Just a few happy moments from London 2012
With some Karate Kid to pump us up, we dive into this week’s podcast to talk about the final few days of the Olympics, some of our favorite moments so far, digital medicine (say what?), young people and politics, and what exactly it means when you click “Like” on Facebook.
Starting with the Olympics we give a big round of applause to the top 3 countries in the medal tally — China, the USA and Great Britain ! China and the USA are always well up there but this is the highest GB has ever come, so kudos to those who invested so well in the youth of Britain and thanks to the home crowd for giving the athletes such a great boost.
We also talk about Michael Phelps — the greatest Olympian of all time, Usain Bolt, Ashton Eaton’s chances in the Decathlon and the sad Olympic fate of Macayla Maroney — how talented she is, the television commentators who ought to be ashamed, and the viral meme (plural) series based on her pout at the medal ceremony when she only received silver.
And of course, Gabby Douglas too — who could forget that smile !
Finally, we’re thankful that London 2012 took our minds off politics this election year and…Bring on RIO !
In comparison to the Olympics, nothing else will sound quite so exciting, but I promise, the rest of the podcast is actually worth listening to!
First up is a new FDA approved digital pill that will measure your health from the inside. We talk about all the benefits that innovations like this bring, but also about privacy issues that will no-doubt be raised, especially the fact that with data like this, people are no longer just customers, but the product too.
Next up is the age-old effort to engage young people in the political system. While politicians and other entities have targeting the youth vote for generations, novel to this generation is the means of communication — social media and now online social gaming. MTV will be launching “Fantasy Politics ‘12”, to educate and involve young people, and Twitter’s new opinion poll — Twindex — is giving Gallup a run for its money!
Finally, we talk about the First Amendment case centered around the action of “Liking” something on Facebook, and what it actually means. We recap the facts of the case and then debate whether simply liking something is important enough speech to be protected by the First Amendment — the modern version of signing a petition — or whether protecting something as trivial as clicking a button cheapens the other forms of speech that are protected.
Tune in to hear it all and tell us what you think:
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