I’m In A Weird Radio Thing

ASTORIA, NYC- I still get a little excited each morning when I check my email, as I have no idea what’s going to be in it. Advertiser requests? Review suggestions? A speaking invitation? A weirdo with insults? An invitation to write a book? An out of nowhere job offer? An invitation to go on a radio / TV / podcast show? The shrapnel of my life from being cancelled for something that I don’t even remember writing? I never have any idea, and this is without a doubt one of the best parts of the profession.

A few weeks ago I got this email from a lady in the UK wondering if I would like to be a part of her experimental radio project. She told me that it would about a post-human future where Alexa and the Google voice assistant are talking to each other about the world that once was. I was to provide artefacts for a oral collage of our times.

I was like, cool, so you want me to speak for the human experience on earth? I could do that. I thought it would be funny … but then I thought about it for a moment and was rather impressed that they dug so deep into this topic that they found me. Admittedly, my focus is a little, let’s say, niche-y. When people ask me what I do, I reply, “I chronicle big global changes.” 99% of the time they’re like, WTF, whatever dude. But the people who were working on this radio project — as weird as it sounded — seemed to get it. So I said yes.

We did the interview. I talked about the age of the new city builder. It was fun. I like talking about myself. Everybody does.

The segment came out the other day on Soundart Radio. I knew it wasn’t going to be like anything I could expect, but it was … like nothing that I could have expected. Yes, experimental. Yes, weird. It was pretty cool.

I sent the link to my daughter to listen to not telling her that I was in it. I think it would be funny to watch her surprise when I come on at the 19 minute point … (although I know that she is overtly unimpressed with me — I go on big national television programs and she just shrugs and walks into the other room to watch something more interesting).

But if you are by chance more interested in me than my kid, here it is: