Time may be an artificial construct, but it feels awfully authentic

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Time may be an artificial construct, but it feels awfully authentic

3 July 2025

Managing time when time doesn’t exist, from the Multiverse Employee Handbook, a science comedy podcast, produced by Robb Corrigan:

The real productivity crisis emerged when physicists tried merging Einstein’s relativity with quantum mechanics. They discovered something that would terrify any time management consultant: the Wheeler-DeWitt equation — quantum gravity’s fundamental mathematics — contains absolutely no time variable.

So maybe time doesn’t exist in the realm of physics, but who cares about physics when you’re running late for that train you must be on. Or when the hours and minutes are dissolving ahead of a critical deadline. Or anything else for that matter. And if time in fact does not exist, that’s not a problem either, the universe, and us along with it, carry on as usual.

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humour, physics, podcasts, science

Joanna Stern, Nilay Patel, light up the Talk Show WWDC 2025 edition

16 June 2025

Joanna Stern, technology writer at The Wall Street Journal, and Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge, were this year’s guests on the live edition of John Gruber’s Talk Show podcast at WWDC last week. It’s the first time in ten years senior Apple executives have not appeared on the WWDC edition of the show, having “declined” to participate this year.

Some speculated their absence was on account of an article Gruber wrote in March, critical of Apple’s delays in rolling out enhancements to Siri, the iPhone’s digital assistant, and Apple Intelligence, an array of AI features the company suggested — at WWDC 2024 — were close to release.

Gruber addressed the nonattendance of Apple executives, typically Craig Federighi (SVP of software engineering), and Greg Joswiak (SVP of worldwide marketing), saying there had been some degree of discussion between him and the company on the matter, but didn’t go into detail.

Some people, including Stern, believe their non-participation is temporary. Others, however, see things differently, with one pointing to a preview screening, at WWDC, of Brad Pitt’s high profile new movie, F1, co-produced by Apple Studios, which was scheduled to coincide with the Talk Show.

I’m not sure Apple’s no show was entirely a bad thing though, and the presence of new faces, and perspectives, was refreshing. While it’s WWDC, and attendees want to hear senior Apple executives speak informally, the format can be a little predictable. All the way down to Joswiak sitting vigilantly on stage throughout, making sure no one speaks out of turn, though this is also somewhat amusing.

Gruber is sometimes chastised for being soft on the Apple people, and shying away from asking hard questions. But I doubt a “tough” approach would be productive. Apple will only ever the answer the questions they want to. Gleaning insights by way the fireside chat format is probably going to be more informative. That said, Stern put Federighi and Joswiak through the wringer, in an interview she recorded with the pair, prior to her appearance on the Talk Show.

Australian political leaders who refuse TDA interviews lose elections

5 May 2025

Australian youth news outlet The Daily Aus (TDA), asked former Australian Liberal Party, and Opposition leader, Peter Dutton several times for a one-on-one interview, but he refused every time.

The same, apparently, went for former Liberal Party leader, and Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. Both leaders refused to speak to TDA, both leaders went on to lose elections they subsequently faced, Dutton over the weekend, and Morrison in 2022.

Current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meanwhile sat down with Billi FitzSimons, TDA’s editor-in-chief, in early February. Angus Taylor, the Opposition’s shadow treasurer, did however speak with FitzSimons in April (Instagram link). He was, I believe, the most senior Liberal Party/Opposition member to be interviewed by TDA.

FitzSimons, and TDA co-founder Zara Seidler, recounted the experience (palaver?) of attempting to invite Dutton to speak with them, in a recent podcast. Spoiler: Dutton seemed pretty obstinate, an attitude in general that probably cost him the 2025 election.

There is more to podcasts than YouTube video interviews

5 December 2024

The Australian Podcast Awards were held a few weeks ago in Sydney, on Thursday, 21 November 2024. The finalists and winners, with productions spanning thirty categories, can be see here.

Podcasting is to broadcasting, what blogging is to publishing. It allows an individual, or a small group of people, to create their own radio-style show, independent of regular broadcast channels. Like blogging, anyone can jump in and give it a try. To start a basic podcast show, all that’s needed is a small amount of equipment and software, and a whole heap of determination to build up profile.

