Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Another Goddamned Podcast #42:
December 18, 2008


THIS WEEK -Religion in the Workplace



Original audio source


The latest trend in the corporate work environment seems to be pandering to religion. The Chaplain's not happy about this. In fact, she's downright frosty. Isn't there a better way to foster a nurturing work environment than inserting religion? (00:00)

OG wonders what the ramifications of this new found attraction to workplace religion will have with "family values" being pushed by the usual suspects. Is this just another insidious, back door attempt to discriminate? Will religion ironically destroy diversity in the workplace, in the guise of promoting it? (16:56)

Dear Chappy has a brilliant answer for another unsuspecting casualty in the War on Christmas. Also, poll results of the latest poll, and a little science to astound and amaze you. (32:54)

Opening Music [00:00]: excerpt from "Another Goddamned Draft"
Bridge Music [16:19]: excerpt from "Interlude" by Encephalophone
Bridge and Closing Music [32:35] excerpt from "Arkansas Traveler"
Closing Music [55:38] excerpt from "As Jazzy as I Get"
(All music: copyright 2008 by Rachel Murie except as noted)


This Week's Goddamned Links
Religion at Work at SHRM
The War on Christmas
Awesomely horrible at Pharyngula
Baby Foot!

13 comments:

Warren Grubb said...

Why are there no comments on this episode yet? sorry herd, I am listening to all your back episodes and I keep hearing things that I want to post about, but I am slack. Hopefully there are a lot of people like myself who listen to and greatly enjoy your show, but never get around to saying so. I am rabidly devouring 5 or six podcasts a week, so I spend too much time listening and not enough time commenting...

Anonymous said...

gfunkusarelius:

Thanks for the comment. I was beginning to think that this podcast had gotten sucked into an alternate universe.

Glad you're enjoying catching up. We should be back soon, as I think we've recovered from all of our holidaying.

Glasmann said...

Three comments:
I like the podcast and the subject matter, but ...
iTunes gives an error with your URL and has for several weeks, so this could explain a lack of responses, and ...
Perhaps I missed something, but where is Ex. I miss his edgy spark which keeps the podcast lively.

Unknown said...

Glasmann:

What URL gives an error? The podcast or the website? I have all of the podcasts downloaded, but I also have an older version of iTunes. The website link also seems to be okay, but I'm probably missing something. Any details you can give about the issue would help us fix it.

Thanks!

Warren Grubb said...

i could be looking in the wrong place, but when i click the info button on my iTunes subscription, it shows this URL:
http://magicanimation.com/agdp/anothergoddamnedpodcast.xml

Unknown said...

gfunkusarelius:

Thanks for the information. The URL you gave is the URL to the feed. You can use that to subscribe to the podcast through a reader like Google Reader, however it's not a website that you can access like a normal website. If you select Visit Website (I think that's right.. I don't have iTunes installed here at work) from the iTunes page it should take you to this website.

Thanks for listening and feel free to comment or drop us an email if you have any other questions or need further clarification.

jojothecannibalkid said...

GUYS:

great new Hitchens article this month at Vanity Fair about Islam and Salman Rushdie and censorship.

Mentions The Jewel of Medina and the recent firebomb attack on its publisher.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/
2009/02/hitchens200902?currentPage=1

Another article on the attack:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/
sep/28/muhammad.book.attack

PLEASE DISCUSS THIS IN YOUR NEXT PODCAST!!!

Warren Grubb said...

wow, that is the bone! i just listened to the interview with the publisher recently- is this the same person? if so, it is pretty sad, especially since everyone was so optimistic that there wasn't really a threat. will be interesting to hear, if we do, about the person/people who committed the crime. these sorts of crimes anger me more than almost anything. people spend so much energy on govt and corporate "conspiracies," but it seems these sorts of things, unchecked, offer a more realistic threat to our freedoms.

Warren Grubb said...

i see now that it was the eurpoean publisher i guess and not the american one you had on your show, but still, same overall sentiment. scary.

PhillyChief said...

I felt is was more defiance than optimism. Optimism would be missing the point. You don't publish because you think it's unlikely harm may happen, you publish because it's the right thing to do, and what happens, happens.

Warren Grubb said...

I agree that if someone were to think there was no threat, it takes the strength out of the act, and no one on the podcast ever said there wasn't a threat, but the general feeling I took away from it was that it was even more disgusting that a "threat of a threat of a threat" was enough to stop Random House from publishing. This lulled me into feeling pretty confident that there wasn't really anything to these claims and that it was just someone exaggerating or fabricating a threat, and it did surprise me to hear the threat was real.
Regardless, the lesson is clear- it's important that we don't allow intolerance and terrorism to shut down our presses.

PhillyChief said...

Well I got the sense that RH was using the threat as an excuse not to print the book, but then I'm a cynical bastard.

Warren Grubb said...

so am I, so that's probably one reason i thought the threat was empty (which hell, it probably was at the time, maybe the later press prompted it). hell, being someone who has wanted to weasel out of an obligation once or twice in my life, it looked suspiciously like a contractual escape mechanism.