I keep listening to anthropology, archaeology, and history podcasts, and there is this repetitive exercise of cautioning the listener not to draw any racist conclusions from whatever it is they are saying (because there are obvious conclusions that are not racist but are currently considered so), and not to draw any gendered conclusions (because there are obvious...you know the drill) or ethnographic (ditto)...
I heard it semi-explained on one better podcast. They have access to the data of who is listening, so they know that a certain percentage are listening to only one, maybe two or three podcasts before moving on. I have done that myself, though I try to choose carefully at the outset and then listen to all the episodes, even into the hundreds. That is a plurality but not majority of people listening to any podcast. So yes, I get annoyed that every few episodes they have to preach this academia sermon about not venturing into bad political beliefs. I don't like it, but I have considered it their way of observing the proper rites and sacrifices, in a rather Confucian or Epicurean way of cynically worshiping the gods of the city in order to participate in the civitas.
Today it occurred to me that the analogy might be improved. These little sermons are the altar calls of academia, their way of making sure that you at least get saved before you leave their tent. I am 70-30 against that in the church, disliking that theological emphasis but recognising that it has its uses for the few who are just dropping by, and therefore is also extremely important to the (frankly shallow) faithful who want to make sure that no one got out without hearing the Only Message. I am 90-10 against it in academia for the same reason, but perhaps I should at least relent to 80-20.
Nah.
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I suspect the signal is largely meant for the other faithful: "I'm still here; still good."
OTOH, I'm doing a little research for a post on cold fusion, and I'm afraid I'll have to lard it with "Even if this works, don't expect anything useful" here and there.
In church, you might reasonably believe that there is salvation to be had.
Well, you are hoping to avoid the first circle of hell with those statements. It's the old fire-and-brimstone altar call, avoiding the flames.
Could you give a good example podcast? I'd like to hear it.
It's a good chunk of the episode about the Red Lady of Pacviland in the "Old Bones" podcast. It comes up prominently in Razib Kahn's interview with Dr. Tania Reynolds. It is all over the place in Patrick Wyman's "Tides of History," which is what I usually think of as an example because it comes up so much. Other things might occur to me.
Cool. Thanks!
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