Rob Mitchum

The Economic Price We Pay for War A study of armed conflict in the post–World War II era finds that no matter the outcome on the battlefield, economies suffer on all sides.

The consequences of war are devastating. In a study of 135 wars across 115 countries from 1946 to­ 2023, Prof. Efraim Benmelech found that war, on average, led to a decline in real GDP by about 13 percent. Learn more at Kellogg Insight. kell.gg/e6a419

The Cardinals apparently have a relief pitcher named Blewett, file that away for your baseball humor needs.

YouTube video by Lund Peterson Lou Reed Guess I'm Falling in love live

velvet underground researchers have apparently confirmed that this audio from a random youtube user is genuinely the long-lost july '67 performance from upbeat, a cleveland teen tv show, doing the unreleased "guess i'm falling in love" complete with screaming girls. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU2U...

The Recipe for Innovation? An Alliance Between Art and Science. Three tips to help organizations build bridges between creative and systematic thinkers.

Wrote about former Northwestern engineering school dean Julio Ottino's advice on merging art and science, for @kellogginsight.bsky.social insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/reci...

Special image for this show designed by Adrian Shaughnessy, who designed (uncredited) the original Sun Ra Nuclear War 12" (Y Records 1982 UK).

“We’re Trying to Save Your Ass!” Sun Ra / Nuclear War Mega Mix (1982-1988)

🚨FIVE HOURS OF NOTHING BUT NUCLEAR WAR!🚨

Now archived @wfmu.bsky.social

STREAM ▶️ wfmu.org/playlists/sh...

Also I referred to him as Bill "Strings" Callahan in a text to a friend and he was NOT amused.

Can't tell if this new Callahan is great or if it's just 60 degrees outside. Very dangerous time of year.

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.

The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

Along those lines, what baseball newsletters/podcasts are people jamming these days? I need a new one that's not too grumpy or overly focused on stats/organizational stuff. No Dunks but for baseball, basically.

We're doing baseball positivity in 2026.

The Allure of Magic: Discovering Joy in the Inexplicable When German sociologist Max Weber lamented over a century ago that the scientific, rational, and technical explanation ushered in by the Enlightenment contributed to the world’s “disenchantment,” he c...

Beautiful piece by Adam Waytz about the value of awe and "I don't know" to fight the disenchanting experience of AI.

Smartphones, Online Music Streaming, and Traffic Fatalities Vishal R. Patel, Christopher M. Worsham, Michael Liu & Anupam B. Jena X LinkedIn Facebook Bluesky Threads Email Link Working Paper 34866 DOI 10.3386/w34866 Issue Date February 2026 Modern smartphones present new threats to road safety beyond talking and texting, but the real-world effects are difficult to study. One way to causally assess the impact of smartphones on road safety is to identify arbitrarily timed events during which smartphone-related distraction may exogenously increase – i.e., a situation that relies not on plausibly random variation in who uses smartphones while driving, but when smartphones are used. We investigated the impact of smartphones on road safety by examining traffic fatalities on days when smartphone use likely surges: the release of major music albums. Using event study analysis, we show that music streaming – an indicator for smartphone use, where streaming most often occurs – sharply increases, by nearly 40%, on dates of major music album releases, while U.S. traffic fatalities increase by nearly 15% on those same days. Mobile device use while driving is a known safety issue, but today’s smartphones present new and greater opportunities for driver distraction. Our study indicates how features of these phones may have important impacts on distracted driving and traffic fatalities.

On days when major albums are released, people use music streaming services on their smartphone 40% more, and U.S. traffic fatalities increase by 15% www.nber.org/papers/w3486...

Podcast: In Workplace Negotiations, Put the Relationship First It’s not just about salary. On this episode of The Insightful Leader’s “Ask Insight,” we hear how to approach some common work tensions by finding common ground.

We tend to associate the word “negotiate” with salary and home buying—but for Kellogg’s Leigh Thompson, the list should be much longer.

On an episode of “Ask Insight,” Thompson demonstrates how to negotiate solutions in tricky situations. #KelloggLeader kell.gg/10d8df

I think about this bit almost every day.

I was a little skeptical because the density is part of what I like about their sound, but they made up for it with the rearrangements/hybrids.

The Fiery Furnaces Setlist at Old Town School of Folk Music (Gary & Laura Maurer Concert Hall), Chicago Get the The Fiery Furnaces Setlist of the concert at Old Town School of Folk Music (Gary & Laura Maurer Concert Hall), Chicago, IL, USA on February 22, 2026 and other The Fiery Furnaces Setlists for f...

Delightful setlist from the Furnaces last night, all medleys except for "Evergreen," which sounded amazing played straight by comparison. And a new song debut!

microphones at Grateful Dead show

concertgoers hold boomboxes at Polish music festival

tapers sidestage at bluegrass festival

man in t shirt that reads Tape Master

snow day news drop: last week, i turned in a draft of the book i've been working on for the past 6 years! right now, it's called "the invisible hit parade: a taper's history of music" & will be out in 2027 from da capo/hachette. much more to come, obviously!

Deface the Currency, by The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis 7 track album

New Messthetics! After seeing them last year, Anthony Pirog immediately became one of my new favorite guitarists.

Sure, AI Can Automate. But How Can You Use It to Innovate? A Kellogg professor’s experience deploying AI in the classroom shows how domain knowledge and experimentation can lead to true breakthroughs.

Professor Sébastien Martin's experience deploying AI in his classroom shows how domain knowledge and experimentation can lead to true breakthroughs. Learn how at Kellogg Insight. kell.gg/0adcd5

The cover of David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name, with a close-up shot of Croz pondering the ocean.

Thinking about that Jam Cruise...

The jam world is much healthier with an active MMW, for sure.

What flag does Jam Cruise fly?

Is Jam Cruise a sovereign nation? Stay tuned for my working paper.

More jamband fan problems: When I log live shows on my listening diary, I use the format "City, State Date". I'm listening to one of the MMW Jam Cruise sets. What location is Jam Cruise? International Waters?

Ballad of the Sin Reader

That is a *stiff* competition.

*Austin Powers voice*

Three Simpsons characters, one holding some paintings, with the dialogue "Ja, ja, ja -- mach schnell mit der art things, huh? I must get back to Dancecentrum in Stuttgart in time to see Kraftwerk."

Forgot about this real one!

Screenshot of the Germans who bough the Springfield nuclear plant saying "Beware -- we Germans aren't all Tangerine Dream and Amon Düül II"

Calling All Angels, by Eggy from the album Eggy | Tree House Brewing Company | Deerfield, MA | 1.17.26

OK I feel bad not linking. Good band, good jam, good show, but jambands don't make it easy sometimes.