Come October, Sam and I are expecting a tiny addition to the cast of Moldawer in the Morning. Handsome little bugger of interdeterminate gender, isn’t he/she?

“I think that the world would be sort of a scary place if everyone had as much ambition as that doctor. It works out better when it’s just a few people here and there. It gives us all something to feel bad about ourselves for.”

Joining me on today’s show is my wife, Samantha Hahn. On today’s show, we discuss ethics as they apply to medicine, commerce, and politics, in a totally interesting way, I swear.

WENN: Walk it off, it’s only a heart attack
Ars Technica: Best Buy has “anti-price matching policy”
UPI: City billed for woman’s shrill voice help

“Wouldn’t you feel that way trapped in a cage all day?”
“But I’m a human being!”
“You’re not that far off from a chimp.”

Never thought we’d make it to 75, did ya? On today’s show:

India News: A Chimpanzee Planned Hundreds of Stone-Throwing Attacks on Zoo Visitors
CNN: Pentagon says Chinese vessels harassed U.S. ship
Very Evolved Science: Can we erase bad memories with a drug?

“Moldawer in the Morning is back, after almost a full year, by popular demand.”
“You mean your three Twitter followers told you to do it?”
“That’s … that’s … they are people, so ‘peop-ular.’”

Joining me for today’s show is my lovely wife, Samantha Hahn. Miss us?

The Economist: Quantum Physics and Reality
RedOrbit: Gifted Children Shape Personalities According To Social Stigma
Sydney Morning Herald:
Obama wore bulletproof suit at inauguration

After a long hiatus, I’ve returned to Twitter with a fresh account. If you’re interested, you can follow me here.

Direct Link to MSNBC.com

This is the biggest WTF I’ve seen in a long time | Fundivision

Waaagh, waaagh!

Direct YouTube link

(Thanks, Mark!)

A glimpse of a dark future: PalinAsPresident.com.

Good news to share. I’m leaving St. Martin’s Press as of tomorrow for a full editor spot at Portfolio, a premiere business book imprint at Penguin.

More details as they become available, but I’m really excited about this one.

If the New York Times’s Sunday Styles were a hairdo, it would be a wig. If it were on the menu, it would be a meringue. If it were a retail outlet, it would be Spencer’s Gifts. As a mélange of fashion notes, celebrity reporting, personal essays, and piffle, Sunday Styles resembles the old-fashioned supermarket tabloids in that it knows that it's a stinking pile of entertaining trash and makes no apologies for it.

So bestowing a “Bogus Trend of the Week” award upon Sunday Styles is a tad like berating Slobodan Milosevic for tracking mud across your nice, clean linoleum floor. The section exists to advance the bogus. Yet sometimes Sunday Styles promotes premises so flimsy that somebody must shout stop, if only to restore the section to its honest awfulness.

Slate.com: The Times’ Sunday Styles section discovers dudes loving cats

Direct Link at YouTube

More info

Today, I took the plunge and got an iPhone, despite the fact that I would have to leave Verizon for AT&T—a company I once swore would never see my custom again after making my life miserable with unbelievably lousy service in Seattle.

But it was well worth swallowing my pride. This thing is the promise of technology realized. I may not even need a desktop computer anymore…

Oh You Pretty Things (David Bowie) Video at YouTube
Gosh, I love this song.

I’ve always wanted to learn how to shave using a straight razor. Really, what’s manhood about beyond that?

Unfortunately, a beginner’s mistake with a 4-inch razor blade can be messy, painful, and death-ish. So imagine my delight when Sam and I discovered the 4-month-old New York Shaving Company down in Nolita.

This is a retro joint, where the music is as old-fashioned as the moustache on the barber. And this isn’t the faux-manly dandyhood of the Art of Shaving. This place feels like the real deal. They don’t even gouge you on the prices—a $30 haircut in Nolita!

After getting an excellent trim and a lesson in the art of pomade, the barber and I began discussing the merits of straight razors versus safety razors, and to my delight he informed me that he offers straight razor lessons for $30. You start off shaving a balloon and work your way up to skin. I can’t wait.

The New York Shaving Company

James Randi explains homeopathy « Unreasonable Faith

“I don’t need the trotters,” said Juventino Avila, then the chef at Bonita. “You sent me trotters on Friday.”

