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The Olympics, and other News Bites
Episode 86 • 12th July 2024 • The Secular Foxhole • Blair Schofield and Martin Lindeskog
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Today we talk about an odd piece of news about the Olympics, plus some good news concerning both Progress and Objectivism. Then Martin covers our show stats and other items of interest.

Call-to-Action: After you have listened to this episode, add your $0.02 (two cents) to the conversation, by joining (for free) The Secular Foxhole Town Hall. Feel free to introduce yourself to the other members, discuss the different episodes, give us constructive feedback, or check out the virtual room, Speakers' Corner, and step up on the digital soapbox. Welcome to our new place in cyberspace!

Show notes with links to articles, blog posts, products and services:

Episode 86 (29 minutes) was recorded at 2200 Central European Time, on July 5, 2024, with Ringr app. Martin did the editing and post-production with the podcast maker, Alitu. The transcript is generated by Alitu.

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This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

Transcripts

Blair:

Well, good afternoon, everyone.

Blair:

This is the 86th episode of the secular

Blair:

Foxhole podcast.

Blair:

Hello, Martin.

Martin:

Hello, Blair.

Blair:

Great to have you back on.

Martin:

Yeah, same.

Blair:

Today we.

Blair:

It is the day after Independence Day here in

Blair:

the United States.

Martin:

Yep.

Blair:

So we, Denise and I got to see some fireworks outside our front door at night from

Blair:

a local baseball stadium, and we didn't have to pay, so that was fun.

Blair:

And.

Blair:

But today I've got four or five stories, so it

Blair:

might be a buffet instead of a new sandwich.

Blair:

How is that?

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

And some of them are bad and some of them are good.

Blair:

So. Well, one of them is mixed, if you will, because it's conservative related.

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

So. But I can go right into them if you like.

Blair:

One of the good things.

Blair:

Longtime objectivist Jason Crawford announced

Blair:

recently that his roots of progress organization has now become an institute.

Blair:

So. Roots of Progress Institute.

Blair:

And that would be his roots of progress.org

Blair:

dot.

Blair:

And so congratulations to Jason and the staff

Blair:

there at roots of progress.

Blair:

I know that they're doing valuable work about

Blair:

fighting for progress studies.

Martin:

That's great, great news.

Martin:

And hopefully we could get him on the show in

Martin:

the future.

Blair:

Yes. Yes. And also, I recently watched the Ayn Rand Institute released a video of

Blair:

Ankar Gates 2007 speech, Atlas Shrugged, America's second Declaration of Independence.

Blair:

And it's a very powerful, very powerful speech, in essence, explaining why Ayn Rand's

Blair:

novel and her philosophy finished the job that the founders started.

Blair:

They were great political philosophers, but they tied it to the quicksand of the

Blair:

altruistic dominant philosophy at the time and sadly, still dominant today.

Blair:

But they tied an egoistic political philosophy to the quicksand of altruism.

Blair:

And the reason America is fading, and speaking for myself, is because altruism has taken

Blair:

over, so to speak.

Blair:

And so that I will provide a link to that

Blair:

YouTube video, because that's well worth watching, taking about 50 minutes of your

Blair:

time.

Blair:

And some big news.

Blair:

Well, let me, I'll save that one.

Blair:

Let me go to some other news in the Heritage

Blair:

foundation, which is a conservative think tank, has released what they call Project

Blair:

2025.

Blair:

And in that release, or thesis or program, if

Blair:

you will, public policy, their playbook, so to speak.

Blair:

If Trump is elected, this would take place in the first 180 days of the new administration.

Blair:

And I'll read some of the high points, restore the family as the centerpiece of american life

Blair:

and protect our children, dismantle the administrative state, and return self

Blair:

governance to the american people.

Blair:

I have a related story about that after I read

Blair:

these.

Blair:

Secure our God given individual rights to live

Blair:

freely what our constitution calls the blessings of liberty and defend our nation's

Blair:

sovereignty, borders and bounty against global threats and some other things.

