Two for Tea with Iona Italia and Helen Pluckrose: Recent Episodes
Iona Italia and Helen Pluckrose
Areo Magazine's Two for Tea podcast is hosted by Iona Italia. For early access to episodes, support us at https://www.patreon.com/twofortea or https://www.patreon.com/areo.
Freddie DeBoer: The Cult of SmartGeneral:Freddie’s Substack: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/Freddie’s website: https://fredrikdeboer.com/The Cult of Smart available here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250224491/thecultofsmartFollow:On X: https://twitter.com/freddiesubstack?lang=enReferences:Freddie’s essay: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/education-doesnt-work-20Timestamps:1.04 Intros: A little on Freddie’s background.2.05: Iona reads from The Cult of Smart.4.05: Freddie expands on the issues addressed in the book: the problems behind modern educational ideology and philosophy, how America compares to the rest of the world and within a historical context.12.03: Why is the education system not achieving its aims and how might these issues be addressed? The introduction of tech and various policies and interventions and how these have failed to have an impact. 21.18: Iona reads the widget analogy from the book. They discuss the change in blame for poor results from the pupil to the teacher. 27.32: Freddie highlights our obsession with academic success and with a failure to acknowledge that certain characteristics are heritable. He and Iona discuss the merits and desirability of different skillsets. 40.45: The difficulty of predicting which skills will be most valuable in the future and on how technology plays a role. 44.20: Freddie explains how, even within a Marxist framework, individual differences in aptitudes are still important and excellence is still valued. 49.47: Wage gaps between academics, middle-management administrators, and trades people. 57.17: Iona argues for the inherent value of elite institutions and highlights how the UK model differs from the US model in terms of admissions and funding. 1.04.07: Freddie expands on the enrollment crisis in the US and on how college is largely sold as a recreational experience versus the elite Ivy League colleges where endowments motivate a different admissions pathway. 1.09.30: The difficulties of discussing IQ on a group basis, specifically regarding race.1.20.42: Freddie sums up his argument that educational interventions and policy cannot solve inequality and that insisting we are all capable of academic excellence is neither a compassionate nor useful goal. Schools should still be well-funded and be valued beyond chasing test score.1.22.48: Thanks and outro. Sound editing: Justin WardShownotes: Nicola Muir
Podcast notes: Tom NashGeneral:Tom’s website: https://www.tomnash.com/Tom’s TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/tom_nash_the_perks_of_being_a_pirate_jan_2019?language=enFollow: Twitter: https://twitter.com/DjHookieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/djhookie/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/tomnash/References: The Curb-Cut Effect: https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_curb_cut_effectThe CRISPR twins: https://time.com/5466967/crispr-twins-lives/Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Antifragile.html?id=5fqbz_qGi0AC&redir_esc=y#:~:text=Antifragile%20is%20a%20standalone%20book,world%20we%20don't%20understand.Timestamps:1.00 Introductions. Tom’s visible disability. Why Tom doesn’t consider himself an inspirational speaker. 6.36 The interplay between Tom’s personality and his disability and the role of humour in putting people at ease.13.16 The origins of Tom’s disability and his experiences over 18 months in hospitals. Design and creativity and the development of his DJ brand.27.38 How adaptations to improve accessibility often benefit wider society; the curb-cut effect, door levers and subtitles.35.25 Why Tom prefers hooks to electric hands. How his prosthetics operate. Potential developments in tissue regrowth technology.39.57 Disability activists online. The role of genetic modification and human wellbeing. 47.32 The impact of technology on all our lives, especially smartphones. The value of doing things the hard way sometimes.51.35 Relationships and intimacy. How being dependent on a partner can feel. 56.25 Psychology and being anti-fragile.58.20 Tom’s choice to live. The opportunities of post traumatic growth.1.01.07 Pity and the soft bigotry of low expectations. The solitude of being a DJ. How might AI impact the role of the DJ?1.14.13 Praise for the Australian Health System and gratitude for the support of friends and family. Tom’s book is being published in September 2023.1.16.16 Tom’s happiness with his life.1.17.58 Thanks and outro.Sound engineering by Justin WardShownotes by Nicola Muir
General: Find Christoph on Twitter @Halalcoholism https://twitter.com/Halalcoholism?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor References:
Johnathan Haidt on the podcast. https://www.stitcher.com/show/tea-for-two-with-iona-italia-and-helen-pluckrose/episode/06-jonathan-haidt-and-greg-lukianoff-the-coddling-of-the-american-mind-57029667
The Rise of Victimhood Culture by Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning. https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9783319703282?gC=5a105e8b&gclid=CjwKCAiA3KefBhByEiwAi2LDHCYRp7wprYJObCLEvQSjckvGmR1-nEU52lW-n-_j6kurXNE3JhvSfRoCOcoQAvD_BwE
Campbell and Manning on the podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/04-bradley-campbell-and-jason-manning-victimhood-culture/id1417717946?i=1000421234132 Tomiwa Owolade in Unherd. https://unherd.com/2022/05/black-british-lives-dont-matter/
Timestamps: 01.06 Introduction. Some descriptions of Christoph from Twitter. Iona and Christoph discuss how he moved from blogging, via Facebook to Twitter. 22.02 How online culture functions and the way in which extreme views can be the most visible. 25.23 Iona discusses her own behavior on Twitter and our impulse to protect our reputations. 40.10 Is “woke” still a useful term? Victimhood culture and the idea that disagreement is harmful. 52.12 How both the right and left wing behave online. The left’s obsession with managing speech instead of addressing more complex, meaningful problems. 1:00:01 Class, including the way it relates to Indian nationalism and the caste system. How the left is eating itself instead of fighting common enemies. The American-centric nature of online discourse. Modern British leftist distaste for the white working class. 1:15:20 How “woke” can get in the way of more meaningful change. 1:25:02 What are the positives of Twitter? Some iconic tweets. 1:33:30 Thanks and outro.
Sound engineering: Justin Ward Shownotes: Nicola Muir
Riding Out the Media Storm: Claire Lehmann General:Claire’s writing for Quillette: https://quillette.com/author/clairelehmann/And for The Australian: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/claire-lehmannFollow:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clairelehmann/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clairequillette/References:Eoin Lenihan on Antifa: https://quillette.com/2019/05/29/its-not-your-imagination-the-journalists-writing-about-antifa-are-often-their-cheerleaders/On the Weinsteins and Ivermectin: https://quillette.com/2022/03/22/on-darkhorse-ivermectin-and-vaccine-hesitancy/Iona’s Substack: https://drionaitalia.substack.com/Information on contributing to Quillette: https://quillette.com/contribute/Timestamps:1:20 Introductions. Claire’s background studying forensic psychology and why she left academic life and founded Quillette. 5:12 The psychology of political views. 10:10 Quillette’s place in the political landscape. The publication’s most controversial pieces; Antifa, Ivermectin, the heritability of intelligence.21:35 What happened to the Intellectual Dark Web? 30.28 The capture of the heterodox sphere by American culture and politics. How and why Australia, the UK and Canada differ from the US. 41:35 Claire’s pushback against the use of Australia’s covid policies as a political football in the American culture war. 47:22 Quillette’s controversial reporting on the role of genetics and intelligence.53:52 Claire’s admiration of Paglia and critiques of post-structuralism. 57.12 The positives and negatives of Substack.1:02:00 Claire’s decision to leave Twitter and how that has benefited her. 1:05:22 Summing up and outro. Sound engineering by Justin Ward.Shownotes by Nicola Muir.
General:Kat’s latest novel, You Must Remember This, from Harper Collins. https://www.harpercollins.com/products/you-must-remember-this-kat-rosenfield?variant=40371773407266 The novel will be released in the UK on the 2 March 2023 and can be pre-ordered here:https://www.waterstones.com/book/you-must-remember-this/kat-rosenfield/9780063207394Kat’s website https://katrosenfield.com/Kat’s novels available here https://katrosenfield.com/books/Kat’s writing from Unherd https://unherd.com/author/kat-rosenfield/ and for Spectator World https://thespectator.com/author/kat-rosenfield/Feminine Chaos podcast https://femchaospod.substack.com/Follow Kat:Twitter https://twitter.com/katrosenfield?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5EauthorInstagramhttps://www.instagram.com/katrosenfield/?hl=enReferences: Iona’s guest appearance on Feminine Chaos https://femchaospod.substack.com/p/mad-about-the-boys#detailsKat’s previous appearances on Two For Tea: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/106-kat-rosenfield-mistress-of-murderhttps://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/68-kat-rosenfield-dating-in-the-digital-ageThe writer Rebeca Christiansen at Areo https://areomagazine.com/author/rachristiansen/ and her appearance on the podcast: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/86-rebecca-christiansen-making-mayhemTimestamps: 00:00 Opening and introductions.03.24 Iona reads a passage from Kat’s new novel.15.14 Kat and Iona discuss what made Kat pivot to adult novels from her previous Young Adult titles. How Kat’s characters got older and their stories developed darker, more adult themes. 17.18 What led Kat to write for teenagers. Her work as a journalist for MTV and writing at the time of huge successes such as Twilight and The Hunger Games. She and Iona discuss what was available to younger readers in their own teens. The coming-of-age novels that felt more advisory than instructive, such as Judy Blume titles. Iona’s enjoyment of Austen, Tolkien, memoirs and diaries. 26.50 Iona and Kat talk about how women are drawn to reading and writing true crime and murder mystery. How murder mystery novels require the reader’s attention and allow us to experience danger at a safe distance.36.00 The blandness and anachronism of some modern romance writing and screen writing. 38.00 The two timelines in Kat’s new novel; Miriam’s last Christmas, set in the present, and the other in her youth. 39.59 Iona reads a passage in which young Miriam plays hide and seek.47.18 How Kat got into writing, 15 years ago.49.08 Iona asks if the YA fiction scene became too restrictive in terms of social justice and the “own voices” movement. How YA publishing lends itself to moral panic. The way in which that can be misused for reasons of professional jealousy and how the phenomenon is hopefully on its way out.55.00 Can reading be harmful? Kat relays a story of her own unpleasant experience reading Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. How conflating discomfort with harm shuts off the chance for growth and resilience. 1.03.24 Maine as a setting for Kat’s books. Her influences including Stephen King, Daphne Du Maurier and Shirley Jackson. 1.06.45 Thanks and outro.Sound engineering by Justin WardShownotes by Nicola Muir
General: Murder In Old Bombay. Captain Jim and Lady Diana Mysteries Book One. From Macmillan books. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250269546/murderinoldbombayAnd on audio https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Murder-in-Old-Bombay-Audiobook/1250775043?qid=1673616961&sr=1-2&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_2&pf_rd_p=c6e316b8-14da-418d-8f91-b3cad83c5183&pf_rd_r=YJ45A8E0Q4ZC1DX4Y7RN&pageLoadId=5U11lQEHJx2bK4W0&creativeId=41e85e98-10b8-40e2-907d-6b663f04a42dPeril At the Exposition. Captain Jim and Lady Diana Mysteries Book Two. From MacMillan books https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250855046/perilattheexposition And on audio https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Peril-at-the-Exposition-Audiobook/B09GC69JCB?qid=1673616961&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=c6e316b8-14da-418d-8f91-b3cad83c5183&pf_rd_r=YJ45A8E0Q4ZC1DX4Y7RN&pageLoadId=5U11lQEHJx2bK4W0&creativeId=41e85e98-10b8-40e2-907d-6b663f04a42dhttps://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250855060The Spanish Diplomat’s Secret. Book Three in the series, to be released later this year:https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250855060Nev March’s website: https://nevmarch.com/Follow:Follow Nev on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nevmarchOn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NevMarch/References:Nev’s previous appearance on the podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/116-nev-march-murder-in-old-bombay/id1417717946?i=1000548023723The Chicago World’s Fair legacy site https://worldsfairchicago1893.com/John Mullan’s book on Dickens https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/artful-dickens-9781408866818/John Mullan’s interview with Iona https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/136-john-mullan/id1417717946?i=1000587632804Vaseem Khan’s website and books can be found at https://vaseemkhan.com/Time stamps:1.01Opening and introductions.2.25 The Chicago World’s Fair 1893 as a setting for the novel. Nev describes how the events provide a background for the beginnings of the political polarization that we see today.6.00 Iona alludes to the influences of writers such as Dickens and Wilkie Collins on the novels with additional reference to John Mullan’s work on Dickens.14.08 Iona reads an excerpt from the book.21.22 The real-life events featured in the book. The plight of poor and immigrant workers at the time and the complex morality of their employers in a precarious financial market. The way in which current situations across the world and within the USA itself are reflected in the challenges faced by the protagonists in the novel.28.40 The immigrant experience in real life and for the protagonists, Diana and Jim. 32.55 Identity and belonging as separate. How the character Jim’s maturity is evident in this second novel when compared to the first.44.06 Iona reads another passage. 47.51 Nev discusses her desire to portray Diana and Jim’s sex life through a historically accurate lens. The dangers of childbirth for women, both historically and in present day America and across the world. 57.20 How ahistorical representations of sexual relationships in novels and media produced today can be jarring. The way in which Jim’s background and experience as an illegitimate child informs his behavior around sex and demonstrates his moral character. 1.02.20 Nev’s third book of the series, The Spanish Diplomat’s Secret, will be released in Autumn / Winter 2023. This time, the couple will be on board a liner sailing across the Atlantic towards Liverpool. 1.07.02 Nev gives some advice for budding writers including reading a variety of genres and using lists to free up brain space, allowing room for joy in writing. 1.10.37 Final reading from Iona. 1.12.18 Thanks and outro.
Podcast Notes: Alice DregerGeneral:The Index Case by Molly Macallen, the first novel in the Maddy Shanks series. Published on Lulu.Visit Alice’s website: https://alicedreger.com/ Follow:Follow Alice on Twitter https://twitter.com/AliceDreger?s=20&t=CDzQ-0LkFfFGhqph0trBOQArticles and books:Alice’s non-fiction books: https://alicedreger.com/books/Alice’s writing https://alicedreger.com/writing/References:Visiting Your Leg Alice’s essay on the politics of anatomy.One of Us Alice’s book on anatomy and political and social identity.Dr Oz can't afford me Alice’s essay on exploitation by the entertainment industry.Lavish Dwarf Entertainment Alice’s essay on the entertainment agency.The New England Journal of Medicine.Altered Carbon the novel by Richard Morgan.The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca SklootAlice's paper on the J Michael Bailey controversy. Alice and Colin Wright take part in a discussion about biological sex.Alice in Genderland by Richard Novic.Iona's essay on age gaps and relationships.Timestamps:00.00 Opening and introductions.4.17 Why a pseudonym for novel writing?7.56 The themes of the book.9.17 Alice reads the blurb from the novel.11.26 Iona reads an excerpt from the novel.16.46 Alice discusses how she and her protagonist’s areas of study echo each other; the politics of anatomy, how the body interacts with the world, the history of science and of medicine. How science has dealt with “interesting” bodies over the course of modern history.21.57 How power works in relationships between doctors and people with “interesting” bodies. Alice discusses how her non-fiction book One of Us addresses this, with reference to Eng and Chang Bunker, the original “Siamese twins”.26.58 Alice talks about the historical and contemporary exhibition of bodies; how some individuals are exhibited and exploited and how some with “unusual” bodies make money from their own bodies.30.13 Iona reads more. Alice discusses the shift of science away from storytelling to depersonalised, anonymised specimens.35.09 The New England Journal of Medicine as an outlier to this phenomenon. 36.55 Iona refers to Altered Carbon, the novel, and the ethical and philosophical questions about what it means to be a person and about bodily intergration.40.00 Iona and Alice talk about eugenics, disabilities and autism research and about anatomy and identity and what personhood is. How identity has changed over time away from the body and towards external signifiers. How this is explored in the novel. 43.16 Who has the right to use dead bodies? How the government may control bodies, eg: dying people isolated during the covid pandemic. 47.00 How the order of the books in the series came about. The Difficult Subject, book two, will be coming out soon. Themes around sexuality. 48.35 Alice’s enjoyment of fiction writing vs. enjoyment of non-fiction writing.51.13 Michael Bailey and his writing on autogynephilia and transgender identities. Do we have an innate sense of gender? Alice’s recent debate with Colin Wright. How The Difficult Subject relates to these themes.58.41 The unethical relationship in the novel. How power works in this relationship. Sex scenes and sexuality in the novels. 1.01.45 The abusive relationship in the series and Alice’s own experience. Controversy around the framing of trauma. 1.08.45 More on the development of the series. The Worst Thing will be book three. Reception of the first novel.1.15.00 Why self-publish? Published via Lulu.1.19.55 Summing up and outro.
Information about Rio:https://www.queermajority.com/about-the-editor-sub/about-the-editor-rvhttps://areomagazine.com/author/rioveradonir/Bi Foundation: https://www.bisexuality.org/ Queer Majority: https://www.queermajority.com/ Bi.org: https://bi.org/en amBi: https://www.ambi.org/
GeneralVisit John’s academic webpage for more information on his publications:https://www.ucl.ac.uk/english/people/john-mullan John’s book ‘What Matters in Jane Austen: Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved’:https://www.amazon.com/What-Matters-Jane-Austen-Crucial/dp/B00BNI1Z8Y Jane Austen’s books:https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/68 ReferencesIona’s Areo article ‘Writing Wrongs: Why Academics Write So Badly and How That Hurts Them’:https://areomagazine.com/2020/07/06/writing-wrongs-why-academics-write-so-badly-and-how-that-hurts-them/ Timestamps0:00 Opening and introduction, with some remarks on obscurity and lucidity in academic writing.3:30 Austen as revolutionary literary stylist: Iona reads from John’s book on her.8:15 Iona reads a passage from Austen’s ‘Persuasion’.12:11 John discusses Austen’s techniques in this passage, particularly her innovation in creating free indirect style.21:03 Iona reads the next couple of paragraphs of ‘Persuasion’; further discussion of Austen’s subtle techniques and themes follows.30:20 The importance of male sexuality in Austen (“in want of a wife”).38:46 Austen’s underrated comic genius.47:00 More on Austen’s men: rakes, celibates, and premarital sex.54:25 Marriage, sex, and finality in Austen (and marriage as permanent fate in literature more generally).1:05:00 Idiolects and character in Austen (and the controversy over Austen on the ten pound note).1:14:20 Austen’s writing is both very simple and richly complex.1:18:31 The importance of “impossible!” in Austen.1:19:21 John’s advice for re-reading Austen and some final reflections on her work.1:23:11 Last words and outro.
GeneralVisit Brett’s website, where you can find his blog and much more:https://www.bretthall.org/Follow Brett on Twitter:https://twitter.com/TokteacherSubscribe to Brett’s YouTube channel:https://youtube.com/channel/UCmP5H2rF-ER33a58ZD5jCig?sub_confirmation=1ReferencesIona’s Substack essay, in which she previously described Brett as a philosopher—a description with which Brett disagreed:https://drionaitalia.substack.com/p/knots-gather-at-the-comb Karl Popper’s philosophy:https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/ Massimo Pigliucci’s Two for Tea appearance: https://m.soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/55-massimo-pigliucci David Deutsch’s ‘The Beginning of Infinity’:https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0143121359/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1658005291&sr=8-1 Daniel James Sharp’s Areo review of Ord’s ‘The Precipice’:https://areomagazine.com/2020/05/11/we-contain-multitudes-a-review-of-the-precipice-existential-risk-and-the-future-of-humanity-by-toby-ord/ David Hume and the problem of induction:https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/induction-problem/Natural selection and the Neo-Darwinian synthesis:https://www.britannica.com/science/neo-Darwinism Richard Dawkins’s ‘The Extended Selfish Gene’:https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01MYDYR6N/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1658008393&sr=8-3 Theory-ladenness:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory-ladenness Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’:https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1473221625/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1658010065&sr=8-1 The Popperian ‘paradox of tolerance’ cartoon:https://images.app.goo.gl/MEbujAKv2VSp1m4B8 For the Steven Pinker Two for Tea interview on ‘Rationality’, stay tuned to the Two for Tea podcast feed as it’s coming soon for public listening:https://m.soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast Brett’s critique of Bayesianism:https://www.bretthall.org/bayesian-epistemology.html Brett on morality:https://www.bretthall.org/morality Steven Pinker’s book ‘Rationality’:https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0525561994/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1658012700&sr=8-1 Timestamps00:00 Opening and introduction. What, exactly, is Brett? What does he do?4:58 Free speech and Popperian thought (and what is Popperian thought, anyway?).12:24 Brett’s view on existential risk and the future; how he differs from the likes of Martin Rees and Toby Ord.22:38 How can we overcome ‘acts of God’? (With reference to Iona’s syphilitic friend.) The dangers of the unknown and the necessity of progress.26:50 The unpredictability of the nature of problems, with reference to fear of nuclear war and nuclear energy. The nature and history of problem solving, particularly as regards energy. 37:02 The Popperian/Deutschian theory of knowledge—guesswork, creativity, and the reduction of error.46:50 William Paley’s watch, Darwinism, selfish genes, and the embedding of knowledge into reality.54:15 On theory-ladenness, the necessity of error correction, the power of science, and the impossibility of a final theory—all is approximation and continual improvement. 1:01:10 The nature of good explanations, with reference to the invocation of gods vs scientific accounts and the nature of the atom. 1:07:24 How the principle of the difficulty of variability is important in art as well as science, with reference to Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘The Left Hand of Darkness.’ ‘Aha’ vs ‘what the fuck?’ surprise. 1:15:30 The nature of critical thinking and Brett on education: the misconceptions inherent in the current fashion for teaching critical thinking. 1:26:10 A question for Brett from Twitter: what did Popper really think about tolerance and intolerance (see the famous cartoon on the paradox of tolerance)?1:36:24 Is there anything else Brett would like to add?
