Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast Mass for Shut-ins

Question Kyle joins me for musings on concept albums as I fondly recall the 1999 gimmick-compilation "Short Music for Short People" from the pop-punk mavens at Fat Wreck Chords. The idea: 101 bands, 101 songs, each one 30 seconds long. The royalty of the genre all contributed - Blink-182, NOFX, The Offspring, everyone you remember from the late Clinton years. An impressive, if not especially listenable, idea for an album.
The podcast opens with a brief sample of "Ketchup Soup" by the Teen Idols, their contribution to this album. To purchase the album, please visit the Fat Wreck website for a digital download or other format.
Bonus: 29 minutes in I start singing "Uptown Girl."
These podcasts are ad-free and self-produced; I value your support on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ginandtacos.

Motivated by the Chinese balloon story that recently if briefly dominated the news, Kelsey Atherton (@AthertonKD) joins me to talk about PROJECT GENETRIX (1956), a Pentagon scheme to float almost 600 balloons over remote parts of the USSR and China. Turns out balloons are not well-suited to espionage duty for reasons that should be obvious to anyone over the age of ten. 
We also talk plenty about the recent balloon incident, the link between GENETRIX and the phenomenon of UFO sightings, and about how a crashed GENETRIX balloon is indirectly responsible for mankind's first photos of the dark side of the moon.
Check out Kelsey's substack, Wars of Future Past, and his recent contribution to Slate on the China incident.
Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via twitter (@edburmila). 
Thanks: Kelsey, the bands that contribute music (IfIHadAHiFi, The Sump Pumps, Oscar Bait), Zachary Sielaff, Question Cathy, and all Patreon supporters, subscribers, and listeners.

At the height of the Cold War, the looming existential dread of human extinction in a nuclear holocaust was punctuated by a three-way battle for the Grand Ballroom of New York City's famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel fought by Nikita Khrushchev, the US State Department, and the American Dental Association. You'll never guess who won.
These podcasts are ad-free and self-produced; I value your support on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ginandtacos.
The book referenced in this episode is available wherever you like to buy books.

Labor journalist and author Max Alvarez (@maximillian_alv) takes a break from hosting the essential podcast Working People (@WorkingPod) and reporting for Real News Network to talk about the recent labor issues on America's freight railroads. Also joining us is Matt Weaver, a maintenance of way crew member based in Toledo working for freight giant CSX. He’s active with BMWED-IBT 2624, a Teamsters-affiliated union for whom he has recently been chosen to serve as legislative director for his state. He has worked on the railroad since 1994. 
If you're interested in learning more or finding out what you can do to help, Matt asks that you visit the Railroad Workers United online or locally.
Max's recent book The Work of Living: Working People Talk about Their Lives and the Year the World Broke is also highly recommended. Be sure to check it out.
Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via twitter (@edburmila). 
Thanks: Matt and Maximillian, the bands that contribute music (IfIHadAHiFi, The Sump Pumps, Oscar Bait), Zachary Sielaff, Question Cathy, and all Patreon supporters, subscribers, and listeners.

Dr. Erin Thompson (@ArtCrimeProf), the Art Crime Professor, joins me to talk about her book Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments. We cover the illusory permanence of monuments, the politics of taking them up (and down), and the fate of removed monuments sitting in storage right now, waiting for a more reactionary political climate to re-erect them.
Question Cathy joins me for the mailbag, where we discuss the Denver Broncos, Starbucks workers' organizing efforts, the scourge of paywalled scholarly research, and the ultimate fate of Twitter.
Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via twitter (@edburmila). 
Thanks: Dr. Thompson, the bands that contribute music (IfIHadAHiFi, The Sump Pumps, Oscar Bait), Zachary Sielaff, Question Cathy, and all Patreon supporters, subscribers, and listeners.

In which I stoop to being my own guest on my own podcast to talk about my book, which is available from wherever you prefer to get books in Ebook, Hardcover, and Audiobook formats.
If you listen to this podcast you're almost certainly aware by now that I have a book, and in fact you may be sick of hearing about it. Nonetheless, here's a little teaser if you're still on the fence about checking it out.