Favoriting Techtonic with Mark Hurst: Playlist from February 3, 2020 Favoriting

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Conversations with creators and thinkers who are charting the way forward in a tech-saturated society. In our shift to a digital future, we need alternatives to Big Tech. Homepage: techtonic.fm

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Favoriting February 3, 2020: David Courtwright, author, "The Age of Addiction"

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Tonight: Prof. David Courtwright, author, "The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business"

David Courtwright, Professor, University of North Florida

The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business

Items for today:

Google’s tearjerker Super Bowl ad is sad and creepy (The Verge, Jan 29): "Given all the ways it collects data on us, it’s depressing to consider that Google apparently doesn’t see anything unsettling about an ad that highlights a grieving widower providing the search giant with even more personal details."

• via emptywheel (Feb 2): "Jeebus people! That ad was about Google seamlessly sucking up your most personal memories over a 50 year relationship. That's not sweet! That's horrible."

Google Maps Hacks by Simon Weckert, 2020. Simon writes (Feb 1): "99 smartphones are transported in a handcart to generate virtual traffic jam in Google Maps. Through this activity, it is possible to turn a green street red which has an impact in the physical world by navigating cars on another route!" (And past Techtonic guest Roger McNamee writes: "Google Maps uses load balancing to keep traffic moving smoothly, which means you may be sent on an inferior route so it moves smoothly for most people. People are fighting back with hacks, creating virtual traffic jams.")

Here Are the Most Common Airbnb Scams Worldwide (Jan 31): "Nearly 1,000 people flooded our inbox with their stories. We found some patterns." Bait and switch, plumbing scams, money scams, fake damages, running out the clock until refund window expires, and on and on and on.

• via HighWireTalk (Jan 31): "'It’s evil. There’s really no other word for it.' RT Electronic patient records systems used by 1000s of doctors were programmed to automatically suggest opioids at treatment, thanks to a secret deal between the software maker & a drug company." Talking about this Bloomberg story (Jan 29): Health-Records Company Pushed Opioids to Doctors in Secret Deal With Drugmaker.

Founder of Opioid Maker Sentenced to 5½ Years in Prison (WSJ, Jan 23): "Prosecutors portrayed Dr. Kapoor as the leader of a mail- and wire-fraud conspiracy keeping a close watch over the company’s bribery of doctors, which it masked as speaking fees, and its efforts to win reimbursement for the drug by lying to insurers about patients’ diagnoses."

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Artist Track Album Label Images Approx. start time
  On addiction: Prof. David Courtwright talks about his book "The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business."
Tomaš Dvořák  Game Boy Tune   Favoriting Machinarium Soundtrack  No label 
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  Mark's intro      
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  Interview with David Courtwright      
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0:15:33 (Pop-up)
  Your comments      
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0:44:39 (Pop-up)
Cult Fantastic  Screens   Favoriting I Love My Selfie  No label 
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0:53:29 (Pop-up)


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Listener comments!

Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:00pm
ultradamno:

Hello Mark! Techtonopamine fasters!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:01pm
Handy Haversack:

Greetings, seekers! Hi, Mark! Pour the tech gin!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:02pm
Megaroni:

Greetings Techtonic! Good to be with you
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:02pm
listener james from westwood:

Evening, Mark and all!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:02pm
chresti:

Hi Mark and Techtonic addicts!
  6:02pm
John from Florham park:

Hello fellow technoids
  6:02pm
Dave Miss:

Howdy from BK
  6:04pm
Listener Robert:

Oh, David Courtwright! He's an old hand on the subject.
  6:04pm
iiibeat:

Mark . . Sugar is THE gateway drug!!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:05pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

Go, Kansas!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:05pm
chresti:

Being a lifetime addict of various substances, this is right up my alley!
  6:06pm
melinda:

Hi all!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:08pm
Folsom:

That Google ad was terrible, now all of his memories are digitized and used for data mining and AI training.
  6:09pm
John from Florham park:

@Chestri can’t imagine what you have gone through
@Melinda howdy
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:09pm
ultradamno:

...and all the old photos were altered to have the old man and his wife wearing google t-shirts.
  6:09pm
John from Florham park:

@Folsom missed that commercial and glad I did
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:10pm
Handy Haversack:

