How tech-savvy author Cory Doctorow got scammed

The American Dialect Society’s 2023 word of the year? Enshittification. And our guest on this edition of Chicago Public Square Podcasts, Cory Doctorow, is the guy who coined it.

Hear him define it—and his harrowing explanation of how he, one of the world’s most tech-savvy authors and journalists, got scammed out of $8,000 before he could figure out what was going on. Also: The one “ironclad” rule you should follow to avoid a similar fate.

And then, in this—our first conversation since this podcast from 2019—you’ll learn, among many other things, why he thinks Amazon embodies enshittification and why so many major publishers refused to consider one of his books.

Listen here, or on Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, Amazon’s Alexa-powered speakers or Apple Podcasts.

Or if you prefer to read your podcasts, check out the transcript below.

And if you’re a completist, here’s the original, mostly unedited, behind-the-scenes raw audio and video from the recording of this podcast via Zoom on YouTube.

■ Enjoying these podcasts? Help keep them coming by joining The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians.

■ And consider subscribing—free—to the daily Chicago Public Square email newsletter.

Now, here’s a roughly edited transcript of the interview, recorded March 7, 2024:

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Who was Stan Lee? Two biographers discuss his life and legacy.

Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee so inspired a generation of readers and writers, a multiplicity of biographies was inevitable after his death in 2018.

On the occasion of the publication of Oak Park, Ill., native Abraham Riesman’s entry, True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee, the Chicago Public Square Podcast invited Riesman and A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story of Stan Lee author Danny Fingeroth to join a conversation about Lee’s life and legacy.

Listen here, on your favorite podcast player, via Spotify, YouTube and Pandora, on Amazon’s Alexa-powered devices* or on iTunes (“Hey, Siri! Play Chicago Public Square Podcasts”).

Prefer video? See the whole unedited session as recorded via Zoom here.

Footnotes:

■ Contrary to a statement during the Zoom session (but edited out of the podcast), Meyerson interviewed Stan Lee just twice. You can hear those encounters here and here. But he also witnessed Lee’s first Chicago comics convention appearance, which you can read about here; and his final public Chicago appearance, which you can hear here.

■ Enjoying these podcasts? Keep them coming by joining The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians.

■ And consider subscribing—free—to the daily Chicago Public Square email newsletter.

*Even if you don’t have an Alexa speaker, you can turn iOS and Android phones into Alexa devices for free.

Barack Obama’s 1st biographer, David Mendell: Michelle didn’t care for the book

He’s Barack Obama’s first biographer. But journalist David Mendell doesn’t expect his award-winning 2007 book, Obama: From Promise to Power, to land a spot in Obama’s presidential library.

Mendell and I were colleagues at the Chicago Tribune through much of the 2000s, but we barely exchanged hellos back then because he was so busy covering Obama’s rise to the U.S. Senate.

So I learned a lot—including just how hard Obama worked to conceal his smoking habit—as Mendell and I finally got to catch up on-stage at Dominican University in River Forest, in this installment of the Wednesday Journal Conversations / Chicago Public Square Podcast series, recorded Nov. 20, 2019.

Listen here, on your favorite podcast player, via Spotify, YouTube and Pandora, on Amazon’s Alexa-powered speakers* or on iTunes (say “Hey, Siri! Play Chicago Public Square Podcasts”).



Enjoying these? Keep them coming by joining The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians.

*Even if you don’t have an Alexa speaker, you can turn iOS and Android phones into Alexa devices for free—a low-impact way to experiment with the technology.

Science fiction, Radicalized: An interview with Cory Doctorow

Wanna know what terrible technology is headed your way in the years ahead? Journalist and science fiction author Cory Doctorow says it’s not hard: Take a look at what The Powers That Be are foisting on prisoners and students.

Doctorow joined the Chicago Public Square Podcast for half an hour or so to talk about police brutality; controversial high-rise developments and “poor-doors”; the criminalization of copyright law; and his new book, Radicalized—a collection of four science fiction novellas that the jacket calls “Tales of Our Present Moment.”

Listen here, on your favorite podcast player, via Spotify, YouTube and Pandora, on Amazon’s Alexa-powered speakers* or on iTunes (say “Hey, Siri! Play Chicago Public Square Podcasts”).



Enjoying these podcasts? Keep them coming by joining The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians.

And if you’re a Doctorow fan, check out his Craphound website, where you can download many of his works (but not Radicalized) free; and Boing Boing, the news site he co-edits.

