Two long-time best friends wander through culture, politics, tech, and fatherhood and try to arrive at—stumble upon, alchemize and synthesize—something wise. satellitehaiku.substack.com
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Sep 28, 2026 · 1:12:59
Do money and power corrupt, or are corrupt people drawn to chase money and power? Both surely. We start with this question and return to it at various points. In-between we talk…
Sep 22, 2026 · 1:20:13
We talk about how an AI might “evolve,” Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, recursive self-improvement, scaling up to super-intelligence from LLMs, the nuclear disarmament analogy,…
Sep 14, 2026 · 1:10:17
We talk about the 6-7 meme, generational divides, our old friend Peter, prank comedy, entrapment as a law enforcement tactic, the Lake Ontario name change and CEO boot-lickers,…
Sep 13, 2026 · 1:14:35
We remember where we were on 9/11, and MiLo shares a song he wrote in the immediate aftermath, an anthem for hope and lasting peace. Then we talk about how our individual…
Aug 31, 2026 · 1:14:15
We talk about the paradox of ‘brown MAGA,’ the Natalie Harp saga, quitting Bill Maher and Sam Harris, the ‘socialism’ debate, correcting the online discourse, straw men and…
Aug 24, 2026 · 1:18:32
We talk about the urge to create art and confronting the voice that asks, “what’s the point?” Before and after that, we riff on mental health, therapy, trauma, male vs female…
Jul 29, 2026 · 1:09:13
We talk about penalty kicks and tiebreakers, the offsides rule, high-tech swimsuits, augmented sports, ABS, swim race time precision, Jude Bellingham vs Harry Kane, England vs…
Jul 22, 2026 · 1:00:49
We talk about forgetfulness, routine, middle age as a metaphor for Europe, San Francisco weather vs east coast weather, security vs convenience, the Jefferson-Adams death…
Jul 14, 2026 · 42:30
We talk about solitude, the tech job hunt scene, MiLo’s conversion to “sports guy” for the World Cup, the offsides rule, bad landlords, MiLo’s work for the Pima County (AZ)…
Jul 1, 2026 · 47:56
Shawn remembers the early days of the web, and we talk about our first office jobs, majoring in the humanities, MiLo’s brush with Theranos, buying Elizabeth Holmes and Elon Musk,…
Jun 27, 2026 · 1:11:22
We talk about doing voices to entertain our kids, Waldorf schooling and its prohibitions, audio book performances, art books, conceptual art, SpaceX and other IPOs, Elon’s…
Jun 18, 2026 · 1:04:00
We talk about the podcasting ad ecosystem, the “long tail”, Ani DiFranco, the economics of music streaming, news hygiene, Trump and the depths of dumb, vestiges of the Internet’s…
May 26, 2026 · 1:25:32
We talk about Shawn’s patented microwave shortcut, first world problems™️, dumb uses of AI, the AI commencement speech “boo” trend, AI hallucinations, the AI “bubble” feeling…
May 19, 2026 · 1:26:00
We talk about Shawn’s tenacious cold, the hantavirus outbreak, pandemic insanity, MiLo’s paintings, his upcoming show, and Bob Ross. Then we talk about for an hour about our…
May 11, 2026 · 1:25:48
We talk about generalists vs specialists, the communications degree, film school then and now, the process vs the product (redux), Disney layoffs, creativity as a temperament,…
May 5, 2026 · 1:20:09
We talk about our podcast as a family artifact, home tech challenges, class reunions, digitizing MiLo’s old film projects, our celebrity doppelgängers, Charlize Theron,…
Apr 18, 2026 · 1:30:45
We talk about mountains, trains, snow, the Donner Party, medical “diseases of opulence,” 80s teen movies, categories of 80s parents, finding jobs during a downturn, AI and the…
Apr 7, 2026 · 1:21:27
MiLo shares an update on his grandbabies and uses that to riff on the constant versus the variant (nature versus nurture). We linger on parenthood for a bit, and then we talk…
Mar 30, 2026 · 1:13:50
We talk about audiophiles, stereos of our youth, early portable music devices, white gentrification, artistic idiosyncrasies, writing, the pap smear test, videoconferencing apps,…
Mar 24, 2026 · 1:03:56
We talk about the challenge of focusing on normal life, Trump’s fundamental laziness and capriciousness, art after tragedies like 9/11, the diminishing returns of escapism,…
Mar 18, 2026 · 1:13:17
We talk about daylight savings, the war with Iran, ancient civilizations in North America, Lucy (aka “the missing link”), Charles Darwin’s bone collection, the brontosaurus,…
Mar 12, 2026 · 1:22:39
We talk about MiLo’s new grandson, parenting, germaphobia, catastrophizing, panic attacks, our love language, learning the hard way, idiosyncrasies of houses, intuitive design…
Mar 4, 2026 · 1:15:35
Shawn gets a little salty about Trump’s SOTU address (which he avoided), while MiLo compares Trump to Liberace. After indulging that digression for a bit, we talk about the…
