114: Jurassic Musk (with Jacob Bacharach)

The novelist and essayist Jacob Bacharach returns to the pod to discuss the Elon Musk era of Twitter in relation to another cautionary tale about what happens when you fool with Mother Nature, Steven Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park. It turns out there are unintended consequences to messing around with systems you didn’t understand when you first altered them! We talk about Jurassic Park as a perfect example of blockbuster filmmaking, and how to get over one’s snobbery about Spielberg as a great cinema craftsman, and then we go to town on Twitter's new CEO; "Comedy is now legal on Twitter" proclaimed Musk shortly before discarding the verification system by making a bluecheck available to anyone with a credit card, and just like Jurassic Park, no one in control anticipated what could possibly go wrong. We talk about his misunderstanding of what Twitter is, his new parasitical friendship with Cat Turd 2, and how his lack of knowledge about comedy, technology and humanity has created this perfect storm, chasing off employees, users and advertisers in what is turning out to be the most expensive 420 joke ever told. Patrons of the Junk Filter podcast receive at least two additional exclusive episodes a month: some of our notable previous guests include Jared Yates Sexton, David Roth, Bryan Quinby, Sooz Kempner, and Will Sloan. More to come! Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter Follow Jacob Bacharach on Twitter and visit jacobbacharach.com Teaser trailer for Jurassic Park (Spielberg, 1993)