When I have the time and capacity, I like to take Amtrak from New York City to Albuquerque, NM instead of taking a flight.
One of the particular pleasures of this journey is the Chicago → Albuquerque leg of the trip, on the Southwest Chief, which goes all the way to Los Angeles. This train has a large lounge car where you can watch the gorgeous countryside roll past while sipping beer or coffee or reading…
… or talking politics.
Invariably, and I mean dependably, this branch of the journey has a little political discussion going in some corner of the lounge car, usually animated but always friendly. It’s one of my genuine break-out-of-the-bubble opportunities to hear other people’s perspectives, usually because the interpersonal engagement and the length of time you’re sitting with a person enables the discussion to go a little broader and deeper than you can normally pull off on the Internet.
This time I decided to record one. In this recording you will four characters, one of them myself, cover a range of issues from DOGE cuts to the FAA, abortion, Democrat outreach to black people, wokeness, rights, traffic and pedestrian culture, and what type of city has the correct kind of asshole for you to get along with.
An ethics disclosure: these speakers did not know I was recording.
I cut out all names, most identifying information that didn’t directly relate to a subject (and which I believe is general enough to not be able to track the person down), any stories about non-public figures the speakers identified by name, various breaks we took to get food or beverage, and honestly I tried pitch-shifting their voices but it really messed up the already noisy audio. Also, midstream, I moved my cellphone from my leg to a table in an attempt to make the audio cleaner but ironically it made it worse by picking up the sounds of the train through the vibrations on the table. I’ve denoised this as best I can.
This podcast is presented for the Soaring Twenties Social Club (STSC) Symposium. The STSC is a small, exclusive online speakeasy where a dauntless band of raconteurs, writers, artists, philosophers, flaneurs, musicians, idlers, and bohemians share ideas and companionship. Each month STSC members create something around a set theme. This cycle, the theme was “Rant.”
If you are a writer, you might consider joining us.
To experience my previous STSC Symposium submissions:
Spring Cleaning
Some impressions stuck with him. The warm Spring day. The city’s streets filled with thickly cherry-blossomed trees that smelled like the perfume aisles of Macy’s department store. The brick and marble buildings becoming cleaner and heavier the closer they walked to the National Mall. His memories really began at the Nationa…
What To Do About It
Four figures facing each other: non-symmetrical, call it a rhombus, on extremely awkward stools: three-legged and wooden and loose, so low the four were forced to squat, knobby knees straining, dangerous squeaks with every move, uncertain of their respective weight. A single bulb above them. Dour-faced, di…
My Thoughts on the Gray Grave Discourse
It happens sometimes. Maybe once or twice a decade some small town frontier police find “the bodies.” I can’t recall a single incident where they are complete skeletons, it’s always pieces — skulls mixed up in a pile here, femurs scattered over acreage often publicly owned. If you were to tell me another New Mexican rural mass murderer had been found, I’d guess about 12-20 victims.
To listen to more of my audio experiences:
I•So•Lay•Shunned
This audio was produced for the Soaring Twenties Social Club (STSC) Symposium. The STSC is a small, exclusive online speakeasy where a dauntless band of raconteurs, writers, artists, philosophers, flaneurs, musicians, idlers, and bohemians share ideas and companionship. Each month STSC members create something around a set theme. This cycle, the theme was “Isolation.”
Ego Death
This video was produced for the Soaring Twenties Social Club (STSC) Symposium. The STSC is a small, exclusive online speakeasy where a dauntless band of raconteurs, writers, artists, philosophers, flaneurs, musicians, idlers, and bohemians share ideas and companionship. Each month STSC members create something around a set theme. This cycle, the theme was “Death.”
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