Feb 23, 2026 · 1:16:55
Happy birthday to MiLo! Shawn is recovering from a cold, so we talk about that and about losing your voice, then about (the royal formerly known as) Prince Andrew, political…
Feb 17, 2026 · 1:21:38
MiLo (“Abu”) welcomes a new grandson, and we talk about pregnancy and birth. Then we talk about discrimination and personal blind spots, “cooperative interruption,” daydreaming,…
Feb 10, 2026 · 1:14:22
We have thoughts about sleep. Then we talk about movies and entertainment—Quentin Tarantino’s films, Elmore Leonard adaptations, The Matrix, F1 (movie), Justin Timberlake, K-Pop…
Feb 2, 2026 · 1:06:39
We talk about what’s happening in Minneapolis and debate whether the Trump administration is pursuing a strategy or just sort of chaotically pushing against civil norms and legal…
Jan 26, 2026 · 1:13:32
We talk about helping elderly parents with tech support, situations when AI unhelpfully offers help, the unnatural mix of high and low quality in AI output, machines vs the human…
Jan 23, 2026 · 1:09:48
We talk about works we created long ago, old tech, operant conditioning oneself, checklists, the memory palace, MiLo’s dad’s collections of stamps and old baseball cards, Warren…
Jan 15, 2026 · 1:04:08
We talk about being creatures of habit, aging parents, purpose and meaning in the context of work and AI, and what it feels like to live in this age of rapid and accelerating…
Dec 24, 2025 · 1:15:05
We talk about family gatherings and family estrangement, the horseshoe effect in political ideology, the nazi problem on the right, incels, women in politics, misogyny,…
Dec 16, 2025 · 1:16:49
We talk about conflicting nutrition advice, confirmation bias, Jedi mind tricks as a parenting technique, our visceral aversion to blaming and shaming, consequentialism in…
Dec 9, 2025 · 1:16:52
We talk about creating, procrastinating, collaborating, seeing our own past work with fresh eyes, discipline and the lack thereof, arts & craft fairs, art criticism, having your…
Dec 1, 2025 · 41:38
We talk about atmospheric rivers, The Doobie Brothers, suburban myths and life before the internet, Rush Limbaugh, the American Revolution, Simón Bolivar, the Haudenosaunee…
Nov 27, 2025 · 1:21:48
We meander for an hour and talk about internet memes, mullets, old time hockey, creative careers, various songs and artists, New York City, roommates, and natural comedic talent.…
Nov 17, 2025 · 1:11:11
We share some nuggets of wisdom we have gathered during our fiftysomething years on this bluegreen rock, and we try to fashion it into advice…. * Use “I” statements * Don’t take…
Nov 10, 2025 · 1:25:11
We talk about last week’s election results (mini blue wave), what natural political talent looks like (Mamdani, AOC), factions in the Democratic party, theories about what voters…
Nov 4, 2025 · 1:14:10
Shawn has more to say about social sharing on the internet. Then we talk about therapy, the paradox of wisdom, the creative process, qualifications for becoming POTUS, codes of…
Oct 28, 2025 · 1:17:46
We talk about the term “Gerry-rigged,” something called semantic bleaching, the “6-7” meme and other Gen Z slang, the f-word, hot sauce as a metaphor for cussing, Eddie Murphy,…
Oct 19, 2025 · 1:16:18
We talk about life with extended family, vacation homes, generational entropy, the evolution of sunscreen, Bob Marley, “Modern Jackass” magazine, pancakes, Maui, long swims, calf…
Oct 13, 2025 · 1:12:30
Please pardon some audio issues with this episode We talk about sourdough bread-making techniques, types of knowledge, short order cooks, adopting and abandoning hobbies, revenge…
Oct 3, 2025 · 1:16:47
We talk about MacOS names, the right preposition to use for islands, expired cream, mold species, rebooting leftovers, rotisserie chickens, food safety, diabetes, fiber…
Sep 29, 2025 · 1:11:09
Milo talks about meeting his dad’s long-secret half-sister, which leads into the topic of nature and nurture and also Canadian parking ticket bureaucracy. Shawn reveals his weird…
Sep 9, 2025 · 1:16:31
We’re back after a couple weeks of travel, work, and schedule challenges. Shawn reports that he’s feeling a bit stuck and lost in his life at the moment. Milo pitches “Designing…
Aug 14, 2025 · 1:16:42
We talk about being late, airports, slow walkers, networking in Latin American lobbies, trains, standardized time, life and death by bureaucracy, Chiune Sugihara (Japan’s Oscar…
Aug 2, 2025 · 1:20:12
Shawn has returned from Japan, and so of course we talk about Japanese toilets. Also trains, synesthesia, fighting with our dads, “happy-clappy” church, gratitude, the…
Jul 13, 2025 · 1:07:59
Shawn is bound for Japan for a few weeks, so we’ll reconvene in August. We talk about the state of Apple design under Jony Ive versus Steve Jobs. Then we discuss the recent Grok…
Jul 4, 2025 · 1:05:40