Blair:

But that's pretty much the gist.

Blair:

The highlights of it, of course, the

Blair:

contradiction is rights aren't given to us by God.

Blair:

They are inherent in the nature of man.

Blair:

And isn't that rational faculty, how, how.

Martin:

Influential and big is heritage? I remember, I mean, the logotype, and back in

Martin:

the day they did pamphlets and books and so on.

Martin:

Well, I thought it was not so conservative.

Martin:

It was more, maybe not liberal or classical

Martin:

liberal, but back in the day, I thought it was.

Martin:

Yeah.

Martin:

More independent in that way.

Martin:

Not the party line, the republican party.

Martin:

But maybe I'm wrong.

Blair:

You have to remember that conservators always paid lip service to free markets, but

Blair:

they always caved, always caved when push came to shove.

Blair:

And so they never really, because again, Miss Rand pointed out what in the 1960s, that you

Blair:

can't, freedom requires an egoistic philosophy, if you will, and self sacrifice

Blair:

has no part in that equation.

Martin:

Yeah, it reminds us, it's good that we highlight it because it's interesting to see

Martin:

how this will play out with different think tanks and groups and ideas.

Martin:

And so I think it also will be to ask Robert Traczynski to come on the show again, also

Martin:

because he has done lots of studying and how to say, mapping it out and see, because

Martin:

sometimes it could be hard to see a trend and the positive things and negative things in

Martin:

what's happening right now.

Martin:

Right.

Martin:

And we will not talk about the debate, for example, or what's going on.

Martin:

It's like a very low point.

Martin:

But then to see the long trend and see the

Martin:

possibilities and opportunities and also important things on the local level.

Martin:

So you have something about that?

Blair:

I believe so, yeah.

Blair:

Hold on a second.

Blair:

I'm scrolling through some things.

Blair:

I just wanted to make sure.

Blair:

A couple of these articles I got from armstrongeconomics.com, i believe his first

Blair:

name is Martin Armstrong.

Blair:

He served in the Reagan administration.

Blair:

He's still around, and he's got some pretty sharp insight into some things.

Blair:

But that project 2025 is.

Blair:

I found that on his website.

Blair:

And let me think here.

Blair:

What else do I have to talk about?

Blair:

Whoopsie.

Blair:

I need to get back to my right page.

Blair:

Come on.

Martin:

Now, you have about this oil company, right?

Blair:

Yes. Right.

Blair:

That was the chevron.

Blair:

The Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine from the 1980s.

Blair:

And I, although I haven't studied it fully, I believe it basically curtails the

Blair:

administrative state, which is a good thing.

Blair:

It rolls back their power to just create laws

Blair:

without Congress's approval and puts it back in Congress.

Blair:

So they actually have something to do.

Blair:

Haha.

Blair:

Or they should do something instead of always figuring out ways to.

Martin:

Yeah, maybe we should look down to south american, see what the new president is

Martin:

doing there.

Martin:

Taking out the chainsaw.

Martin:

Symbolic.

Blair:

Yeah, Argentina.

Martin:

The Argentina.

Blair:

Yes. Yeah.

Martin:

So. But that's good to have.

Martin:

And then you have some.

Martin:

Yeah, talk about Europe and what's going on there on the Olympics and so on.

Martin:

Maybe that's the.

Blair:

Yeah, yeah, hold on.

Blair:

I think I actually, sadly, I think I've lost

Blair:

that.

Blair:

Hold on, I'll try to find that.

Martin:

The 10 billion euro Paris Olympics disaster.

Blair:

Yes.

Martin:

Armstrong economics.

Blair:

Yes, hold on a second.

Blair:

I want to read some of that because it's very

Blair:

sad and pathetic.

Blair:

This was a story in the, again,

Blair:

armstrongeconomics.com from June 7.

Blair:

So I'll just quote a little bit of it here.

Blair:

The French are outraged by the amount of money their government has spent on the 2024 Paris

Blair:

Olympics.

