Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

Light On Light Through

You'll hear a little of this and lot of that on Light On Light Through - my reviews of great television series and movies, my interviews with authors and creative media people and their interviews of me, my media theory and political commentary, thoughts about my favorite cars and food and space travel, discussions of my music, and a few of my readings from my science fiction stories. In the first years, starting in 2006, I put up a new episode at least once a month.  More recently, it became more or less often than once a month, usually less often.  But in the Summer of 2020, I began getting more in the mood to podcast, and on 17 October 2023, I began publishing a new episode of the podcast every Tuesday at 12:01 pm -- a minute after Noon (New York time).  - Paul Levinson 

24 October 2021: Interview about Light On Light Through podcast

26 December 2023: Chuck Todd interviews Paul Levinson about Alternate Realities on The Chuck Toddcast  

  1. All Episodes
  2. The Media Exile of Useless Places

The Media Exile of Useless Places

Sep 20, 2007


I was in an elevator yesterday afternoon.  It almost got stuck.  You know what I mean?  It stopped for a split second in between floors, shuddered, and then resumed its upward journey.

But it got me to thinking (always a dangerous development).  How little portable media have made every place more useful than it used to be.  A stalled elevator, a car stuck in a traffic jam, a seat in a doctor’s office when you’re waiting endlessly for an appointment - a wireless device, whether cell phone, Blackberry, or iPhone,  makes all of those formerly useless places useful.

The result is that we are enjoying increasing discretion and control over our lives and our activities.  Increasingly, we do nothing when we want to do nothing, not when circumstances dictate that we do nothing.

That's a good step forward.