Rosie & BJ Save The World
By Rosie Tran
Rosie & BJ Save The WorldAug 19, 2020
Episode 12 - What is the deal with Open Borders
The Mexico-U.S. border is the most frequently crossed border in the world and the site of much tension and conflict. Rosie and BJ discuss open borders and if they could be a solution to the U.S.'s immigration policies.
The two co-hosts focus on the Mexico-U.S. border. As BJ points out, "If you're anywhere along the northern border, you can cross over, and half the time, no one's going to notice."
Resources for Saving the World📚 "Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World," by Rutger Bregman.
📑 "The Climate Crisis, Migration, and Refugees," reported by John Podesta for the Brookings Institution.
📑 "Chinese Exclusion Act," Wikipedia article on the 1882 federal law that barred Chinese workers from entering the U.S.
📑 "Bacon's Rebellion," Wikipedia article on a 1676 uprising of indentured white servants and enslaved Africans against the ruling class.
📑 "Stanford's History of Eugenics," an article by Claire Wang for The Stanford Daily.
📺 You Are on Indian Land, a documentary about the Akwesasne border crossing dispute in 1969.
📑 "'George Zimmerman on steroids:' How armed 'militias' roam the border in legal grey areas," reported by Alex Horton for The Washington Post.
📑 "Toba catastrophe theory," Wikipedia article discussing the volcanic explosion that almost wiped out humanity 75,000 years ago.
⭐ Out of The Box, Rosie's other podcast.
⭐ Dirty Change, a sex education podcast by Rosie and co-host Tommy Pistol.
⭐ Follow BJ on Instagram and Twitter.
⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter
⭐ Follow Rosie on Instagram and Twitter.
Support and Subscribe to Rosie & BJ Save the World on Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode 11 - Sex Work
religious conservatives alongside its Puritanical roots for stigmatizing sex work.
Resources for Saving the World⭐ "Dirty Change," a sex education podcast by Rosie and co-host Tommy Pistol.
📑 "Sex doll brothels are now a thing. What will happen to real-life sex workers?" an article for Vox by E.J. Dickson.
⭐ Tera Patrick, Wikipedia entry about the former EMT, model and pornographer.
📚 "On Writer: A Memoir of the Craft," by Stephen King.
📑 "'Queer Lives Are At Stake': New York Could Be the First State to Decriminalize Sex Work," an article for The Indypendent by Rebecca Chowdhury.
📑 "Would child sex robots stop pedophilia — or promote it?" an article for NBC News by David Cox.
📺 Nordic Approach on Prostitution, a YouTube video by the Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers.
📑 "Sex Trafficking and China’s One Child Policy," an article for The Diplomat by Madeline Fetterly.
📑 "The scandal of the missing children abducted from India's railway stations," an article for The Guardian by Mark Townsend.
📑 "Dozens of Indian schoolgirls attacked for confronting sexual harassers," an article for ABC News by Siobhan Heanue.
⭐ Out of The Box, Rosie's other podcast.
⭐ Support BJ Mendelson on Patreon. You can also follow him on Instagram and Twitter.
⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter
⭐ Follow Rosie on Twitter and Instagram.
Episode 10 - Humane End of Life - Euthanasia
In this episode of Rosie & BJ Save the World, the two co-hosts discuss the controversial topic of self-euthanization.
After doing research into self-euthanization, also known as "death with dignity," Rosie found that the healthcare lobby has a financial incentive to keep people alive — insurance money.
Rosie explains, "They make more money from the ICU — from people living as vegetables and hooked up to machines. The longer you're in the hospital, and the longer you suffer, the more money the healthcare devils make!"
Resources for Saving the World📺 Kevorkian, a 2010 documentary.
⭐ Terri Schiavo case, Wikipedia article.
📚 "The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing," by Bronnie Ware.
📺 Fry Meets Bender in a Suicide Booth, a clip from Futurama.
📚 "David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants," by Malcolm Gladwell.
📑 "Inside the Dignitas House," a Guardian article by Amelia Gentleman.
📚 "The Future of Humanity: Our Destiny in the Universe," by Michio Kaku.