Not to mention the ethically untenable position of preying on fears of loss, death, and dementia. Though I guess we'd have to get all the ads removed ...
  6:10pm
spodiodi:

it's well done... and completely messed up
Avatar 6:10pm
Carmichael:

Did you see the Trump commercial where he was lauded for reuniting the Mexican families? I laughed out loud at the irony.
Avatar 6:11pm
KennyV:

Yes, it was soo creepy.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:11pm
Handy Haversack:

I buried my face in a book during all the commercials. Learned about methods of cheating at cards!
  6:11pm
John from Florham park:

@Carmichael missed that one too
@Handy howdy
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:12pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

The cringe-worthy Facebook commercials were pretty horrible, too.
Avatar 6:13pm
KennyV:

I can’t allow that Dave
  6:13pm
John from Florham park:

@KFHP so glad I miss those commercials
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:13pm
Webhamster Henry:

Hi Friends! Big Google is Watching you!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:14pm
Handy Haversack:

Hiya, @John from FP!

And many community organizations and protest groups -- and students -- use Google to organize and store documents and arrange their groups. The infrastructure is taken over for a lot of people and institutions.
  6:15pm
Sam:

Preach it Mark! It IS disgusting!
Avatar 6:15pm
Fredericks:

I wish Mark would quit holding back and let us know how he really feels.
  6:16pm
John from Florham park:

@Fredricks me too:)
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:16pm
ultradamno:

It used to be said that if it's free then you are the product, now that's not free.
Avatar 6:17pm
geezerette:

Gil Scott Heron was wrong;I know it was televised. Watched it on televison,with an espresso.
Avatar 6:18pm
geezerette:

Gorgeous rant,Mark.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:18pm
Webhamster Henry:

The other opioid story was about how by changing the default amount of opiates on the prescription ordering page, indeed, the amounts prescribed went way down.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:18pm
Folsom:

Micah - any news of getting Chertoff?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:19pm
Mark Hurst:

Hi all! @Fredericks, someday I'll say what I actually mean :) ... @geezerette, thanks! @Folsom, never got a response - oh well.
  6:22pm
Sam:

Some people are addicted to complaining
  6:22pm
spodiodi:

guilty
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:22pm
ultradamno:

I think we have a UV light addict at the wheel of the country
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:22pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

Whew, I was afraid he'd deem wfmu.org to be addictive!
Avatar 6:23pm
Fredericks:

Where's the skin cancer, Ultra? Must be spray on.
  6:23pm
GListener MW:

“Big sugar” has a disgusting history and equally disgusting business/lobbying practices today
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:24pm
Webhamster Henry:

Sugar, salt, fat + anything = snack food!
  6:24pm
Listener Robert:

Why's he beating about the bush? Sugar was mostly for making rum!
  6:25pm
Andy (DC):

Things are getting more like "Infinite Jest" every day.
  6:25pm
Sam:

Just try quitting WFMU. You won’t last a day. Withdrawal is brutal. Extreme boredom, endless bad music, unironic mediocrity. Wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:25pm
Mark Hurst:

Yes - the parallels between sugar / casinos / cigarettes / Juul / etc. and Big Tech are pretty striking. They all seem to use the same playbook.
  6:25pm
GListener MW:

I highly recommend the 2015 documentary “Sugar Coated”, which is online in full — https://www.tvo.org/video/documentaries/sugar-coated-feature-version
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:25pm
ultradamno:

Well, that is a trigger for allergies (sniff, sniff) www.leaf.tv...
Avatar 6:25pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

Terence McKenna suggested Slavery had been abolished until Sugar. No Drug comes close to it in effects & consequences - to our Health &tc. He regarded Television as an Intoxicant as well...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:25pm
Mark Hurst:

@GlistenerMV, thanks!
  6:26pm
GListener MW:

@Sam — No, no, I don’t have a WFMU problem. I can quit WFMU anytime, I swear.
Avatar 6:26pm
geezerette:

Ken FHP: And of course we know it isn't. :)
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:26pm
Webhamster Henry:

My apps are helpful! Not addictive enough, though.
  6:26pm
spodiodi:

damn cat videos
Avatar 6:27pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

Medium is Massage. FMU? ...
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:27pm
Handy Haversack:

"You can't talk about the history ... in isolation" -- because economically addictive technologies are weaponized and used to concentrate wealth and power into the hands of a small and obvious class. Clearly the same with phone tech.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:27pm
Folsom:

