Monkey Business

James “Jimmy P” Pethokoukis makes his long-awaited Remnant return to assure us that life really ...

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James “Jimmy P” Pethokoukis makes his long-awaited Remnant return to assure us that life really is better than it used to be. Alternating between gratuitous sci-fi references and shameless wonkery, he and Jonah explore dynamism in American life, the potential for a new Roaring ‘20s, and the future of technology. Is there a case for universal basic income? Will Elon Musk become the next Howard Hughes? And what can we expect from the new space age?

Show Notes:

– Jim’s page at AEI

– Jim’s Substack, Faster, Please!

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  1. Avatar photo
    Marc Frischhertz

    While I haven’t researched it, I was not aware that productivity had not increased in the last 50 years. I have read otherwise

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    Dan Jett

    As a life-long Jaguar enthusiast and collector, I take exception with the derisive comments about Jaguar owners "bragging" at club meetings about the expenses incurred for repairing their cars. Utterly, utterly false. We don't brag to each other, we commiserate with one another.

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  3. Pudge

    Jonah
    You said you wanted to get rid of dams out west.
    Why?

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  4. Pudge

    Jonah
    You say you’d like to get rid of dams out west. Why?

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    The Bell Tower

    Elizabeth Warren says stupid economic things because she expects her core constituency not to know better. She and all of her cronies surely know Larry Summers.

    Also, I think AOC secretly listens to The Remnant because she just publicly announced she’s getting rid of her Tesla.

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  6. Thomas Zahler

    Jonah, I agree with you completely about Picard. S1, while clunky in pieces, had its heart in the right place and gave a better ending to some of the characters. I'll forgive pointless foam-skating if it gets me the final scene between Picard and Data. S2 was ham-handed and pointless, and made me dumber as I watched it. I hope that S3 ends on a good note, and has a lot of Patrick Stewart making awesome speeches and far less of him trying to run.

    Are you or your former amanuensis going to be at AwesomeCon?

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    George.Skinner

    Why do people dislike Elon Musk? It’s a combination of 2 things: first, instead of sticking to taking credit for some legitimately impressive accomplishments, he tends to lean into grandiose boasts that often border on fantasy. Second, for all his genius entrepeneur image, when you hear him start expounding on some topic you’re familiar with, you realize he’s full of crap. Take SpaceX: it’s a private company that’s successfully been launching spacecraft into orbit while significantly reducing the cost. That’s genuinely impressive. However, that probably has more to do with creating a company with low cost structure and achieving a high launch rate than technological innovations or reusing the 1st stage of boosters. Tesla is similar: it’s an achievement to finally create a popular electric vehicle, and to launch the first new US auto company since Chrysler. The company struggles with manufacturing, though. Its profitability has had a lot to do with selling ZEV tax credits to big automakers. It hasn’t recouped the investment needed to develop its vehicles. Its self-driving technology seems to have some significant safety problems and is years behind Elon Musk’s promised delivery date if it can ever get there. SpaceX’s Starship project is impressive, and I hope it succeeds for the potential to change the space industry. However, I also look at the profound technological challenges of a reuseable full flow staged combustion engine, a novel heat shield, a large reentry body, and dozens of other lesser details that can all kill a spacecraft and I see the risk in that project. It’s the sort of systems engineering problem that can kill you with complexity. However, the popular assumption about Elon Musk is that having succeeded in risky endeavors with less complex and challenging objectives, he’ll pull this one off too. The question is whether it’s truly innate genius and talent, or just a guy who’s been on a really hot streak at the table in a casino.

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    NashLives

    Jonah. How on earth did you like the first season of Picard? I'm *very* surprised the second season deeply bothered you, but the first season somehow didn't. This is the kind of take I've come to expect from David, but you're supposed to be a man of taste. The RLM review is spot on (not PG!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwF1iri1GjQ. I think you're wrong about new worlds too. The pilot stunk, and it's the same crop of writers and producers; I'll be shocked if they can resist their impulses to make a dumb action show, or just straight up remake TOS episodes.

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  9. John P

    “Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.”

    ― Robert Conquest

    Or so says the intertubes.

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  10. Bill Farrand

    FINALLY! A Remnant episode discussing interesting things like asteroid mining and space development instead of arcane Conservative egghead discussion... I still have no idea what the deuce what it means to be a "Straussian". Jonah, you need to do a full episode on asteroid mining. I'd recommend my old thesis advisor from the University of Arizona, professor emeritus Dr. John S. Lewis who literally wrote the book on asteroid mining ("Mining the Sky").

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