Blair:

The government has already spent €9 billion on

Blair:

the games, but costs continue to grow daily, and it is now estimated that it will cost

Blair:

France at least €10 billion to host the games.

Blair:

There have been countless mishaps when

Blair:

building arenas that have multiplied costs.

Blair:

Parisians know that their city cannot hold the

Blair:

estimated 15 million visitors.

Blair:

Macron believes he is royalty, and hosting the

Blair:

Olympics has always been about boasting rights as it never results in a profit for the loose,

Blair:

the hosting country.

Blair:

Okay, and here's, here's the clincher.

Blair:

Emmanuel Macron had the audacity to announce that open water games would be held in the

Blair:

Seine river Seine, which is brown, unsanitary, and completely contaminated by sewage.

Blair:

Macron said that he and the mayor of Paris would take a swim in the Seine on June 23 to

Blair:

show the world that it is not floating water of waste.

Blair:

Is not a floating water of waste.

Blair:

Creative protesters, the French decided to

Blair:

show their disgust by collectively pooping in the river on the day the president was set to

Blair:

swim.

Blair:

Websites were constructed to tell people in

Blair:

neighboring cities precisely when to poop in the river so that it would reach Macron in

Blair:

time for his swim.

Blair:

The river was still utterly polluted on June

Blair:

23, and Macron conveniently announced that he would delay his swim until after the July

Blair:

election, in which he was swept out of power.

Martin:

Yeah, so there's like a story.

Martin:

And please remind me for the future that we

Martin:

should look into your neighboring country, Canada, and what's going on there with the

Martin:

president and his.

Martin:

How should you say it's special word in that

Martin:

in Swedish.

Martin:

But when you hire and get your, your college

Martin:

or you know, school friends or relatives and what nepotism.

Blair:

Yeah.

Martin:

And so that's something to look into.

Martin:

I saw and watched a video where it was pretty,

Martin:

very short video but in that few minutes it was really, I was like wow, it's really

Martin:

handpicked in a bad way.

Martin:

So yeah, I think we should come back to that.

Martin:

So thanks for going through this blair.

Martin:

Are you interested to hear a little bit about

Martin:

statistics since last time? And also of course we could talk a little bit

Martin:

about future plans at vent.

Blair:

Let me throw in one more quick curveball.

Blair:

I'll find the link and send it to you as well.

Blair:

But I just readdez Stephen Moore who's an

Blair:

economist here in the United States.

Blair:

He runs a daily newsletter and he, one of the

Blair:

blurbs he had was about the labor win in England.

Blair:

They threw out the conservatives after ten years.

Blair:

And the way he put it was that that conservative party was focused more on

Blair:

nationalism than economics, in other words.

Blair:

So let that be a warning to the christian

Blair:

nationalists here.

Martin:

Yeah, I see a pattern here.

Martin:

Yeah.

Martin:

That's something to think about.

Martin:

And also I think we should have some kind of

Martin:

roundtable or debate discussion about alternatives out there or inside the so called

Martin:

main parties or.

Martin:

Yeah.

Martin:

What's going on here.

Martin:

But again, I think Robert Traczynski could

Martin:

talk about that.

Martin:

So.

Martin:

Yeah.

Martin:

Thanks for that blair.

Blair:

Sure. Now you got some good stuff.

Martin:

Yeah, I'll run through some stats and being so called on the soapbox a bit for our

Martin:

future.

Martin:

And no sad puppy dog, I'm a cat person, talk

Martin:

about the situation opportunities also in these times.

Martin:

So the captivate stats from the web, you can say web hosting or it's the podcast hosting or

Martin:

a sounder hotel as I call it in Swedish.

Martin:

So there you could see the statistics and the

Martin:

siever trend and what's going on.

Martin:

And we have, it's like a cycle of 28 days.

Martin:

So it's like you can see the trends of and since last time we fewer unique listeners but

Martin:

not much.

Martin:

It's around 100 but it's more downloads on 28

Martin:

days, 172 downloads and 98 unique listeners and regular there.