I knew a guy that worked at Ballys, making slot machines, back when gave out tokens/quarters they tuned the tray to make the most noise so you could hear someone else get the jackpot to try to make you keep playing
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:27pm
Mark Hurst:

@RevRabbit63 - hadn't seen the McKenna reference, thanks. But sounds right, from Courtwright's telling - sugar was a major driver of the transatlantic slave trade. (@Listener Robert, Courtwright makes the point that *chocolate* and sugar was an economically important combination. Because chocolate on its own is bitter...)
  6:28pm
Colleen:

you have my full attention.... Sugar, food, fat, alchohol, weed... these are a few of my favorite things....
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:28pm
Mark Hurst:

@Handy - yes - by studying the history we can see what the playbook is... it's been in use for a long time (though never at the scale of today's digital operations)
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:29pm
Webhamster Henry:

"He gives the kids free samples
Because he knows full well
That today's young innocent faces
Will be tomorrow's clientele"
-- Prof. Tom Lehrer "The Old Dope Peddlar"
  6:29pm
Listener Robert:

Yes, chocolate, and tea, and coffee -- the methylxanthine beverages, bitter on their own. But sugar and its role in the slave trade was widely attacked then because, rum. Whatever opprobrium Courtwright may be bringing to sugar is as nothing compared to how rum was criticized.
Avatar 6:30pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

1st one's always free kid.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:30pm
dale:

colleen - HA! so true...
Avatar 6:31pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

' Limbic Capitalism ' ?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:33pm
Mark Hurst:

@RevRabbit - yes - Courtwright makes a persuasive case that a large percentage of global commercial activity is devoted to creating and maintaining destructive addictive behavior. Resulting societal costs are externalized to the communities & countries where the commerce takes place..
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:33pm
Webhamster Henry:

Kids will also copy other kids because: kids.
  6:34pm
Listener Robert:

But if they DID inhale nicotine for decades, so what? It's harmless. It's about on the order of those methylxanthines I mentione upthread.
  6:34pm
Colleen:

Haha....Glad your on board with that Dale!
  6:34pm
Dave Miss:

I have an addictive product. Butter, salt & sugar. A pistachio toffee w sea salt. This is interesting
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:36pm
Handy Haversack:

@Mark, true! Though sugar sure did reach a lot of people.

I'm decadent and awful, but still: quitting smoking was the hardest thing I ever accomplished, and I didn't even do it until U.S. society had really started supporting that choice by curtailing the weaponization of addiction, especially through taxes. Quitting smartphones when there are no obvious social or economic curbs on them? That sounds ... really hard. I don't envy people who have to do it.

But as you say, the economic and social costs are displaced, hidden, and aimed at sectors that aren't worth preserving, capitalisitically speaking.
  6:37pm
John from Florham park:

Nice to see a couple of gllistenersx make an appearance
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:37pm
Mark Hurst:

One toffee sounds delicious! That's hormesis, no problem... but 10 million toffees aggressively marketed and sold (let's say) to kids who don't have sufficient nutritional sources - that's a problem.
Avatar 6:37pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

...never mind Limbic Politicians...Orwell for that one...Huxley for Feelies & Soma...
Avatar 6:37pm
Fredericks:

Et Tu FMU?
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:37pm
Webhamster Henry:

You want the addictive product to be consumable, and if not, at least plannedobsolete.
  6:38pm
GListener MW:

Incredible guest/convo. Thanks, Mark & David!
Avatar 6:38pm
Fredericks:

Slaves picked sugar then we all became slaves to it.
  6:39pm
Colleen:

hey John!
Avatar 6:39pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

The Tobacco Industry is the classic example : lied like crazy about addiction & cancer - had to be Legislated into Accountability...
Avatar 6:39pm
Davee:

Hello
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:40pm
Mark Hurst:

@Fredericks that's Courtwright's argument, yes - and now consider what happens as people participate in building a social-media-driven society...
  6:40pm
John from Florham park:

Hey Colleen
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:40pm
Mark Hurst:

