PODCAST

Musings of a Middle Aged Man

David Olson

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch"intrate (Abandon hope all ye who enter here)

society & culture

All Episodes

00:03:56

Blessed with Doubt, Cursed by Reason

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/07/11

I have spent most of my life in a state of rebellion, locking horns with authority figures and not always in constructive ways. I believe this operating mode is innate, the alignment of my DNA against the prevailing geomagnetic lines such that I am genetically predisposed to meet them orthogonally. It is not like I have a choice in the matter. If I did, my life would have flowed from point A to B like the glassy calm Everglades rather than the stage six river raging from extreme turbulence to

00:03:06

Rearview Mirrors and Horizons

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/07/09

I am finally at the age I have cursed because my joints are stiffening, my back is less stable, my mind is slipping, and my available years are diminishing. It is also an age I have looked forward to because I am financially stable, with the workaday world dominating my life since 1985, fades in the rearview mirror, while the 40-year dreams await on the horizon to be realized. It came a couple of years earlier than anticipated, but who am I to look the gift universe in the mouth?

00:03:17

Winning Alone, Losing Everything

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/07/07

It is said, rightly so, humanity is a gregarious offshoot of prehistoric ancestors, evolved and spreading to the eight corners of this spherical earth because we gravitate toward community with others of our ilk. Further evidence of our NEED to associate is the adoption of the feathered, furred, and scaled people as surrogate family members who are often treated better than human members of the family.

00:03:45

Rote Answers, Silent Minds

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/07/04

American education tends to fixate on producing the "correct" answers to standardized tests, even if by rote, as its measure of success. It is not until the Master's level at University that the curriculum switches to one requiring the student to do their own research and to think critically about data on their way to data-centric conclusions that can withstand scrutiny.

00:03:06

From City on a Hill to Rotten Fruit

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/07/02

At a recent concert, an iconic American musician hit out at the tRump administration as "corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous," and declared that the America that was "a beacon of hope and freedom for 250 years" is now under the thumb of a corrupt regime rotting the America that was from the head down. To be clear, the "beacon of hope" is not without significant blemishes, including, but not limited to, slavery and Jim Crow, the systematic annihilation of the aboriginal inhabitants, the horrific Mai

00:03:48

Rooted Wisdom

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/06/30

Humanity's earliest hominid upright walking ancestors were arboreal, tree dwellers, descending from the safety of trees to forage diverse, patchy environments with wetlands, forests, palm groves, and grass-rich areas, offering a range of resources from arboreal, terrestrial, and aquatic habitats. This ecological diversity likely supported an opportunistic lifestyle, requiring adaptability to both ground and tree-based living. The systematic hunting of large animals arose with the advent of group

00:03:41

Writing What Cannot Be Spoken

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/06/27

Zafón, easily my favorite author hailing from Barcelona, Spain, possibly my favorite writer in all of Europe, wrote books that read like poetry while telling compelling stories anchored in Spain's tumultuous history. He easily holds a place in my top authors along with Edward the Prophet Abbey, Eduardo Galeano, Haruki Murakami, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Pablo Neruda, and Terry Tempest Williams, all, whose books I've pretty much exhausted aside from obscure works I can't find. Four on the

00:03:52

Big Brother in a Red Hat

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/06/24

If you had told me the seminal book 1984 by George Orwell, I read decades ago, was a prognosticator rather than a theoretical dissertation based on historical realities, I would have laughed in your face while keeping my fingers crossed that we as a society, learned enough from experience with the totalitarian regimes of Hitler, Mao, Mussolini, and others to never slide down that vile rabbit hole again. Still, I was not overly surprised when tRump beat one of the most despised women in the country

00:03:22

Of Rocks, Leaves, and Redacted Souls

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/06/20

I enjoy learning about things, amassing knowledge about stuff, having the answer ready should some obscure, vexing question arise. This innate drive was expressed, as I recall, with a fascination of many things in the scientific realm. Not so in-depth with biological sciences. The dynamics of human bodily functions confuses and, I must admit, sometimes gags me with a spoon. Unless they were more about admiring the external beauty as expressed in the colorful shells boasted by lizards, snakes, and

00:03:07

Clipped Wings

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/06/17

An aspect of bird life I greatly admire, besides the ability to take wing and view Earth from on high, is that they are free to explore wherever their hearts desire, bounded only by the food they prefer to ingest. If a bird chooses to expand their palette, they can dwell virtually unbounded. Some, like the Arctic Tern, use their freedom to round-trip close to 60 thousand miles every year, while the diminutive Bee Hummingbird, a native of Cuba, lives and dies in an area less than 150 square