Though you wouldn’t think it from looking at the numerous finalists and winners in this year’s Australian Podcast Awards, podcasting is under threat. The medium itself isn’t in strife however, as Dave Winer writes, it’s more about what the word podcasting seems to have come to mean:

We’re losing the word “podcast” very quickly. It’s coming to mean video interviews on YouTube mostly. Our only hope is upgrading the open platform in a way that stimulates the imagination of creators, and there’s no time to waste.

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The disassociated podcast, web design in the wild west of 1997

20 September 2024

I’ve always thought setting up a podcast show would be fun. But, you know, I have no proper recording equipment, nor any idea what sort of subject matter such a “show” would feature. So the idea has sat dormant all these years.

But yesterday, I learned about NotebookLM, Google’s “personalized AI research assistant”, while reading a blog post by Robert Birming. Among NotebookLM’s features, is the ability to take some text, say a blog post, load said text into NotebookLM, and then apply the “Audio Overview” function.

Curious to try it, I took a post I wrote in 2022, about my early experiences of building websites, uploaded the text to NotebookLM, and waited for the result. This quite fun fireside chat, between the two “hosts”, a woman and a man, is what emerged:

The “hosts” confused me with the author of a book I referenced in my post, Jay Hoffmann, but, some people call me Jay, so not all is lost.

And that’s where web standards come in. Hoffman [er, Lampard] talks about using HTML 3.2. Early on he was a rebel, but a structured one.

Update: thanks to long-time disassociated reader, and one-time collaborator CoffeeGirl (AKA Stephanie), for this version of the podcast (dare I call it a remix?) based on my post about web design in 1997. This is a little more on point. #DeepDiveNinetiesWeb

This little snippet is fantastic:

Back then, choosing a domain name was a statement. You were declaring your independence from traditional media.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. For the record, I didn’t get the disassociated domain name until 1998, and when I did, it was disassociated.com.au. I tried to obtain the . com extension, but someone else had it. They contacted me, offering it for sale (at a premium), which I declined. Later, when the name became available in early 2003, I grabbed it.

Nina Wan, Tracey Lien, on Labours of Love podcast with Sarah L’Estrange

26 August 2023

Newly published Australian authors Nina Wan and Tracey Lien, discuss their debut novels, The Albatross and All That’s Left Unsaid, respectively, with Sarah L’Estrange of The Bookshow, in a podcast, recorded during the 2023 Melbourne Writers Festival.

The hour long conversation covers numerous topics, including their inspirations, writing influences, racism and the concept of being a “conditional citizen” of Australia, and what exactly an albatross is in golf. I could tell right now what an albatross is, but far better you listen to find out.

Short interviews with the 2023 Miles Franklin shortlisted authors

17 July 2023

The winner of the 2023 Miles Franklin literary award will be announced in just over a week, on Tuesday 25 July 2023. Ahead of the presentation, The Bookshelf and Book Show have recorded interviews with all six shortlisted Australian authors. View the shortlist here.

Ashley Kalagian Blunt talks Dark Mode at Words and Nerds

19 March 2023

Ashley Kalagian Blunt discusses her new novel Dark Mode, with Dani Vee on the Words and Nerds podcast. Plenty of talk about the dark web, which features prominently in the novel.

Dianne Yarwood talks to Claudine Tinellis about The Wakes

18 March 2023

Australian literary podcaster Claudine Tinellis talks with Sydney based author Dianne Yarwood on her show, Talking Aussie Books. Much of the discussion is about Yarwood’s debut novel, The Wakes, which I also wrote about the other week.

Melissa Clark-Reynolds and Beth Barany discuss science fiction

27 February 2023

Melissa Clark-Reynolds and Beth Barany talk about writing science fiction on the Writer’s Fun Zone podcast. One point that emerges is science fiction’s relevance to contemporary matters on planet Earth. This at a time when some Australian publishers have no interest in looking at science fiction and fantasy manuscripts, possibly because they deem it irrelevant.

I’ve seen so many different stories use science fiction to explore where we are today. And, there’s something always very surprising about them. I just really enjoy them.

A great point. A lot of sci-fi pertains to the here and now. It’s not all a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away. Literary agents and publishers take note.

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podcasts, science fiction

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