GeneralVisit Richard’s website to find out more about him and how to buy his books, including the main subject of this conversation, Richard’s award-winning 2002 novel ‘Altered Carbon’:https://www.richardkmorgan.com/ ReferencesAbout Richard:https://www.richardkmorgan.com/about-the-author/ Ewan Morrison’s Areo article ‘Why We Must Walk Away from Omelas: The Problem with Utopias’:https://areomagazine.com/2020/08/27/why-we-must-walk-away-from-omelas-the-problem-with-utopias/ Timestamps0:00 Opening and introduction (and a confession from Iona): the great weight of ‘Altered Carbon’ in Richard’s career.6:01 Iona reads a passage from ‘Altered Carbon’. 12:30 Richard and Iona discuss the passage, the underlying premises of the novel, and Richard’s visual imagination and writing style over the years.27:30 ‘Re-sleeving’ and ‘download central’ in ‘Altered Carbon’ and the themes and inspirations behind them.30:29 Iona’s ambiguity towards the Netflix adaptation of ‘Altered Carbon’: comparisons with the novel.37:23 More on the ‘sleeves’ in ‘Altered Carbon’: how the rich and powerful get the best from the system and what this tells us about the nature of wealth and capitalism and the trajectory we’re on. “The endless co-option of life and all its pleasures” by the wealthy.47:18 The theme of identity in ‘Altered Carbons’ (compared to Iain M. Banks’ treatment of it in his ‘Culture’ novels). Richard’s dystopian vision vs. Banks’s utopian vision. Can technology take us to the sunlit uplands or, as Richard says, does the fact that we will always ultimately be “violent apes” constrain the possibilities of progress? The need for eternal Enlightenment vigilance.1:03:13 Arguing with a Buddhist about karmic balance: the origins of ‘Altered Carbon’.1:06:31 Sci fi traditions: is ‘Altered Carbon’ genre fiction or literary fiction?1:08:36 Which authors have most influenced Richard? Who are his favourites? Plus: Iona on what influences she saw in ‘Altered Carbon’ and some reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin.1:25:02 Some more debate on optimism, the future, and human nature.1:31:25 Is there anything Richard would have liked to discuss but didn’t get the chance to? The noir tradition, Richard’s argument with trans rights activists over ‘Altered Carbon’ and J.K. Rowling, the misunderstanding of his novel as championing essentialism/the existence of souls, and the death of the author.1:37:25 Iona reads another passage from ‘Altered Carbon’.1:40:42 Last words and outro.
General
Visit Louise’s website: https://www.louisemperry.co.uk/
Buy Louise’s book ‘The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century’: https://www.amazon.com/Case-Against-Sexual-Revolution/dp/1509549994
Follow Louise on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Louise_m_perry
References
‘Lady Windermere’s Fan’ by Oscar Wilde: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/790/790-h/790-h.htm
Rachel Moran’s ‘Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution’: https://www.amazon.com/Paid-My-Journey-Through-Prostitution/dp/0393351971
‘Aella - Sex Work in the Digital Age’ Two for Tea episode: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/82-aella-sex-work-in-the-digital-age
Timestamps
0:00 Opening and introduction.
4:11 Iona reads a passage from Louise’s book ‘The Case Against the Sexual Revolution’.
9:33 Iona argues against the view that conservative mores protect women from harassment and rape better than liberal ones; discussion ensues on this, the promiscuity double standard, the Madonna/Whore complex, and more.
17:22 Does the sacralisation of sex protect women? Does desacralisation improve things for women? Is sex special? Plus: why women are choosier and the perils of prostitution.
27:40 The trouble with universalising, Gen Z’s (lack of?) sex lives, porn, and the rise of OnlyFans. How does this all tie into/effect Louise’s thesis?
34:32 Does a more public sexual culture help or hinder women? Does sexually violent porn make for sexually violent men?
42:17 Are some desires wrong? Why would anyone agree to or seek out, for example, sexual relationships involving subservient BDSM? Is liberalism enough to understand and resolve such issues?
53:00 Last words and outro.
General
Visit Andrew’s website: https://www.andrewscurran.com/
Find out more about Andrew’s books, including ‘The Anatomy of Blackness: Science and Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment’ and his co-edited, with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., volume ‘Who’s Black and Why? A Hidden Chapter from the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race’, which are the focus of this podcast: https://www.andrewscurran.com/books-gallerypage
Follow Andrew on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewscurran
References
Andrew’s previous appearance on Two for Tea discussing Diderot: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/42-andy-curren-diderot-intellectual-libertine
Olaf Stapledon’s novel ‘Sirius’: https://www.amazon.com/Sirius-Olaf-Stapledon/dp/0575099429/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1656949127&sr=8-2
Theory-ladenness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory-ladenness
David Deutsch’s ‘The Beginning of Infinity’, in which he discusses theory-ladenness: https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359
Coleman Hughes’s conversation with Charles Murray on race, science, and IQ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE5QcD_12fQ
David Deutsch’s Edge essay on the link between the factual understanding of reality and morality: https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359
Sunil Khilnani’s book ‘Incarnations: A History of India in Fifty Lives’: https://www.amazon.com/Incarnations-History-India-Fifty-Lives/dp/0374175497
Timestamps
00:00 Opening and introduction.
3:24 Andrew reads from the introduction to ‘Who’s Black and Why?’ on the Bordeaux Academy’s interest in African anatomy and ‘scientific’ race theorising.
9:08 Why did a focus on racial physiognomy arise in the middle of the 18th century? Plus background on the Enlightenment and the radical shift in ways of thinking about the world.
14:19 The Biblical narrative of the origins of race - Noah’s sons and the ‘snowflake’ Old Testament God - and 18th-century theories of degeneration. Monogenesis vs. polygenesis. Implications of these views and their place in the Enlightenment paradigm - the world is not fixed, but has a history of development and change.
23:38 ‘Theory-laden observations’ as related to 18th-century thinking about race and humanity.
26:30 Iona reads an excerpt about Diderot and Voltaire’s views on race and slavery from ‘Who’s Black and Why?’.
33:45 Continued discussion of the link between racial theorising and racism.
46:27 Iona on the instability of being anti-slavery while being racist, with reference to Olaf Stapledon’s novel ‘Sirius’. Ensuing discussion of this theme by Andrew as related to the 18th-century - the legal and then scientific reality of categorising people.
54:54 Iona’s relief that her Enlightenment hero Samuel Johnson is, as far as she knows, untainted by racial theorising.
1:03:02 The contemporary debate on race and IQ. Can we really divorce the is from the ought? Iona’s changing view on this after reading ‘Who’s Black and Why?’. Nature vs nurture and Charles Murray.
1:09:59 The Deutschian idea that a better understanding of reality is linked to better morality. 18th-century thinkers on race and their blindspots - many of their assertions could easily have been disproved just by looking - black blood, black semen, black brains.
1:15:35 The literal obsession with colour - skin colour must be reflected in interior anatomy. The disturbing and telling 18th-century view of albinism - ‘white negroes’ - and vitiligo and racial voyeurism.
1:23:30 Racial essentialism vs the many mixed-race people. Again - how close so many 18th-century thinkers got to the truth, yet how far.
1:26:52 Is there anything Andrew would like to say that hasn’t been covered in this conversation?
1:27:27 Andrew’s upcoming book - a biographical history of race.
1:33:11 Last words and outro.
General
Visit Steven’s website, which includes information about all his books, including his latest, ‘Rationality’, and how to purchase them: https://stevenpinker.com/
Follow Steven on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sapinker
Timestamps
00:00 Opening and introduction.
2:17 The conventional wisdom that humans are irredeemably irrational is wrong: rationality is actually prevalent and innate. Iona reads passages from Steven’s newest book ‘Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters’ about the “scientific mindset” of hunter-gatherers.
8:09 The evolution of human rationality - our “environmental/ecological rationality.” The “premature consensus” that humans are fundamentally irrational. But why are we so bad at dealing with logical problems in the modern world? How to reconcile this apparent paradox - a new conceptualisation of human rationality: we become expert logicians when logical problems are presented in concrete, human-relevant ways and when we are pursuing goals.
18:32 William James’s example of Romeo and Juliet as rational actors pursuing a goal (as opposed to iron filings attracting each other).
21:05 An analogy with quantum theory’s unintuitiveness. The mismatch between our ancestral environment(s) and our modern environment(s): we didn’t evolve to apply the tools of science. The roots and varieties of irrationality.
25:16 How does ‘Rationality’ relate to Steven’s other work? What is the common thread throughout all of his work?
35:28 On lightly held irrational beliefs - distal vs. testable beliefs, the “willing suspension of disbelief”, and indulging in irrationality. Why do we hold such beliefs? Why does fiction appeal to us? The Enlightenment paradigm of verifying one’s beliefs - revolutionary and almost unique in history, a mindset that we are not adapted to.
46:45 The real meaning of David Hume’s famous statement that “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”
48:55 How do we get an ought from an is? How can morality be derived from rationality? Iona reads a passage from ‘Rationality’ dealing with these questions. Steven explains his view of how reason relates to ethics.
54:53 How can reason be justified in the first place? Isn’t it circular to justify reason using reason?
59:17 Base rates and group differences - does a contradiction between rationality and morality lie here?
1:07:27 Difficulties in defining categories and the family resemblances solution. Iona reads a passage about pattern-finding, stereotypes, and fairness from ‘Rationality.’ Using abstract rules to set aside stereotypes for purposes of law, morality, etc. Logic vs. rationality.
1:13:46 Rationality’s relationship to progress. Many social justice movements have begun with appeals to rationality and logical coherence: how can a society claim, for example, to be against absolute monarchy yet allow men to have total power over their wives? How rationality is a good guide to which movements for change deserve support.
1:18:00 How highfalutin methods of logic and reasoning are in fact at the centre of our everyday lives - we just formalise them and we need to apply them more at all levels.
1:25:05 The current “pandemic of poppycock” - is Steven optimistic about the future of rationality?
1:28:16 Iona reads a passage from the end of ‘Rationality.’
1:28:55 Last words and outro.
General
Follow Matt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattjj89
Some of Matt’s previous writing and speaking about Ukraine: https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-forget-nato-ukraine-s-problem-is-russian-imperialism-1.10576686
https://areomagazine.com/2022/02/25/putins-pointless-war/
https://www.callin.com/episode/matt-johnson-how-to-view-the-war-in-ukraine-MVpYFsdASZ
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/why-tucker-carlson-hates-ukraine-so-much-1.10746934
References
Two for Tea episode featuring Matt, Daniel, and Ben Burgis on Christopher Hitchens: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/113-about-chris-hitchens
Some of Taras Bilous’s writings from the frontlines of the war: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/a-letter-to-the-western-left-from-kyiv/
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/self-determination-and-the-war-in-ukraine
https://twitter.com/ahatanhel/status/1517440088879284224?s=20&t=yZ9bkeaWalWYIKSClWy3Eg
Timestamps
00:00 Opening and introduction.
2:05 Iona reads a passage from Matt’s Areo essay ‘Putin’s Pointless War’ on the origins and causes of the Ukraine war.
5:00 Matt discusses the history and ideology behind the invasion of Ukraine.
7:10 Matt discusses the more immediate background to the Ukraine war, from 2013 on: Ukraine’s desire for closer relations with the EU, the Revolution of Dignity, the annexation of Crimea, and more. Why Putin is a 19th-century leader.
10:38 The religious aspect of the war and Putin’s warped view of history. Why so many fail to understand that Putin is just an imperialist and miss the mark by talking about Russian security interests and NATO expansion.
15:22 Wouldn’t the US be angry if Mexico joined a Chinese version of the Warsaw Pact? Why blaming NATO expansion for the war is wrong.
20:00 What the Glenn Greenwald-style anti-imperialist left and the Tucker Carlson-style isolationist right get wrong about Ukraine and why (and how they overlap).
25:44 Isn’t Ukraine corrupt and authoritarian? Aren’t Russia and Ukraine just as bad as each other? Isn’t Zelensky illiberal?
28:58 What about the Azov Battalion? Isn’t Ukraine riddled with fascism and neo-Nazism?
31:40 How the usual suspects on the anti-imperialist left deny agency to Ukrainians, who want arms. Plus: The Ukrainian socialist Taras Bilous, on the frontlines and for western arming of Ukraine. Could Ukraine be a turning point for the left?
38:01 The war and the news cycle. What’s actually happening on the ground now? What does the future of the war look like?
42:24 Has Putin lost his edge? Has the invasion backfired on him? Has he united the west again? And if so, how long will that unity last? Has the western reaction to Russian expansionism come too late? Should the west’s aim be to degrade Russia’s capability to wage such wars? Is a Ukrainian victory possible?
51:23 What should the west be doing about Ukraine? Will Europe put up with skyrocketing energy costs to help Ukraine? Will this lead to an upsurge in support for politicians like Le Pen?
53:31 Could Putin use nukes? Might he escalate the war?
58:18 A strange question about elites from Twitter for Matt.
1:03:08 The effects of the war on energy in Europe and attitudes to nuclear power. The war as an advertisement for nuclear power. Plus: the intransigence and greed of the oil companies and OPEC countries.
1:06:16 An aside: the grotesque mystery of America selling its soul to Saudi Arabia.
1:08:00 Is there anything Matt didn’t get the chance to say but wanted to? Yes! Matt on the flaws of realism in the study of international relations: why political culture matters.
1:12:10 Last words and outro.
General
Follow Matt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattjj89
Some of Matt’s previous writing and speaking about Ukraine: https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-forget-nato-ukraine-s-problem-is-russian-imperialism-1.10576686
https://areomagazine.com/2022/02/25/putins-pointless-war/
https://www.callin.com/episode/matt-johnson-how-to-view-the-war-in-ukraine-MVpYFsdASZ
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/why-tucker-carlson-hates-ukraine-so-much-1.10746934
References
Two for Tea episode featuring Matt, Daniel, and Ben Burgis on Christopher Hitchens: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/113-about-chris-hitchens
Some of Taras Bilous’s writings from the frontlines of the war: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/a-letter-to-the-western-left-from-kyiv/
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/self-determination-and-the-war-in-ukraine
https://twitter.com/ahatanhel/status/1517440088879284224?s=20&t=yZ9bkeaWalWYIKSClWy3Eg
Timestamps
00:00 Opening and introduction.
2:05 Iona reads a passage from Matt’s Areo essay ‘Putin’s Pointless War’ on the origins and causes of the Ukraine war.
5:00 Matt discusses the history and ideology behind the invasion of Ukraine.
7:10 Matt discusses the more immediate background to the Ukraine war, from 2013 on: Ukraine’s desire for closer relations with the EU, the Revolution of Dignity, the annexation of Crimea, and more. Why Putin is a 19th-century leader.
10:38 The religious aspect of the war and Putin’s warped view of history. Why so many fail to understand that Putin is just an imperialist and miss the mark by talking about Russian security interests and NATO expansion.
15:22 Wouldn’t the US be angry if Mexico joined a Chinese version of the Warsaw Pact? Why blaming NATO expansion for the war is wrong.
20:00 What the Glenn Greenwald-style anti-imperialist left and the Tucker Carlson-style isolationist right get wrong about Ukraine and why (and how they overlap).
25:44 Isn’t Ukraine corrupt and authoritarian? Aren’t Russia and Ukraine just as bad as each other? Isn’t Zelensky illiberal?
28:58 What about the Azov Battalion? Isn’t Ukraine riddled with fascism and neo-Nazism?
31:40 How the usual suspects on the anti-imperialist left deny agency to Ukrainians, who want arms. Plus: The Ukrainian socialist Taras Bilous, on the frontlines and for western arming of Ukraine. Could Ukraine be a turning point for the left?
38:01 The war and the news cycle. What’s actually happening on the ground now? What does the future of the war look like?
42:24 Has Putin lost his edge? Has the invasion backfired on him? Has he united the west again? And if so, how long will that unity last? Has the western reaction to Russian expansionism come too late? Should the west’s aim be to degrade Russia’s capability to wage such wars? Is a Ukrainian victory possible?
51:23 What should the west be doing about Ukraine? Will Europe put up with skyrocketing energy costs to help Ukraine? Will this lead to an upsurge in support for politicians like Le Pen?
53:31 Could Putin use nukes? Might he escalate the war?
58:18 A strange question about elites from Twitter for Matt.
1:03:08 The effects of the war on energy in Europe and attitudes to nuclear power. The war as an advertisement for nuclear power. Plus: the intransigence and greed of the oil companies and OPEC countries.
1:06:16 An aside: the grotesque mystery of America selling its soul to Saudi Arabia.
1:08:00 Is there anything Matt didn’t get the chance to say but wanted to? Yes! Matt on the flaws of realism in the study of international relations: why political culture matters.
1:12:10 Last words and outro.
General
Buy Katy and Jeremy’s book ‘Guilty Pigs: The Weird and Wonderful History of Animal Law’: https://www.amazon.com/Guilty-Pigs-Wonderful-History-Animal-ebook/dp/B09CGQDNGD
Katy’s academic webpage: https://law.unimelb.edu.au/about/staff/katy-barnett
Follow Katy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrKatyBarnett
Jeremy’s academic webpage: https://law.unimelb.edu.au/about/staff/jeremy-gans
Follow Jeremy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeremy_gans
Opinions on High, a legal blog that both Kate and Jeremy contribute to: https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/opinionsonhigh/
References
Katy’s Areo article ‘Perverse Incentives in Academic Publishing’: https://areomagazine.com/2021/06/23/perverse-incentives-in-academic-publishing/
Timestamps
00.00 Opening and introductions (with a diversion on Katy’s “adventures in walking”).
5:24 Katy reads a passage from her and Jeremy’s book ‘Guilty Pigs: The Weird and Wonderful History of Animal Law’.
7:10 Jeremy reads a passage from ‘Guilty Pigs’.
9:46 How did Katy and Jeremy come to work together on this book and what initially sparked their interest in the subject?
13:21 How has the status of animals in law changed over time and in space and what does this tell us about our attitude to animals?
22:51 The Isbester dog case.
27:59 The ethical and legal issues raised by the Isbester case. Plus: other cases involving dogs.
35:08 Comparison of these cases with the Daniel Brighton case and discussion of the ethical/legal issues thrown up by it.
44:07 The 19th-century British case involving cattle that influenced the modern legal understanding of ‘animal cruelty’. Iona reads relevant parts of ‘Guilty Pigs’; discussion ensues.
48:50 The strange legal history of swans, queens, and nobles (and sturgeons).
53:07 On the legal eccentricties of bee-owning. Plus: Iona tells the Argentinian tomcat’s tale; and other troublesome felines.
1:01:14 Project Acoustic Kitty.
1:03:45 Crimesolving parrots?
1:06:13 Why you should never, ever pat a zebra.
1:07:35 The Toronto Ikea monkey.
1:11:20 The photographer octopus, the posing macaque and Happy the elephant.
1:19:43 How do Katy and Jeremy see animal law developing in the future and are there legal provisions that aren’t in place that they think should be (or provisions in place that should be abolished or altered)?
1:25:28 Closing words and outro.
General
Arvid’s website: https://arvidagren.com/
Buy Arvid’s book ‘The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution’: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-genes-eye-view-of-evolution-9780198862260?cc=us⟨=en
Follow Arvid on Twitter: https://twitter.com/arvidagren
References
Daniel’s Areo review of Arvid’s ‘The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution’: https://areomagazine.com/2022/02/28/selfish-genery-j-arvid-agrens-the-genes-eye-view-of-evolution/
Two for Tea episode featuring Sean B. Carroll: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/77-sean-b-carroll-revolutionising-our-understanding-of-evo-biology?in=twoforteapodcast/sets/evolutionary-biology-on-two
Timestamps
00.00 Opening and introductions.
4:59 Why Arvid wanted to write his book ‘The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution’.
5:57 Daniel reads a passage from Arvid’s book.