@GlistenerMW thanks! Yes, great to see Wake & Bake friends here on the Techtonic Accu!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:40pm
chris:

agreed, Listener Robert, there is a bit of puritanism at foot in this conversation. thanks for using the correct term, cannabis, professor. but lets use that plant as an example, for a sec. it has been shown that it is neuro-regenerative and can help the brain rewire neurons away from damaging patterns, like addiction and ptsd. it can also be used as a very low risk pleasurable release. why is that bad? unregulated markets for vaping products lead to much more harm than regulated markets. it is important to consider this, or more harm will come from vilification than acceptance.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:42pm
Webhamster Henry:

A 1959 satire on Ad men dealing with reports of Cigarette Tobacco Cancer reports (all dialog in ad-speak, written by BIll Dana)
www.echonyc.com...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:42pm
Mark Hurst:

@Webham thanks for that pointer
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:42pm
chris:

though most kids should still shy away from any of these chemicals until their brains have fully formed.

oh, and, hello Mark and folks! i do enjoy thinking about this topic!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:43pm
Mark Hurst:

@chris hi! thanks for joining in the conversation this evening
  6:44pm
Colleen:

I'm finding I have to scold my "Boomer" mother more than my teenager for using the phone at the dining room table
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:45pm
Mark Hurst:

@Colleen - true, screen addiction is affecting ALL ages these days
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:47pm
Webhamster Henry:

I did a satire animated "ad" for "Puffy Cigarettes for Children!" "Kids! ask you parents for permission first!"
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:47pm
Handy Haversack:

After saying "there is no cause to despair," he's listed a lot of causes to despair ...
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:47pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

Corporations are people and are addicted to surveilling our data. (Some courtroom deposition, probably.)
  6:47pm
P-90:

EXCELLENT interview.
  6:48pm
Colleen:

Great show....Thank you!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:48pm
Handy Haversack:

That was a really fantastic interview, Mark. Thanks so much for that! I'm clearly the choir, but that was a good and necessary thing you did!
  6:48pm
Sam:

Ridicule only works when people have the concept of dignity. That’s no longer a given.
  6:49pm
Colleen:

I really am in a dark place with sugar.....
  6:51pm
Earth Walker:

No drugs and alcohol 32 years and counting No cigarettes 30 years
Sugars next !
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:52pm
Webhamster Henry:

Are there also subsidies on sugar and tobacco?
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:52pm
Handy Haversack:

There sure are on corn, @Henry, which is the sugar most processed foods use.
  6:53pm
spodiodi:

great interview and show, Mark. thank you
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:53pm
Webhamster Henry:

Provide engaging conversations or at least printed matter to supplant phone entertainment See live bands - like me over at Duo (Uptown Kingston NY) after this show!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:53pm
chresti:

The smartphone replaces TV in a lot of ways
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:53pm
melinda:

I think you are right Mark.
  6:53pm
Earth Walker:

Try fermented to replace suger
  6:54pm
Listener Robert:

In the USA there's a tariff on imported sugar, as a price support for domestic cane, beet, and corn sugar production.
  6:54pm
spodiodi:

i want to replace my tv and my nuissancephone
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:55pm
Handy Haversack:

And when one opts out of phones and social media, organizing resistance becomes that much harder. Sigh. Insidious and a half!
  6:55pm
Ed:

100% in agreement with you Mark.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:55pm
listener 126464:

sportsy talk
  6:55pm
Earth Walker:

Thanks great program
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:55pm
chris:

agreed. today's capitalism (affix any additional descriptors you like) is a problem for global societies. thanks, Mark!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:55pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

Farm subsidy database: farm.ewg.org...
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:56pm
Webhamster Henry:

WFMU is four times addictive with all its streams going full blast!
  6:56pm
GListener MW:

Ha, that was my first takeaway from KC’s Super Bowl victory! — the hope that some SanFran techbros may have lost some money on the game
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:56pm
listener 126464:

we have homework? Thanks Mark!
  6:56pm
P-90:

Thanks, Mark!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:56pm
Handy Haversack:

Booyah, @Sam! You said it!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
Mark Hurst:

Thanks, everyone! Great conversation tonight. Appreciate you joining in.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
Webhamster Henry:

Around here, they like to proclaim casinos == jobs.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:58pm
chresti:

Cannabis helped me quit smoking.
Thanks Mark!
  6:59pm
Earth Walker:

Screens scream
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:59pm
Handy Haversack:

Never cross the screens!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 7:00pm
chresti:

A lot of people smoke to loose weight.
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