and trying to stay awake to what's happening.
Music: The House Glows with Almost No Help by Chris Zabriskie
Contagion: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Cliff Martinez
Links: Contagion by Steven Soderbergh
Dana Stevens on the Slate Culture Gabfest
Wesley Morris on On The Media

I'm announcing a whole new podcast, and giving you a listen to the first episode. The podcast is called Before It Had a Theme, and on it, Britta Greene an I discuss and deconstruct old episodes of This American Life. On this episode, we discuss the very first episode of that show, as well as why the show is worth discussing, how we and others became fans of the show, and why we love Ira Glass’s mother.
Clips from following were used in this episode:
Coffaro’s Theme by Bill Frisell
Episode of Tape with Jonathan Mejivar
Episode of Tape with Ben Calhoun
Ira’s talk at the Third Coast Audio Festival
Longform Podcast, Episode 159: Ira Glass
This American Life, Episode 1: New Beginnings
Ira’s talk at the Gel Conference
Rob's Twitter
Britta's Twitter
Show Twitter
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Sometimes in your life, you reach a crossroads, go on a men’s weekend, spend too much time alone in the forest, have a mid-life crisis, and start thinking you can change the world with your podcast. This episode is about that happening to me. Part one of a three-part series.
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Links: Startup
Music: Opening Credits by johnny_ripper
Divider by Chris Zabriskie
Audrey by johnny_ripper
Mario Bava Sleeps in a Little Later Than He Expected To by Chris Zabriskie
Black Book by johnny_ripper
The Dark Glow of the Mountains by Chris Zabriskie
A Void by johnny_ripper
Program Reverie by Podington Bear
Massive by Podington Bear

Parents of young children have an especially fraught relationship with their smartphones. On the one hand, these devices are indispensable tools for getting things done and staying connected to the adult world while in the midst of childcare. On the other hand, the culture is constantly telling parents, and particularly mothers, that they’re too distracted by these devices, that smartphones are stealing precious attention away from our kids.
But the idea that parents should be focusing so much attention on their kids is itself a modern invention. In fact, our current understanding of parenthood and childhood is, in a very real way, the product of technology.
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Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes
Links: Moms, Let Go of Your Smartphone Guilt
Siobhan Adcock’s website
Amy Shearn’s website
Music: Opening Credits by johnny_ripper
Spring Solstice by Podington Bear
Cylinder Three by Chris Zabriskie
The Dark Glow of the Mountain by Chris Zabriskie
Walkin Flags by Sealadder
Button Mushrooms by Podington Bear
Stuck Dream by Podington Bear
88 by Podington Bear
What True Self? Feels Bogus, Lets Watch Jason X by Chris Zabriskie

This past week, my kids went back to school. Summer vacation has come and gone. And that’s gotten me thinking about the very idea of summer vacation because every summer, for the past several years, my wife, her sisters and our families have had this tradition of going to a cabin for a few days to get out of the city. We don’t own a cabin. We have to rent one. And this year, the process of finding it, looking at pictures of all the possible cabins on all the possible lakes, made me wonder about this particular, middle-class American ritual of going into the wilderness for vacation, where that ritual came from, and what it says about our relationship to modern life.
Support Anxious Machine on Patreon
Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes
Patrons: Special thanks this week to new Patreon supporter Matt Holliday.
Links: Where Was the Birthplace of the American Vacation?
Thoreau Leaves Walden Pond
Why Fire Makes Us Human
Working At Play: A History of Vacations in the United States
Music: Gentle Chase by Podington Bear
Arrival by North Hive
Tam by LJ Kruzer
Electron by Podington Bear
Halflight by Podington Bear
Tamz by LJ Kruzer
88 by Podington Bear