*Even if you don’t have an Alexa speaker, you can turn iOS and Android phones into Alexa devices for free—a low-impact way to experiment with the technology. (Photo: Charlie Meyerson.)

How Steve James overcame doubt—his and others’—to create America to Me

Filmmaker Steve James’s work—including the Oscar-nominated Hoop Dreams and Abacus—has won him critical acclaim galore and goodwill in the town where he lives, Oak Park.

But when he set out to create his 10-part documentary series America to Me—about Oak Park, its historic commitment to integration and its high school’s challenges in living up to a reputation for inclusiveness—he had his doubts.

Hear all about that—and catch up with two of the students spotlighted by this celebrated Starz series—in a Chicago Public Square Podcast. Listen here, on your favorite podcast player, via Spotify, YouTube and Pandora, on Amazon’s Alexa-powered speakers* or on iTunes (say “Hey, Siri! Play Chicago Public Square Podcasts”).



If you enjoy this, check out other podcasts in the series. (Photo: Wednesday Journal / Alexa Rogals.)

And if you’re new to these parts, please sign up for the free daily Square news update here.

* Even if you don’t have an Alexa smart speaker, you can turn iOS and Android phones into Alexa devices for free—a low-impact way to experiment with the technology.

Food Network star Jeff Mauro talks about that time a guy in the audience died

Something different for the Chicago Public Square Newscast (and Podcast) series this time: A visit with Food Network star and Chicago native Jeff Mauro.

He joined the Wednesday Journal Conversations series May 15, 2018, to talk about his life and times—including that time he was performing improv comedy and a ticketholder died.

And stick around to hear in detail about Mauro’s bathing habits. (Photo: Carmen Rivera.)

Listen here, on your favorite podcast player, via Spotify, YouTube and Pandora, on Amazon’s Alexa-powered speakers* or on iTunes (say “Hey, Siri! Play Chicago Public Square Podcasts”).



You can hear previous installments in the Conversations series—including chats with Obama administration strategist David Axelrod and Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! host Peter Sagal—here.

And thanks this time out for support from Legion of Chicago Public Squarians members Marc Magliari, Denise Mattson, David Mausner, Joe McArdle, John and Beth Messina, Barbara Miller and Larry Montgomery. You can join them for pennies a day here.

* Even if you don’t have an Alexa smart speaker, you can turn iOS and Android phones into Alexa devices for free—a low-impact way to experiment with the technology.

‘Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!’ host Peter Sagal tells his not-favorite things

Let Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s incredibly successful Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!, tell you this:

He hates the show’s name.

He also hates the place where he creates that show.

You’ll learn why as you listen to a podcast of my onstage interview with Sagal—part of the Wednesday Journal Conversations series—in which he talks about the show, his career, the Constitution under Donald Trump, the challenge sexual harassment poses to comedy writing, the differences between announcers Bill Kurtis and Carl Kasell, and much more … including Sagal’s affection for the village we both call home: Oak Park, Ill.

Hear here how it went at Dominican University in River Forest, Nov. 20, 2017. Or listen on your favorite podcast player, via Spotify, YouTube and Pandora, on Amazon’s Alexa-powered speakers or on iTunes (say “Hey, Siri! Play Chicago Public Square Podcasts”).

P.S. Enjoy this? Check out the previous installment in this podcast series: My interview with President Obama’s former chief strategist, David Axelrod.

P.P.S. Imagine how your advertisement or underwriting message would sound as part of the next in this podcast series, with a presence in the show and on this website. Interested? Write to Us@ChicagoPublicSquare.com

(Photos: Alexa Rogals/Wednesday Journal.)

David Axelrod: From Oak Park to the White House

When President Obama’s former chief strategist—now University of Chicago Institute of Politics founder and CNN senior political commentator—David Axelrod agreed to return to his old suburban neighborhood to kick off the Wednesday Journal newspaper’s series of public conversations at Dominican University, I was honored by the request to moderate the session with my long-ago neighbor and teammate at Chicago’s WXRT-FM.

It was an enlightening and—by the account of Axelrod’s fans in the audience—therapeutic evening.

Hear for yourself in this podcast, recorded Sept. 6, 2017. Or listen on your favorite podcast player, via Spotify, YouTube and Pandora, on Amazon’s Alexa-powered speakers or on iTunes (say “Hey, Siri! Play Chicago Public Square Podcasts”).

(Photo: Alexa Rogals, Wednesday Journal)