Most of our media are owned by a handful of tech billionaires, but there's one place that still operates like the internet was never invented.

On the new season of the divided dial from On the Media, we're exploring shortwave radio, where prayer and propaganda coexist with news and conspiracy theories, and where an existential battle for the public airwaves is playing out right now.

Listen to On the Media wherever you get your podcasts.

Good morning, Prokaptan. I am happy to report that I am home.

Finally, after a month of separation from my wife, due to visa and immigration

requirements, I am back home in Newcastle upon time, sitting at my kitchen counter and speaking

to you in my favorite microphone of all time, my RE20 from Electrovoice, instead of the

atrocious microphone that I've been using for the past,

Zeus knows how many months, as I've traversed every single hemisphere of the globe,

preparing for what I now recognize as the second act of my life, marriage and parenthood.

Ross and I get our anatomy scan at the end of the month, by the way. So we'll know if

little baby mochi, which is the nickname we've given the fetus, is male or female. We're very excited.

With those few life updates out of the way, how about a little praise for our newest patrons to

join the actual Stoicism Patreon, the Patreon that allows you to support all the work I do across multiple blogs, publications, and this podcast, and a way for you to get access to cool things that non-patrons don't get access to like an ad-free podcast. That's this podcast, special designations in our Discord community, and access to exclusive live events.

So thank you to our newest patrons, David Vaugh and Utku Erceteen.

And Utku, I hope that I have not butchered your name. I probably have, but thank you anyway.

And please correct me on the Patreon so that I know how to say your name in the future.

Thank you to you both for choosing to patronize my work and this podcast.

I truly appreciate that support.

Next up will be some ads, and then we will dive into the next meditation from Marcus Aurelius,

which begins with the line,

repeatedly dwell on the swiftness of the passage and departure of things that are and of things

...