Martin:

In order to get support or sponsors and others you have to have several digits behind that.

Martin:

You could have thousands and so on in order to get that in the regular advertising model and

Martin:

so on.

Martin:

But you could also find niche and specific

Martin:

support.

Martin:

So I want to talk a bit, little bit about

Martin:

that.

Martin:

But we are hanging there and around seven

Martin:

downloads per day 97 downloads per average per 28 days or around a month.

Martin:

And also what I say, I mean listeners, they listen how they want and Sam SETi that we want

Martin:

to have on the show also and talk about a specific thing about conference podcast

Martin:

conference had a thread there both on LinkedIn but also on Mastodon, the podcast index social

Martin:

and also a podcast episode of Pod News about Apple.

Martin:

I am in a way an Apple fanboy and I think you are that also.

Martin:

But we are also critical how we getting pressure and how it's doing in different ways.

Martin:

But the listeners regular podcasts are so called free to listen to compared to an

Martin:

audiobook that costs money.

Martin:

So that's a dilemma and a challenge there.

Martin:

So the listeners listen how they want.

Martin:

But it's important for us as podcasts to say

Martin:

that there are new modern podcast apps where that could use the RSS technology and advance

Martin:

that and adding features and also so you could get support for the content creators,

Martin:

especially what I'm thinking about the guests.

Martin:

So I said in a post where that I want to get

Martin:

onboard our guests.

Martin:

There are more than 30 now blair during the

Martin:

years.

Martin:

So we could add the split to them in the long

Martin:

run.

Martin:

They could add something and get something for

Martin:

being a guest on our podcast.

Blair:

That's trust.

Martin:

That's right, because they are creating content but it will take time with

Martin:

onboarding and to get used to it.

Martin:

But I think it's very crucial for us as

Martin:

podcasters and then it's up to us to educate and learn and then also the podcast listeners

Martin:

and hopefully we'll guest our listeners also at least at their own episode that they have

Martin:

been guests.

Blair:

That would be nice, that would be nice.

Martin:

But it will take some time for doing that.

Martin:

But there the latest cycle then 28 days it was Pocketcast that are a big podcast app that

Martin:

have gone more and more into this value for value and podcast in 2.0 there it was lately

Martin:

3.5% the latest month using pocket casts and I think it got acquired by WordPress.

Martin:

It's really the, you know, association that are powering WordPress.org dot they bought

Martin:

pocket costs.

Martin:

So I think there you could see interesting

Martin:

things in the future and then fountain that we have been promoting and talking about and

Martin:

using ourselves.

Martin:

They had 2.3% so at least around yeah 5.8 or

Martin:

almost six and last time it was around 10%.

Martin:

But it has to get more.

Martin:

But it will take time because the big legacy podcasts are so dominate and of course Apple's

Martin:

podcaster app is default installed on every iPhone.

Martin:

So you have to do an active choice and find something.

Martin:

So that's why it's important for us as podcasts to talk about it and give a tip about

Martin:

there are new than podcast apps out there.

Blair:

True.

Martin:

And then I'll take a sea pair of tea.

Martin:

Cheers.

Blair:

Cheers.

Martin:

From the list there have changed a little bit and you see, you like to see how

Martin:

many countries and places overall and I think it's adding up every time.

Blair:

Good.

Martin:

So last time it was United States on the top.

Martin:

This time it's Netherlands.

Martin:

I don't know if it's because Adam Curry, I'm

Martin:

joking a little bit.

Martin:

Have been visiting the Netherlands or we have

Martin:

new listeners or we have.

Martin:

I know there are one, at least one objectivist

Martin:

in Netherlands that I met at the conference in 98, living in Netherlands.

Martin:

So it could be that or something else.

Martin:

And then last month it was Canada.

Martin:

Second, now it's United States.

Martin:

Then it was Germany, now it's Canada.

Martin:

A month before it was Switzerland, now it's Australia, United Kingdom, now it's Sweden.

Martin:

Last time it was Finland, then Spain and then Australia, now India again.

