Not There Yet

Eclectic essays podcasted from the third decade of the 21st century.

About the show

The Not There Yet podcast is a ongoing series of short essays covering a wide range of subjects from the perspective of the third decade of the 21st century. They are intended to be thought provoking, challenging, skeptical and hopefully funny once in a while. They are sometimes conventional in nature and others are a little more experimental. They cover science, history, sports, technology, philosophy or just about whatever subject comes to mind. Sometimes they look forward, other times they look back. They will not, however, take up a lot of your time and will be told in an interesting and accessible way.

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Episodes

  • The Arrow

    January 23rd, 2019  |  24 mins 20 secs
    aviation, canada, essay, history, military

    The path not taken 60 years ago has a nation still wondering what might have been.

  • Fat Kid with a Cello

    January 9th, 2019  |  16 mins 22 secs

    Why you should probably make your child play a musical instrument.

  • Legalization

    December 17th, 2018  |  16 mins 57 secs

    I really hope this isn't the one thing for which Canada is known.

  • X-15

    November 21st, 2018  |  22 mins 43 secs
    aviation, history, science, space, space exploration

    Inspired by its feature role in ‘First Man’, a closer look at the first aircraft to fly into space.

  • Dad Was a Traveller

    October 11th, 2018  |  21 mins 52 secs

    Some say you spend your entire life preparing for the inevitable moment when you have to speak at your father’s memorial service. Given that lifetime of preparation, I hope you’ll indulge me — grant me the luxury of a little of your time — as I take you on a ride through Dad’s life as seen from the perspective of his younger son.

  • The Third Third

    April 30th, 2018  |  16 mins
    career advice, life lessons, nonfiction, retirement

    A conversation over breakfast about long-lived parents triggers some thoughts on a new life plan.

  • Plus 15

    March 8th, 2018  |  22 mins 55 secs
    calgary, canada, cold climate, plus 15, urban planning

    In 1970 the city of Calgary, Alberta embarked on an ambitious plan to interconnect all of its downtown buildings into one integrated network using walkways elevated 15 feet above the street. The Plus 15, as it’s called, has shuttled downtown workers around the core for nearly 50 years to their considerable delight. It’s success, however, has been at the expense of the streetscape below. Some thoughts on the past, present and future of this ambitious project.

  • Gutenberg on Broadway

    February 13th, 2018  |  17 mins 27 secs
    change, ibm, memories, podcast, technology

    I am grateful for the observation perch I had for the arrival of the most recent generation of the Information Age. I’m also grateful to have felt, first hand, the shockwave and the seismic tremor of its arrival, and to be smart enough to know what it was.

  • Listening to Diana Krall in Nizhnevartovsk

    January 20th, 2018  |  14 mins 8 secs
    homesickness, life lessons, podcast, russia, travel

    In this episode, host Terence C. Gannon recounts his time as an accidental tourist in Western Siberia in 1998. It was a time and a place so far away, and so strange, he learned something about what connects us all to home.

  • The Future of Warfare is Lighter Than Air

    January 11th, 2018  |  16 mins 15 secs
    airships, history, memories, technology, travel, world war ii

    Both in the 1970s, and then again starting in the 1990s through to present, trips to the Oregon Coast have featured the magnificent airship hangars at Tillamook. This past summer's trip triggered a cascade of memories of what was, and what might have been.

  • Mexico City, 1969

    December 21st, 2017  |  16 mins
    family, life lessons, memories, roadtrip, travel

    As my parents enter their late eighties and approach life with delicacy and deliberation, I am reminded of a time when they seemingly threw caution and good sense to the wind and took their young family on an epic road trip. They knew what they were doing: creating a vivid past for a then distant future.

  • Grand Designs

    December 7th, 2017  |  12 mins 31 secs
    architecture, design, home improvement, pop culture, television

    The shear number of home improvement shows on television — heck, there are entire networks dedicated to them — you would think it would be difficult to make out any signal coming through all that noise. For 17 seasons, however, Britain's Channel 4 has been cranking out Grand Designs hosted by Kevin McCloud—a home improvement show truly worthy of your time.

  • At Work in the Garden of Good and Evil

    November 23rd, 2017  |  12 mins 57 secs
    climate change, environment, essay, oil & gas

    Having left oil & gas after 25 years, you might think I was either a passionate advocate for the industry—or maybe a rabid foe. Turns out that neither is true. While our quality of life is sustained but cheap and plentiful energy, I'm not blind to the its faults. The opponents of oil & gas have valid, compelling arguments, along with a few faults of their own.

  • Rosetta Stone

    November 9th, 2017  |  19 mins 58 secs
    careers, language, life lessons, memories, travel

    A journey from ancient Egypt to modern day as an exploration of language, understanding and a better way for us to communicate with each other.

  • The Tyranny of a Happy Accident

    October 26th, 2017  |  9 mins 29 secs
    career advice, career change, careers, life lessons, self improvement

    You would think that success early in a career is a gift and a stepping stone to the big time. For me, however, it turned out to be a curse. Reflections on a career, candidly, that was not all it should have been.

  • Artificial Ignorance

    October 12th, 2017  |  17 mins 12 secs
    artificial intelligence, future, machine learning, society, tech

    The artificial intelligence (AI) genie is out of the bottle and there is no turning back. Like other earth shattering technologies have been introduced over millenia, there has been the inevitable, well-intended discussion about using each only for good and not evil. However, we have a virtually unblemished record of never getting that to work in practice.