Scratch the Itch

Failure - the Podcast

We were curious. Just what is a skeeter? In the midwest it’s slang for mosquito. Perhaps, everywhere. Wikipedia thinks so. It lists “skeeter” as one of the top off-book expressions for the little disease-carrying buggers. Regardless, nobody seems to like them. Nobody, except the birds and the bats. Fish and frogs, too —- though, the latter might not be with us much longer, if the chytrid fungus has its way. So, forget the frogs. Turtles like skeeters, and so do dragonflies. None of these little beasties vote, so let’s forget the lot of them.

When you come right down to it, nobody or nothing that matters likes the little flying blood-suckers. There’s nary a good one out there. Let’s get rid of them all. As to the birds, bats, turtles, dragonflies and (for now) frogs, they’ll have to fend for themselves. If our public schools can call ketchup a vegetable, than surely our non-voting planetmates can eat those white floaty things from dandelions instead.

All of which brings us to today’s guest. Hanan Lepek is the CEO of Senecio Robotics, an Israeli startup that’s using AI and robotics to help rid the world of skeeters. Just the disease carrying ones, of course. (The garden variety biters get a pass, so don’t throw away that 1960s can of DEET you inherited from grandpa, quite yet). Join us in a post-pandemic conversation that tested the limits of both Skype and Bluetooth. It’s vaguely informative, a little scratchy, occasionally worth a laugh and, certainly, better than watching a coronavirus plume waft up from a political rally at the foot of Mt. Rushmore.