Podcast: World Cup
by Brian Reich | 17 Jun 2010, 9:48am
I host a weekly podcast called Thinking About Everything. On the most recent episode we were thinking about everything related to The World Cup. Click here to listen.
This week’s episode included:
- A conversation with Franklin Foer (@franklinfoer), the editor of The New Republic and author of How Soccer Explains The World. Mr. Foer shared some updated thoughts on globalization through the lens of sports, compared baseball and soccer (based on a post that he wrote for TNR’s Goal Post blog), and offered his predictions for how the World Cup will re-shape global politics in the future.
- A roundtable discussion about how people watch The World Cup — and what to watch for during the month-long tournament — featuring Amanda Rykoff (@amandarykoff) - uber-sports fan, social media superstar, and author/editor of the blog, The OCD Chick. Tim Karr (@TimKarr) — the Campaign Director for Free Press, and Kai MacMahon (@kaimac) - the Online Fundraising Director for Autism Speaks, and for whatever reason, a fan of England. We talked about the multi-screen World Cup watching opportunities — and how the global audience will test the telecommunications infrastructure that exists around the world — and much more.
- And some thoughts from me about what the World Cup viewing/fan experience should look like, and what I hope that ESPN and the other broadcast partners learned from the presentation of the Winter Olympics.
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Here is some more info about the show:
Must-Reads: Each week on the show we suggest a list of must-reads, based on the topic of conversation and drawn from the people who participate in the show. A must-read could be an article or a book, a movie, television show, podcast, or even an event. The point of a ‘must-read’ is simply that that it is relevant, timely, compelling, interesting, fun, or just worth thinking about. Starting this week, we will be posting all the must-reads online. Stay tuned.
About the Show: Thinking About Everything explores what’s happening in our society – and attempts to figure out what it all means. The goal each week is simple: we want to have a really smart discussion about something. To have an interesting conversation about something, we try to think about everything. Our topic might be related to politics, business, education, culture or sports – or we might find an issue or idea that seems relevant or interesting and see where it goes. We consider how our lives, our work, and what is happening in the world around us might be impacted by the issue. We explore the role that media and technology play in how we get and share information about a topic and how that changes what we know, or think we know, about the issue. And most importantly, we try to have fun and share some new ways of thinking about an issue that you hopefully find interesting as well.
Feedback, Ideas, Comments: Do you have a topic you think we should discuss on the show, or suggestions on how to improve the show generally? Are there things on your must-read list that we should know about? Do you have thoughts or ideas that you want to add to the mix? Leave a comment here. Send your feedback via email to ThinkingCast [at] gmail.com. Or, post your ideas and thoughts via twitter - the handle for the show is @thinkingcast.
Thanks for listening.
TAGS
: @amandarykoff @brianreich @franklinfoer @kaimac @thinkingcast Amanda Rykoff Franklin Foer How Soccer Explains The World Kai MacMahon Podcast The New Republic Thinking About Everything Tim Karr
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The Perils of Transparency
by Brian Reich | 11 Oct 2009, 8:45pm
The cover story of the new issue of the New Republic is a must-read.
The article offers Larry Lessig’s case against the super-aggressive push for government transparency agenda. The money quote is this one:
How could anyone be against transparency? Its virtues and its utilities seem so crushingly obvious. But I have increasingly come to worry that there is an error at the core of this unquestioned goodness. We are not thinking critically enough about where and when transparency works, and where and when it may lead to confusion, or to worse. And I fear that the inevitable success of this movement–if pursued alone, without any sensitivity to the full complexity of the idea of perfect openness–will inspire not reform, but disgust. The “naked transparency movement,” as I will call it here, is not going to inspire change. It will simply push any faith in our political system over the cliff.
This article, and this criticism, is so important. Pay attention! I think transparency is a wonderful thing, but we have to do more than open everything up, release the data, and see what happens next.