📚 "Endurance: My Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery," by Scott Kelly.
📺 Self/less, a movie about a dying real estate mogul.
📺 Westworld, TV series.
⭐ Out of The Box, Rosie's other podcast.
⭐ "Dirty Change," a sex-education podcast by Rosie and co-host Tommy Pistol.
⭐ Support BJ Mendelson on Patreon.
⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter
⭐ Follow Rosie on Twitter and Instagram.
Support and Subscribe to Rosie & BJ Save the World on Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode 9 - Who needs the environment?
The climate crisis can feel irreparable. Rosie and BJ's solution to climate change? Fly off and find another planet, this one's doomed. Just kidding — kind of. The two co-hosts believe we can still make this world habitable without having to blast-off.
Resources for Saving the World📚 "The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming," by David Wallace-Wells.
📚 "Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore," by Elizabeth Rush.
📚 "The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World," by Jeff Goodell.
📚 “The Earth After Us: What Legacy Will Humans Leave in the Rocks?” by Jan Zalasiewicz.
📺 Bill Gates Wants to Reinvent the Toilet | The Daily Show: comedian Ronny Chieng interviews Bill Gates and his challenge to reinvent toilets.
📚 "A Carlin Home Companion: Growing Up with George," by Kelly Carlin.
📚 "The Selfish Gene," by Richard Dawkins.
📑 "TIME Person of the Year 2019: Greta Thunberg," a TIME magazine profile by Charlotte Alter, Suyin Haynes, and Justin Worland.
📚 "The Future of Humanity: Our Destiny in the Universe," by Michio Kaku
📚 "Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow," by Yuval Noah Harari.
⭐ Tamera, an eco-commune in Portugal.
⭐ Out of The Box, Rosie's other podcast.
⭐ "Dirty Change," a sex-education podcast by Rosie and co-host Tommy Pistol.
⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter
⭐ Support BJ Mendelson on Patreon.
⭐ Follow Rosie on Twitter and Instagram.
Episode 8 - Work what is it good for?
If you've ever goofed off at work, or walked through your office and witnessed co-workers browsing YouTube, you're not alone. In this episode, Rosie Tran and BJ Mendelson get to the heart of the matter: the bullshitization of work.
Deeply influenced by David Graeber's book "Bullshit Jobs: A Theory," the two co-hosts discuss the arbitrary eight-hour work day and outdated notions of "hard work" passed down from the Baby Boomers. They suggest that jobs have taken the place of religion as the foundation for forming identity and self-worth.
Resources for Saving the World📚 "Bullshit Jobs: A Theory," by David Graeber.
📑 "What Separates the Rich from the Poor? (And How the Rich Invest Their Time Instead)" by Robert Kiyosaki.
📚 David Graeber.
📚 "Dying for a Paycheck," by Jeffrey Pfeffer.
📚 "Temp: The Real Story of What Happened to Your Salary, Benefits, and Job Security" by Louis Hyman.
📚 "The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth" by Michio Kaku.
⭐ Support BJ Mendelson on Patreon.
⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter
⭐ Out of The Box, Rosie's other podcast.
⭐ Follow Rosie on Twitter and on Instagram.
Support and Subscribe to Rosie & BJ Save the World on Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode 7 - The prison system. What to do with bad people.
Crime is declining in the US, but the prison population is increasing. Co-hosts Rosie Tran and BJ Mendelson agree the for-profit prison system is out of control. In this episode, they critique our current prison system and offer solutions to fix it.
Resources for Saving the World
📚 "Inventing Human Rights: A History" by Lynn Hunt.
📚 "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" by Michelle Alexander.
📑 "Facebook Fined $5B? Big Deal ... Last Quarter's Revenue Was 3X More" article in Forbes by John Koetsier.
📻 JoAnn Buttaro - Public Speaker/Women's Advocate/Date Rape Survivor episode 38 of Rosie Tran's other podcast Out of the Box.
📑 "Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein: what you need to know," an article in the Guardian by Lucy Osborne.
📑 "The Sackler family withdrew more than $10 billion from Purdue Pharma during the country's opioid crisis," an article for CNN by Madeline Holcombe and Rob Frehse.