9:00 The sociological aspects of the gene’s-eye view. How did Arvid become interested in evolutionary biology and the gene’s-eye view? Evolutionary biology’s links with history and philosophy.
13:50 Similarities between Richard Dawkins and Arvid’s background interest in evolutionary biology. Arvid outlines the selfish gene theory and its intellectual history.
18:47 Are some of the arguments over the gene’s-eye view terminological rather than substantial? What if ‘The Selfish Gene’ had been called ‘The Immortal Gene’?
19:58 Stephen Jay Gould vs. Dawkins: critiques of selfish genery. What questions were Gould and Dawkins separately interested in, and what does this tell us about their disagreements?
27:18 Evolutionary developmental (evo devo) biology and its relationship to selfish gene theory.
31:01 Is the evo devo/selfish gene binary really valid? E.g. Dawkins’ contributions to evo devo.
33:21 What are the most compelling critiques of the selfish gene view? What does Arvid think of the alternative ways - evo devo, the extended synthesis, etc - of looking at evolution? Why is the selfish gene view valuable? In which senses is the selfish gene view incomplete? Pluralism and preferences in science.
44:38 The empirical consequences of the gene’s-eye view: extended phenotypes and selfish genetic elements. Plus: Salman Rushdie and W.D. Hamilton’s “eternal disquiet within.”
58:40 Why should scientists study the history of ideas?
1:01:37 The role of metaphorical thinking in science.
1:06:32 The sociological reception of the selfish gene view.
1:10:04 What is the current standing and future of the gene’s-eye view?
1:14:30 The extended evolutionary synthesis: is the Modern Synthesis outdated?
1:19:32 Is there something Arvid would have liked to say but didn’t get the chance to?
1:20:31 Last words and outro.
General
Visit Simon’s website for information about him and to buy his book ‘SPEECH! How Language Made Us Human’: https://www.simonprentis.net/
Follow Simon on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/memesovergenes
References
Two for Tea interview with Sean B. Carroll: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/77-sean-b-carroll-revolutionising-our-understanding-of-evo-biology
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (linguistic relativity): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity
Simon’s Areo article on Ukraine and the United Nations: https://areomagazine.com/2022/03/25/ukraine-why-arent-we-talking-about-the-un/
Timestamps
00.00 Opening and introduction.
2:25 Simon reads from his book ‘SPEECH! How Language Made Us Human’.
13:00 Animal sounds vs. human language. Simon’s theory of the key to and origins of language: the “digitisation of noise.”
17:25 The evidence for Simon’s theory.
22:07 Nature and language as digital; an analogy with DNA and evo devo.
26:04 The revolutionary power of language for humanity. Iona reads from Simon’s book—language as an act of transportation, both connecting us with others and distancing us from the immediate basis of experience. Plus: the dangers of being trapped by language (“the trap of identity”, “the trap of culture”, etc.) and a Babylonian diversion.
37:27 Japanese enka music and Jero, the black American enka singer: a cautionary tale against feeling one’s culture is special and unique. This is true at the individual level, too. This is an illusion caused by language. Further discussion and examples of this illusion and how it (sometimes dangerously) misleads and divides us. The artificiality of culture: our natures are all calibration, stemming from language and culture. Simon’s Japanese experience.
49:48 Simon’s views on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (linguistic relativity).
55:01 The power of music and its (lack of?) relation to language. Did language drive the growth of the brain?
1:04:36 Do books offer a kind of vicarious experience? Can we really communicate experience and thought to others via language? Is the world headed in the direction of a universal culture (but not a monoculture!)?
1:07:06 Using language and argument instead of violence. Is democracy an evolutionarily stable strategy? How do we apply this at the global level, not just the national level? Why the United Nations fails at this.
1:14:04 Last words and outro.
General
Follow Arjun on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juicemoorthy
The Factual: https://www.thefactual.com/?lp=new
References
Matthew Walker’s ‘Why We Sleep’: https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501144324/
Timestamps
00.00 Opening and intro. The Factual: credibility grading of news articles/stories.
2:33 The Factual’s history, its mission and ethos, its process of evaluating articles/stories, and the technology behind it.
6:25 Iona on Areo and the foundation of all good commentary—the facts. Opinion/commentary vs. news reporting. Arjun: The Factual’s algorithm and AI tries to ensure that commentary is scored according to how well-grounded in fact it is.
9:00 How the technology behind The Factual works and the methodology of assigning rankings to the four different categories that The Factual rates to come up with an overall credibility score for a piece.
13:51 The conflation of credibility with popularity in science and news. The “herd mentality” in news. Plus: why The Factual’s algorithm can’t tell you if something is true or false, only if a piece has characteristics that mark it as credible and factual—it provides a rubric, with rules of thumb, applicable with or without the algorithm. Ultimately: no easy answers to big issues in the news.
19:59 A discussion of the adversarial nature of politics—does this give it an advantage over (mostly popular) science because everything is “subjected to a ferocious scrutiny” (Iona) by political opponents with vested interests? Pros and cons of this. Challenging popular narratives in science and politics. Adversarialism in politics and journalism.
24:49 Arjun’s father and the simple, core principle of The Factual’s algorithm: read multiple sources/viewpoints. Give people the tools to decide for themselves. The Factual’s commenting methodology. How to cure polarisation.
29:42 The perils of internet discourse in the social media age: Facebook comments and the end of friendships and the flaws of the Twitter algorithm. An age of polarisation and bitter division, online and offline. How can The Factual help us move beyond this?
34:20 Why are people interested in the news? Why is knowing the news and reading good journalism good for people? Where did Arjun’s interest in the news come from? Why reading the news should be enjoyable rather than anxiety/anger-inducing. Why news shouldn’t take over your life. The Factual’s business model.
41:23 Metric obsession and how The Factual is different.
45:21 Arjun’s colleague Alex and the importance of double-checking and questioning the algorithm.
47:07 The erosion of free speech—big tech algorithms, social media, and censorship. How we all engage in curation and why curation is better than censorship. How best to deal with cranks and mis/disinformation—and how the tech giants get it wrong. The poisoning of discourse by cancel culture and how social media enables cancel culture.
1:00:34 Polarisation and the continual subdivision of people into smaller and smaller groups and the effects of all this on public discourse. Twitter is NOT representative of the world. Why a multiplicity of platforms is good and why we must learn how to best use them.
1:04:43 How does Arjun think news might be consumed in the future, or how does he hope it will be consumed?
1:09:09 Last words and outro.
Visit Oliver’s website: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/
Follow Oliver on Twitter: https://twitter.com/oliverburkeman
Oliver’s most recent book ‘Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals’: https://www.amazon.com/Four-Thousand-Weeks-Management-Mortals/
Oliver’s book ‘The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking’: https://www.amazon.com/Antidote-Oliver-Burkeman-author/
Oliver’s book ‘HELP!: How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done’: https://www.amazon.com/HELP-Become-Slightly-Happier-More-ebook/
References
Samuel Johnson’s 1751 essay on procrastination, ‘Idleness and anxious and miserable state’: https://www.johnsonessays.com/the-rambler/no-134-on-procrastination/
Iona’s Letter correspondence with Nir Eyal on technology and distraction: https://letter.wiki/conversation/266
Nir’s book ‘Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life’: https://www.amazon.com/Indistractable-Control-Your-Attention-Choose/
Visakan Veeraswamy’s appearance on Two for Tea: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/76-visakan-veerasamy-a-friendly-ambitious-nerd
Ethan Strauss’s article ‘Pity the Zoomer Athlete’: https://houseofstrauss.substack.com/p/pity-the-zoomer-athlete?s=r
‘How to Live on 24 Hours a Day’ by Arnold Bennett: https://www.amazon.com/How-Live-Hours-Day-Literature-ebook
The Pomodoro Technique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique
Timestamps
00.00 Opening and introduction.
1:47 Iona reads from Samuel Johnson’s 1751 essay on procrastination, ‘Idleness and anxious and miserable state’. How it relates to Oliver’s book ‘Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals’.
8:45 Procrastination as a timeless phenomenon, though technology and social media make it worse. Our desire to “not focus”.
9:46 A précis of ‘Four Thousand Weeks’. What leads us astray in our relationship with time? Do we try to avoid the unpleasantness of “finitude” - the knowledge that our time is limited? Are we just trying to avoid discomfort?
14:15 The feeling of “irreparable loss” when we waste time - and the cycle of feeling guilt at this, thus leading to more avoidance and procrastination. How do we navigate this cycle of distraction?
20:53 What is the escape from this cycle? Is there one? Or must we just accept its absurdity to gain liberation?
24:29 The pleasures of doing versus the pleasures of having done (dance vs academia). Do we vacate value from the present to the future? And: a diversion on the proprietary and Nir Eyal on distraction. How has our attention changed over the decades and centuries - has it gotten better or worse?
39:01 Is the self a “road to hell”? Self-improvement and efficiency vs absorption in something larger. Is the self overrated?
44:00 The problem with productivity hacks and self-improvement. The real route to freedom. One of Iona’s mantras: you don’t have to wait until tomorrow.
50:10 On neglecting the right things.
52:24 On FOMO, being a generalist vs a specialist, and trade-offs.
1:01:35 More on procrastination and how to beat it: theory vs practice. The Pomodoro Technique, setting maximums, and more. But beware: never think of such exercises as allowing you to transcend limitation - this is impossible.
1:07:47 Oliver reads a passage from ‘Four Thousand Weeks’.
1:10:42 Last words and outro.
General
Buy Matt and Alina Chan’s book ‘Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19’: https://www.amazon.com/Viral-Search-COVID-19-Matt-Ridley/dp/006313912X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1GSU5N0P40R26&keywords=matt+ridley&qid=1648046232&sprefix=matt+ridley%2Caps%2C253&sr=8-1
Matt’s website, where you can find out more about him and his other books and work: https://www.mattridley.co.uk/
Follow Matt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattwridley
References
Some of Michael Worobey’s work on the origins of Covid-19: https://twitter.com/MichaelWorobey/status/1497607313397481472?s=20&t=_ov6duwWi7DQZDRa5t9q4A
Two for Tea episode with Azra Raza on fighting cancer: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/64-azra-raza-a-better-way-to-fight-cancer
Two for Tea episode with Brian D. Earp on circumcision: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/13-brian-earp
Iona’s Areo article on circumcision: https://areomagazine.com/2019/09/24/a-wrong-against-boys-an-impossible-conversation-about-circumcision/
Timestamps
00.00 Opening and introduction: the debate over the origins of Covid-19, the reception of and controversy over ‘Viral’, and why the origins debate matters for everyone.
8:40 Will the origins debate ever be settled?
18:58 What we know for certain plus some possible scenarios of how Covid-19 spread. Matt explains why the ‘lab-leak’ hypothesis is plausible.
25:28 Objections to the lab-leak hypothesis and Matt’s responses.
42:30 Here be technical scientific stuff: the cutting edge of knowledge in molecular biology—how furin cleavage sites work. Plus: the duties of writing about science.
49:25 More objections to the lab-leak hypothesis and Matt’s responses.
1:11:50 The benefits and risks of gain-of-function research. Plus: circumcision and the problems with the World Health Organization.
1:21:32 Does ‘Viral’ underestimate the dangers of zoonotic transmission of diseases? Plus: the deforestation/ecological argument about Covid’s origins.
1:24:31 Developments since the publication of ‘Viral’ and the plans for the paperback.
1:27:50 Last words and outro.
General
Alex’s website: https://alexkorbphd.com/
Follow Alex on Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexkorbphd
Buy Alex’s book ‘The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time’: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1626251207/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=gs2&linkId=TQYPHQ6B534LQ4PZ&creativeASIN=1626251207&tag=alexkorbphd-21&creative=9325&camp=1789
Buy Alex’s book ‘The Upward Spiral Workbook: A Practical Neuroscience Program for Reversing the Course of Depression’: https://www.amazon.com/Upward-Spiral-Workbook-Neuroscience-Depression/dp/1684032423/ref=sr_1_3?qid=1647360558&refinements=p_27%3AAlex+Korb&s=books&sr=1-3
References
Iona’s book ‘Our Tango World Vol. 1’: https://www.amazon.com/Our-Tango-World-vol-1-Community/dp/1999755189/ref=sr_1_1?crid=33Z83DRW14VH6&keywords=iona+italia&qid=1647360598&s=books&sprefix=iona+itali%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C130&sr=1-1
Iona’s book ‘Our Tango World Vol. 2’: https://www.amazon.com/Our-Tango-World-vol-2-Milonga/dp/1999755197/ref=pd_sim_1/138-2548482-3504021?pd_rd_w=slzAZ&pf_rd_p=dee70060-7c6d-4721-a321-50a27281cd22&pf_rd_r=J6DTTMK1E0GSZSFYK31S&pd_rd_r=7df296cd-2d08-40e6-8586-2af4d7b9472c&pd_rd_wg=KEJIt&pd_rd_i=1999755197&psc=1
Timestamps
00.00 Opening and introduction.
1:57 How Alex became interested in neuroscience, addiction, and depression.
4:44 Alex’s own experiences with depression and the nature of depression. Depression, diagnosis, and the brain.
13:16 Why we should stop obsessing over the diagnosis of depression and start treating diagnosis as a starting-off point to do something about the issue. Depression as a continuum. Iona’s experiences of depression.
21:59 The artificial distinction between “real chemical depression” and “situational depression” and how life experiences affect you at the level of the brain. Why medication is just one of many ways to combat depression.
27:01 A discussion of the relationship between life circumstances and depression.
42:16 The small, positive steps one can take to overcome depression and find fulfilment.
45:11 Iona’s two different forms of pleasure/satisfaction (of doing and of having done) and ensuing discussion on how individuals’ brains differ.
52:37 On the tools and habits that will help you gain greater fulfilment (and a diversion on sharing the same lab as Sam Harris).
1:02:11 The benefits and hazards of faking it till you make it when it comes to depression. Taking actions rather than being hamstrung by feelings.
1:10:13 Some questions for Alex from listeners. Is depression evolutionarily adaptive? Does anti-depressant medication lead to long-term dependency? How would you reach out to a friend who has withdrawn into depression?
1:21:39 What does Alex think is the most underrated thing a person who is depressed can do to help themselves?
1:23:55 Last words and outro.
General
Follow Nicholas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NAChristakis
The Human Nature Lab at Yale University, of which Nicholas is the director: https://www.humannaturelab.net/
Buy Nicholas’ books, including his latest, ‘Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live’: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B001HCYWRM?_encoding=UTF8&node=283155&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=author-sidecar-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader
References
Nicholas’ previous appearance on the podcast: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/25-nicholas-christakis-a-blueprint-for-universal-liberal-humanism
Timestamps
0.00 Opening and introduction.
2:10 The history of plagues and the typical three-phase cycle (immediate, intermediate, and post-pandemic) of respiratory pandemics—and how Covid has conformed to that pattern. Have we reached “the end of the beginning” (i.e. the end of the immediate phase) rather than “the beginning of the end” of this pandemic? What will the intermediate and post-pandemic phases look like? What if there is a new, vaccine-resistant, more lethal variant?
11:36 Is the lifting of all Covid restrictions in England premature? How vaccination/exposure rates affect whether or not it is wise to lift restrictions.
18:22 What might the long term effects of infection with Covid be? Could there be long term disabling effects on those who survive a Covid infection? What are Nicholas’ views on “long Covid”?
23:34 How effective are masks in preventing Covid infection/transmission?
28:34 Which countries have been worst affected by the pandemic? Why?
31:06 Which countries fared best? Why?
36:41 Whence distrust in health authorities during the pandemic? How should public health messaging be communicated? Plus: how Covid hit us at an already very vulnerable moment and exploited pre-existing social, cultural, and economic issues. How should we encourage vaccination uptake?
48:36 The psychological impacts of pandemics, historically and today: the search for meaning in religion, politics, and more.
52:35 How has Nicholas’ own life changed because of the pandemic? Plus: biological vs social endings of pandemics.
56:38 Last words and outro.
General
Discover Rob’s writing, interviews, and other work on his website: https://www.robkhenderson.com/
Follow Rob on Twitter: https://twitter.com/robkhenderson
References
Rob’s essay ‘America's Lost Boys and Me’: https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/americas-lost-boys-and-me
Rob’s essay ‘Elite universities should stop prizing victimhood’: https://unherd.com/thepost/elites-universities-should-stop-prizing-victimhood/
Timestamps
00.00 Opening and introduction.
1:45 Rob’s difficult upbringing and background: foster care, adoption, drugs, and alcohol.
6:59 Why social, emotional, and cultural variables matter enormously for kids’ life outcomes—it’s not all about economics.
16:00 More on Rob’s personal background and how it has informed his views; Iona reads from Rob’s article ‘America's Lost Boys and Me’.
24:47 What were the “lingering effects” of his upbringing on Rob? How his military experience helped him.
28:05 Iona’s “more common or garden unhappy childhood” as related to Rob’s upbringing and its effects on him. Some experiences and feelings in common,
32:18 Iona and Rob’s very different experiences of university life. Plus: the ‘controversy’ around one of Rob’s teachers, Erika Christakis, and the origin of his concept of “luxury beliefs.”
41:53 Rob explains his concept of “luxury beliefs.” Signalling one’s status as an elite: one can afford to worry about relatively trivial transgressions and impose such taboos on poorer people; their jobs are less worthy of concern than sticking to the elite’s ever-changing taboos. Storms over “cultural appropriation”, use of the n-word, and using the OK hand symbol. Why cancel culture is real for blue-collar people. Middle-class ignorance of working-class people and the classism of cancel culture and luxury beliefs.
56:32 Rob’s examples of luxury belief: all family structures are equal, downplaying the value of hard work and agency. Is being anti-vax a luxury belief?
1:03:13 Iona on the flip-side to downplaying hard luck: some successful people won’t admit to the role of luck in their success and some hard work is thwarted by bad luck. Further discussion.
1:08:24 Discussion of the stable two-parent family structure as an ideal and why that idea receives pushback (and how such pushback is akin to arguments over ‘fatphobia’). Discussion of Iona’s caveats about the desirability of the stable two-parent family structure: stability isn’t everything (consider a stable but miserable situation).
1:15:47 Has Rob noticed different atmospheres in the U.K. vs. the U.S. regarding wokeness and luxury beliefs in university culture? What is the future of wokeness? The case of Jordan Peterson and Cambridge.
1:22:05 Rob’s article ‘Elite universities should top prizing victimhood’ and the case of Mackenzie Fierceton. Victimhood, disadvantage, and suffering as cultural currency in higher education. Plus: Iona and Rob’s experiences and views of the university admissions process.
1:33:32 Iona’s experiences of being accused of having had a privileged upbringing. A discussion of the narrowness of the concept of privilege as it is usually used today. How most people can frame their life stories either as ones of privilege or suffering. How prizing victimhood creates perverse incentives: the Mackenzie Fierceton story.
1:39:06 Race, victimhood, woke gatekeeping/race games, and gaming the system.
1:43:36 Last words and outro.
General
Follow Alan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/alan_davison
Alan’s academic profile: https://profiles.uts.edu.au/Alan.Davison
Alan and Josh Szeps’ special speaker podcast series ‘Permission to Think’ homepage: https://www.uts.edu.au/about/faculty-arts-and-social-sciences/partners-and-community/fass-industry-events/permission-think
Josh Szeps’ podcast series ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’, of which ‘Permission to Think’ is under the aegis: https://play.acast.com/s/uncomfortable-conversations-with-josh-szeps/
References
Josh Szeps’ appearance on ‘Two for Tea’: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/18-josh-szeps
Interview with Alan in the ‘Times Higher Education’: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/people/interview-alan-davison?mc_cid=4b6d8a0b62&mc_eid=1347a1c1c0
‘Two for Tea’ episode with Jesse Singal: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/84-jesse-singal-the-quick-fix-public-limited-version
‘Trans Ideology and the New Ptolemaism in the Academy’ by Kathleen Rowley in ‘Archives of Sexual Behavior’: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-021-01950-9
‘Should You Trust the Myers-Briggs Personality Test?’ by Laith Al-Shawaf in ‘Areo Magazine’: https://areomagazine.com/2021/03/09/should-you-trust-the-myers-briggs-personality-test/
‘Two for Tea’ episode with Tomiwa Owolade: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/85-tomiwa-owolade-racial-cultural-kaleidoscopes-public-limited-version
Alan’s paper ‘A Darwinian Approach to Postmodern Critical Theory: Or, How Did Bad Ideas Colonise the Academy?’ in ‘Society’: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12115-020-00505-3
Alan’s paper ‘Multiculturalism, Social Distance and “Islamophobia”: Refections on Anti‑racism Research in Australia and Beyond’ in ‘Society’: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12115-021-00641-4
‘Two for Tea’ episode with Jonathan Rauch: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/93-jonathan-rauch-in-defence-of-truth-public-limited-version
Timestamps
00.00 Opening and introduction.
2:36 Iona reads from Alan’s interview in the ‘Times Higher Education’ about the problems he sees in academia and asks him about the problem of ‘wokery’ in academia and how it has affected his own institution, wider society, and academic science/tech.
