Mark and Toddcast

Esperanto is a language created in the late 1800s as a way for everyone in the world to have an incredibly easy-to-learn and standardized secondary language, and has had enough success that it's still used for some government, military, and wikipedia translations today - and even spawned a movie starring William Shatner speaking the language. Find out all about Esperanto in this week's episode.

After a hefty portion of news, including plans for Lloyd Center, the Portland Pickles' THC drink, the Herman the Sturgeon conspiracy, the deletion of MTV News's entire back catalog from the internet, a man with 175 children, and much, much, much more, we focus on a man called Stanislav Petrov, a Russian soldier who received warning that Americans had started a nuclear attack on Russia and had to make the ultimate decision - hope it was a fake warning, or start the nuclear annihilation of the entire planet and everyone on it. So how was your day at work?

After a hefty dive into our news pile, which includes stories about sinking Panama islands, a look at what's happening in Cannon Beach, Baker City, and Oaks Park, a steer taller than Hollywood beefcake Jason Mamoa, bilingual AI brain implants, PSU vs. Boeing, the death of InfoWars and other right-wing propaganda sites, and another lawsuit against Madonna, and much, much more, we take a look at the mysterious disappearance and underground selling of the iconic paintings that adorned Taco Bells around the country in the 1990s. Hollywood beefcake Jason Mamoa is 6'4".

This week we chat with special guest the Unipiper about his return to playing the National Anthem at the Portland Timbers game, after muffing it the first go-around. He also stays to chat about our news roundup, including the advancement (or not) of AI political ads, the language of sperm whales unlocked, magnets made the earth flourish with life, a defrocked AI priest who suggested baptism via Gatorade, and much more.

In 1993, TV news studios started receiving calls from kids who opened their Barbies and GI Joe dolls for Christmas only to discover Barbie shouting militaristic slogans and GI Joe talking about shopping. Later parodied on The Simpsons, this bit of "culture jamming" has its origins right here in Portland (which also involves ipecac, mashed potatoes, and vomiting at a Dan Quayle appearance). All that, and much more on this week's episode.

It's nice to find a library that has every book. But what if there's a library with every book ever printed, but also every sentence, paragraph, and page that could ever be written in the future? It's a heady concept, and it's called "The Library of Babel," which has more "books" than atoms in the entire universe. It's a lot, so join us this week as we crack the book open on this fascinating subject.

And if you thought those three things weren't enough, we also dive into sending the "essence of humanity" to the moon, Oregon's "devil comet" and Dark Sky Sanctuary, giant hybrid sheep, and Deez Nuts get arrested.

Pressed into the asphalt of Philadelphia, Boston, Richmond, Kansas City, and even Santiago and Barcelona are these mysterious tiles talking about Kubric, resurrection, and Jupiter. What are they? Where did they come from? And do they mean anything? Take a dive into the weird world of the Toynbee Tiles. Also, another successful pilot project for Universal Basic Income, violent crime in the US is dropping, measles outbreaks in Florida, and a woman has maggots rain down on her during a flight. Whee!

After an entire year of waiting, the Madonna concert  finally happened! Take a ride with Mark and Todd as they travel to Seattle to catch Madonna's fantastic Celebration Tour on Part 2 of Mark and Todd's Big Adventure!

In this mostly real-time episode, Mark has a surprise adventure for Todd to celebrate both their birthdays, which ends up being quite the ride. Get to the choppa!