⭐ Out of The Box, Rosie's other podcast
⭐ "Dirty Change," a sex-education podcast by Rosie and co-host Tommy Pistol.
⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter
⭐ Support BJ Mendelson on Patreon.
⭐ Follow Rosie on Twitter and Instagram.
Support and Subscribe to Rosie & BJ Save the World on Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode 6 - College and Higher Ed / Education System
Students are consistently told that earning a Bachelor's degree is the path to successful adulthood. But, according to a 2018 survey, about 30% of all US adults have student debt. In this episode, hosts Rosie and BJ dive into the student loan crisis and offer solutions for how future students can avoid paying too much for college.
They believe college corporatization is behind much of the student debt bubble. Because student loans cannot be discharged to bankruptcy, graduates must struggle underneath all the debt until it's paid off — or until they die.
Resources for Saving the World📚 "iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood — and What That Means for the Rest of Us" by Jean Twenge.
📚 "What it Means to Be a Libertarian" by Charles Murray before he became super racist.
📚 "Bullshit Jobs: A Theory," by David Graeber
📚 "Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything" by Joshua Foer.
📚 "Social Media is Bullshit" by BJ Mendelson.
⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter
⭐ Support BJ Mendelson on Patreon.
Support and Subscribe to Rosie & BJ Save the World on Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode 5 - Universal Healthcare
While it's not an ideal piece of legislation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) led to growing American interest in universal and single-payer healthcare models. Rosie and BJ discuss ways to implement full government-subsidized healthcare coverage for all U.S. citizens.
Other countries, both co-hosts believe, have tested universal healthcare models, and the U.S. could learn from those programs, and take what works and leave behind what failed.
Resources for Saving the World📚 "Bullshit Jobs: A Theory," by David Graeber.
📺 Drug Short is an episode of "Dirty Money," that explores price-gouging by pharmaceutical companions.
📺 Outbreak is a film exploring an outbreak of disease brought to the United States.
⭐ The history and context surrounding one Ebola drug, ZMapp, developed in part in San Diego.
📑 "Three Guides for Going B — And Why It Matters," by Patagonia.
⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter
⭐ Out of The Box, Rosie's other podcast.
⭐ Support BJ Mendelson on Patreon.
Support and Subscribe to Rosie & BJ Save the World on Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode 4 - Universal Basic Income (Freedom Fund)
In this episode of Rosie & BJ Save the World, the co-hosts offer suggestions on saving the world and your budget at the same time with universal basic income (UBI).
Most ideas of UBI include a $1,200 monthly check for all citizens over the age of 18 — regardless of income level. The question is: How the heck do you pay for it?
Resources for Saving the World📺 American Factory, a documentary on Netflix.
⭐ Scott Santens - Universal Basic Income Advocate/Writer, an episode from Rosie's podcast Out of The Box.
⭐ The Freedom Dividend, Andrew Yang's proposal and rebrand of UBI.
📚 "Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future," by Martin Ford.
📑 "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren," by John Maynard Keynes, discussing automation in the 1930s.
📚 "Bullshit Jobs: A Theory," by David Graber
📚 "Affluence Without Abundance: What We Can Learn from the World's Most Successful Civilisation," by James Suzman
📚 "Raising the Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream," by Andy Stern.
⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter
⭐ Out of The Box, Rosie's other podcast.
⭐ Support BJ Mendelson on Patreon.
Support and Subscribe to Rosie & BJ Save the World on Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode 3 - Crypto
Calm down, Bitcoin Twitter, Rosie and BJ are here to suggest how cryptocurrency can democratize everyone's finances.
Rosie is an early adopter of cryptocurrency, and she's met a lot of criticism for believing cryptocurrency can be accessible to anyone. Mansplainers and male engineers flood her Twitter feed, determined to make the process complicated. "I thought as a female comedian I faced Vitriol World, but this... I've just been floored by it!" she says.
Resources for Saving the World📺 Blockchain Expert Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty, a WIRED video.
📺 Blockchain for Kids | Blockchain Explained for Beginners, a Lisk video.
