“Catching fake IDs was my favourite part of working the door. Maybe one in ninety tried to sneak in, but some nights it felt like everyone. The worst part was finding a 19-year-old surrounded by creeps who saw her inexperience. Stopping a fake ID sometimes meant stopping something worse.”
"On a packed holiday flight, Rick Rosner watches an 11-hour coughfest unfold, his wife later testing positive for COVID. In conversation with Scott Douglas Jacobsen, he turns airborne contagion, toilets, penis enlargement, and aging eyes and ears into one anxious, darkly funny meditation on modern bodies trapped in crowded spaces."
Rick Rosner parcels Alien Earth into ten-minute rations, landing on the six children uploaded into super-strong synthetic adults. He doubts the show’s glossy mind-transfer fidelity by 2120, noting Nibs’s PTSD and delusional pregnancy after the Eye Midge attack. The Peter Pan naming frames ageless “Lost Boys,” adding textured worldbuilding; quirkiness matters. Alien Earth’s Maginot ship evokes the Maginot Line—impressive yet fatally bypassable. Rosner contrasts this care with Altered Carbon’s one-trick future. He then pivots to politics: a recent appeals-court blow to broad tariffs may temper inflation and reshape 2026 incentives, potentially sparing Republicans pain that higher prices could have delivered.
In this lively exchange, Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen riff on epigenetic longevity hacks, debating whether clustered or spaced-out workouts best trigger anti-aging benefits. They compare exercise to intermittent fasting, wander into botanical philosophy via aspens, willows, and backyard redwoods, and treat vegetables primarily as respectable butter-delivery systems. From sushi fish and popcorn to tiramisu, strawberry shortcake, and chocolate-heavy biscotti, Rosner maps his shifting sweet tooth onto the realities of aging. The result is a humorous meditation on bodies, habits, and small daily pleasures that keep life interesting, even as cheesecake loses its charm.
Rick Rosner watches Antiques Roadshow and encounters a letter from the widow of General George Armstrong Custer. Rick Rosner recounts Custer’s role in the Indian Wars and the 1876 Little Bighorn defeat by Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho. He corrects a Boulder myth: Sand Creek’s massacre occurred near Eads, led by John Chivington, killing 150–230 women and children, after Fort Laramie and Fort Wise treaty betrayals. He links atrocities to Canada’s residential schools affecting 150,000 Indigenous children, recalls Phoenix Indian School, and notes the still close WWII memory. Future harms may be economic, political, or technological.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: We began collaborating 14% into the 21st century. Now, we are 25% into it. If you start counting the 21st century from the year 2000—which is slightly inaccurate but often done—we have completed 25 years. That means we are one-quarter of the way through the 21st century. Purists might argue that we …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1234: When is the end of our worlds?
Rick Rosner: I can’t recall why exactly, but someone on Twitter (I don’t remember their name) once gave a short talk where they mentioned that everyone they know with an IQ over 180 has trouble avoiding “doofus traps.” I love that term. It stings a bit because I’ve fallen into plenty myself—I used to call …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1233: What counts as doofus traps for smart people?
*Interview conducted in September, 2024.* Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, let’s say we do two paths. If Trump wins, what happens immediately? If Harris wins, what happens immediately? Rick Rosner: The election's November 5th, which means you’ve got two and a half months before Trump takes office if he wins. He’s been found guilty on 34 …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1162: Twin Paths of Political Blockading
*Interview conducted October/November, 2024.* Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What’s going on with Trump’s party? Rick Rosner: Yesterday, Trump was holding another rally, and it was hot. Two people fainted. That somehow gave Trump the excuse to stop taking questions from the audience. He’d only taken four, and then he decided instead to play music. For 39 …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1158: Trump and Walz at the Time
*Interview conducted October/November, 2024.* Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, in an article in Noesis, the journal of the Mega Society years ago, you wrote an article about road rage. Do you still have it? Why is it more? Why is it less? Rick Rosner: It’s mostly less because I’m older, and not necessarily wiser, but people’s …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1157: You Can’t Have Road Rage If You Don’t Drive
Rick Rosner 