6:45 Specific examples of wokery infecting academia: diversity training, no-go research areas, and censorship. Wokery within Alan’s own discipline of music.
11:45 What is going wrong in Australian universities? The example of implicit bias training, based on the discredited implicit association test, being used in higher education.
16:02 Cultish mindsets in academia and the discouragement of scepticism.
18:25 The corporatisation and marketisation of academia. The “perfect storm”: the combination of identity politics and brand/risk-aware corporatisation in academia.
22:12 How is the culture of diversity training affecting universities?
26:30 Is testing for implicit bias simply workplace totalitarianism? The ‘who you are’ over ‘what you do/say’ mindset. Clumsy and counterproductive attempts to measure injustice and “redress the balance.” ‘Representation’ in music, particularly orchestral music. Does dealing with economic inequalities earlier in the ‘pipeline’ matter more?
40:30 Socioeconomic and cultural factors in inequalities.
44:25 Discussions of Alan’s evolutionary psychological/memetic approaches to understanding the success and influence of postmodern critical theory and Iona’s view that tribalism is a universal heuristic, including in the ‘anti-woke’ circle. Alan: “Resist the heuristic!” The risk of orthodoxy taking over.
1:00:46 What universities should be and the decline of public trust in higher education. Alan’s defence of universities. What are the risks to universities?
1:11:00 How has the atmosphere on campus changed since Alan began his academic career?
1:12:10 Last words and outro.
General
Find out more about Meghan, her books, and articles, on her website: https://www.meghandaum.com/
Follow Meghan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/meghan_daum
Buy Meghan’s book ‘The Problem With Everything: My Journey Through The New Culture Wars’: https://www.meghandaum.com/the-problem-with-everything
Buy Meghan’s book ‘The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects Of Discussion’: https://www.meghandaum.com/the-unspeakable
Listen to Meghan’s ‘The Unspeakable Podcast’: https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com/
References
Meghan’s novel ‘The Quality of Life Report’: https://www.meghandaum.com/the-quality-of-life-report
The volume Meghan edited, ‘Selfish, Shallow & Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers On The Decision Not To Have Kids’: https://www.meghandaum.com/selfish-shallow-self-absorbed
Timestamps
0:58 Opening and introduction
1:55 Iona reads a passage from an essay in Meghan’s ‘The Unspeakable’ in aid of reflection upon the choice of subjects in non-fiction and the freedoms (and limits) the genre of the personal essay gives authors as opposed to memoirs and non-fiction. Including further discussion on Meghan’s experience with fiction-writing.
16:51 Meghan’s lack of fear in addressing difficult topics. Today’s atmosphere for public thinking compared to earlier in Meghan’s career. The very different reception accorded her most recent book ‘The Problem With Everything’ compared to her previous writings. The radical cultural shift since 2014/15/16: the rise of ‘social justice’ and the casting out of ‘the problematic.’
23:42 The origins of ‘The Problem With Everything’: the problem with contemporary feminism and the rise of the ‘badass’ trope. The “commodification of grievance” in recent years. How Meghan’s book expanded from a discussion of feminism to become a much broader study of the culture wars.
29:42 The rise of the race discourse to prominence in the culture wars. Are there unspoken tensions between modern feminism and anti-racism? Has race superseded gender/feminism as a culture war flashpoint? The rise of the ‘Karen.’ Where have all the thoughtful people gone? The hijacking of big issues by the least thoughtful among us.
35:05 Reflections on #MeToo. Has there been a “valorisation of victimhood”? Further reflections on the reception of ‘The Problem With Everything’ and the radical culture shift since c. 2014.
52:37 Where are the ‘edgy’ woke folk? Is there a risk of becoming obsessive about all of the woke inanity?
1:00:27 The politicisation of everything. The struggle not to constantly ‘harrumph.’ Can we avoid being angry with people rather than ideas? How much certainty should we have in our beliefs? How do we find a balance between being unapologetic and being epistemically humble? Why is it so difficult to say “I don’t know”?
1:08:10 The generational divide between those who grew up online and those who didn’t. Meghan’s view that hers is the last generation to have experienced an analogue world; her generation has gotten old/obsolete without being old; she sometimes feels closer to boomers decades older than her than millennials much closer to her age.
1:15:35 Iona reads from ‘The Problem With Everything’; a discussion on the role of women, childhood, and moral panics (child abductions, the Satanic panic, ‘the latchkey kid’) ensues. The tension between safety and freedom in our personal lives (particularly in women’s personal lives).
1:23:42 Iona’s feelings about Meghan’s ‘The Unspeakable’ book: how it affected her more personally than Meghan’s other books; the similarities she felt to Meghan’s description of being involved as a volunteer in foster care. Iona’s childhood relationship with her sister, who was a parent figure, growing up. Why Meghan and Iona couldn’t wait to be done with childhood. Plus: on not wanting to have kids.
1:37:22 How did Meghan’s serious freak illness and miraculous survival some years ago affect her views on life?
1:40:08 Last words and outro.
General
Jacob’s website: http://jacobmchangama.com/
Order Jacob’s forthcoming book, ‘Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media’: https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/jacob-mchangama/free-speech/9781541620339/
Jacob’s podcast series on free speech, ‘Clear and Present Danger’: http://www.freespeechhistory.com/
Follow Jacob on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JMchangama
Discover more about Jacob’s think tank, Justitia: http://justitia-int.org/
Timestamps
00:56 Iona introduces Jacob and his forthcoming book ‘Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media’.
2:28 Iona reads some passages from Jacob’s book on the Nazis vs. free speech, including how Hitler hoisted the Weimar Republic by its own petard (or, why intolerance of intolerance doesn’t work).
17:21 Does censorship of bigoted and authoritarian ideas work to prevent such ideas from taking hold? The “Weimar fallacy.”
23:18 Free speech as the guarantor of freedom: Trump’s America compared to Putin’s Russia and Modi’s India.
31:44 The counterintuitive idea of free speech and its fragility in practice. “Milton’s Curse”—selectivity about free speech, even among its greatest historical champions, from Milton to Voltaire. The need for a strong culture of free speech (without which legal protections are almost meaningless).
36:30 Iona’s “footnote” on Milton, whose ‘Areopagitica’, of course, is the namesake of ‘Areo’. Why, despite Milton being an imperfect champion of free speech, ‘Areo’ is appropriately named! Plus: the history of free speech in Britain, the two ancient and competing conceptions of free speech (elitist and egalitarian), and Milton’s more radical-on-free-speech (and oft-neglected) Leveller contemporaries. The tragic irony of Milton becoming a censor. How Milton’s authorial intentions have been undercut by the radical implications of his arguments and the power of his language.
47:21 The historically influential antiquity-rooted elitist vs. egalitarian concepts of free speech (or, the Roman vs. Athenian concepts of free speech) and “elite panic” whenever a new form of disruptive and democratising communications technology, from the printing press and the radio to the internet and social media, arises.
54:50 On elite distrust of the lower classes—we can’t trust them with new communications technologies or free speech!
1:00:18 Is the contemporary “golden age of free speech” in a process of decline? Are we seeing a “global free speech recession” alongside a “democracy recession”? Rising authoritarianism and the worrying loss of faith in free speech (and internet freedom) in liberal democracies. Many on both right and left now seem to prefer purging ideas to debating them.
1:03:52 What can be done about the free speech recession? Taiwan’s tech-based g0v initiative—combatting disinformation and promoting new forms of democracy for the digital age without censorship. The tensions between the “Analogue City” and the “Digital City” and how we must find solutions for these without sacrificing free speech. Plus: how the lack of free speech in China made the Covid pandemic worse.
1:10:01 The worrying power of private social media and other internet companies over what we can say and hear. John Stuart Mill, George Grote, and the tyranny of the majority: the need for a culture of tolerance and openness to dissenting views. The problems with centralised platforms that are pretty much monopolies and the need for technological rather than legal solutions to these. The need for a “more decentralised social media ecosystem.”
1:16:30 Last words.
General
Nev’s website: https://nevmarch.com/
Follow Nev on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nevmarch
Buy Nev’s first novel ‘Murder in Old Bombay’ here: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/murder-in-old-bombay/
Pre-order the sequel ‘Peril at the Exposition’ here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250855039/perilattheexposition
The Rajabai Clock Tower deaths, upon which Nev’s novel is based: https://www.livemint.com/Sundayapp/qrOhGQVncpDmnvio4RJx9O/The-mystery-of-the-clock-tower-deaths.html
Sample Vikas Adam’s reading of the book here: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Murder-in-Old-Bombay-Audiobook/1250775043
References
Sujata Massey: https://sujatamassey.com/
Abir Mukherjee: https://abirmukherjee.com/
Iona’s podcast with Dinyar Patel about the Indian independence pioneer Dadabhai Naoroji: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/99-dinyar-patel-dadabhai-naoroji-nationalist-pioneer
Nev’s account of visiting the Rajabai Clock Tower: https://nevmarch.com/visit-to-the-tower
Interview with Nev by Marshal Zeringue, April 21 2021: https://writerinterviews.blogspot.com/2021/04/nev-march.html
Sign up to Nazneen Engineer’s Zoroastrian survey: https://survey.sogosurvey.com/survey1.aspx?k=RSsRQXYPPsTsPsPsP⟨=0
Timestamps
0:56 Introduction
3:04 Nev reads a passage from ‘Murder in Old Bombay’.
8:06 Nev discusses the historical details of the infamous Rajabai Clock Tower deaths and her knowledge of the story growing up. How the mysteriousness of the case intrigued her and inspired her to create a fictional detective and write a novel to ‘solve’ this old crime.
12:15 Nev’s love of the Sherlock Holmes stories and how this influenced her novel. Her other influences and the Easter eggs in the novel. Her protagonist, Captain Jim.
19:15 A comparison between Nev and other Raj-era historical fiction writers Sujata Massey and Abir Mukherjee.
24:33 Clashes of identity and problems of belonging in Nev’s novel, particularly around Parsi identity - and how this relates to Iona and Nev’s personal experiences. How dealing with such issues affected the novel.
32:29 Iona’s reading experience and Nev’s writing experience. The audio version of ‘Murder in Old Bombay’.
35:46 Nev’s style. The panoramic, cinematographic nature of Nev’s writing and scope. Comparison to Salman Rushdie - writers who span two cultures and who are concerned with hybridity.
37:27 Where/how did Nev plan and write the novel? Nev’s visit to the Rajabai Clock Tower and Iona’s memories of it from when she lived in Bombay.
45:22 Nev reads another passage from the book.
49:08 What did Nev mean when she said “Truly, we write to discover what we think” in an interview from last year? What did she discover she thought when writing her novel? Questions of identity and patriotism and Nev’s ‘middle ground’. Complexities and contradictions in human behaviour.
54:41 Good novels explore moments of tension and ambivalences in human nature.
55:40 Nev reads another passage from the book.
1:00:00 Iona reads a passage from the book.
1:05:50 Nev discusses the forthcoming sequel to ‘Murder in Old Bombay’, ‘Peril at the Exposition’. How the problems of the turn of the century period she sets her fiction in are reflected today. The types of historical events Nev is attracted to.
1:14:10 Nev reads another passage from the book.
1:19:50 Last words.
Christopher’s website: https://www.christopherjferguson.com/
Follow Christopher on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CJFerguson1111
Christopher’s Amazon page, with links to his books, including ‘Moral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games Is Wrong’, ‘Suicide Kings’, and ‘How Madness Shaped History: An Eccentric Array of Maniacal Rulers, Raving Narcissists, and Psychotic Visionaries’: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christopher-J-Ferguson/e/B0034NGO00/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_2
Christopher’s Substack: https://grimoiremanor.substack.com/
Christopher’s Areo articles: https://areomagazine.com/author/cjferguson1111/
References
Christopher’s article ‘My APA Resignation’ in Quillette: https://quillette.com/2021/12/31/my-apa-resignation/
More on the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders
The Goldwater rule: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldwater_rule
Timestamps
00.57 Introduction.
2:36 Christopher discusses the flaws of the American Psychological Association (APA) and his association with and resignation from it.
7:22 The new groupthink and monoculture among organisations and associations, including and specifically the APA, on ‘systemic/structural racism’: instead of focusing on their original missions, such theoretical and scientific organisations seem to be very focused on this newly fashionable issue (it is important to note that this is a separate issue from the truth or falsehood of systemic/structural racism itself). The problem of ‘institutional capture’.
12:39 The victory of politics and politicking (‘political correctness’) over scientific investigation. The flaws of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) trainings: how the promulgation of these is based on business and profit rather than science.
16:52 Iona reads from Christopher’s Quillette piece on his resignation from the APA; discussion on the problem of political correctness over scientific integrity ensues, including how rapidly this has become an issue. How this will damage psychology and how it is perceived as a discipline.
21:58 The task of psychology, especially clinical psychology, with particular reference to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), versus this new consensus. Iona reads from Christopher’s ‘How Madness Shaped History’. Christopher discusses the problems, from a psychological point of view, with ‘lived experience’ and ‘safetyism’.
30:37 The differences between dealing with issues, both contentious and banal, on a societal level versus an individual, psychological level, with reference to sexual assault and obesity.
38:55 A discussion of more problems in psychology, with particular reference to the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’.
49:12 How effective are pharmaceuticals in treating mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia?
54:28 The bureaucracy of mental health care and the relation of problems like homelessness, criminal violence, and police shootings to mental health issues. Why we need to return to some kind of state-sponsored asylum-like system (but one which is humane and rational)
1:01:02 The connections between mental health problems and violence and why we are so hesitant to talk about these. How do we deal with such issues?
1:06:25 A discussion of science denialism and opportunism by ideologues on both left and right: people adopt scientific positions that support their views and ignore ones that contradict their views.
1:13:57 Political tribalism in the pandemic versus science (on all sides).
1:22:05 The Goldwater rule.
1:28:34 Last words.
Mónica’s Link Tree with links to preorder her upcoming book ‘I Never Thought Of It That Way’, her website, and more: https://linktr.ee/moniguzman
Follow Mónica on Twitter: https://twitter.com/moniguzman
Braver Angels website: https://braverangels.org/
References
John R. Wood Jr’s previous appearances on Two for Tea: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/19-john-wood
https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/58-john-r-wood-jr-and-roderick-graham-black-lives-and-the-george-floyd-protests
Buster Benson’s appearance on Two for Tea: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/57-buster-benson
Timestamps
3:05 Iona reads from Mónica’s upcoming book ‘I Never Thought Of It That Way’, leading to a discussion of the complexities of identity and expressing oneself and the temptation to use membership of certain groups as a shield in arguments.
12:53 Our interpersonal “internal assumption assistant”: positives and negatives.
14:38 Mónica’s lens when writing her book. What angle on polarisation and having better conversations does Mónica’s book have that other such books lack? The problem of “chaining.” “It’s all people.”
20:24 How our attitudes and beliefs arise from our particular experiences across time rather than rational cogitation. Why we must learn to ask where other people are coming from instead of arguing with people’s conclusions directly.
24:41 The process of changing minds: again, experiences and relationships matter most.
30:28 The benefits of listening to and learning from and being interested in other people. Mónica’s idea of “respect.” The importance of being curious and open. Mónica - reframing the way we interact with others.
36:55 The dangers of making assumptions about other people’s views when we interact with them. The dehumanising and destabilising effects of social media on our discourse: do we spend too much time in virtual reality?
42:41 The benefits of being surprised.
44:13 Mónica’s experience as a journalist and how this has informed her worldview. Her love of conversation.
48:48 The kinds of questions that are good to ask people, that they respond well to. The difference between questions that inspire openness vs. clamming up - specifics or the way in which we ask the question/who is asking us?
54:13 Iona’s main problem with Twitter: you don’t just talk to people, you can see, at the same time, what they’re saying about you to others. “Chaining” and the failure to be curious. How to be more open: small steps.
59:54 Our attachments to our beliefs and the ‘zealotry of converts’ paradox. The pain of changing our beliefs on big issues. Opinions as “snapshots.” How to loosen those attachments in conversation - and why we should do this. Listening to other people doesn’t mean you endorse their views.
1:05:40 Do our conversational difficulties come from a deep fear of being wrong? [‘Editorial’ note: the gif Iona mentions is from the British comedy Peep Show, not Inglourious Basterds!] How do we overcome this fear? The long, slow process of changing one’s mind - the distant and often unintended consequences of arguments.
1:11:52 Twitter question: are there any guests Mónica would refuse to have on the Braver Angels podcast and if so, on what criteria?
1:22:29 Twitter question: What had to be trimmed from Mónica’s book that she would have liked to have kept in? Is she planning a second book?
1:27:14 Is there anything Mónica wishes Iona had asked her or that Iona didn’t give her a chance to talk about?
Ben’s website: https://benburgis.com/
Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenBurgis
Buy ‘Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters’ by Ben Burgis: https://redemmas.org/titles/36536-christopher-hitchens--what-he-got-right--how-he-went-wrong--and-why-he-still-matters
Follow Matt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattjj89
Daniel’s LinkTree (contains links to his website, Substack, and more): https://linktr.ee/DanielJamesSharp
Follow Daniel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DJtotheS
Daniel’s article ‘Naming the Unnameable: Salman Rushdie, Christopher Hitchens and the Defence of Free Speech’ in Areo Magazine: https://areomagazine.com/2021/05/17/naming-the-unnameable-salman-rushdie-christopher-hitchens-and-the-defence-of-free-speech/
References
Christopher Hitchens bibliography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens_bibliography
Channel 4 News report on Hitchens’s death, December 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4yvPSZN5ZQ
Hitchens’s Vanity Fair essay on J.G. Ballard and sci-fi, ‘The Catastrophist’, 2010: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/the-catastrophist/307820/
The Brothers Hitchens debate God and Iraq, 2008: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngjQs_QjSwc
The New Philosophers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Philosophers
Hitchens’s Vanity Fair essay on ‘Why Women Aren’t Funny’, 2007: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2007/01/hitchens200701
Timestamps
1:07 Introductions
4:34 Daniel reads from his Areo article ‘Naming the Unnameable: Salman Rushdie, Christopher Hitchens and the Defence of Free Speech’.
10:29 Matt reads from his forthcoming book ‘How Hitchens Can Save The Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment’.
13:34 Ben reads from his forthcoming book ‘Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters’.
18:40 Ben discusses why he was attracted to Hitchens in the first place and why he decided to write a book about him: rehabilitation of what Ben believes to be Hitchens’ best parts.
28:15 Matt answers the same question. Hitchens as a “first principles thinker”.
34:02 Daniel answers the same question. His seduction by Hitchens and subsequent maturation as an admirer. Some of Hitchens’s flaws from Daniel’s point of view.
39:29 A discussion of Hitchens the literary critic and how his literary views relate to his political and moral views. Iona’s disappointment in Hitchens’s dismissal of the sci-fi genre.
44:49 Ben talks about how Hitchens was and remains a figure who needs to be written about and argued with and the reason for writing a book about him: the story of someone who goes badly wrong is more interesting than someone who was right.
46:49 Matt on the irreconcilability of and tensions within some of Hitchens’s positions.
43:04 Daniel asks Ben and Matt their views on what Hitchens got right and what he got wrong/how he went wrong and an ensuing discussion on Hitchens’s politics, especially on Afghanistan, Iraq, and interventionism (and a comparison of Peter Hitchens’s views on the same).
1:05:57 Matt discusses Hitchens on the New Philosophers and the evolution of liberal interventionism.
1:09:14 Iona discusses the feasibility of communism some of Hitchens’s foundational (and consistent) values: universalism, liberalism, humanism, anti-authoritarianism, and the defence of free speech (and freedom in general). Hitchens’s “trollish” side: uncowed by political correctness or consensus.
1:14:14 Daniel talks about Hitchens on the civil war within Islam. An ensuing discussion on the relevance of this today: arguments over the hijab and the concept of ‘Islamophobia’. Ben compares the misuse of ‘Islamophobia’ with the misuse of ‘anti-Semitism’. Hitchens and Israel/Palestine. Plus: Ben discusses his upcoming book defending the radical left economic view in response to Iona’s points above.
and more.
Dorian’s academic profile: https://geosci.uchicago.edu/people/dorian-abbot/
Follow Dorian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DorianAbbot
References
Dorian’s article ‘MIT Abandons Its Mission. And Me.’, in Bari Weiss’s ‘Common Sense’ Substack: https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/mit-abandons-its-mission-and-me
Dorian’s ‘Wall Street Journal’ article, ‘The Views That Made Me Persona Non Grata at MIT’: https://www.wsj.com/articles/cancel-culture-college-mit-dorian-abbot-university-chicago-representation-equity-equality-11635516316?
