My Love Letter to Late Night Live - But First!

This is the 1st part of a series of three blogs which form My Love Letter to Late Night Live. We know that there has been a loyal growing audience for LNL, especially as podcasts. I hope that this series of blogs will provide readers with a glimpse of how one particular listener - an ordinary scientist - enjoys an eclectic mix of episodes. I trust that LNL, and other quality programs on the ABC, will continue to expand their reach, educating listeners with matters vital for growing our nation’s wisdom, culture and democracy.

Listenings, Musings, IdeasJames ScottJuly 27, 2025158 Beardy StComment

My Love Letter to Late Night Live - Highlights, Critique, Praise

This is the 2nd part of three in this series My Love Letter to Late Night Live. It starts with some Content links to a wide range of topics covered in this eclectic mix of interviews I have listened to and thought they were worthy of letting others know about them. It is a long blog and I don’t expect many will want to read it all. Hopefully, you can skip around from topic to topic, find something that interests you, note down the number in brackets and then find links to any of them in part 3 of this blog, My Love Letter to Late Night Live - 52 Links.

Listenings, Writings, Readings, Musings, Ideas, GemsJames ScottJuly 27, 2025158 Beardy StComment

It’s the electoral system, stupid!

As the Economist (March 1, 2025) writes of its cover: “The Don’s new world order: A mafia-like struggle for global power has begun …”

This chilling image prompted me to review my readings of political opinions and published evidence. Drawing these together, I present a thesis that we should not just focus on how to change voters’ minds but rather explore how we can improve electoral systems across nations to prevent the rise of authoritarians in undemocratic regimes and bring about a more equitable and peaceful world.

Readings, Writings, IdeasJames ScottMarch 10, 2025158 Beardy St Comment

Let’s talk about this elephant in the climate!

Doesn’t everyone want to stop global heating? Perhaps not!

Here I suggest that there is an ‘elephant in the climate’ that no-one discusses: those many people who live at high latitudes, largely in the wealthy, influential global north, who experience really cold winters and who are welcoming a degree or two of global heating.

How can we overcome this obstacle to developing a global consensus? One that accepts that messing with the Earth’s thermostat is a really scary thing to do!

Writings, Musings, IdeasJames ScottJanuary 4, 2024158 Beardy StComment

The questionable value of billionaires

Why would an ordinary scientist blog about billionaires? I claim relevance because I reckon that the world would be a lot better off if we valued careful investments of society’s hard-won wealth on behalf of all citizens and life on this planet more than feathering the nests of a tiny fraction of humanity who use their extreme wealth to pursue their own agendas.

Writings, Musings, IdeasJames ScottOctober 29, 2023Comment

Solving Earth’s problems ever so slowly - one element at a time ...

There are so many chemical elements that are critical for life on earth - but mankind is paying such little attention to them - seemingly just one at a time. And we can’t even solve the problems surrounding the cycling of just one of them - carbon!

If only we were all educated about the vital importance and wonder of key elements, we could solve the globe’s problems so much more quickly.

Here, we see the media presenting some in-depth understanding about two of the most important elements - nitrogen and phosphorus - but with too much focus on the elements of fear and danger!

Readings, Musings, Ideas, ListeningsJames ScottJune 20, 2023158 Beardy StComment