Martin:

Overall, India has been a big because of so many people, of course.

Martin:

And then Sweden last month and now it's United Kingdom.

Martin:

And then it was Malaysia and now a country called Adur.

Martin:

They haven't pinpointed it.

Martin:

And then Spain lost month and now it's

Martin:

Belgium.

Martin:

That's new one.

Martin:

So overall it's like it's the same but also some new ones.

Martin:

And the list is adding up or adding more countries over time.

Blair:

I like that.

Blair:

I like that.

Martin:

So that's interesting to see how we can develop that.

Martin:

And again to save this call to action to get to have repeat and we will write like some

Martin:

kind of text and maybe adding some sponsor messages so to speak.

Martin:

But support our podcast and then go to the support page on Captivate.

Martin:

So that will be included because recently we got a nice donation there.

Blair:

Yes.

Martin:

So that was very nice.

Martin:

A guest that asked about that and then send

Martin:

us.

Martin:

So we appreciate that very much.

Martin:

So we are totally okay to get support that way.

Martin:

Also in fiat because you know, we.

Martin:

And that's what I will come.

Martin:

I could jump to that.

Martin:

I did at the end here in our document around

Martin:

the budget or cost per month, depending on how we count a bit, captivate is around $20 per

Martin:

month.

Martin:

We need having a podcast host hotel and I like

Martin:

them.

Blair:

Yes.

Martin:

I have myself start a new podcast about my wellness and well being journey home

Martin:

because they are very into podcast 2.0 also.

Martin:

That's also around $20 per month.

Martin:

Ringer that we're using now is $20 per month.

Martin:

I'm using also boom Costa.

Martin:

And we have used boom Costa as you know, guests.

Martin:

That's $20.

Martin:

And your pod page that you are using in the

Martin:

secularfoxhole live, it's also $20.

Martin:

So it's adding up at least $100 or more per

Martin:

month.

Blair:

Yes, yes.

Martin:

In order to run.

Martin:

So, I mean, it's a hobby, it's a passion

Martin:

project, so called, but never ending, I hope.

Martin:

Of course, it will end someday, but we are not

Martin:

thinking of that right now.

Martin:

But we don't want to end, how to say, too

Martin:

early? No, sad puppy, we want to conin you.

Martin:

So we really appreciate the support.

Martin:

And that could be monetary, but it could be

Martin:

also spreading a good word, maybe helping out the market and whatnot.

Martin:

So we will talk more about open to have a corner in our episodes there, and also what

Martin:

the podcast index did.

Martin:

And I will repeat that from the last episode,

Martin:

and I will see here around the time.

Martin:

So help us out.

Martin:

None of this is free.

Martin:

If you get any value from this project, and

Martin:

for us, it's an ongoing project, or if you just believe in it and want to help us out

Martin:

with hosting fees and paying the bills, a donation of any amount would be great.

Martin:

I like that statement.

Martin:

And we will carve it into our personal voice.

Martin:

But we want, we don't want to beg.

Martin:

We don't want to have the listeners, because

Martin:

it's against our philosophy to sacrifice anything.

Blair:

That's correct.

Martin:

But we want this.

Martin:

And we have to talk about and to joke the

Martin:

religious people in church and so on.

Martin:

And they have what that's called, the

Martin:

instruction called collect tithing.

Martin:

Yeah, that after the sermon, you ask for

Martin:

support, right?

Blair:

Yes, exactly.

Martin:

But no pressure.

Blair:

That's right.

Blair:

That's also true.

Martin:

And this podcast index social on Masterdon had very interesting now discussion

Martin:

there.

Martin:

And I wrote the thing here that said, I have

Martin:

now listened to Moretz, Kaminsky, and Roland of Albie.

Martin:

I'm not a techie, but I think I will be able to handle the channel or hub as a potential

Martin:

future premium album user.

Martin:

My goal is to add 30 plus guests to the split

Martin:

and then get them to use a new modern podcast app in the future.