Watch Dorian’s cancelled lecture, ‘Climate and the Potential for Life on Other Planets’: https://jmp.princeton.edu/events/climate-and-potential-life-other-planets
‘Life on Mars: The Ethical Implications of Colonizing the Red Planet’ by Thomas Cortellesi in ‘Areo Magazine’: https://areomagazine.com/2018/07/02/life-on-mars-the-ethical-implications-of-colonizing-the-red-planet/
‘Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe’ by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Universe/dp/0387952896
Timestamps
2:24 What makes a planet habitable and how we find exoplanets.
8:18 Dorian’s research on the cloud effects on tidally locked planets - and how these effects suggest these planets might be more habitable/Earth-like than previously thought.
14:10 How some exoplanets and their clouds provide a model for the possible future of climate change on Earth.
15:31 Dorian’s views on the Fermi paradox - where are the aliens? Why Dorian believes extraterrestrial life is more likely than not.
20:23 Why we should hope to find no life at all on exoplanets rather than finding lots of extinct civilisations.
21:10 Twitter question: what does Dorian think a realistic time scale and strategy for colonising exoplanets would be?
22:39 Twitter question: how useful is the Drake equation?
24:08 Twitter question: what are Dorian’s views on von Neumann self-replicating probes? (And a digression on ‘decolonisation’ and the possible impacts of us colonising other planets.)
27:50 Dorian’s views on the ‘Rare Earth’ thesis, which posits that complex life is very unlikely to be found elsewhere in the universe.
29:32 What does Dorian’s exoplanet work tell us about climate change? What does Dorian think are the main misconceptions about anthropogenic climate change? What we don’t know: the future of climate change
32:21 Dorian’s work on rogue planets - could these harbour life?
35:20 Has the atmosphere in physics departments changed recently? Is there pressure from the woke left and climate denialist right? Academia, cancel culture, and chilling.
39:52 Why science should be based on merit, not politics.
40:22 Who does Dorian think Iona should interview?
Jack’s chess blog: https://chessgospinny.blogspot.com/
Follow Jack on Twitter: https://twitter.com/imjackrudd
Jack’s Lichess account: https://lichess.org/@/JackRudd
Mansa’s Medium blog: https://medium.com/@rasmansa
Follow Mansa on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rasmansa
Mansa’s Lichess account: https://lichess.org/@/rasmansa
References
Lichess, free online chess website: https://lichess.org/
Information about AlphaGo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaGo
Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy by John Watson: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Modern-Chess-Strategy-Nimzowitsch/dp/1901983072
Ludek Pachman’s Modern Chess Strategy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pachmans-Modern-Chess-Strategy-Pachman/dp/4871874966/
Timestamps
2:32 Jack and Mansa relate how they started playing chess and how it has affected their lives. How Iona recently got into chess.
7:46 How can studying chess benefit people? Does chess provide you with transferable skills? What can it teach you?
12:02 Favourite players both historically and currently.
13:26 How have computers impacted chess-playing? What has the impact of AlphaGo been? What are computers good for in chess?
17:06 Where do beginners go wrong? Mansa’s tips for beginners.
19:43 A question from Twitter: what is your favourite chess piece and why?
21:03 Advice on how to study and play chess. Jack’s current favourite chess book.
25:46 Another Twitter question: is chess computationally solvable? Is chess now doomed to always end in draws at the highest level?
30:04 The upcoming World Championship: will there be a draw or will it be more messy and exciting?
31:35 Another Twitter question: if it was up to you, what would the format of the World Championship be?
33:08 Thanks to computers, there are no longer adjournments in chess: what has been the effect of this on how games are played?
35:50 Blunders in chess.
38:34 Another Twitter question: will our increasingly short attention spans affect chess?
40:30 Another Twitter question: why is there a paucity of women in chess?
46:08 Another Twitter question: why has such a slow, cerebral game become popular in drama as a backdrop?
46:58 Would you encourage others to play chess. Why or why not?
48:10 Mansa: chess as escapism, as a unifier, as egalitarian, as meritocratic, as a demonstration of personal responsibility; the beauty of chess.
Rob’s website: https://www.robbrooks.net/
Rob’s academic profile: https://www.bees.unsw.edu.au/our-people/robert-brooks
Follow Rob on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Brooks_Rob
Rob’s column for The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/columns/rob-brooks-1343
Buy Rob’s first book, Sex, Genes & Rock ’n’ Roll, here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sex-Genes-Rock-n-Roll/dp/1611682363
Buy Rob’s new book, Artificial Intimacy: Virtual friends, digital lovers and algorithmic matchmakers, here: https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/1742236855
References
Rob’s Areo article, ‘How Virtual Friends Can Influence People’: https://areomagazine.com/2021/10/19/how-virtual-friends-can-influence-people/
Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0091906814
Timestamps
2:04 Iona reads an excerpt from Artificial Intimacy
7:58 An outline of the book; its themes and genesis.
13:39 ‘Digital lovers’—virtual reality porn, sex robots, smart sex toys &c. Iona and Rob debate: love, sex, and deception—are all relationships in some sense illusions? Is sentience essential for real relationships? Could all elements of ‘genuine’ human relationships be replicated by machines—could human/machine relationships become ‘genuine’?
27:26 More debate on sex, friendship, and companionship in light of the artificial. Can there be ‘real intimacy’ between humans and machines?
33:31 Digital friends. Dale Carnegie’s ‘likeability algorithm’: can AI also manipulate us in this way? Iona reads a ‘chilling’ passage from Rob’s book: how much do algorithms influence us, and how much more influential will they become in time? If Carnegie with his limited vantage point was able to codify how to effectively influence people, just think about what omnipresent AI algorithms could do!
44:08 Could machines get us to like them more than we like other people by using everything they know to be nice and appeal to us, by giving us the ‘tastiest’ parts of a relationship without the downsides? Case study: Eliza the chatbot. Can we be fooled/deceived by such machines?
55:42 The most controversial view in Rob’s book: if we assume that machines are going to get better at faking human interactions, especially regarding sex and relationships, to the extent that this is enough for a lot of people, then that could potentially be a very good thing. More debate/discussion on/of this and the dominance in our lives of the online.
1:07:30 A shocking plot twist. (And: Slavoj Žižek’s sex robots.)
Jamie’s academic profile: https://iash.uq.edu.au/profile/2151/jamie-freestone
Jamie and Matthew McGann’s joint website/blog: http://www.mcgannfreestone.com.au/
Jamie’s Areo articles: https://areomagazine.com/author/jamiemiltonfreestone/
References
Jamie’s ‘The meaning of science’ blog post (about his upcoming book): http://www.mcgannfreestone.com.au/?p=1984
Jamie’s paper ‘Contemporary Darwinism as a worldview’: https://www.academia.edu/56111417/Contemporary_Darwinism_as_a_worldview
Jamie’s paper ‘Narrative: Agents Acting at a Distance’: https://www.academia.edu/44253572/Narrative_Agents_Acting_at_a_Distance
Jamie’s Areo article ‘Climate Change: A Very Simple Story’: https://areomagazine.com/2021/06/24/climate-change-a-very-simple-story/
R. Scott Bakker’s article ‘What is the Semantic Apocalypse?’: https://rsbakker.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/what-is-the-semantic-apocalypse/
Timestamps
3:30 Iona reads an excerpt from a blog post by Jamie about ‘the meaning of science’: how it fundamentally challenges everyone’s view of the world.
7:08 Jamie discusses his approach to science, how it differs from other approaches, and his upcoming book on the meaning of science in/for our lives. How his literature background and interest in science are strongly linked.
10:51 Jamie’s (and others’) outlook versus the ought-is rule and the gatekeeping philosophers. Jamie on now being out and proud about science’s applicability to all aspects of life: is-ought and fact/value as false dichotomies and red herrings.
16:28 The twin dangers of projecting morals onto the world and using science to justify eugenics, for example, and how these differ from Jamie’s approach of using science to inform morality.
20:22 Narrative in fiction and how it is understood by cognitive science and what it tells us about the evolution of cognition: the evolution of narrative and narratives of evolution. Jamie’s ‘grand theory’ of what narrative actually is and where the previous study of this has gone wrong. The importance of coherence in narrative and our use of ‘mental time travel’ when following narratives.
29:08 Theory of mind and mental time travel together give us our ability to comprehend narrative and explain the two key ingredients of a satisfying narrative (coherence and agent- led actions).
30:04 Foreshadowing and the accretion of meaning: earlier parts of a narrative illuminate later parts and, crucially, vice versa. The nature of skilfully constructed narratives: re-readability, a different story on each reading.
35:30 The difference between whodunnits (and other ‘popular’ genres) and ‘great literature’.
41:03 Jamie’s views on how narrative evolved. Jamie’s speculative views on the evolution of consciousness as being late-arriving: theory of mind is primitive and more widespread among species, whereas full consciousness with mental time travel is unique or rare. And: extrapolation in narrative.
50:48 The failure of scientists to create a compelling narrative on climate change (and Exxon Mobil’s and other ‘bad guys’’ spectacular successes in the opposite direction). Why we need to change this and how.
57:12 A digressive discussion of individual vs. national/corporate responsibilities to combat climate change. Plus: techno/Deutschian-optimism and resurrecting extinct species.
1:09:08 Jamie argues that even seemingly-abstract ideas like the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics have huge impacts on our lives and our ideas of meaning and purpose and morality. Could all fiction that doesn’t contravene the laws of physics be literally true somewhere in the multiverse?
1:19:48 Jamie on being at bottom a literary theorist and his advice on what and how to read. His ‘reading experiments’ and most controversial literary opinion. Plus: should we read translated works?
1:29:40 Why podcast hosts should always read the work of their guests.
1:31:53 Jamie’s recommendation on who Iona should interview.
Faithless Hijabi website: https://www.faithlesshijabi.org/
Faithless Hijabi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FaithlessHijabi
Support the work of Faithless Hijabi: https://www.faithlesshijabi.org/support-us/
Follow Zara on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zarakayk
References:
Zara’s offending Facebook post featuring a photoshop of two men kissing in front of the Kaaba in Mecca: https://www.facebook.com/zara.kayk/posts/3550692608358194
Zara and Nick’s Medium piece on their work and Mariam Oyiza, a Nigerian ex-Muslim who now fights for women’s rights, ‘On being a Faithless Hijabi’: https://medium.com/@nickforbes_74938/on-being-a-faithless-hijabi-fa73f8827901
Mariam’s website: https://letsaii.com/mariam-aliyu/
Iona’s Two for Tea conversation with Sadia Hameed: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/94-sadia-hameed-separatist-communities-in-the-uk-public-limited-version
Timestamps:
2:04 Zara’s ethnic background and her upbringing in Tanzania as part of the closed minority Khoja Shia community.
4:47 A tea-based interruption and interlude; Iona lays down the tea-law.
5:19 Zara continues discussing her upbringing.
6:36 The links between the Khoja community and Shiism in Iraq and Iran.
7:22 Zara’s languages and education.
8:19 Zara on the social life of the community growing up: religious and ethnic segregation and family networks. The Khoja community as a “parallel community.”
11:08 Zara discusses breaking away from the community and moving abroad; her desire to pursue higher education. Her feeling of liberation in Malaysia: a place where you could be a Muslim and not wear a hijab and meet people of other ethnicities and religions.
13:38 Zara on meeting a “flamboyant” gay man for the first time and Islamic homophobia. Her first argument with her brother was about his homophobia.
15:03 Zara on the “culture shocks” of coming out of the community bubble and her family’s relative liberalism. Moving to Australia.
17:58 Zara’s recent return to Tanzania on family business: weird experiences, harassment, and detention and questioning by police for 72 hours about her opinions and posts (including a photoshop of two men kissing in front of the Kaaba in Mecca) on social media. Nick’s role: he and others formed a group to make noise about Zara’s disappearance.
31:26 Zara’s difficulty getting out of Tanzania and back to Australia after her detention. The Australian government’s reluctance to help.
36:08 The bigger picture in Tanzania: police and political corruption, brutality, and repression of activists.
39:38 Nick talks about his conservative Christian background, leaving his faith, becoming woke, becoming un-woke after Charlie Hebdo, and becoming involved in ex-Muslim issues. and Faithless Hijabi: what it is and how he got involved.
41:39 How Nick got involved with Faithless Hijabi. What Faithless Hijabi is and what it does: supporting ex-Muslims with mental health issues.
43:38 Zara describes the origins, evolution, and work of Faithless Hijabi. The plight of ex-Muslims and the issues they face.
51:19 Nick tells the story of Mariam, a Nigerian woman who was helped by Faithless Hijabi after she left her conservative Sunni community.
52:08 Faithless Hijabi’s therapist vetting process. Risks and trust issues with seeking therapy as an ex-Muslim/apostate.
56:19 The left’s failure to support ex-Muslims and apostates. ABC’s cutting of an interview with Zara because she spoke about being an ex-Muslim activist.
57:18 Zara talks about what people can do to best support ex-Muslims: we need free and open and nuanced debate between people of all backgrounds about sensitive issues like the hijab rather than caving to claims of offence or prevaricating with cultural relativism.
Will’s website: https://willstorr.com/
Follow Will on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wstorr
References
Will’s two previous Two for Tea appearances: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/17-will-storr https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/30-will-storr-the-psychology-of-stories
Buy Will’s book Selfie: How the West Became Self-Obsessed: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Selfie-How-West-Became-Self-Obsessed/dp/144728366X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1551697010&sr=1-1&keywords=selfie+will+storr
Buy Will’s book The Science of Storytelling: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Storytelling-Will-Storr/dp/0008276943
Buy Will’s novel The Hunger and the Howling of Killian Lone: https://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Howling-Killian-Lone-ebook/dp/B00B73VMCE
Buy Will’s book The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00B7N26DS/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i3
Buy Will’s latest book The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Status-Game-Will-Storr/dp/0008354634
The Rise of Victimhood Culture by Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-Victimhood-Culture-Microaggressions-Spaces/dp/3319703285/
‘Who Is the Bad Art Friend?’ - by Robert Koller New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/magazine/dorland-v-larson.html
‘Tight and Loose Cultures: A Conversation with Michele Gelfand’ - by Dave Nussbaum, Behavioral Scientist: https://behavioralscientist.org/tight-and-loose-cultures-a-conversation-with-michele-gelfand/
Timestamps
2:03 Iona waxes lyrical over Will’s reading voice.
3:16 Iona reads an excerpt from The Status Game on “the tyranny of the cousins”.
6:18 The three different types of ‘status games’: dominance, virtue, and success. How these still influence our social life today. How we share these games with other animals.
10:23 How Will’s concepts link with Jason Manning and Bradley Campbell’s delineation of three types of culture: honour, dignity, and victimhood. How different types of status games have been dominant at different periods of history. How we have returned to virtue games after a period dominated by success games.
13:14 The Bad Art Friend controversy and its relation to the ideas in Will’s book. Why status matters to us as much as food and water. Why we become annoyed when other people claim status: the relativity of status.
19:52 Will further explains the concept of “the tyranny of the cousins”. How this applies to today’s social media and cancel culture. Social media just changes the landscape within which our instincts act.
26:10 Have we improved morally over time? The Pinkerian view à la Will: progress as a story of our overcoming how beholden we are to primitive status games. The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution replaced virtue games with success games: status rewards for knowledge. Success games = progress. Status-seeking in science.
30:08 Michele Gelfand’s ‘tight’ vs. ‘loose’ cultures and how Will applies these concepts: tight vs. loose games. Tyrannies and cults as tight games. ‘Tight virtue games’ on Twitter: conformist, punitive.
34:34 Do we need tight games such as religion to function as a society? Has there been a decline in the quality of the kinds of status we can aim for today? Lack of pride and dignity as a hidden form of deprivation in the post-religious world. Is our obsession with virtue nowadays a result of the lack of meaning in our capitalistic lives?
41:52 The shift away from in-person interactions to online interactions. ‘Being listened to’ as a form of status that we now seek online. ‘Inflation’ of online status in this regard. How the online world negates our brains’ complex, evolved social systems.
45:52 Why do smart people believe stupid things? Why do ordinary, decent people do evil things? And how does all this relate to status? How does the status game perspective explain the Nazis?
and more on full version.
Follow Kat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/katrosenfield
Kat’s website: https://katrosenfield.com/
Some of Kat’s non-fiction writing, for UnHerd and Spectator World: https://unherd.com/author/kat-rosenfield/ https://spectatorworld.com/author/kat-rosenfield/
Purchase Kat’s new book, No One Will Miss Her, here: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/no-one-will-miss-her-kat-rosenfield
Listen to Kat’s podcast, Feminine Chaos, here: https://shows.acast.com/femininechaos
Support Feminine Chaos here: https://www.patreon.com/femininechaos
References:
Who Is the Bad Art Friend? - New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/magazine/dorland-v-larson.html
Feminine Chaos episode discussing the Bad Art Friend controversy: https://shows.acast.com/femininechaos/episodes/conflict-is-stored-in-the-kidneys
Papers in the Wind by Eduardo Sacheri: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Papers-Wind-Eduardo-Sacheri/dp/1590516427
Timestamps:
2:20 Kat introduces and reads an excerpt from her new novel, No One Will Miss Her.
7:03 Kat discusses her previous novels in comparison to her new one.
7:45 Why are women attracted to murder mystery novels? Is it because women constantly feel at risk from men and want to take control? Why was Kat drawn to the genre?
11:43 The historical and current associations between women and the novel—both in general and with murder mystery/whodunnits in particular. The particular expectations of women writers/readers vs. male writers/readers.
14:27 The connection between the novel of manners and the murder mystery.
15:43 Kat’s literary (and musical) influences and inspirations.
19:58 Is there a difference between the way men and women write in this genre or is the individual’s approach more important?
20:58 Kat’s experiences of the differences between writing YA fiction and adult fiction. What restrictions and freedoms are there in these genres? The passing of the early 2010s ‘YA moment’ and YA now—the current constricting focus on identity in YA and literary fiction.
25:03 Is there a real distinction between ‘literary fiction’ and other forms of fiction? ‘Literary fiction’ as a social scene or community rather than a distinct mode of writing. Pulpy fiction vs. literary fiction. The Bad Art Friend controversy.
30:43 Is fiction by and for women devalued because of its femininity? Male novels vs. female novels in the 18th century. ‘Trashy’ masculine novels. ‘Chick lit’ and ‘dick lit’.
34:22 Have there been surprising reactions to Kat’s new novel? One maddening review. How to construct mysteries and twists effectively. The pleasures of reading well-constructed plots.
37:08 The importance of plotting and how literary fiction is often lacking in this regard. The difficulty of coming after Agatha Christie, the master of construction and plotting. Good surprises in fiction vs. bad ones. The pleasures of re-reading well-constructed plots.
42:47 Kat’s feelings on her new novel being finished and ‘out there’. Her anxiety over surpassing herself in her next novel.
44:55 Kat’s choices about the ‘left-behind town’ setting of No One Will Miss Her. The challenges of writing mystery in the age of the internet and constant interpersonal connection.
49:15 Connections between Kat’s fiction and non-fiction: exploring the same questions via different angles.
50:00 Is there a specific theme running through Kat’s writing that she sees as ‘her own’? What are the subjects and questions that interest Kat? How women’s traditional social skills give them an advantage in the digital age.
52:08 The differences between male and female violence/aggression.
53:50 Kat discusses why she loves the process of writing.
