Ask A Genius 938: Porn, Masculinity, and Virginity

[Recording Start]  Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Masculinity—you get a pair of these giant testicles made out of plastic and hang them from the rear of your truck. So, your truck has testicles. What is another American cultural item, an Americanism that is also like this? Rick Rosner: It used to be barbed wire tattoos that run all the …

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Ask A Genius 937: Roast of Joan Rivers

[Recording Start]  Rick Rosner: Right, so you just showed me a clip from the roast of Joan Rivers featuring Gilbert Gottfried, where he describes in great, flowery detail what it is like to have sex with Joan Rivers. It was all made up, but it went on for a long time. I've seen him perform …

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Ask A Genius 936: Opportunities for the Fabled Fame

[Recording Start]  Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, you have had opportunities to gain fame. Rick Rosner: Yes, I have done four pilots centered on either myself as a smart person or involving other people as well. None of these pilots have been successful, which is not unusual, but it is frustrating. I have a significant number …

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Ask A Genius 935: Mathematicizing Our Collaborations

[Recording Start]  Scott Douglas Jacobsen: There it is. So we are back after a while. I wanted to cover a little bit about the colossal amount of work over a decade or more, in fact, more than a decade, doing a lot of the independent journalistic work that I've done. I typically pick a topic, and …

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Ask A Genius 934: A badass with fruits and a knife

[Recording Start]  Rick Rosner: All right, I eat fruit with a knife because I’m a badass, or maybe because I don’t want to break off my old teeth. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I’m skeptical of the badass. Rosner: Say again? Jacobsen: I’m skeptical of the badass. Rosner: I’m sitting here with a knife, just cutting on a peach. I don’t even …

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Ask A Genius 933: Population Dynamics and Energy Consumption

[Recording Start]  Rick Rosner: Okay, we will discuss population dynamics and energy consumption. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Do you want to start with population or energy? Rosner: Well, I am just going to start with how I came upon it. I just read an article that people have been saying for a while because it’s true that a quarter …

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