Almost…

10 May 2017 – As it turns out, when a doctor says you can, “can start thinking about work about six weeks out…” they don’t actually mean you can dive back into life at full-throttle six weeks after surgery. I built a new 150 page website for my business during my last two weeks stuck in bed and I started back to work two weeks ago but I still hit a wall pretty quickly after just eight hours of work. Since catching-up from being away from my actual day job needs all of the energy I have the show is getting the short end of the stick.

The good news is that I really do feel amazing (right up to the point that I run out of energy) and the surgery has been worth every second of this long, long recovery. I will check back in here again next week with, hopefully, a hard and fast re-start date for the show.

Until then, I miss you all! Carrots – Arliss

Coming Back on 10 April!

29 March 2017 – (This is an update from Arliss.) In February my scheduled surgery was canceled when I was already in the surgical suite because at the last minute a conflict was found in critical data. Periodically through the rest of the month I went through exhausting and miserable testing which severely limited me. I actually had the surgery on 2 March. I’ve learned something important since then. Even when everything goes much better than anticipated and recovery is going perfectly, “major surgery” is still major. My surgeon laughed when I said I hoped to go back to work after four weeks. Tomorrow is four weeks and despite the fact that I am genuinely doing well, the surgeon was right. I can currently make it through an hour or two of serious work and then I’m all done. As a side note, I have caught up on the last three seasons of The Big Bang Theory. Since I stopped watching television nearly three years ago this counts as fun for me. I’m going to try to watch something more compelling next. We’ll see how that goes.

I am currently planning to be able to do a new show for 10 April. I appreciate all the good wishes and the kindness extended by listeners especially the fabulous bunny socks sent by Rebecca Romans. The really good news is that this surgery repairs a long-term, life-threatening condition which is now resolved. In the past couple of years I have been hospitalized and/or extremely ill over and over and over. That caused me to miss shows many times. From here forward I should be good to go. Both Will and I still travel for work and take holidays with our families but that’s fairly normal and we can plan in advance.

Again, thank you for your kindness and patience. Carrots! – Arliss

Podcasters’ Roundtable

6 February 2017 – This week we were joined by Travis and Rachel of Irreverent Testimony and Tom of The Coffeecast. We discussed the direction of the US, and the future of the republic. Unfortunately, this will be our last show for a few weeks. As our broadcast goes out Monday morning, Arliss will be in surgery to correct a longstanding illness. All of us are wishing her a speedy recovery, and we will keep you updated about our schedule – and her health – moving forward. – Will

Download Here!

No show this week.

12 December 2016 – Listeners, one of Arliss’ rabbits has taken ill. Living in a very tiny town in Indiana, there aren’t really vets set up to treat rabbits, so she is in a hotel room in Ohio, where she’s found a vet capable of treating her friends. We hope to be back next week with a new episode. There’s a lot happening right now.

–Will

Illness strikes again, just before the Thanksgiving Break

21 November 2016 – Arliss’ illness has struck again, landing her in the hospital again. By Sunday, she was resting somewhat comfortably at home. As this is a recurring illness, she’ll be seeing a specialist again this week. This is a medical problem which is being handled, it will just take some time. We will have a few more cancellations for medical reasons in the future before all is said and done, but I’ll let her update you on the specifics there. I spoke with her on Sunday, and while she’s not doing back flips or anything, she’s still herself.

There is something I was going to discuss this week on-air, and I think it still needs to be said. On this show, we endorsed Kieth Ellison for DNC Chair. We think he’s the best person for the job, and the ideal person to bring the Democratic Party together right now.

He is now facing the same smear campaign today which he faced when he ran for office in 2006. All of it circles around his religion. Ellison is a Muslim. As a result, all sorts of nonsense has been thrown his way. He’s been accused of having ties to the Nation of Islam, and Louis Farrakhan. He is being accused of being a dangerous radical, as well.

This is all complete nonsense. As I’ve said before, I’ve met Kieth Ellison on a number of occasions. He’s one of the best democrats we have. The fact that they are using his religion to attack him is par for the course in 2016. They did the same thing when he was running for office a decade ago. Then, they threw a fit over whether he’d be required to take his oath of office on the bible, even though, as a Muslim, there’s another holy scripture more appropriate for him to use.

If we’re taking oaths seriously, shouldn’t a religious person lay their hand on a religious text that actually matters to them? Shouldn’t they use something they actually believe in? To that end, Kieth Ellison took his oath of office on not just any Quran, but on Thomas Jefferson’s personal copy of the Quran.

American Muslims are Americans. Period.

Fingers and paws crossed, and we’ll see you folks in two weeks.

–Will

This week’s radio broadcast is episode 40, with Frances Coppola, which can be heard in full here.

Hopping Mad will return next week. For now, an interview with Alexis Goldstein on Banking Reform

5 September 2016 – Unfortunately, we just weren’t able to get an episode up for everyone this week. With Arliss’ illness, and some craziness at work for both of us, things just didn’t come together.

