Show Notes
This week James and Toby open the discussion with James’ recent gig in Dorset and the division in towns like Bridport and Totnes between the woke and the awake, particularly over traffic calming measures like LTNs, Ulez schemes and 15-minute cities.
They go on to talk about Yuval Harari’s calling for ‘conspiracy theorists’ to be banned from the internet and Toby ask James to respond to Harari’s claim that many conspiracy theories, particularly those that blame the world’s problems on an elite cabal of billionaires and their acolytes, have an antisemitic component and that leads to a bigger argument about whether James’s conspiracy theory about the ‘death jabs,' Paul McCartney and 'manufactured' bands.
In Culture Corner, Toby heaps praise on They Cloned Tyrone, a new sci-fi conspiracy thriller (Netflix) and Lioness, the new Taylor Sheridan series (Paramount+), while James enthuses about Kohrra, an Indian police procedural (Netflix.)
This week's opening sound is Yuval Noah Harari's appearance on The Lex Fridman Podcast #390.
More from London Calling
In 1935 Cole Porter penned a tune called "Just One of Those Things" about a love affair "too hot not to cool down." And so it goes.
Everyone is a little miserable this week, fueled by the rainy summer England has had this year. Or maybe because we're all getting a little bit older. James "celebrated" #58 this past weekend and Toby isn't looking forward to #60 due this October.
It's hot in the Mediterranean and James and Toby discuss the recent forest fires in Greece and whether climate change or arsonists are to blame. This triggers an argument (From these two? Really?) about whether there are enough honest journalists left to expose such wrongdoing and that, in turn, leads to a heated discussion about whether the journalist Ross Clark is a genuine climate contrarian because concedes that the world has got a little bit warmer in the past 150 years.
"The best laid plans of mice and men," said Rabbie Burns, "often go awry." And so it is as Toby tells James about how his travel plans have gone over the past fortnight, even though he’s in Majorca with his wife and four children.
Toby is in Ibiza and James is in a funk as the diet he's on fails to really kick in and that leads to a discussion on DNA, genetically altered mosquitos, Bill Gates, lost friends and cocaine. Yep, it's quite the journey.