Mr. Gould, filling in a flow chart he was composing on brown butcher paper, confirmed: “Keeping the trotters. You want the heads?”

“Oh, I’d like the heads,” Mr. Avila said. “Can you send the heads to DeKalb?”

NYTimes.com—Chefs Are Taking On the Whole Cow

These guys have made some of the funniest short videos online, and now they’ve completed their first feature.

Mystery Team.

“Good luck figuring him out . . . I met him when he was 16 and wondered, ‘Is this some kind of bit?’ But he’s totally sincere, totally kind and inscrutable. He’s the dark matter of the universe.”

NYTimes.com—Michael Cera of ‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’ Is Almost Famous, for Better or Worse

It warms my heart to see that incoming students at my alma mater are almost as wired as I am:

At Amherst college, 1% of first-year students have landlines, 99% have Facebook accounts—collision detection.

(via kottke.org)

Pearl’s last video? Say it ain’t so.

Good Cop, Baby Cop from Will Ferrell and Adam “Ghost Panther” McKay—FunnyOrDie.com.

“I would stand beside this canoe and think and dream,” Mr. Bloom said. “I don’t know if I would have become a scientist and then a museum director if that canoe had not inspired me to ask questions.”

Joel Bloom, Science Exhibit Innovator, Is Dead at 83—NYTimes.com

The genius behind the Franklin Institute’s marvelous interactive science exhibits has died. That museum is one of the reasons I’m a science nut. And for the record, I love that canoe too.

Citing unsafe practices and potential toxic contamination, the Environmental Protection Agency shut down a small ghost- entrapment operation in downtown Manhattan today, and had four of the business' spectral-containment specialists arrested in the process.

EPA Shuts Down Local Ghost-Entrapment Business | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source

Holy cow! I wish all my authors got ads like this!

Have you bought your copy of The Indie Band Survival Guide yet?

(Thanks, DVD Geeks!)

This nifty Flash applet at the New York Times tests your ability to make approximate guesses about quantity. A bunch of blue and yellow balls appear for a moment, and then you have to guess whether there were more blue balls or more yellow balls. Run through it 25 times and you’ll have a good sense of your natural ability.

Testing Your Approximate Number Sense

Average adult: 75%
Me: 96%

I’ve decided to stop producing Moldawer in the Morning. I may come back with another podcast, or a blog, or something else, down the road, but for now I’m stepping away and spending more time enjoying the fresh air.

Thanks to you all for listening over the past year or two. It’s been a blast.

Toodles!

“Why is that? And why would they sting the one who was nervous? Wouldn’t they take it easy on the nervous guy and sting someone who wasn’t all that worried about it?”
“Don’t you think women should go after the most desperate men?”
“Yes, yes I do. And, thankfully, Samantha did.”

On today’s show, I’m joined after a long hiatus by the inimitable Dave Feldman.

Millions of Bees Let Loose When Truck Tips
MSNBC.com: ‘Error’ led to ex-SLA member release
The New Yorker: Secret Skin by Michael Chabon

My wife and frequent MITM guest, Samantha Hahn, has whipped up a free Easter e-card for you to distribute as you like:

Browse through all of Sam’s free art cards at Flickr.

Direct link

“That sounds like a lot of work.”
“It might require a little thought…”
“Which is the difference between that and what you do.”

On today’s show, my wife Samantha Hahn and I bust your minds wide open with some totally avant garde podcasting. Also, Sam mentions Dalek porn (NSFW).

Firefighter uses CPR to save tiny dog
Snake evolves to take on toxic newt
Bulgarian Bears Will Dance No More

“It’s made shoddily.”
“From the man’s perspective, the more shoddily constructed a woman’s clothing, the better. It should fall to pieces!”

Joining me on today’s show is my wife, Samantha Hahn. Fairly racy show today: we talk about panties, hookers, and pubic hair. Yes, I admit it, it’s a shameless attempt to rope in listeners. What I don’t understand is, why doesn’t it work?

Dubuque Telegraph-Herald: Victoria’s Secret CEO Says Company Has Become Too Sexy
UPI: Cook Admits Putting Hair in Steak
The Cedar Rapids Gazette: Ex-Casino Worker Loses Benefits Over Prostitution Request

Hillary in the Eyes of Reuters

Catchy.

