Westworld Season 2 Preview Podcast

Westworld Season 2 Preview - premiers on April 22nd on HBO

Westworld’s first season ended on Dec 4, 2016 - we’re going to look at the craziest things that have happened since then.

188 listens in Athens, GA this week, Alexandria Egypt #2, Ashburn, VA #3

Australia as a nation third place

UK, Brazil, Portugal, Ireland, Singapore & Poland listened as well.

Ashley Howard, new HC at LaSalle University!

Patrick Reed wins the Masters

Clearly Trump being elected 2 weeks prior to the end of season one, and everything associated with Trump since that time could take up spots 1-200 on this list — but let’s try and keep this as trump free as possible

The women’s march in Washington, which in some ways can be viewed as significant factor in the #MeToo movement

The Patriots have won a super bowl in Dramatic Fashion and Lost a Super Bow in Dramatic fashion - to the Eagles who’d never won one before

We had the Oscars’ best picture of 2017 mix-up with Moonlight belatedly winning after Warren Beatty and Faye Dunnaway messed up the announcement and said the wrong film first

United Airlines went viral for dragging a passenger off of a plane — somehow making every other airline look much better by comparison

We had a congressman - Steve Scalise - shot at a baseball practice for a congressional baseball game - which is very scary stuff

White Nationalism at Charlottesville ripped open longtime wounds and shined a spotlight on how emboldened racists and racist nationalism have become

Hurricane’s wreaked Havoc on Houston and in Florida but most notably destroying a modern day way of life in Puerto Rico - a way of life “electricity and fresh water” that is still not fully back on the island for its citizens

Floyd mayweather and Conor McGregor finally have a boxing match / 8 months later Conor gets arrested for crashing a ufc pay per view and assaulting fellow fighters and attacking a bus

The Las Vegas concert shooting - nuff said

Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and scores of others in Hollywood, business, etc - were all torn to bits by the #MeToo movement

Roy Moore almost wins a senate seat in Alabama despite overwhelming evidence they he is essentially a serial pedophile  

There was a total solar eclipse

Facebook is massively involved in the election tampering by Russia in 2016

The aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas School Shooting - winter 2018 — has been pretty significant

The Mueller investigation seems to be just getting started

Loyola Chicago went to the final four

Team USA , NCAA scandals & Stoneman Douglas

Places listening Uganda, Ukraine, Poland and Brunei Darussalam

Unofficial Sponsor of the week - Meat & Potatoes in downtown pittsburgh. but the whale at the distrikt hotel - no ham for eggs benny and no bloody mary mix — for brunch

WINTER OLYMPICS: Seems like 10 years ago, Curling wasn’t on the radar. It below up on TV during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Kept it’s momentum in Sochi inn 2014, and then we had a Gold Medal winning USA team in 2018 in Peyongchang

Of course the United States has embraced and risen to the top in an “activity sport”. Americans love activities / we don’t as a overall rule like exercising in the snow

We got Norway a tiny Nordic country winning all types of gold medals, especially in sports that are physically taxing (Nordic Skiing) and scary as scary gets (Ski Jumping)

Other “activity” sports that Americans would likely dominate in - Bean Bag Toss (already have seen it on like ESPN News). 

Beer Pong aka Beirut. Dartmouth Pong for sure - because it uses ping pong paddles and balls already - and table tennis is a sport already

Darts would be dominated by europeans but darts = why not ? Make it an olympic sport. 

But Congrats to USA Men’s Curling - that’s an awesome Surprise Gold Medal, and huge congrats to Team USA Women’s Hockey for winning the golf medal over Canada. It’s their first Gold Medal since the 1998 Olympics, and stopped Canada’s gold medal steak at 4. 

NCAA scandal - coaches getting caught on FBI wiretaps discussing bribery and payoffs to steer recruits to potential destinations. 

The answer to all of this could be as simple as capitalism. 

Currently, athletes get their scholarship, and a small stipend some times, and that’s it. They aren’t able to make money via their likeness. 

And that’s the opportunity to get the dirty money out of paying these players. 

Let them become endorsers for local business in the university’s area. 

Let them become endorsers for university sponsors. 

Let them appear in ad’s for the local pizza shop, or if they are they great of a player, for a national pizza hut ad campaign. 

It’s third party money, paying for the endorsement of a product, or for hosting a party, or for signing their autograph.  This would make Paying the players “above board”. That takes many of the “shady business men” and hangers on away from the very best (i.e. most marketable players). 

Instead of players having to hide getting paid, or running payments through their uncle’s neighbor’s sister’s cousin to cover their tracks, the NCAA could spend to money they currently waste on chasing these kids, on providing them with vetted money managers. 

Universities could let these elite athletes, do independent studies for course credit and submit thesis on their business plan for their brand, their development plan for their brand, etc. 

Would it be perfect? No. Will it clean up everything entirely? That’s impossible to promise. 

But, can we surround the best people with good, honest people, and allow them to earn honest revenue? Yes. 

Can schools help these young people learn how to build their brand and manage their money, and give them course credit towards graduation? Most likely. And that just seems a lot more in the spirit of helping people develop and thrive as young adults. What’s going on now, is shortsighted, dishonest, and unfair. 

Over simplified reason that Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting aftermath seems to be going very differently for the NRA. 

#1 The NRA has been running the same playbook over and over again following these tragic events. 

But this time, instead of fighting back with the ‘faceless NRA’ the students from Stoneman Douglas are going after the elected members who accept the NRA's money. 

This has forced politicians like Marco Rubio into a tough position. And Marco Rubio is lacking in charisma, especially in debate settings and town hall typed forums. 

Emma Gonzalez is on the other hand, incredibly charismatic and articulate - and equally as important, she’s armed with the truth. 

But most importantly, Emma Gonzalez and her classmates are handling the aftermath of being mass shooting survivors, differently than folks in past shootings. 

They aren’t sitting on the sidelines. They aren’t letting 3rd party players (on both sides fo the issue) do their typical idealogical back and forth. They are instead saying, we’re speaking from first hand experience, you can’t change our narrative, we’re not letting our classmates who perished go in vain.