📚 "Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies," by Andreas M. Antonopoulos, a bitcoin entrepreneur.
⭐ Out of The Box, Rosie's other podcast.
⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter
⭐ Support BJ Mendelson on Patreon.
Support and Subscribe to Rosie & BJ Save the World on Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode 2 - Childfree
The two co-hosts advocate for living a child-free life.
They argue that overpopulation contributes to the climate crisis — “The planet was not built for this many people,” BJ quips. “We're overbooked like a New York City restaurant at 7 p.m. for dinner.”
Speaking of dinner, Rosie sees the child-free argument similarly to the nuanced approach to eating meat. Instead of being an omnivore-hating vegan, or a vegan-hating omnivore, a nuanced viewpoint calls for a decrease in meat consumption to reduce pollution.
“We're not saying don't eat meat — we're saying limit,” Rosie explains, “That's what I'm encouraging with the child-free view. You don't have to have five kids, it's not 1950.”
The co-hosts also discuss the role advertising plays in priming the culture to idealize nuclear families.
Resources for Saving the World📚 “How to Win Friends & Influence People,” by Dale Carnegie, 1936.
📺 How the Egg Freezing Industry Preys on Fertility Fear, from “Adam Ruins Everything” on truTV.
📺 George Carlin on politicians using children as rhetorical shields.
📻 Abortion and Crime, Revisited, an update of the controversial study included in a “Freakonomics” chapter.
📚 The Baby Matrix: Why Freeing Our Minds From Outmoded Thinking About Parenthood & Reproduction Will Create a Better World, by Laura Carroll.
📑 “Mothers Who Regret Having Children” article in Marie Claire.
⭐ [Serious] Parents who regret having kids: Why? a Reddit thread.
📚 The Conscious Parent: Transforming Ourselves, Empowering Our Children, by Dr. Shefali Tsabary.
📚 “Adult Children of Alcoholics,” by Dr. Janet G. Woititz EdD.
⭐ NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness, a society that advocates for placing severely mentally ill people, not just ones that have threatened to hurt themselves or others, into mental health facilities.
📑 Having Kids Makes You Happier, But Only When They Move Out, an article in “New Scientist.”
⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter
Episode 1 - Drug War
In the premiere episode of Rosie & BJ Save the World, comedian and podcaster, Rosie Tran, alongside social media marketing expert, and best selling author, BJ Mendelson, share their views on ending the war on drugs.
Get ready listeners, BJ and Rosie are here to save the day.
Rosie is in favor of decriminalizing drug use as a means to end drug addiction. She cites Portugal's "use rooms" as an example of state-sanctioned drug use that actually decreases usage and helps those suffering from addiction to seek rehabilitation.
Resources for Saving the World📚 “Chasing the Scream: The Opposite of Addiction is Connection,” a memoir by Johann Hari, who "set out on a three-year, 30,000-mile journey to discover what really causes addiction — and what really solves it."
📑 "Want to Win the War on Drugs? Portugal Might Have the Answer," an article in Time magazine that shows Portugal's "use rooms" decrease drug use.
📚 “Dying for a Paycheck,” by Jeffrey Pfeffer.
📚 “Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History,” by Kurt Andersen, takes a comprehensive look at American history to show how we've ended up in this "fake news" moment.
📑 "Sold by drug users, Illegal, a new Danish street magazine, aims to reform drug policy" article about a Danish magazine that funds clean needles and supplies to decrease needle sharing.
⭐ NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness, a society that advocates for placing severely mentally ill people, not just ones that have threatened to hurt themselves or others, into mental health facilities.
📺 Weed: A Sanjay Gupta, MD, Special Report, a CNN Documentary about medical marijuana. Medical marijuana was the only thing that helped relieve seizures for Charlotte Figi, a young girl with Dravet Syndrome.
📚 “Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman,” a memoir by Yvon Chouinard, who is the founder of Patagonia, Inc.
⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter
⭐ Out of The Box, Rosie’s other podcast
Support and Subscribe to Rosie & BJ Save the World on Anchor, or wherever you get your podcasts.