Martin:

How could we have an overview of Boostergram streaming, Satoshis, etcetera, in one place,

Martin:

alternatives to Concheck, and I want to continue to use Sam set as true fans.

Martin:

And also Mary Oscar's fountain podcast app, etcetera.

Martin:

Value for value, the hashtag so and that Adam Curry here he said gave some suggestions and

Martin:

so on.

Martin:

I like this digital town hall or place to talk

Martin:

about this because it's open, it's free and it needs to get rolling so to speak, and getting

Martin:

easier for non techie person or normal so called people to get it.

Martin:

And so we will continue to talk about this.

Martin:

And yeah, and there I will include in the show

Martin:

notes an article that was on a service called Descript blog that using podcasting services

Martin:

and tools and whatnot.

Martin:

And they saying the article here or blog post,

Martin:

what is value for Value podcast monetization.

Martin:

So we will talk more about that in the future.

Martin:

But this all be that in because there we will talk about this.

Martin:

Albeit if they handle monetary transactions, you could guess talking about regulations.

Martin:

Do you know what could happen then? You have to go to the bank system or

Martin:

regulators and so on and have a special license for that.

Martin:

And that could be for a small startup hard.

Martin:

So that's why the big banks are there or

Martin:

PayPal and others and stripe and strike they have could manage that.

Martin:

But a small startup with an app don't have that funds and strengths.

Martin:

But then if you get classified as doing monetary transactions or it's a special name

Martin:

for that, then you could be in a dangerous position.

Martin:

So that's why they say they don't want to be in that.

Martin:

But then they have a solution for us non tech user that's setting up this hub or this node

Martin:

or whatever you call it.

Martin:

And they will help us to get this in order to

Martin:

be able to accept and get donations in the future also.

Martin:

So I think it's interesting development.

Martin:

And then Adam and Dave talked about that on

Martin:

the show and lots of suggestions and ideas.

Martin:

So things will happen.

Martin:

That's good.

Martin:

And I will also include with some of the

Martin:

guests that I have on the podcast, podcasting 2.0 pod podcast and they had a guest from

Martin:

Rss.com comma that's also a hosting company.

Martin:

And they said which podcast hosting company is

Martin:

for sale.

Martin:

Yeah that was captivates owns podcast about

Martin:

the podcast industry and there were some interesting things about Spotify and about

Martin:

advertising and so on.

Martin:

So listen around in 21 minutes into the show

Martin:

and also 35 minutes into the show about podcast in 2.0 and value for value.

Martin:

And yeah, so I think so the RSS they had with RsS.com comma we're hosting, they had this

Martin:

podcasting innovation podcast and that is like a showcase for how we could use new services.

Martin:

And with podcasting 2.0 and value for value interesting, like chapters, for example, and

Martin:

other things like fact.

Martin:

So I think that's for now.

Martin:

Anything else as an ending note, Blair.

Blair:

I do want to finish up by saying that finally the Ayn Rand Institute is leaving

Blair:

California.

Blair:

They are moving to Austin, Texas.

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

And that, yes, it is good.

Blair:

And that is also because their longtime dream

Blair:

is finally coming true.

Blair:

They have broken ground to build the Ayn Rand

Blair:

University, also in Austin, Texas.

Blair:

So that's major, major news in the world of

Blair:

objectivism.

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

And that something that certainly gladdens my heart, so to speak.

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

But so I thought that's.

Blair:

I thought we'd end the show on that great

Blair:

note.

Martin:

Yep.

Blair:

And, Martin, I appreciate your time.

Martin:

Yeah, same.

Blair:

And we will talk again soon.

Blair:

And I got to read that book that you wanted me

Blair:

to read for the next episode.

Blair:

Mark, is it Michael Ballerner and, yeah.

Martin:

I don't know, except, yeah, yeah.

Blair:

If we can get them.

Blair:

And if we can get them.

Martin:

Yeah.

Blair:

So that's a wrap.

Martin:

Yeah. Talk soon again.

Blair:

All right, Martin.

Blair:

Take care.

Martin:

Bye bye bye for now.

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