Follow Gurwider on Twitter: https://twitter.com/G_S_Bhogal
You can find all Gurwinder’s Areo articles here: https://areomagazine.com/author/gurwinderbhogal/
Articles referenced here: How Not to De-Radicalize a Twitter Neo-Nazi - Areo: https://areomagazine.com/2017/10/28/how-not-to-de-radicalize-a-twitter-neo-nazi/
Alex Jones Was Victimized by One Oligopoly. But He Perpetuated Another: https://quillette.com/2018/09/30/alex-jones-was-victimized-by-one-oligopoly-but-he-perpetuated-another/
The Best Cure for Fake News is Fake News - Rabbit Hole: https://rabbitholemag.com/the-best-cure-for-fake-news-is-fake-news/
Further References You can find all the articles published as part of Areo’s free speech fortnight here: https://twitter.com/AreoMagazine/status/1394704394189479939?s=20
My interview with Ayishat Akanbi: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/63-ayishat-akanbi-styles-of-identity
Ayishat’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ayishat_Akanbi
My article on the involuntary nature of belief: Can We Make Ourselves Believe? A Letter Exchange - Areo: https://areomagazine.com/2019/08/18/can-we-make-ourselves-believe-a-letter-exchange/
I misspoke during the podcast. The original letter exchange was between Peter Boghossian and Maarten Boudry: Unbelievable: Can You Believe Something You Know is False? - letter.wiki: https://letter.wiki/conversation/22
Bret Weinstein - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi5N_uAqApEUIlg32QzkPlg
AARON Z. LEWIS: www.aaronzlewis.com
Timestamps 3:09 Fake news 11:55 Learning and heuristics, signalling, status games 18:08 Social media, virality and the oligopoly of perspectives 33:43 Listening as a persuasive technique 51:26 Conspiracy theories as a spandrel, mithridatism of false information, why it should be freedom of opinion, not freedom of information, how do we solve the problem of conspiracy theories? 57:38 The lab leak hypothesis and the mainstream echo chamber 1:02:18 The Woozle effect 1:10:08 Hypernovelty 1:13:43 Predictive coding
For more of James’ related thoughts on free speech, representation and democracy see:
https://antigonejournal.com/2021/04/two-concepts-of-free-speech/
https://areomagazine.com/2019/05/16/two-concepts-of-representation/
https://proandepimetheus.blogspot.com/2020/08/harsh-but-unfair.html
https://freespeech.buzzsprout.com/370355/5178406-episode-30-dr-kierstead-on-ancient-greek-values-of-free-speech-and-diversity-of-thought-at-our-universities
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/08/04/dr-james-kierstead-dr-michael-johnston-why-the-new-hate-speech-legislation-should-be-scrapped/
Follow James’ podcast Free Kiwis, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjc1cT_a9JM
Follow James on Twitter @Kleisthenes2
1:00 Introduction 3:12 The difference between the two values of parrhesia and isegoria. 7:52 Why some people feel that defending free speech requires silencing certain voices 14:16 The Areopagus 25:22 Milton’s Areopagitica 27:53 Free speech absolutism 38:44 The futility of attempting to rectify manners 41:41 The two different types of representation 48:10 Representation in the arts and fiction compared with representation the political arena 58:33 Controversy over the death of Socrates. Socrates’ views on democracy 1:05:41 The state of free speech at New Zealand universities
Lee’s book with Lyudmila Trut, How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution (2017) can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Tame-Fox-Build-Dog/dp/022644418X
I also highly recommend Behind the Crimson Curtain: The Rise and Fall of Peale's Museum (2020): https://www.amazon.com/Behind-Crimson-Curtain-Peales-Museum/dp/1941953727
Follow Lee on Twitter @LeeDugatkin
Timestamps
1:27 Behind the Crimson Curtain and other books 2:59 The silver fox breeding project 14:13 When you select for tameness, you get a suite of other changes; evolution through changes to gene expression, rather than changes to the genes themselves. 22:36 Evo devo 24:51 The cascade of apparently unrelated changes which appear when you select for one trait. Neural crest cells. Why do tame animals often have floppy ears? 32:18 Other changes associated with domestication; cross-fostering experiments 40:08 Humans as self-domesticated apes 46:46 The amazing people working on the fox domestication experiments 54:34 More thoughts on early human–wolf interactions
David has created a series of films on this controversy on his Rebel Wisdom channel. You can find them here: https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/42-film-content/vaccines-ivermectin/842-vaccines-dark-horse-final-word
David and I talk about the responsibilities of independent media with regard to this issue here: https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/42-film-content/vaccines-ivermectin/837-dark-horse-journalism-with-iona-italia
David’s article for Areo can be found here: https://areomagazine.com/2021/08/12/on-bret-weinstein-alternative-media-ivermectin-and-vaccine-related-controversies/
David’s deep dive article on the scientific background to these issues can be found here: https://medium.com/rebel-wisdom/on-vaccine-safety-ivermectin-and-the-dark-horse-podcast-an-investigation-f32491d4c970
Follow David on Twitter @fullydavid
Nicholas’s book, Drones and Terrorism: Asymmetric Warfare and the Threat to Global Security (2018) can be found here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/drones-and-terrorism-9781838608439/ Subscribe to Arc Digital: Arc Digital For more relevant writing by Nicholas, see the following articles:
https://www.arcdigital.media/p/every-option-in-afghanistan-was-bad
https://medium.com/arc-digital/americas-predictable-avoidable-unnecessary-syrian-disaster-f0e1292e9449
https://warontherocks.com/2019/04/trump-cancels-drone-strike-civilian-casualty-report-does-it-matter/
https://medium.com/arc-digital/el-paso-was-terrorism-dayton-wasnt-and-why-that-matters-9b01a2ed2d94
https://medium.com/arc-digital/the-forever-war-keeps-going-76844f9ae16e
https://medium.com/arc-digital/qanon-woke-up-the-real-deep-state-72bbfcb79488
Follow Nicholas on Twitter: @Ngrossman81
Timestamps 0:56 Intro 3:08 Background to the situation; Trump’s handling of the withdrawal from Syria 7:48 Have the Taliban reneged on their agreement with Trump 8:59 The nature of the US presence in Afghanistan 18:08 20 years of at least some Afghans having a freer life; treatment of women in Afghanistan 21:00 What is your explanation for the evacuation flights being mostly men? 28:08 The connections between the Taliban and Al Qaeda 35:49 The Taliban is not simply "local culture"!; but what extent are the Taliban aided by local sympathisers? 44:52 More on the withdrawal; why weren’t people working with the west taken out earlier? 53:58 What are your viewpoints on reluctance to issue visas to Afghans 1:06:51 Thought on US withdrawing from everywhere possible; did the US create the Taliban? 1:16:29 What is your sense of the short and medium term future of Afghanistan?
To find out more about Angel: http://angeleduardo.com/ Follow Angel on Twitter @StrangelEdweird
0:55 Introduction 2:18 Starmanning 7:58 David Fuller's Areo piece and Majid Nawaz 13:00 Daryl Davis 14:28 Is starmanning civility porn? Does it create false equivalences? 16:23 Steve Sailer 21:20 Changing our minds; an intellectual ship of Theseus 23:45 Signalling in more productive ways 27:45 Vitriol on social media 30:58 My boyfriend's brother looked me up on Twitter 32:52 What are you trying to achieve when you use social media? 34:08 We don't need to vent emotions 35:08 If Taleb had been around in the eighteenth century 36:59 Westworld 39:08 Twitter's new "are you sure you want to say this?" feature 41:56 Free speech, the Areo article and the euphemism treadmill 50:15 Terms becoming taboo, changing societal attitudes 55:19 A passage from teaching creative writing 58:08 A public shaming 1:04:13 Summing up
For more about Dinyar: Dinyar Patel – Assistant Professor of South Asian History: https://dinyarpatel.com/
Dinyar’s book, Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism (2020), can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Naoroji-Pioneer-Nationalism-Dinyar-Patel/dp/0674238206
Follow Dinyar on Twitter @DinyarPatel Timestamps 3:18 Why Naoroji was important: an excerpt from Dinyar’s book 9:15 Why Naoroji is so much less well known than other Indian nationalists 12:45 Economic drain theory 16:35 Indianising the Indian Civil Service 21:00¬- Naoroji’s career in the UK Parliament 29:09 Lord Salisbury’s notorious remarks about the “black man” running for Parliament and other racist attacks 36:45 The latter part of Naoroji’s life: greater radicalisation, a more international focus and changes to the direction of Indian nationalism 41:27 How is Naoroji viewed by other modern Indian historians? 46:47 How did Naoroji’s Parsi background affect his life, his approach, his experiences? 50:08 Two final points: the difficulties inherent in researching this material; Indians in Victorian era Britain
You can find full details of Adrian’s fiction here: https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/science-fiction-and-fantasy/adrian-tchaikovsky-books-in-order. Follow Adrian on Twitter @aptshadow.
Timestamps 0:57 Introduction 1:58 Children of Time optioned 3:24 Passage from Doors of Eden 7:53 Alternative evolutionary scenarios 9:55 Gould and the Burgess shale 12:13 Intelligence without sentience 14:10 What are the defining characteristics of intelligence? 19:38 A.I., Shards of Earth and adapted humans 22:48 The singularity 29:03 Networked intelligences And a debate on the latest Star Trek! 31:53 Ursula Le Guin 33:23 Oher favourite SF writers 36:06 Why did you become a fiction writer? 38:33 Passage from Doors of Eden 45:27 Why Adrian is especially drawn to SF/Fantasy 48:53 Writing Neil de Grasse Tyson style proof 50:48 Two types of research 53:57 Research and Wolf Hall 55:02 Ursula Le Guin/ Left Hand of Darkness 56:46 Twitter questions - 3rd book of Children of Time 57:32 Titles being changed 59:16 Putting oneself in the place of a hive mind 1:00:38 Role playing games 1:01:53 Final thoughts - Dogs of War, Bear Head and Adrian reads from Children of Time.
You can find a complete bibliography of David’s work here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/David-M.-Buss/e/B000AP5RSU
David’s book, Bad Men: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment and Assault (2021): https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1472146336/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0 (US title: When Men Behave Badly)
The Buss lab at the University of Texas: https://labs.la.utexas.edu/buss/
Follow him on Twitter @ProfDavidBuss
Other References
Tina Turner and Kurt Loder, I, Tina (1986), adapted in 1993 as the film What’s Love Got to Do with It
Timestamps
1:42 David Buss reads a short passage. Introduction to the book.
3:08 The origins of intersexual conflict in the evolution of sexual reproduction
8:55 Men’s greater desire for sexual variety
11:21 What kinds of men are most likely to be rapists?
14:08 The mate deprivation hypothesis debunked
21:13 Women’s evolved fear of strangers
30:23 Predictors of intimate partner violence
32:28 Mate value discrepancies
38:17 Why women are unfaithful
43:08 Online dating
50:27 The MeToo movement
53:34 Defending evo psych
Jerry’s book Why Evolution Is True (2010) can be found here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/300564/why-evolution-is-true-by-jerry-a-coyne/
Faith vs Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible (2016) can be found here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/312382/faith-versus-fact-by-jerry-a-coyne/9780143108269/
Speciation (2004) by Jerry Coyne and H. Allen Orr can be found here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/speciation-9780878930890?cc=gb⟨=en&
Jerry’s blog: https://whyevolutionistrue.com/
Follow Jerry on Twitter @Evolutionistrue
Further References
Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now (2018); The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (2011)
Timestamps
3:30 Why Jerry wrote Why Evolution Is True 5:45 Public misperceptions of evolution 8:52 Evolution as a tinkerer: the example of hernias 11:08 Turtles, rhinos and tradeoffs 14:38 How mutation works 16:33 How speciation works (with an excerpt from Why Evolution Is True) 23:46 What people (including Darwin) misunderstand about speciation 28:38 Faith vs. Fact: why evolutionary biology has become the main political battleground of religion vs. science 33:42 A creationist road trip. 36:36 Scientists allying with religious groups. The work of the Templeton Foundation. 42:08 Belief in belief. 46:36 The biggest threats to rationality other than religion. 47:10 The argument from evil; rejection of vaccines 49:59 A reading from Evolution Is True
You can find Andrew’s books here (among other places): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-Doyle/e/B001K8AWRC/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Andrew’s show, Free Speech Nation, can be found here: https://www.gbnews.uk/shows/free-speech-nation
For Jonathan Pie (co-written with Tom Walker) see: https://www.youtube.com/user/tomwalker78
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewdoyle_com
Further References
For more on Marcus Meechan (Count Dankula): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFraBEwucEY
Helen Pluckrose’s review of Free Speech and Why It Matters for Areo Magazine: https://areomagazine.com/2021/03/03/defending-the-key-liberal-value-andrew-doyles-free-speech-and-why-it-matters/
Greg Lukianoff, Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate (2014)
Nigel Warburton, Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction (2009)
Nadine Strossen, HATE: Why We Should Resist it With Free Speech, Not Censorship (2018)
Jeonmi Park’s interview with Jordan Peterson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yqa-SdJtT4
Jordan Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief (1999)
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality (1976)
Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness (1928)
Compton Mackenzie, Extraordinary Women (1928)
E. M. Forster, Maurice (1971)
Guy Deutscher, Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages (2010)
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/how-british-cops-became-the-literal-speech-police (Your host, Iona, on UK hate speech laws) Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning, The Rise of Victimhood Culture: Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and the New Culture Wars (2018)
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (2018)
Timestamps
9:41 A primer on free speech 14:10–22:42 The new conformity: excerpt from Andrew’s book 22:52 Cancel culture vs. political correctness 24:53 Consequentialist arguments vs. human rights arguments for free speech 27:10 How easily influenced are we by media? 36:20 The influence of postmodern ideas of language as power on the free speech debate 38:45 Homosexuality: a social construct? 49:16 Censorship from the left 55:26 Self-censorship 56:28 Censorship by the Tory government, including social media censorship 01:08:43 Trade offs of free speech. The dangers of restricting freedoms. The Scottish Hate Speech Bill.
richarddawkins.net/
Richard’s latest publication, Books Do Furnish a Life (2021) is available among other places here: www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/111994…81787633681.html
See also The Selfish Gene (1979); The Extended Phenotype (1982); Climbing Mount Improbable (1996); A Devil’s Chaplain (2003); The Ancestor’s Tale (2005); The God Delusion (2006) and many other works.
For a more complete list of Richard’s books: www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Dawkins
Follow Richard on Twitter: @RichardDawkins
Further References
Jerry Coyne, Why Evolution Is True (2009) Erik Hoel, The Revelations (2021)
Timestamps
4:16 Why more non-scientists should take pleasure in science writing 6:07 Why it is important for scientists to write clearly 14:35 Continuously updated virtual reality 16:33 The genetic book of the dead 20:09 The extended phenotype 25:04 Literature and poetry 27:58 Misconceptions of the gene’s eye view 33:13 Misinterpretations of evolutionary biology and of Dawkins’ own work in particular 35:48 Defying our genes 36:08 Anti-Darwinian ethics 37:20 Threats to the understanding of science 39:14 Dawkins’ gift for satire 44:29 Dawkins’ own favourite work
https://sister-hood.com/author/sadia-hameed/
https://areomagazine.com/2021/05/17/the-silencing-of-ethnic-minority-victims-of-abuse/
https://www.facebook.com/Gloucestershire-Sisters-1974497649471316/groups
Follow Sadia on Facebook: @sadia936
Further References
Nimco Ali, What We Are Told Not to Talk About (2019)
Timestamps
2:00 Sadia’s background
8:33 Sadia’s abduction to Pakistan
19:03 High-control communities and the need to deal with the crime, not the identity.
21:53 Self-appointed spokespeople, segregated communities & the stereotype of the perfect victim
26:58 Religion and culture, the infantilisation of ethnic minorities
47:58 Immigrants and legal double standards
53:48 The ideological capture of the UK political parties by identity politics
59:10 Racism in the UK past and present
1:17:35 Language policing and self-censorship
1:21:08 How identity politics impacts the way in which we deal with crime
For more on Jonathan: https://www.brookings.edu/experts/jonathan-rauch/
You can preorder The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth (2021) from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Constitution-Knowledge-Jonathan-Rauch-author/dp/0815738862
Other books: The Outnation: Search for the Soul of Japan (1992); Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (1993); Demosclerosis: The Silent Killer of American Government (1994); Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working (1999); Denial: My 25 Years Without a Soul (2003); Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America (2004); Political Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Deals Can Strengthen American Democracy (2015); The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 (2018).
Follow Jonathan on Twitter @jon_rauch
Further References
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (2013)
Matt McManus, The Rise of Post-Modern Conservatism: Neoliberalism, Post-Modern Culture, and Reactionary Politics (2020)
The Spiral of Silence A Theory of Public Opinion (weebly.com): https://msp1021.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/8/4/11840812/noelle-neumann-1974-journal_of_communication.pdf
"Culture and Identity-Protective Cognition: Explaining the White Male E" by Dan M. Kahan: https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/101/
Timestamps 01:26 Knowledge is a social phenomenon, the social network of liberal science 15:58 Compromise as a spur to creativity 18:58 Fallibilism vs. scepticism 23:11 Trolling and cancel culture: two kinds of manipulation used to spoof consensus 30:02 The spiral of silence 35:10 How social media tools are ideally suited for manipulation of the information environment 36:52 The importance of subjecting all views to criticism and following that process wherever it leads. 39:01 Conservatives and liberals: parallel epistemic communities 44:27 Reality-based journalism is less lucrative 46:26 Identity-protective cognition 48:21 They’re not ten feet tall—we are: ways of combating disinformation.
References
Erik’s novel, The Revelations (2021) can be found here and elsewhere: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revelations-Novel-Erik-Hoel-ebook/dp/B084ZKXQ12
For a fuller selection of Erik’s writing: https://www.erikphoel.com/
Especially relevant to our conversation: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/enter-the-supersensorium-hoel
Follow Erik on Twitter @erikphoel
Further References
Correspondence between Descartes and Princess Elisabeth:| https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/descartes1643_1.pdf
Samuel Richardson, Clarissa: Or, The History of a Young Lady. Comprehending the Most Important Concerns of Private Life (1748)
George Eliot, Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life (1871–2)
Timestamps
2:57 Paracosmic play 6:59 Novels that deal with science 9:36 I analyse Erik’s writing style 12:30 New York City as a conscious organism 18:44 The iconoclast protagonist and the shortcomings of neuroscience 23:10 I read a passage from Erik’s novel 43:25 Dreams—a reading from the novel plus discussion 48:48 The advantage of literature over film and TV. The advantage of literature over science. 1:11:45 The rise of the MFAs 1:18:08 I read another passage from Erik’s novel
Ashok’s book can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Masala-Lab-Science-Indian-Cooking/dp/0143451375
His YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/krishashok
Follow Ashok on Twitter: @krishashok
Further References Meher Mirza’s column in The Juggernaut - The Weight of Parsi Toddy (thejuggernaut.com): https://www.thejuggernaut.com/the-weight-of-parsi-toddy
Timestamps 2:54 Ashok reads the opening of chapter 2, “The Science of Spice” on coriander, supertasters 6:08 A scientific approach to writing about Indian food 13:07 Cooking rice: the science behind the folk wisdom 16:55 Why you should rely on heuristics, not recipes 22:58 Why Indian cookery is easier to improvise than French or Italian 25:16 The rise of restaurants and the industrialisation of cooking 27:25 Indian urban life post-independence and the difficulties of getting fresh ingredients 30:25 Heat 35:58 Alcohol 41:31 Authenticity 48:43 Advice for budding cooks who are intimidated by Indian cookery 54:07 The audience of Ashok’s book 01:02:58 I read from the introduction
Academic Freedom Alliance: https://academicfreedom.org/
You can find Keith’s book Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech (2018) here: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691191522/speak-freely
You can find all of Keith’s academic publications here: https://scholar.princeton.edu/kewhitt/home
Keith regularly blogs here: https://reason.com/volokh/
Follow Keith on Twitter: @kewhittington
Further References My interview with Greg Lukianoff: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/78-greg-lukianoff-defending-free-speech
Experienced. Nonpartisan. Defending Your Rights. - FIRE: https://www.thefire.org/
Heterodox Academy: https://heterodoxacademy.org/
Timestamps 2:24 The ACA’s specific mission; free speech norms at universities 17:55 The defence of free speech for academics is controversial among academics 20:23 Free speech is not a partisan issue 35:16 How susceptible are people to absorbing ideas they hear or read about? 42:25 Misconceptions about the situation on campuses, day to day 48:44 The case of Tom Smith 55:27 The distinction between academic freedom and freedom of speech 01:03:23 What you can do to help
You can find Yasmine’s book, Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam (2019) here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unveiled-Western-Liberals-Empower-Radical/dp/1999240502
Free Hearts Free Minds: https://www.freeheartsfreeminds.com/
Follow Yasmine on Twitter: @YasMohammedxx Further References Ben Affleck, Sam Harris and Bill Maher Debate Radical Islam | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vln9D81eO60
Maajid Nawaz, Radical: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism (2012) Timestamps 4:05 Yasmine’s life 14:22 Ignored by the Canadian authorities 15:01–16:07 I read a passage from Unveiled 21:29–22:42 I read a passage on hijab and niqab from Unveiled 22:43 More on hijab and niqab 32:34 How Yasmine finally broke free and adapted to secular life 42:02–43:58 A passage from Unveiled on sex after Islam 44:30 Free Hearts, Free Minds, Yasmine’s organisation; also her new book collection of women who have left Islam 50:33 –52:50 A passage on feminists in the west and their role in this, from Unveiled
You can find Sadanand’s writing for the Wall Street Journal here: https://www.wsj.com/news/author/sadanand-dhume
Specifically on “Love Jihad”: https://www.wsj.com/articles/hindu-nationalists-crazy-crackdown-on-love-jihad-11606349657
Sadanand’s work at the American Enterprise Institute: https://www.aei.org/profile/sadanand-dhume/
For more from Sadanand on Hindu ethnonationalism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RawnTNec6Nc
The Grand Tamasha podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxp8lyhZjcI&list=PL19Wqzt3FqEUvI2mEQVRngisQMecIfoGf
Sadanand’s book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/My-Friend-the-Fanatic/Sadanand-Dhume/9781634504218
Follow Sadanand on Twitter: @dhume
Further References Some of my sources of Indian news, as promised: The Hindu: Breaking News, India News, Sports News and Live Updates: https://www.thehindu.com/
The Quint: https://www.thequint.com/
Scroll.in: https://scroll.in/
The Caravan (caravanmagazine.in): https://caravanmagazine.in/
The Quilliam Circle: https://www.quilliaminternational.com/circle/
Maajid Nawaz, Radical: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism (2012)
Shashi Tharoor, Why I Am a Hindu (2018)
My interview with Salil Tripathi: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/44-salil-tripathi-journalistic-integrity
My interview with Armin Navabi: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/episode-028-armin-navabi-the-battle-for-iran
For more on the “sexy Kali” controversy: https://atheistrepublic.libsyn.com/indians-respond-to-sexy-hindu-goddess-kali-part-1 and https://www.youtube.com/c/AtheistRepublic/search?query=sexy%20kali
My article on the Indian project: https://areomagazine.com/2019/08/15/on-being-a-proud-indian/
Timestamps 2:04 The so-called “Love Jihad” laws, fears of conversion, Indian paternalism 16:01 Interfaith marriages in India 8:30 Attitudes towards Christian converts 24:32 Problems within the Indian Muslim community. 30:43 Indian secularism at the time of Independence 37:57 The various anxieties about Islamic radicalism that helped fuel the rise of Hindu nationalism 39:11 Double standards in Indian law 41:26 India’s electoral system, group mobilisation and the abandonment of secularism on the part of the Hindu nationalists 45:18 Muslim personal law, the Hajj subsidy 49:18 Hindu religious radicalism 58:00 The chilling effect on speech 01:00:33 Indian law and freedom of speech 01:06:05 Indian exceptionalism and the achievements of Indian secularism 01:08:30 Misconceptions about democracy, the weakness of Indian institutions 01:11:30 The recent controversial citizenship laws, the NRC and CAA 01:19:09 How Covid-19 and the pandemic have affected Indian politics. Sadanand’s predictions for the future.
