The only good podcast recorded this week in my basement is back once again with a conversation about life here in this place, with a special focus on how, ahh, Things Are Just Too Big These Days, I Guess. Fast food, Amazon, social media, and our review of In the Heights—what more could you ask? Has something we said, or failed to say, made you FEEL something? You can tell us all about it on Facebook or Twitter, or you can send us an email here. Enjoy!

Show rundown:

05:00 — Abe vs. The Impenetrable Machinery of the Modern World

10:05 — Bob vs. The Impenetrable Monarchical Burger Empire

31:40 — Amazon’s HR problem of their own design

46:56 — Jeff Toobin is back on television, somehow

55:00 — CIB’s In the Heights review, and then some yelling about the critical blowback and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s apology

Here are some links to stories we talked about on today’s show:

Inside Amazon’s Employment Machine — The New York Times with a deep dive into Amazon’s mechanized, automated, and thoroughly dehumanized human resources operation

Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away — When things go horribly wrong during a stay, the company’s secretive safety team jumps in to soothe guests and hosts, help families—and prevent PR disasters. (Bloomberg)

Above: Jeff Toobin humiliates himself once again, for our…pleasure? Below: The Root’s absurd criticism of In the Heights.