We will absolutely be back next week with a full episode. This week, we reprise the interview with Alexis Goldstein, who does a deep dive into economic policy. Here’s what Arliss wrote about that last time:

Our guest, Alexis Goldstein updates us on where we are today with the implementation process. Alexis is a Senior Policy Analyst at Americans for Financial Reform and has been in the thick of the Dodd-Frank battle from back in her days with Occupy the SEC when she co-authored a 325-page Comment letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission urging them to write rules for a strong version of the Volker Rule. Seriously, that’s my kind of banking wonk. During our conversation Alexis referred to a link at Bloomberg and that is here for your easy reference.

Stay tuned, folks. We’ll be back soon.

–Will

Download Here!

No episode this week, health update

22 August 2016 – Alriss and I have had bad luck this past week. She ended up hospitalized with Diverticulitis, and I ended up concussed after rolling my ankle and face planting into the ground. I’m still limping around, and she’s resting at home, but we hope to be back to full strength soon.

I recorded a brief update about what’s going on to let folks know that we’re both alive, and that Hopping Mad will be returning soon.

-Will

DeRay Mckesson, GDP, Puerto Rico and Umberto Eco

22 February 2016 – This week Will and I ended up with so much to say that we did the whole show ourselves. I open with an update on the economic crisis in Puerto Rico and I follow that with a quick take on economic canaries, Maersk and CSX.

Will follows me with news about the terrific campaign of DeRay Mckesson in the mayoral race in Baltimore. DeRay has released spectacular position papers and proposals and is running the kind of campaign which deserves to draw support from progressives across the nation.

I’m up next with answers to listener questions relating to the article, “It’s Not About the Debt,” by Chad Stone. I get into some detail about why using debt-to-GDP ratio as a metric makes no logical sense. As part of my explanation I draw from the excellent Levy Economics Institute Working Paper (Number 603), “Does Excessive Sovereign Debt Really Hurt Growth? A Critique of This Time It’s Different, by Reinhart and Rogoff.”

We also mark the passing of the gifted author and thinker, Umberto Eco. Both Will and I have been deeply impressed by his works and given the bent of the current US elections many of Eco’s literary themes seem inordinately timely.

In Extra Mad I venture out into the weeds of GDP; what it is, what it isn’t, what’s wrong with it and the various options. If you listen to the podcast version of the show I’m betting you will be surprised by relevancy of this topic.

We do have new interstitial music this week from Bua, the great traditional Irish band. Check out their website and support their music. Traditional music artists have an especially challenging road and artists as fluent and musically astute as Bua are rare. Bua Cover

As always, Hopping Mad is available here as a download as well as on Stitcher and iTunes. We are on Twitter and Facebook as IMHoppingMad. We LOVE receiving your feedback, questions and corrections. Spring is coming! – Carrots! Arliss

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MIA or Behind the Lettuce Leaf

7 February 2016 – We have not been producing shows steadily lately and I thought I should let you know why. Basically, it’s my fault. As I have mentioned several times on the show, I own a manufacturing company. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas we work flat out and beyond the holiday crunch it is also the end of the year and I have a number of responsibilities in terms of closing our our fiscal year. That being said, by the time my husband and I crawl our way to Christmas Eve, we are beyond exhausted. This year I had the clever idea of planning a vacation, which spanned from just before Christmas to after New Years, to an island with minimal internet. [When I say “minimal” I mean I have to buy lunch in a small restaurant and use the only decent internet on the island to get anything at all. They have incredible fish tacos but don’t look kindly on me taking up a table for an extended period of time. Also, of course, I can’t record a show there.] Further complicating matters, cell coverage essentially involves wearing a tin foil hat and praying to the Gods of cell towers. For me one of the very best things about this island is that it’s hard to reach me when I’m there. Obviously, for the show, this was not quite so advantageous.

Further complicating all that is that fact that my company attends a huge trade show every January. I go and shake hands with hundreds of people from, literally, all over the planet. They, in turn, have also been doing the same. Basically, between working hard at very high energy levels throughout the show and the inevitable virus’ which get passed around, I get sick. Every. Single. Year. Honestly, it gets old. This year I got something which completely destroyed my voice. I’ve had it for more than two weeks now. Last week I had no voice at all and, as you can hear on the 8 February podcast, this week my voice is still marginal. Fortunately, Will was able to get the awesome Landon Shroder to step in at the last minute and help him out last week so that there would be a show. Obviously, we need to get better at having contingency plans.

So now you know. – Carrots to you and yours! Arliss

Special Edition: Middle East Roundup with Landon Shroder

1 February 2016 – Arliss is ill this weekend, and yet another victim of what’s being called “Hell Plague 2016.” Having no voice, she was unable to join us this week.

Landon Shroder and I spent the hour discussing candidates positions, the Iranian perspective, and what comes after ISIS. We talked about ISIS’ own propaganda, and what we’re doing to counteract it.

Landon has a few articles you can read on the topic over at the fair observer, as well as a piece he penned for Vice.

Download here.