I suppose while Halloween was approaching, podcasters felt it necessary to cover more grim “spooky” subjects and, naturally, some involve children.
Trick: Children often claim Halloween as their favorite holiday. And it’s not just because of the candy, but the opportunity to be social outside the family unit and play a little make-believe while faking out the evil spirits. One of the most popular tropes is to check one’s candy because there are a lot of creeps out there wanting to harm children. This idea got a hold of the public imagination several decades ago and is still with us. But the interesting thing is: the evidence for this simply does not hold up. One of the most level-headed podcasters is Tim Harford who covers this subject on his Cautionary Tales.
A Real Monster: On the podcast Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know, the hosts interview a guest Matt Graves who, while living in Belgium in the 1990s, became obsessed with the case of mass child abduction taking place there naturally terrifying many parents. There were so many twists and turns in the case that he created a podcast series in order to cover the important details. Sure, those willing to harm children are few and far between but the problem is: those few can operate on an industrial scale.
I have not seen that you have already talked about the new trend of AI images, it would be good if you could talk a little about it, in my case I use some free pages to make custom images, and I also use image references getting amazing results, such as: https://freeimage.host/i/HfYt1V4
Yes, this kind of technology is affecting all kinds of aspects of our lives. One of the earliest hints of electronic technology as a tool in artistic media took place with the extensive use of Photoshop. This way of manipulating images (and now video) is now highly enhanced by AI algorithms that have been trained using human subjects. Over time, images produced this way will probably become more prominent on this site over time. -Ron
But I still believe that nothing is better than “real” photography.
Photoshopped images or AI algorithm images are legitimately works of art, but they are still not “real” images. They are in the same category with paintings and drawings.