Direct YouTube link.

This is what I looked (or, at least, felt) like when I was enjoying my lovely wife’s cooking last night.

(Direct YouTube link)

“Think about that, that people that don’t know you would rather listen to you than people who know you well. What does that say about you?”

Another MITM partycast. Joining me on today’s show are Steve Greenberg, his wife, Ashley Fluhrer-Greenberg, their friend Drew Avery, and my wife, Samantha Hahn.

New York Times: Short, Stout, Has a Handle on Colds
New York Times: More Americans Are Giving Up Golf
Miami Herald: Cat Travels to Phoenix Inside POD

Direct YouTube link

“Rule of thumb: Never try to just jump into the middle of an orgy. Period.”
“What? That’s like the opposite of what Pappy used to tell me.”

On today’s show Samantha the Hahninator and I get jiggy with it, Punxsutawney Phil-style.

Oddorama.com: 10 of the Strangest Animal Stories of 2008 (So Far!)
New York Times: Lasers Make Other Metals Look Like Gold
Virginian Pilot: 92-Year-Old Blind Florida Man Aces 110-Yard Hole

Photo courtesy of Brian Fountain (and by “courtesy” I mean he’d better not bitch about me using it)

(Via Snopes)

Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com – Studio Briefing – 30 January 2008

Wondering where the latest episode of Moldawer in the Morning is? Well, keep wondering.

Sam and I have found a new apartment, so we’re going to be a wee bit busy packing, changing our names, making new sets of identification, dyeing our hair, pouring acid on our fingertips, and tying up other loose ends.

So there may not be any more Moldawer in the Morning episodes, but I would highly encourage all of you to subscribe to a brand new podcast coming out of Indianapolis called Robertson in the Morning. I hear it’s very funny, and that the host is an incredibly handsome, intelligent guy. Wink, wink.

Also, he has a wife named Bamantha.

In case you’re curious, check out our new location:

View Larger Map

Direct YouTube link

(Thanks, David!)

Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com – WENN – 25 January 2008

“Now, you’re a fan of the Poe, aren’t you?”
“‘The Poe’? He’s rolling over in his cask.”

On today’s show, uber-blogger-extraordinaire Samantha Hahn and I discuss monkeys, tigers, and graves, oh my.

AP: Mystery Man’s Annual Visit to Poe’s Grave
The Oakland Tribune: Victim May Have Told Conflicting Tiger Attack Tales
Monkey’s Thoughts Propel Robot

New episode on Monday, guys. Sam and I were recharging.

In the meantime, here’s a rundown on all the mindblowingly good articles I’ve been writing over at LifeClever. I encourage you to go over there and read them and stop being such a loser.

• Sleep: You Need More
• The Grain of Salt: Beating productivity addiction.
• The Lightning Bolt: When laziness strikes.
• Don’t Play Office, Just Play: Keeping your system simple and putting the focus back on doing and enjoying.
• The One-Bucket System: Down with contexts!
• A Modest Proposal: Learn a New Skill
• How to Achieve Laser Focus and Sustained Flow
• How to See the Future with Netvibes: My favorite Web-based planning calendar.
• Cull Your Task List Ruthlessly: Don’t write it down unless you actually need to do it.

There’s more, but I’m tired of cutting and pasting. Get over there!

Direct YouTube link

Direct YouTube link

I shot a video called There’s No Such Thing As a Hopeless Student where Mike played the role of a person genetically incapable of dancing, and I swear he did the same exact dance.

I need to dig up that footage…

(Thanks, Stephen!)

Direct Link to Dave Feldman’s intro to the episode on YouTube

“One moron and one just terrible person. Not sure who’s who.”
“They’re all terrible. That’s why I picked this story.”

On today’s show, I’m joined by the Man Himself, Dave Feldman. We discuss crazy queens, wacky ninjas, and alcoholic pug-nappers.

Associated Press: Ariz. Beauty Queen Accused of Kidnapping
UPI: Ninja Burglar Blamed in $20,000 Heist
Associated Press: Woman’s Lost Pug Given As Christmas Gift

Direct YouTube link

The Mark Lives in IKEA site.

Check out Mark on MITM here.

Check out a terrific interview with Sam plus a pictorial over at Mary Jo Matsumoto’s fashion blog:

Link

Direct YouTube link