Gweek 060: Superman is a Happy Mutant; Batman is Jerk

Click here to play this episode. Gweek is Boing Boing's podcast about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff. My co-hosts for this episode are:

Michael Pusateri -- a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney

and

Seth Godin -- author, entrepreneur, and human wunderkammer.

In this episode:

Real money trading in virtual worlds - Diablo 3 gold now selling $2.50 per million. And Valve's resident economist blog.

True Believers by Kurt Andersen. "Both a thriller of what life what like in 1962 and know," says Seth.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig. "The key message of the book is that being a spectator is no fun," says Seth.

The pathos of the Golden Silver Age comics of the Justice League of America.

Seth's riff on the worldviews of Superman vs. Batman.

Follow up on The Breach, recommended by Ernest Cline

Michael: The perils of re-reading books from your youth (Heinlein's The Number of the Beast)

Mark: The joy of re-reading books from your youth (Philip Jose Farmer's Dark is the Sun)

The Philosophy Book

Nest thermostat

And much more!

• [facebook-674043324]

  The Justice League book should be listed as SILVER AGE, not GOLDEN AGE.

  • [Mark_Frauenfelder]

    Right you are!

• [Deidzoeb]

  I thought the key message of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was that Pirsig had dissociative identity disorder. [Oops, spoiler!] Or maybe that was just a literary device.

• [Anonymous]

   ”True Believers” link is malformed.

• [Chris Fleming]

  Mark, I’m your biggestest fan in the world ever just for mentioning Dark is the Sun, let alone enjoying it. 

  • [Mark_Frauenfelder]

    I’m a huge fan of Farmer. I plan on re-reading Jesus on Mars next. I remember loving it.

• [robdobbs]

  Any idea why, in iTunes (Canada), this isn’t showing up? Last episode listed is 58.

  • [Mark_Frauenfelder]

    I dunno! I’ll check with the powers that be at Apple. Thanks for alerting me this, robdobbs.

• [StreetEight]

  Jeez, after 20+ years I had mercifully forgotten all about The Number Of The Beast.

  Thanks a whole lot, Fraunfelder.

• [tonyzhou]

  I like the batman costume very much.How about this one?

• [Brian Burrell]

  I remember reading “Number…” in the early 80′s. I didn’t make it past the first 2 or 3 chapters it was so bad.  I just had a positive experience re-reading a book from my childhood, though;  the Merlin trilogy by Mary Stewart (Crystal Cave, Hollow Hills & last Enchantment).  Best take on the whole Arthurian legend ever.

• [Acme Post]

  did you have a link for Todd the photographer’s article in the NY Times?