Episode 133: Turkey's Emerging Opposition, Bye-Bye Mahmoud, Atari's Hidden Treasure and more
The nation-wide protests in Turkey started with a small group opposed to local development. Now, all across the country, Turks are expressing their opposition to Prime Minister Erdogan. They think his authoritarianism is growing, they distrust his neo-Islamist agenda and the way he's handling the dissent.
In Gezi Park, Istanbul where it all began the protestors represent a cross section of modern Turkish society including several members of the LGBT community who have a special connection to the park.
We meet some of the gay Turkish protestors for whom this moment carries special meaning.
Comedy and the Iranian Vote
Iranians are heading to the polls. Elections in Iran next week will choose the successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The outgoing Iranian President has a sizzle reel packed with incendiary, bizarre and hateful speeches.
Will anyone miss this guy? You bet.
To satirists, Ahmadinejad was a gift from God like Donald Trump or Anthony Weiner. So we asked writer, satirist and ex-pat Kambiz Hosseini who he thinks among the eight candidates is most likely to continue the Ahmadinejadian tradition of threats, taunts, conspiracy theories and comedy.
Atari's Dark Secret
The story, for those who believe it, is as follows:
In 1983, videogame maker Atari, stung by the negative reception to their new game based on the hit movie E.T. clandestinely hauled truckloads of the unsold product to a landfill in New Mexico, dug a hole and encased the entire shipment in concrete.
The legend has circulated within the gaming community for years, and this week a Canadian company got permission to launch a National Geographic type excursion to try to unearth the lost games.
But the creator of the E.T. Atari game - described by some as the worst video game ever - doesn't think they're going to find anything. Howard Scott Warshaw tells us why.
Total Boox
Do you finish reading every book you buy? I'll bet there's some you've never even cracked. No shame in that, but if you never get around to them, it's arguably a complete waste of money.
At least unread e-books don't take up space. Now they don't have to take anything out of your bank account either.
Total Boox is a new book selling strategy that charges you not by the book, but by the amount you read. As you flip pages on your device, the charge mounts incrementally. If you stop reading the book midway through, you only pay half the cost of the title.
Yoav Lorch is the founder and C-E-O of Total Boox and Trevor Cole is a novelist and winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. (Trevor's not convinced.)
When to Have Babies
There's a new campaign in the U.K. urging women to consider having babies at an early age. But the Get Britain Fertile ad blitz has made some people angry with the sensationalist image of a very aged looking, expectant Mom.
It may not work as a commercial but it has started an important conversation.
In Canada and elsewhere fertility rates are falling, the ages of first-time mothers are rising and women who put off having kids may find the challenges of later motherhood are steeper than they imagined.
We talk to two women- Haley Mlotek has decided to delay having kids, while Michelle Horton extolls the benefits of having kids young- and Dr. Judith Daniluk who conducted a nationwide survey on fertility awareness.
Whew. Now that we've put all that pressure on you to reproduce, it's time to wish you all a superfun weekend. See you in seven.
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