Areo: http://www.areomagazine.com/
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Areo’s PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/areomagazine
Counterweight: https://counterweightsupport.com/
Rebecca Christiansen’s novel, We Make Mayhem (2020) can be found here: https://www.wattpad.com/story/212324557-we-make-mayhem-boyxboy
Her earlier work, Maybe in Paris (2017) can be found here: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Maybe-in-Paris/Rebecca-Christiansen/9781510708808
Rebecca’s Letter exchange with Frank Brosell is here: https://letter.wiki/conversation/153
For more of Rebecca’s wonderful letters: https://letter.wiki/RebeccaChristiansen/conversations
Rebecca on Medium: https://medium.com/@rebeccachristiansen
Follow Rebecca on Twitter: @rebeccarightnow
Further References Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger (2002) and The Book Thief (2005)
David Levithan, Boy Meets Boy (2005)
Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (2015)
Laurie Forest, The Black Witch (2021)
I know I’m late.. Every so often, a tweet or meme will go… | by Becky Albertalli | Medium: https://medium.com/@rebecca.albertalli/i-know-im-late-9b31de339c62
Black Mirror (TV Series 2011– ) - IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2085059/
Iain Banks, The Business (1999)
Joe Rogan interviews Elon Musk: Joe Rogan Experience #1169 - Elon Musk - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycPr5-27vSI
Salvation (TV Series 2017–2018) - IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6170874/
Samuel Richardson, Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady: Comprehending the Most Important Concerns of Private Life. And Particularly Shewing, the Distresses that May Attend the Misconduct Both of Parents and Children, In Relation to Marriage (1748). An account of how Richardson composed the novel can be found in T. C. Duncan Eaves and Ben D. Kimpel, Samuel Richardson: A. Biography (1971).
The 36 Questions That Lead to Love - The New York Times (nytimes.com): https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/style/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html
Timestamps 1:20 We Make Mayhem 7:43 Elon Musk and dating apps 13:27 Rebecca’s development as a writer 16:42 I read the opening chapter of We Make Mayhem 24:29 Wattpad responses to We Make Mayhem 28:58 Young Adult fiction 36:42 The publishing industry 38:58 Rebecca’s main influences as a writer 42:13 Why Rebecca writes in the voice of a young gay man 44:06 More on Maybe in Paris and Rebecca reads an excerpt 49:17 Advice for budding writers
Please Stop Imposing American Views about Race on Us - Persuasion: https://www.persuasion.community/p/please-stop-imposing-american-views
The dangerous logic of anti-racism - UnHerd: https://unherd.com/2020/11/the-dangerous-logic-of-anti-racism/
Biracial Britain by Remi Adekoya review: turning assumptions upside down | Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/books/biracial-britain-mixedrace-remi-adekoya-review-b699865.html
Tomiwa Owolade, a writer for UnHerd: https://unherd.com/author/tomiwa-owolade/
Tomiwa Owolade – Quillette: https://quillette.com/author/tom-owolade/
Follow Tomiwa @tomowolade
Further References David Olusoga, Black and British: A Forgotten History (2016)
Akala, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire (2018)
Reni Eddo Lodge, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race (2018)
UK rapper Wiley goes on hours-long anti-Semitic Twitter rant | The Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-rapper-wiley-goes-on-hours-long-anti-semitic-twitter-rant/
Remi Adekoya, Biracial Britain: A Different Way of Looking at Race (2021)
Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (1995)
Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other (2020)
Iona Italia reads from the preface, "The Half Caste" to her upcoming book "Fire and Vultures". - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdUunlGWqrw&t=2s
Shashi Tharoor, An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India (2013)
Timestamps 1:30 The Americanisation of the British discourse on race 11:06 Reni Eddo Lodge 14:51 The terms BAME and white privilege 18:49 Diversity in the arts and journalism 24:48 The dangerous logic of anti-racism 39:05 Brits and the slave trade 44:53 Mixed race Britain 54:23 Life in Argentina 1:11:03 Nigeria
Preorders are very important to writers. Get hold of Jesse’s book here: https://bookshop.org/books/the-quick-fix-why-fad-psychology-can-t-cure-our-social-ills/9780374239800
You can find Blocked and Reported here: https://www.patreon.com/blockedandreported/posts
Jesse’s substack is here: https://jessesingal.substack.com/
Further References Christoph on Twitter @halalcoholism
Will Storr, Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It's Doing to Us (2017)
Here’s How Cornell Scientist Brian Wansink Turned Shoddy Data Into Viral Studies About How We Eat (buzzfeednews.com): https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemlee/brian-wansink-cornell-p-hacking
Russian Roulette - Derren Brown | FULL EPISODE! - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBjyCCxOEUQ
Daniel Dresner, The Ideas Industry (2017)
Angela Duckworth, Grit: Why Passion and Resilience Are the Secrets to Success (2017)
Amy Cuddy: Your body language may shape who you are | TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_may_shape_who_you_are?language=en
Timestamps 03:51 Positive psychology and comprehensive soldier fitness 12:45 Thought leader mode vs. public intellectual mode 15:11 More on grit 21:09 The obsession with half-baked ideas 23:19 Primeworld 30:41 The superpredator panic 33:04 The jangle fallacy 37:00 The IAT (Implicit Association Test) and the fracturing of American society 46:30 How to avoid being fooled by bad psychology
Katie’s article on the disappearance of the lesbians is available in a public version here: https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/where-have-all-the-lesbians-gone-0a7
A longer version is also available on the Patreon for her podcast with Jesse Singal, Blocked and Reported: https://www.patreon.com/blockedandreported
More background - LGBT Identification Rises to 5.6% in Latest U.S. Estimate (gallup.com): https://news.gallup.com/poll/329708/lgbt-identification-rises-latest-estimate.aspx
If the Future Is Nonbinary, It's a Bleak One for Women - Slog - The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/11/30/36431918/if-the-future-is-nonbinary-its-a-bleak-one-for-women
Radclyffe Hall The Well of Loneliness (1928)
Living together and civil partnership - legal differences - Citizens Advice: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/living-together-marriage-and-civil-partnership/living-together-and-civil-partnership-legal-differences/
Map of States Where Same-Sex Couples Are Able to Get Joint or Second Parent Adoption | American Civil Liberties Union (aclu.org): https://www.aclu.org/map-states-where-same-sex-couples-are-able-get-joint-or-second-parent-adoption
Timestamps 3:32 The decline in lesbian bar culture 11:26 The rise in transitions 13:09 The shift in terminology from lesbian to non-binary, the retrospective transing of historical crossdressing women, defining feminine gender roles 17:50 Masculine presentation among lesbians 29:25 Social contagion 32:12 Youth gender dysphoria 34:21 Internal gender identities 38:18 Lesbians and trans men 40:03 Gender identity and sexuality 48:11 From lesbian to queer 49:50 Bisexuality and female sexual fluidity, same-sex marriage and civil partnerships
You can find Aella’s blog here: https://knowingless.com/about/
Follow Aella on Twitter @aella_girl
Mother-of-three says her sons were expelled from Catholic school because of her OnlyFans account: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/mother-only-fans-account-catholic-school-expelled-b1806998.html
Other Life with Aella - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A15tiMRM8dE
Blocked and Reported: Let's Talk About Sex (And Hanukkah And Bad Journalism), Baby (feat. @Aella_Girl) (fireside.fm): https://barpodcast.fireside.fm/44
Timestamps 0204 Aella’s religious family background, introduction to sex work 09:08 Differences between camgirling and OnlyFans; why some people prefer OnlyFans over online porn 19:56 The work involved 24:52 What is Aella’s specific appeal? 30:04 The dark side of sex work 33:48 Sex work as compassion 36:22 A few more dark sides 41:48 OnlyFans and the gig economy 43:53 Love and relationships as an OnlyFans girl 50:46 Self-presentation, image 54:00 Aella’s future
David’s book Atlas Hugged: The Autobiography of John Gault III can be found here: https://atlashugged.world/
Home - Evolution Institute (evolution-institute.org): https://evolution-institute.org/
NESCent: The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center: https://nescent.org/
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957)
B. F. Skinner, Walden Two (1948)
Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness (2009)
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (1976)
Massive Modularity - Oxford Handbooks: https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195309799.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195309799-e-4
Selection by consequences | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/abs/selection-by-consequences/0F69B44DBC37419B8EBD90B5667738ED
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy | Steven C. Hayes, PhD: https://stevenchayes.com/category/acceptance-and-commitment-therapy/
George Eliot, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life (1871–2)
Athena Aktipis, The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us
Understand and Treat Cancer (2020)
Timestamps 2:58 How David came to be interested in this topic and why he decided to put his thoughts into novel form 13:16 The mosaic of ideas 27:08 Randian economics and the alternative 39:26 Individual versus group-level perspectives in society and biology 50:11 Cooperation and cheating 55:54 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy 01:08:05 The advantages of the fictional form 01:13:05 The novel of ideas
Tom Chivers, The AI Does Not Hate You: Superintelligence, Rationality and the Race to Save the World (2019); alternative title The Rationalist's Guide to the Galaxy: Superintelligent AI and the Geeks Who Are Trying to Save Humanity’s Future
Follow Tom on Twitter @TomChivers
Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014)
Toby Ord, The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity (2020)
Eliezer Yudkowsky, Rationality: From AI to Zombies (2015)
Fantasia(1940) - The Sorcerer's Apprentice, First Part - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VErKCq1IGIU
Fantasia(1940) - The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Second Part - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcesnqVF0us
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (1973)
Stuart J. Russell, Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control (2019)
LessWrong https://www.lesswrong.com/
Astral Codex Ten (substack.com) https://astralcodexten.substack.com/
Timestamps 05:23 Why the AI threat is more like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice than The Terminator 15:13 What does it mean to be intelligent? 18:57 “The map is not the territory.” 21:53 Judging veracity based on psychology not facts, the rationalists 28:51 Why the singularity would be so uniquely dangerous 41:41 Utilitarian approaches to suffering 53:50 What the rationalists are like in person
For more on Michael visit: https://michaelwstory.com/
Follow Michael on Twitter @MWStory
Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner, Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction (2015)
Tom Chivers, The AI Does Not Hate You: Superintelligence, Rationality and the Race to Save the World (2019)
Nate Silver, The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—but Some Don't (2012)
James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few (2005)
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases (1974)
Metaculus: https://www.metaculus.com/questions/
Timestamps 03:43 The process of superforecasting with the example of predicting how long it would take to develop a coronavirus vaccine 12:50 The wisdom of crowds 18:04 The inside vs. outside view, anchors and base rates 23:15 The foxes versus the hedgehogs 29:39 The conjunction fallacy 37:15 Accountability, falsifiability, Brier scores 46:54 Loss of institutional credibility: a problem or an opportunity? 01:02:05 The importance of A/B testing 01:06:36 Back of the envelope (Fermi) calculations 01:12:11 Psychological characteristics of superforecasters, caring about being wrong
Greg’s book, Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate (2012): http://www.unlearningliberty.com/
His booklet, Freedom from Speech (2014): https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/freedom-from-speech/
Greg’s blog, The Eternally Radical Idea Archives: https://www.thefire.org/category/newsdesk/eternally-radical-idea/
For more on FIRE: https://www.thefire.org/
Follow Greg on Twitter @glukianoff; follow FIRE on Twitter @TheFIREorg
Further References Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (2018)
Greg and Jon’s previous appearance on Two for Tea: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/06-jonathan-haidt-and-greg-lukianoff
The Mighty Ira (2020): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13027292/
Jonathan Rauch, Kindly Inquisitors (1993)
Star Trek - "The Charming Negress" - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BBOWsWODX4
A ‘Global First Amendment’ - FIRE: https://www.thefire.org/a-global-first-amendment/
NOTE: The section on profanity in Unlearning Liberty had indeed been cut from my version of the audiobook.
Timestamps 4:02 Since 2012, the shift from primarily administration-led to student-led censorship 08:41 Censorship gravity; free speech isn’t an intuitive value; free speech culture 12:38 The power of higher education as an institution 15:56 Is censorship a leftist thing? 18:08 Understanding the world as it is, the insufficiency of the marketplace of ideas metaphor 25:16 Group polarisation 29:33 The ideological uncertainty principle 31:10 Disinformation and conspiracy theorising 38:28 Hate speech, calling people names 44:32 Overbreadth and vagueness 45:57 Profanity 54:47 Harassment, hurt and the Davis standard 59:33 Missed opportunities and censorship after George Floyd’s death 01:01:48 The need for a global First Amendment 01:06:27 Social media 01:17:25 Disinvitations
Note: Sean B. Carroll the evolutionary biologist and Sean M. Carroll the quantum physicist are both equally awe-inspiring. They are not the same person.
Sean’s new book A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You (2020) can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fortunate-Events-Chance-Making-Planet/dp/0691218900/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1611219491&sr=1-1
Sean’s classic book Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom (2005) can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Endless-Forms-Most-Beautiful-Science/dp/1849160481
His book and film The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works can be found here: https://www.seanbcarroll.com/the-serengeti-rules#:~:text=In%20The%20Serengeti%20Rules%2C%20award,the%20planet%20we%20depend%20upon.
For more on Sean: https://www.seanbcarroll.com/
Follow Sean on Twitter @SeanBiolCarroll Further References Evo-Devo (Despacito Biology Parody) | A Capella Science - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydqReeTV_vk
The Hox gene family synteny on chromosome 3 of Drosophila melanogaster... | Download Scientific Diagram (researchgate.net): https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Hox-gene-family-synteny-on-chromosome-3-of-Drosophila-melanogaster-and-the-segments_fig4_322698687
Introduction to Trilobites: https://www.trilobites.info/trilobite.htm
Eye Development - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/eye-development
Timestamps 03:00 Misunderstandings about chance and probability 04:42 The precise timing of the asteroid strike 66 million years 07:48 Quantum fibrillation in the structure of DNA 14:34 Redundancy in the genome 17:50 How small the differences are that matter 20:51 The central insight of evo devo 28:38 Genetic switches and the choreography of development 32:13 It’s ain’t what you have, it’s the way that you use it. How diversity is achieved. 38:52 Homologous modular structures 43:20 Hox genes and the GPS coordinate system for the body 45:00 Williston’s law and why we have leeway to experiment 49:47 Polarities, how changes in the embryo create changes in the animal 55:02 Chance and the individual
You can find Visa’s book here: https://gumroad.com/l/friendlynerdbook
Subscribe to Visa’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/visa
Follow Visa on Twitter @visakanv
Further References The wisdom of crowds concept is well described in Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner’s Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction (2015)
See @naval’s Twitter account, whose approach I compare with Visakan’s
Sonke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes (2017)
The Karate Kid (1984); Cobra Kai (2018—)
Timestamps 03:18 Growing up online: how to use social media constructively to make friends and be a good member of the online community; the value of public comment spaces; the importance of scenes. 31:18 Why we no longer fear strangers in the internet age; the wisdom of crowds; public and private spaces and liminal spaces and the opportunities they bring. 47:22 Parasocial relationships; why Visakan’s approach brings him fans. 51:08 Social dark matter 57:18 What it means to be ambitious, the opportunities and dangers of idealism, the importance of public accountability 01:10:41 Getting addicted to interim stages 01:16:57 Note taking, tips for the writing process 01:33:15 Using statistical understanding to improve your marriage 01:38:52 What does mean to be a nerd? The value of pure curiosity.
Erratum: The attack on Charlie Hebdo took place in 2015, not 2017 (I misspoke).
