Grief, Robots, And The Future
Send us Fan Mail I’m back behind the mic after a long silence, and I’m doing it without Anne, the absolute love of my life. Losing her changes everything about […]
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Samba, So Many Bees, and the Great Buffalo Controversy Michael
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Mayor Minerva, Robot Rover, and the Pink Pigeon Problem Michael
A cat runs for office with an honest one-word platform, “Crime,” and somehow that’s only the start. I’m Michael Over There, and I’m keeping The Anne Levine Show rolling with the same curious tone, a little grief in the background, and a lot of strange stories that might make you stop and say, wait, that’s real?
We start with animal mayors in Somerville, Massachusetts and Divide, Colorado, then zoom out to the surprisingly deep American tradition of “electing” pets to raise money, pull in tourists, and give communities a symbol they can agree on. If you think that’s odd, wait until you meet the legendary goat mayors of Lajitas, Texas and the Clay Henry saga that reads like folklore with newspaper receipts.
Then we hit two 100-meter world records that feel like dares made manifest: a barefoot sprint across 661 pounds of LEGO bricks, and a quadrupedal sprint record set by an athlete who studies animals to perfect running on all fours. From there the tone swings between internet-era weirdness (including questionable Florida “laws”) and true historical catastrophe with the Great Molasses Flood of 1919, a Boston disaster that changed building regulations and left the city sticky for months.
The back half gets speculative and a little philosophical: robot pets, Tamagotchi nostalgia, and whether AI could invent a religion built on curiosity and “holy” questions. We also ask what museums will collect from our era, from early smartphones to digital-only art, before closing out with strange-but-true tales, a quick Spider Noir review, and a very sincere love letter to Tillamook cheese and malted milk ice cream.
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Next Week – Silverlake!
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