00:03:05

The Necessity of Wild Places for the Writing Life

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/06/13

It may be obvious, but I will say it anyway. Though writing is a solitary activity, it can not be done in isolation. All experiences, knowledge, genetics, and imagination contribute to the creation. Even the environment in which I write has an influence. It is as if the environment breathes ideas into my head, ideas seemingly lifted from the environment, from the thought energy emanating from animals, plants, minerals, and microbes. Each energy type has a unique signature, be it the mountains,

00:03:08

Devolving Minds

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/06/10

It wasn't until years later that I learned Vulcans did have emotions. The intensity of their emotions resulted in irrational action, so the society, guided by elders, opted to subjugate their emotions to pure logic. Just knowing a being like Mr. Spock could exist gave me hope that a rational existence could be the hallmark of a superior humanity and a kinder, gentler society. Can you say, return to paradise?

00:03:52

Beyond Authority: Crafting a Personal Spiritual Refuge

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/06/06

Like the inward turning Buddhists, I was raised in a large metropolis. Unlike the Buddhists who grew up in what was pretty much a monoculture, the area I was raised was populated with people of all colors, shapes, and sizes. I am currently living in a densely packed city with multi-story homes built so close together, it is pert near possible to run from roof to roof...if the roofs were not pitched at a severe angle, one misplaced footstep from splitting on the concrete sidewalks. The opportunities

00:03:18

The Enlightenment of Rule-Breaking

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/06/03

As much as I appreciate the laws of physics and relish in precise mathematical concepts and believe society should adhere to generalized guidelines, I am a huge fan of breaking rules, especially when they are capricious, arbitrary, and not uniformly applied. I am saying this as a former soccer referee assigned the authority to judge and mete out punishment, up to and including execution, upon breakers of the sacred Laws as handed down from on high by IFAB, the sole arbiter of the soccer holy book

00:03:14

Eternal Punishment Is an Unjust Doctrine

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/05/30

One of the greatest evils foisted upon growing children is the Christian fixation on the mythical Satan used to terrorize the tender-aged with the teaching that they will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire for not kowtowing to the tenets laid out in the Bible. Childhood, in the modern day, is supposed to be a carefree time of growth through exploration, not a season to suffer night terrors because they may make an unknown, unforgivable mistake, condemning them to an eternity being tormented

00:03:42

Citizen of Earth

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/05/27

Imagine, if you can, a world where bits of colored cloth did not rile people up to commit acts of war or prop up genocidal campaigns aimed at eradicating the undesirables. A world where allegiance was not given to nation states, but instead to Earth herself. No borders. No countries. Devotion instead to the apodictic rock beneath our feet and the entirety of beings calling our big rock home. Rather than calling ourselves American or Colombian or Bengali or any other nation state, we begin

00:03:10

When Hate is Loved

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/05/23

It does not help that the wanna be king turd and his horrid band of jesters are doing everything in their collective power to establish policies normalizing hate against anyone who does not conform to the narrowly construed definition of a true American patriot - white, protestant, male and begrudgingly female if they keep to their place in the hierarchy, with at least three generation of parents holding the same qualifications. Bonus points are bequeathed upon Nazis and other white supremacist

00:03:52

Brain Farts

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/05/20

Our self-aggrandizing tendency to view ourselves with respect to our best days and others according to their worst moments is self-serving bias taken to an extreme. It is frequently employed because their cognitive dissonance needs prevent them from thinking rationally. Cognitive Dissonance also comes into play when we judge ourselves by our intentions, irrespective of our actions, and others by their actions, irrespective of their intentions. This helps us justify judging others in their weakest

00:03:48

Border Envy

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/05/16

There are many animal traits I admire to the point of envy. The acute vision to see a tiny rodent from so high in the blue, the falcon appears a mere speck. The agility to change direction so quickly it sends a pursuing predator tumbling ass over tea kettle. The twitch muscles enabling a hunting feline to strike five times in the blink of a human eye. Hearing that can detect the sound of a pine needle breaking from the tree, tumbling through the air, and hitting the ground with a dainty thud. And

00:04:31

Wonderful Words

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/05/13

There is a singular Navajo word, Hózhǫ́, that encompasses engulfment in beauty that also includes immersion in balance, harmony, wellness, adaptability, and gratitude. The nuances are complex and varied with subtle connotations all pointing toward personal peace and harmonious societal coexistence. There is no single English word with a one-to-one correlation in meaning thus the listed words are necessary to help one to understand the Navajo word tangentially.

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Musings of a Middle Aged Man

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