Artificial Intelligence
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Podcast Episode: Home

Note. The underlying article can be found here: https://ajprokop.com/2026/10/12/home/ Pip: What does it mean to feel at home somewhere? Not the address — the feeling. That’s the question Can You Hear Me Now keeps circling back to this week. Mara: Andrew Prokop takes that question seriously, and this episode follows him through it — from… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Too Much of a Thing

Note. The underlying article can be found here: https://ajprokop.com/2026/10/05/too-much-of-a-thing/ Pip: There is a certain irony in a technology podcast that keeps asking whether we have too much technology — but here we are, and Andrew Prokop keeps finding new angles on that question. Mara: This week on Can You Hear Me Now, we’re looking at… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Hong Kong Travelogue

Note. The underlying article can be found here: https://ajprokop.com/2026/09/28/hong-kong-travelogue/ Pip: Some journals survive the years by accident — a drawer never cleared, a box never tossed — and occasionally that’s a genuine gift. Mara: Andrew Prokop has been publishing exactly that kind of gift on Can You Hear Me Now. Today we’re spending the whole… Continue reading
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Hong Kong Travelogue

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust On March 28, 1998, I flew from Minneapolis to Hong Kong. As with my recently published trip to Ireland, I kept a travel journal that somehow survived the years. As with Ireland, I was there to teach… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Traducation

Note. The underlying article can be found here: https://ajprokop.com/2026/09/21/traducation/ Pip: Can You Hear Me Now — where the memes are plentiful, the nuance is scarce, and somebody finally gave the tradwife movement and the trade school movement a shared name. Mara: Andrew Prokop is doing the naming this week, and the territory he covers runs… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Irish Travelogue

Note. The underlying article can be found here: https://ajprokop.com/2026/09/14/irish-travelogue/ Pip: There is exactly one post on the docket today, and it is a time capsule — a travel journal from 1997 that survived several computer deaths and one very determined blogger. Mara: Andrew Prokop found a long-lost journal from a work trip to Galway, Ireland,… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: The Things We Keep, The Stories They Tell

Note. The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/09/07/the-things-we-keep-the-stories-they-tell/ Pip: A coffee mug, a space-race tin, and a plastic cup from a baseball game that happened before some of our listeners were born — welcome to Can You Hear Me Now, where the objects on your desk apparently have opinions. Mara: Andrew Prokop’s recent writing… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Lost in the In-Between

Note. The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/08/31/lost-in-the-in-between/ Pip: There is a particular kind of melancholy that arrives in early September, right on schedule, whether you asked for it or not. Mara: Andrew Prokop is sitting with exactly that feeling in this episode — the uneasy space between what was and what’s coming, from… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: The Made Bed and Other Tales of Transformation

Note. The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/08/24/the-made-bed-and-other-tales-of-transformation/ Pip: There’s a podcast called Can You Hear Me Now, which is either a question about recovery and dignity or a very pointed complaint about cell service — and today, Andrew Prokop makes a case for the former. Mara: He does. Today’s episode is about how… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: A Myth Understanding

Note. The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/08/17/a-myth-understanding/ Pip: There’s a slab of concrete near a waterfall in Minneapolis, and the question of whether a president ever stood in it is doing more philosophical work than most graduate seminars. Mara: Andrew Prokop’s recent writing takes that question somewhere worth following — into what myths… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: WannaHug — Values-Driven Shopping With a Twist

Note. The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/08/10/wannahug-values-driven-shopping-with-a-twist/ Second note. I am disappointed that Mara fails to mention that William is the founder of WannaHug. This is still beta technology and I am unable to correct that with specific prompting. Pip: There is a company out there that will sell you a hoodie and… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Let it Go

Note. The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/08/03/let-it-go/ Pip: There’s a podcast called Can You Hear Me Now, and today it has something to say about the things we protect so carefully we forget to actually use them. Mara: Andrew Prokop’s writing this week works through one central tension — holding on versus letting… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

Note: The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/07/27/knockin-on-heavens-door/ Pip: There’s a moment when you realize you’ve been closer to the end than the beginning for a while now — and instead of panicking, you sit down and pick funeral songs. Mara: That’s exactly where Andrew Prokop takes us today. The episode covers one extended… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: The Boomer’s Guide to Surviving Technology

Note: The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/07/20/the-boomers-guide-to-surviving-technology/ Pip: There is a certain irony in a blog called Can You Hear Me Now being primarily about whether anyone can keep up with the thing they are hearing. Mara: Andrew Prokop is asking exactly that question today — how retired men navigate a world that… Continue reading
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The Boomer’s Guide to Surviving Technology

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. Alan Watts Every other Monday, my men’s retirement circle meets for connection, conversation, and friendship. It’s the most formal of all my groups, but the formality is still fairly loose. We begin with check-ins… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: July Meditations, Reflections, Travelogue, and Scrapbook

Note: The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/07/13/july-meditations-reflections-travelogue-and-scrapbook/ Pip: July — the month where some of us turn another year older, and at least one of us turns it into an entire philosophy of living. Mara: That’s the territory Andrew Prokop covers in his latest post — birthday inventory, a long-running Lake Superior tradition,… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Redefining Productivity

Note: The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/07/06/redefining-productivity/ Pip: What does it mean to have a productive day when nobody’s keeping score anymore? That question turns out to be a lot harder than it sounds. Mara: Andrew Prokop takes it on directly in this episode — we’re looking at what productivity actually means once… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: The Burden We Call Love

Note: The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/06/29/the-burden-we-call-love/ Pip: There’s a phrase most of us have said at least once — “I don’t want to be a burden” — delivered with the quiet confidence of someone who has never actually thought it through. Mara: Andrew Prokop has been thinking it through. Today we’re covering… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Where do the Children Play

Note: The underlying article can be found at Where do the Children Play. Pip: There’s a site called Can You Hear Me Now, which is either a meditation on human connection or a very long complaint about cell service — and today, Andrew Prokop makes the case that it’s definitely the former. Mara: Andrew Prokop’s latest… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: Free Range Retirement

Note: The underlying article can be found at Free Range Retirement. Pip: There’s a quote that opens the post we’re covering today: “The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.” Which, honestly, sounds less like a warning and more like a sales pitch. Mara: Andrew Prokop is two years into retirement… Continue reading