Episode 606: Deterioration Starts At 30

This week's episode has a little bit of everything—local politics, a suspicious number of Star Trek–named kittens, some genuinely cool green tech, and a short story that hits you with an existential haymaker. Real Life  Devon's in a "life is… fine" zone, which is either stability or the calm before chaos—we'll let you decide. That leads into a surprisingly interesting question: does a mayor's party affiliation actually matter at the local level? Texas elections are happening right now, and it sparks a broader conversation about how much politics really trickles down into day-to-day governance. Also on the home front: kids' birthday parties, which are somehow both joyful and mildly exhausting. Ben has fully entered his foster-dad era—but for kittens. A whole crew of them: Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer, and their mom Majel. He claims he didn't name them, which statistically feels unlikely. Either way, it's a Starfleet-grade lineup. Meanwhile, Devon's household remains firmly anti-new-pet, so don't expect a crossover episode there. We also touch on For All Mankind, and then pivot into the upcoming Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender film—specifically the leaks, early reactions, and what happens when studios lose control of the narrative before release. There's some real-world legal tension brewing there. Steven… well, Steven exists this week. (You'll hear it.)   Future or Now  Devon brings in a heavy one: reports that the independent board overseeing the National Science Foundation has been abruptly dismissed, raising serious concerns about political interference in scientific research and long-term innovation. You can read more here:  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/28/trump-fires-national-science-foundation-board  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-fired-national-science-foundation-board-b2965242.html  This isn't just bureaucratic reshuffling—it could have real downstream effects on funding, research priorities, and scientific independence. Ben tries to balance things out with something genuinely cool: Mosscrete. https://gorespyre.com/  It's a bioreceptive concrete designed to grow moss directly on buildings using nothing but rain and humidity. No irrigation, no maintenance-heavy systems—just passive, living architecture. It's one of those ideas that feels obvious in hindsight but actually takes some clever engineering to pull off. This whole topic also dredges up a deep memory: Bill Nye's moss-and-milk experiment. If you know, you know. If you don't, you probably just learned something slightly unsettling about childhood science videos. Steven is present in this segment as well. Technically.   Book Club Next Week: Saint Zero of the Hollows and the Eagle Knight by V.M. Ayala https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/saint-zero-of-the-hollows-and-the-eagle-knight/  "The only sound Zero heard in their helmet was their own hyperventilating and the gentle pings from their pegasus." That line alone is doing a lot of work. We're excited for this one. This Week: Learning To Be Me by Greg Egan http://thetafiction.com/story/learning-to-be-me/  "I was six years old when my parents told me that there was a small, dark jewel inside my skull, learning to be me." This story landed hard for all of us. It follows a life from childhood to adulthood in a way that feels deceptively simple—until it isn't. The structure does a ton of heavy lifting, and the twist is the kind that makes you immediately want to reread it. We get into some big ideas here, especially panpsychism—the notion that consciousness might be a fundamental property of the universe rather than something that just "emerges." It's one of those discussions that starts philosophical and ends slightly unsettling. If you like episodes that bounce between grounded real life, big-picture science, and brain-bending fiction, this one's for you.