From Shawn: Pardon the background noise under my audio. I’m traveling and had to improvise a recording setup at my location. Shawn is in the mountains this week and shares some…
Jun 23, 2025 · 1:09:09
TW: Mention of suicide. Dial 988 if you need help. MiLo is toughing out a premature Tucson heat wave, so we start with some commiseration about Arizona summers. Then we talk…
Jun 18, 2025 · 1:10:32
We are constantly exposed awful things happening in faraway places, which we compartmentalize in order to function. It can’t be good for the psyche, right? From that question, we…
May 27, 2025 · 1:11:02
We listen to “Shuffling Feet,” a song we wrote together back in 1990, and talk about how it came to be: SoundCloud link I’m riding the magnet train with the magic wheels turning…
May 21, 2025 · 1:07:17
We remember starving artist days and grinding at various day jobs. We talk about feeling blocked, getting unblocked and moments of effortless flow. We consider the usefulness of…
May 12, 2025 · 1:00:19
We discuss how weird it is that authoritarians choose to operate under a veneer of legality instead of just abandoning laws. We talk about Skynet and our future robot overlords…
May 6, 2025 · 59:24
It’s wild how sometimes it just takes a single person to screw things up for all of us—like the shoe bomber 24 years ago whose singular act is the reason we all have to bare our…
Apr 4, 2025 · 1:11:04
What’s the deal with chemtrails? Flat earth? Where did Q go? Does Q-Anon still exist? We eventually get to these questions, but first we spend some time on this week’s political…
Mar 31, 2025 · 1:16:32
Shawn vents about his attempts to listen to Trump voters during a week when ICE started snatching people off the street for thought crimes. Then we move on to “signalgate” which…
Mar 24, 2025 · 1:16:32
We wonder, is there a formula for deciding whether a famous person should be canceled? Shawn posits there is, sort of. Collectively we seem to weigh a subject’s bad behavior…
Mar 17, 2025 · 59:14
We wander through various questions: Can psychedelics change us to change the world, or do they just ‘intensify’ our fundamental character? How do set, setting, and intentions…
Mar 11, 2025 · 1:16:03
We ponder the virtues of EVs and the weird, seemingly coordinated, right-wing backlash. Then octopuses for some reason (octopi?), which are from outer space maybe. Finally,…
Mar 3, 2025 · 1:10:18
What’s up with the reactionary moment we’re in? Is it reasonable to talk about “blue-on-blue” conflict or sectarian violence, or is that catastrophizing? Mentioned in this…
Feb 26, 2025 · 1:17:05
Recorded on MiLo’s birthday, we talk about what has changed over the decades and what, perhaps oddly, has not. Mentioned in this episode 1969, the year MiLo was born. Also the…
Feb 11, 2025 · 1:08:59
A decade of Trump has had us parsing the difference between shock and surprise (as in, we’re constantly shocked, but never surprised). We talk about the ‘move fast and break…
Jan 26, 2025 · 1:10:49
We remember our dogs and their eating habits, like the time Shawn’s dog Larry wolfed down a family-size box of Frosted Flakes. We reflect on what it means to live intentionally…
Jan 20, 2025 · 1:25:11
We reunite for our first episode of 2025 and remember our first cars, cars we drove too hard and too recklessly. Kids, please don’t drive like we did! Then we reflect back on our…
Dec 24, 2024 · 1:11:05
We share some things we especially enjoyed in 2024—music, shows, books, and more. There are many more things we could have mentioned, but we digress as we do. Mentioned in this…
Dec 16, 2024 · 53:33
Memories of MiLo’s old family tradition of dancing around the Christmas tree sends us down weird side road into horror movies and the uniquely Japanese ability to find comedy in…
Dec 9, 2024 · 1:12:51
Note: Shawn had some technical issues with his sound on this one. Apologies for the subpar audio. Post-Thanksgiving, we weigh in on the pie vs cake question and veer into tales…
Nov 28, 2024 · 38:42
We recognize that we are a stereotype—two white dudes with a podcast—and we talk about dealing with the critical and dissenting voices in our heads. And in the tradition of the…
Nov 24, 2024 · 1:14:42
We recap the phases of our friendship, from the time we met in kindergarten, then when we reunited (and wrote folk songs together) in high school, and roomed together in NYC.…
Nov 16, 2024 · 1:01:47
Welcome to the second episode of Satellite Haiku. We plan to put out a new episode roughly every week, covering a wide range of topics. In this episode we discuss the multiple…
Nov 13, 2024 · 50:00
Is this thing on? Welcome to the first episode of our podcast, Satellite Haiku! Please pardon some hiccups while we figure this out. Like, we forgot to actually introduce…
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