Month: May 2022

Categories
Conversations Economy Politics

Conversation about supply and demand in the marketplace

We look at gas prices at the pump, the baby formula shortage and also looking forward at future scarcities. First we break down the commodities market and how future contracts work. with regard to oil production how does statements from the government impact exploration and build-out. The baby formula scare is due to the fact that there are 3 companies in the U.S. that produce 90% and one company had the production facility shut down. The U.S. also restricts imports from other countries. Looking forward, wheat is probably going to be the next supply scarcity. How can we plan for it and are there things we could do to mitigate the problem.

Link to the YouTube video.

Brother VS. Brother
Brother VS. Brother
Conversation about supply and demand in the marketplace
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Categories
Conversations Society

Five minutes on civil discourse with Brian & Colin

A short conversation about the value of face-to-face interaction because we are more polite. When we interact online, whether it is posts, comments or reviews, we are more inclined to use insulting, aggressive or confrontational language.

Link to the YouTube Video (static image)

Brother VS. Brother
Brother VS. Brother
Five minutes on civil discourse with Brian & Colin
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Categories
Conversations Media Society

Conversation about media as gatekeepers and how our personal bias limits us

Brian and Colin discuss the difficulty in identifying the truth. We tend to use our personal experience and ideology to decide whether we acknowledge or deny the value of some piece of information. The focus of this conversation revolves around the data on Hunter Biden’s laptop and whether it should be reported on. We cover the history of the laptop and why it was such a controversial topic in the news leading up to the 2020 election. We discuss why there was so much distrust about the story, why there was a strong backlash against those promoting the story and whether either view was valid.

Link to the YouTube video.

Brother VS. Brother
Brother VS. Brother
Conversation about media as gatekeepers and how our personal bias limits us
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Categories
Conversations Media Society

Conversation on the message and the medium

Returning to the old format of Brian & Colin discussing a topic, they take on the use of graphics in media, how it can help or distort. The motivation for the conversation came from a tweet that Colin shared that consisted of a chart showing the dramatic rise in median income globally and Brian took issue with it. Colin begins the conversation by addressing confirmation bias when we receive information from the media, both in affirming what we already believe and dismissing that which we don’t. Brian discusses the context of the information we receive and how we need to consider very carefully the medium which we want to give the message. Some media are better suited for different messages. They address how we treat content differently when we trust the provider or we don’t.

Link to the YouTube video.

Some of the resources that we addressed in the conversation:

The book: Factfulness by Hans Rosling

The blog: The Grump Economist – John Cochran

News source fairly balanced and slightly to the right: The Dispatch

The chart that we used in the beginning of the conversation:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-median-income?time=1981..2017&country=~OWID_WRL
Brother VS. Brother
Brother VS. Brother
Conversation on the message and the medium
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