References Fred’s open letter following Charlie Hebdo: In defence of Charlie Hebdo: https://samsholli.blog/2017/09/01/in-defence-of-charlie-hebdo-open-letter-to-an-american-friend/
Fred on the face coverings ban: The burqa ban: https://samsholli.blog/2017/09/02/the-burqa-ban-thoughts-and-clarifications/
Follow Fred on Twitter @fred_connection
Further References La République en actes : discours et conférence de presse du Président depuis Les Mureaux. - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcIDKr9mJ7c
Macron unveils anti-separatism bill aimed at promoting secularism - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuY7JQjhw9Q
1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1905_French_law_on_the_Separation_of_the_Churches_and_the_State
Hommage à Samuel Paty: le discours d'Emmanuel Macron en intégralité - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En5TVJGrC0U
Unsurprisingly, Macron’s new anti-separatist law isn't fascist - The Post (unherd.com): https://unherd.com/thepost/unsurprisingly-macrons-new-anti-separatist-law-isnt-fascist/
Séparatisme: ce que contient la loi présentée ce mercredi en Conseil des ministres (lefigaro.fr): https://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/separatisme-ce-que-contient-la-loi-presentee-ce-mercredi-en-conseil-des-ministres-20201208
07 - Stephen Knight and Iram Ramzan by Two for Tea Podcast | Free Listening on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/episode-007-stephen-knight-and-iram-ramzan
Maajid Nawaz: On blasphemy – Quilliam (quilliaminternational.com): https://www.quilliaminternational.com/maajid-nawaz-on-blasphemy/
After Teacher’s Decapitation, France Unleashes a Broad Crackdown on ‘the Enemy Within’ - The New York Times (nytimes.com): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/world/europe/france-raids-teacher-beheading.html
Shashi Tharoor, An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India (2016)
Timestamps 7:23 The neutrality of public services, the origins of laïcité 10:32 French schools 16:41 Secular values 19:59 Has the French state failed young French Muslims? 27:37 What the Anglosaxon world gets wrong about French secularism 31:08 Free speech, freedom of religion, freedom from religion, self-censorship and blasphemy 56:17 Culture versus race, finding a balance between victim blaming and failure to take responsibility 01:02:54 Differences between the First Amendment and laïcité 01:11:58 Working with French Muslims
References William’s article, “Step Your Dick Up: Why Incels Deserve Better Advice”: https://williamcostello.medium.com/step-your-dick-up-why-incels-deserve-better-advice-307879d7c97b
William’s other discussions of this topic can be found here: Incel: 36: “Step Your Dick Up” w/ William Costello on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/36-step-your-dick-up-w-william-costello/id1469915971?i=1000489484162
ICMI20: William Costello - Step Your Dick Up: Incels and Men Generally Deserve Better Dating Advice - YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5daap8dr3R0
Evolutionary Psychology and Incels - interview with William Costello - YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlNsD5zymYg
Why Society Has an Incel Problem - YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KUJ6x4L8g
Be Kinder to Incels with Dr Sarah Daly & William Costello - YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrfDnQOULcw
Diana Fleischman, “Uncanny Vulvas”: Uncanny Vulvas: https://jacobitemag.com/2018/04/24/uncanny-vulvas/
James Bloodworth’s Letter exchange with Louise Perry: https://letter.wiki/conversation/789
The Mating Mind podcast with Geoffrey Miller and Tucker Max: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-mating-grounds-podcast/id894712811
More on Tucker Max’s books: https://www.amazon.com/Tucker-Max/e/B001JSAOIA%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
The Joker film, 2019
Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning, The Rise of Victimhood Culture (2018) Ralph Leonard, There's nothing wrong with Obama's pick-up artistry: https://unherd.com/thepost/theres-nothing-wrong-with-obamas-pick-up-artistry/
For more on Aella Girl: https://www.reddit.com/user/AellaGirl/posts or see @AellaGirl on Twitter
Matthew Hussey - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9HGzFGt7BLmWDqooUbWGBg
JOANNA R. PEPIN - About Joanna Pepin: https://www.joannapepin.com/
Geoffrey Miller and Tucker Max, Mate: Become the Man Women Want (2015) Follow William on Twitter @costellowilliam
Timestamps 4:52 How incels are defined 06:40 The incel community 16:49 The empathy gap and the differences between attitudes towards women’s and men’s problems in love 27:38 Looks and the dating market 30:43 Online dating 39:54 Women’s mating choices 40:40 Male grooming 45:33 More on online dating 46:37 Pornography, sex robots, Only Fans and fake fitness 56:47 The incelosphere and the manosphere, pick up artists, dating coaches 1:05:36 Our cruelty towards the sexually rejected 1:16:52 Advice for incels
Nick’s writing for Arc Digital: https://medium.com/@nickclairmont
Nick’s “Word of the Week” column for the Washington Examiner: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/word-of-the-week-brand
Nick on wokese for Tablet: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/woke-language-privilege
Some particularly relevant essays of Nick’s: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/word-of-the-week-community https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/word-of-the-week-intersection/ar-BB19p8vw https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/word-of-the-week-capital https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/word-of-the-week-marxist https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/word-of-the-week-trauma https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/word-of-the-week-problematic
Additional References My essay on academic writing for Areo: https://areomagazine.com/2020/07/06/writing-wrongs-why-academics-write-so-badly-and-how-that-hurts-them/
Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody (2020)
Kate Burridge and Keith Allan, Euphemism & Dysphemism: Language Used as Shield and Weapon (1991)
Thomas Nagel, “The Absurd” (1971)
Black Panther, Marvel Studios (2018)
My essay on Freddie Mercury for Areo: https://areomagazine.com/2018/11/11/a-persian-popinjay-a-review-of-the-film-bohemian-rhapsody/
Timestamps 01:58 The language of wokeness—who uses it and why 07:58 The word “woke” and the self-labelling of the Social Justice left 16:48 The terms “systemic” and “systemic racism” 21:12 Twitter’s impact on real life 23:05 Language as a social project 30:08 The terms “people of colour” and “AAPI” and “Black” with a capital B 43:35 The term “erasure” 45:58 Sloganeering in lieu of debate 54:13 Marxism as a fashion choice 01:03:05 Intersectionality vs. race blindness 01:14:53 Groups versus individuals, communities, connections 01:27:08 The term “problematic” and the problem with enforcing politeness 01:33:46 Gestural politics and the term “settler colonialism” 01:40:08 New terminology in response to the coronavirus, giving up on lexical pedantry, why good writing is important
For more on Matt’s work on gambling see: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew_Browne
You can find his podcast with Chris Kavanaugh, “Decoding the Gurus” here and on most reputable podcast apps: https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm
Follow Matt on Twitter @arthurcdent
Further References Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow (1990) George Eliot, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life (1871–72); Daniel Deronda (1876) Stuart J. Ritchie, Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science (2020) Johann Hari, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression—and the Unexpected Solutions (2018)
Timestamps
3:25 How Matt became interested in this topic; how gambling differs from other forms of risktaking 11:32 Dark flow states 19:38 Evolved psychology and low-effort activities 21:25 Skinner, behaviourism and superstition in humans and pigeons 24:48 Changes to the ease and addictiveness of gambling over time 25:58 Passages describing gambling in George Eliot’s Deronda and Middlemarch 29:34 Young men and gambling 31:08 How technology enables problem gambling 38:08 Responses from the industry to Matt’s work 46:24 When gambling isn’t a problem 47:40 What drives problem gaming behaviours? 54:19 Societal measures that could reduce problem gambling
References Ralph Leonard, a writer for UnHerd: https://unherd.com/author/ralph-leonard/
See esp: Why are we racialising Beethoven? - The Post (unherd.com) https://unherd.com/thepost/why-are-we-racialising-beethoven/ and Stop apologising for cultural appropriation - UnHerd: https://unherd.com/2020/07/cultural-appropriation-is-progressive-and-anti-racist/
Ralph Leonard, Author at Areo (areomagazine.com) https://areomagazine.com/author/herrera96/
Ralph Leonard, Author at Uncommon Ground (uncommongroundmedia.com) https://uncommongroundmedia.com/author/ralphleonard/
C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins (1938)
Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952)
Frederick Starr, Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane (2013)
Yacob and Amo: Africa’s precursors to Locke, Hume and Kant | Aeon Essays
María Rosa Menocal The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain (2002)
Thomas Pain, The Rights of Man (1791)
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly (1852)
Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World; or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher (1760–61)
Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness (1899)
Timestamps 01:55 Excerpt from Frantz Fanon. The universality of great culture and literature. 15:30 The historical significance of the American Revolution 26:34 The importance of the Haitian revolution 28:19 Why C.L.R. James is important to Ralph 33:13 The British slave trade and the revolts in the West Indies
Patrons Only 36:47 Why Ralph describes himself as a “libertarian Marxist.” 40:30 The concept of cultural appropriation; cultural mixing in a globalised society; cultural identitarianism; the importance of the outsider’s viewpoint 55:42 The differences between racism in the UK and racism in the US 58:25 The concept of the white working class; what it means to be working class
To follow Ewan’s work: https://www.ewanmorrison.com/
His 2012 collection, Tales from the Mall, can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Mall-Ewan-Morrison/dp/1908885017
His 2019 novel, Nina X, can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nina-X-Ewan-Morrison/dp/0708899013
His 2013 book Close Your Eyes can be found here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/109/1091019/close-your-eyes/9780099565758.html
His 2005 collection The Last Book You Read can be round here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Book-You-Read/dp/1845020480
Watch the 2015 film version of Ewan’s novel, Swung, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmcvLt5BOmU
Ewan on utopian communities: https://areomagazine.com/2019/04/26/why-we-join-cults/ https://areomagazine.com/2018/03/08/why-utopian-communities-fail/ https://areomagazine.com/2020/08/27/why-we-must-walk-away-from-omelas-the-problem-with-utopias/
Follow Ewan on Twitter: @mrewanmorrison Some of the Other References Emma Donoghue, Room (2010)
Will Storr, Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It's Doing to Us (2017) Thomas More, Utopia (1516); Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland (1915); William Morris, News from Nowhere (1890); H.G. Wells, A Modern Utopia (1905); Ursula K. Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (1975); Leila (2019, Netflix); Sacred Games (2019, Netflix); Lois Lowry, The Giver (1993); The Maze Runner (2014); Smithereen (2020)
Timestamps 1:57 Ewan reads from Nina X 3:48 Nina X, the novel. How we treat former cult victims, especially children. 11:58 Ewan’s personal experiences of utopian communities, cults and alternative lifestyles. 17:58 Competitive puritanism, taboos on feedback 24:41 Self-improvement and narcissism 26:26 Attitudes towards children in utopian communities 32:31 The distrust of individualism and its emotional impacts
(Patrons only) 40:08 The alienations of modern life 46:25 Tricking ourselves into authenticity and doing versus having done 54:15 Shopping malls 59:25 Ewan’s experiences as a swinger and the novel Swung. 1:09:36 Dystopias and utopias in fiction and politics
Kat is the author of two novels—Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone (2012); Inland (2014)—and the co-author of A Trick of Light: Stan Lee's Alliances (2020).
You can find out more about her writing here: https://katrosenfield.com/.
You can listen to the Feminine Chaos podcast here (and elsewhere): https://bloggingheads.tv/programs/feminine-chaos.
Kat is also the agony aunt at Yascha Mounk’s Persuasion, available on substack, here: https://www.persuasion.community/
The following articles of Kat’s are alluded to on the podcast: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/sarah-silverman-tweaks-metoo https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/birth-of-the-cool-guy https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/npr-neo-puritan-revival
Follow Kat on Twitter @katrosenfield
Further References For more on Amy Alkon: http://www.advicegoddess.com/ag-columns-blog/newindex.html
My interview with Amy: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/10-amy-alkon
Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider, The Rules (1995) Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1788)
Find out more about Francesca, including her academic publications, here: https://www.francescaminerva.com/
For more on the Journal of Controversial Ideas, co-edited with Peter Singer: https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/
Her interview with Jay Shapiro can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScOeJnLiCb4
For more on Francesca’s controversial paper with Francesco Giubilini: https://jme.bmj.com/content/39/5/261.short
Her 2004 paper in Bioethics on academic freedom can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bioe.12066
Her 2017 paper, “Rethinking Academic Freedom” is here: https://www.int-res.com/articles/esep2015/15/e015p095.pdf
Follow Francesca on Twitter @franciminerva
Further References Rebecca Tuvel, “In Defence of Transracialism” (2017): ttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/hypa.12327
Timestamps 2:03 Francesca’s paper with Francesco Giubilini and the resulting furore 8:05 The need for the Journal of Controversial Ideas and how it works 26:19 How new media and especially social media have impacted academic freedom 50:47 Lookism (discrimination against the unattractive) 1:05:55 Cultural vs. evolutionary conceptions of beauty 1:13:45 Cosmetic surgery 1:18:10 Men’s and women’s different relationship to looks, more on cosmetic surgery, photoshop 1:29:55 Vaginoplasty 1:33:47 Incels
ERRATUM: Rebecca Tuvel's paper on transracialism has not been retracted. It can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/hypa.12327
Stuart is the author of Intelligence: All that Matters (2015): https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/stuart-ritchie/intelligence-all-that-matters/9781444791808/ and Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science (2020): https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1117290/science-fictions/9781847925657.html
You can find some of his academic publications listed here: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/stuart-ritchie
Follow Stuart on Twitter: @StuartJRitchie
Further References Charles Murray, Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class (2020)
My article on circumcision can be found here: https://areomagazine.com/2019/09/24/a-wrong-against-boys-an-impossible-conversation-about-circumcision/
Brian Deer, The Doctor Who Fooled the World: Andrew Wakefield’s War on Vaccines (2020)
David Robert Grimes, The Irrational Ape: Why Flawed Logic Puts Us All at Risk and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World (2019)
Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams (2018)
Alexey Guzey, “Matthew Walker's "Why We Sleep" Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors”: https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/ (2019)
Andrew Gelman’s scientific blog can be found here: https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/
Timestamps 2:09 Fraudster Paolo Macciarini and his tracheotomies 11:26 Bias towards positive results in scientific publications 15:56 Stuart and his colleagues’ failed attempt to replicate a startling psychology finding 20:03 P-values, p-hacking and the disgrace of Brian Wansink 39:17 Reproducibility failures 42:54 The relationship between power and effect size: Amy Cuddy & power posing; neuroscience; candidate genes; ethical questions in cancer research 01:00:55 Scientists’ own hype when they present their work; the scientific publication system; Andrew Wakefield 01:09:22 How has Stuart managed to avoid becoming disillusioned with all of science & with experts? 01:14:26 How has writing this book affected Stuart’s own practice as a scientist? The Mertonian principles. 01:19:51 How can laypeople do better at critically assessing a scientific finding? 01:24:20 Matthew Walker and his Why We Sleep book.
Helen’s book, co-written with James A. Lindsay, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody (2020) can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cynical-Theories-Scholarship-Everything-Identity/dp/1634312023.
Helen’s writing for Areo magazine can be found here: https://areomagazine.com/author/hpluckrose/
For more on the Sokal Squared hoax, which Helen perpetrated, alongside James Lindsay and Peter Boghossian see: https://areomagazine.com/2018/10/02/academic-grievance-studies-and-the-corruption-of-scholarship/
You can follow Helen on Twitter @hpluckrose
Further Notes Alexander Pope, Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle II: To a Lady on the Characters of Women (1743) (I misremembered the title as An Essay on Woman): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44893/epistles-to-several-persons-epistle-ii-to-a-lady-on-the-characters-of-women
Kimberle Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color” (1991): https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mapping-margins.pdf
Walt Anderson, The Fontana Postmodernism Reader (1996)
For more on the Evergreen story, see my interview with Benjamin Boyce: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/27-benjamin-boyce and this video series by Mike Nayna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH2WeWgcSMk
For the Ravelry knitting group scandal, see: https://quillette.com/2019/02/17/a-witch-hunt-on-instagram/
Herbert Marcuse “Repressive Tolerance” (1965): https://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/330T/350kPEEMarcuseToleranceTable.pdf
Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks (1929–35), for the concept of hegemony
Andrea Lynn Lewis and Liam Kofi Bright’s letter exchange on Critical Race Theory: https://letter.wiki/conversation/322
Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind (2015)
Isabel Wilkinson, Caste: The Lies that Divide Us (2020)
Akala, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire (2019) Jonathan Rauch, Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (1993)
Timestamps 2:40 Helen reads a passage about how people can stand up for liberalism without having to go down the woke route 5:35 Cultural and moral relativism 9:14 How postmodernism developed into critical theory: knowledge, power and discourse 19:45 The two evolutions of postmodernism: in the late 1980s and 2010s and the rise of identity politics 25:42 Being woke 26:59 The impacts on wider society and politics 30:08 Why social justice isn’t neo-Marxism or cultural Marxism 34:50 The influence of critical theory on academe 38:00 What is the relationship between critical theory as theory and critical theory as practice 41:37 How people are being affected in the workplace 49:01 How much should we focus on economics and how much on identity 53:03 Freedom of speech 56:15 Why is it called “theory”? 57:08 Why should we take the danger of critical theory seriously and not just see it as a moral panic? 1:00:15 Trump’s announced ban on Critical Race Theory in federal training 1:05:25 Helen’s crimes against food 1:07:35 Collective guilt, identity politics and standpoint epistemology 1:15:51 The responses to Helen as a whistleblower 1:21:09 Helen reads from the introduction to the book
For more about Azra, see her website: https://azraraza.com/
The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last is available here: https://www.amazon.com/First-Cell-Human-Pursuing-Cancer/dp/1541699521
Her book with Sara Suleri Goodyear, Ghalib and the Epistemologies of Elegance is available here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7502220-ghalib
Her physician profile can be found here: https://cancer.columbia.edu/azra-raza-md
Follow Azra on Twitter: @AzraRazaMD Further References George Eliot, Middlemarch: A Story of Provincial Life (1871–2)
The complete poems of Emily Dickinson (first published 1890) are available online here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12242/12242-h/12242-h.htm
Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2011)
Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1897)
Samuel Johnson, The Rambler (1750): https://www.johnsonessays.com/category/the-rambler/
The Crown, “Aberfan” (BBC)
Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene (2016) and The Emperor of All Maladies (2010)
Timestamps Beginning: introduction and Azra reads from The First Cell 6:15 How Azra became interested in medicine and in oncology in particular 14:32 The evolutionary model of cancer’s development in the body 23:50 Cancer and critical systems; the MIST of aging 31:54 Peto’s paradox 41:45 Why cell culture and animal testing methods don’t work 47:41 The immune system, CAR-T treatments, B cells, checkpoint inhibitors 1:00:50 Azra’s personalised approach and how she came to develop it 1:05:59 New, more radical earlier detection methods 1:21:37 The oncology think tank 1:22:48 Monitoring technologies 1:29:32 Azra’s relationship with literature
You can find out more about Ayishat by visiting her website: https://ayishatakanbi.com/
Follow Ayishat on Twitter: @ayishat_akanbi
Further Notes
Ayishat on the Triggernometry podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuAd_IAkOl4
Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness (1928)
Timestamps
3:40 How Ayishat first became a professional cultural commentator. How we communicate through dress and how we communicate through ideas. 5:35 Changes to Ayishat’s worldview after her brother’s death 15:38 Oppression versus discrimination 28:54 The concept of erasing someone’s identity 33:40 How to evaluate oppression 52:26 The value of diversity 57:50 Friend groups and socialisation 59:55 Fighting and arousal 1:06:21 Clothing and style 1:16:40 Race, heritage, identity and authenticity
You can find out more about Scott’s work here: https://scottbarrykaufman.com/
Scott’s book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualisation: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/552566/transcend-by-scott-barry-kaufman-phd/9780143131205
Scott’s interview on Sam Harris’ Making Sense podcast: https://samharris.org/podcasts/209-a-good-life/
Scott’s interview with Sean Carroll: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2020/04/06/91-scott-barry-kaufman-on-the-psychology-of-transcendence/
Follow Scott on Twitter: @sbkaufman
Further References
The OCEAN personality test: https://www.psychometrictest.org.uk/big-five-personality/
Kim Stanley Robinson, Mars trilogy: Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars (1993)
Derren Brown, Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine (2016)
Sci fi series Salvation: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6170874/
P. D. James, The Children of Men (1992)
Peter D. Ward, Robert Brownlee Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe (2000)
George Eliot, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life (1871–72)
Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (1943)
John Keats, “Ode on Melancholy” (1819): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44478/ode-on-melancholy
Timestamps
2:35 The pyramid image versus Scott’s sailboat metaphor 13:37 Ascetic orders, basic needs & transcendence. Can monks be self-actualizing? 21:19 My general assessment of Scott’s book 23:44 The D-realm (“deficiency” realm) 26:52 Scott’s interview with Sam Harris 29:15 Disagreeableness 30:44 Axes of human personality 31:51 Stability and plasticity 34:08 Introversion and extraversion 38:54 The B-realm (“being” realm) 42:59 How easy is to access the B-realm and to find transcendence? 53:34 Peak experiences, flow states, transcendence 1:01:05 Maslow’s discoveries at the end of his life 1:02:58 Demotivation and how to fight it 1:07:04 Attachment styles and other ways in which the D- and B-realms are inextricably intertwined
For updates on Diana’s work, see her website: https://dianaverse.com/
My favourite other interview of Diana’s can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YmTPATEArM
Follow Diana on Twitter: @sentientist
Further References
Daniel Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (2009)
J. Michael Bailey, The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism (2003)
Jorge Luis Borges, “Funes el Memorioso” (1944): https://www.literatura.us/borges/funes.html
Timestamps
6:36 Training our lovers 34:25 Training our political allies 39:36 Training ourselves 45:54 Intrinsic motivation and external reward 50:26 Women train, men try to avoid being trained 1:06:25 Training at home 1:09:40 Rape and sexual assault 1:16:14 Why people hate evolutionary psychology 1:22:55 The non-binary movement and other resistance to stereotypes
You can find out more about Liam’s academic credentials here: https://www.liamkofibright.com/
Liam’s talk on “Why Scientists Lie” can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNs1sumAT68
Remco Heesen and Liam on “Is Peer Review a Good Thing”?: https://philpapers.org/rec/HEEIPR
Listen to Liam’s interview with Sean Carroll on the nature of truth here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNs1sumAT68
Listen to Liam’s interviews with Andrew Lynn Lewis here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koDd4kMDo6Q
And here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a491GwvnEOI
Liam’s Letter exchange with Andrea on Critical Race Theory can be found here: https://letter.wiki/conversation/322
Liam’s Letter with me on hating oneself can be found here: https://letter.wiki/conversation/544
Follow Liam’s blog here: http://sootyempiric.blogspot.com/
Write to Liam at Letter: https://letter.wiki/LiamKofiBright/conversations
Follow Liam on Twitter: @lastpositivist
Liam on the positivists (interview with former guest of this podcast, Aaron Rabinowitz, see episode 46 “Is Civility Overrated”): https://voidpod.com/podcasts/2019/9/19/ev-108-logical-positivism-with-liam-bright
Further References
Some more sources on Rudolf Carnap: http://www.carnap.org/
Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn (1968); the 1982 film version was directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin jr.
David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40)
Sam Harris, The Moral Landscape (2010)
My article on Bruce, “Thoughts on a Friend’s Suicide”: https://areomagazine.com/2017/09/10/thoughts-on-a-friends-suicide/
Timestamps
2:06 The positivists 9:32 Moral philosophy and the is–ought gap. 16:24 Why scientists lie: bad incentives in science 24:16 The value of diversity of intellectual enquiry 37:33 The problem with peer review 44:05 The Star Trek post-scarcity future and the Bladerunner future 52:55 The nature of truth 1:22:35 Self-hatred 1:56:25 Twitter and parasocial relationships
Clint’s poetry collection Salute the Wreckage can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Salute-Wreckage-Clint-Margrave/dp/1630450243
His collection The Early Death of Men can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Early-Death-Men-Clint-Margrave/dp/1935520601
His novel, Lying Bastard, can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lying-Bastard-Clint-Margrave/dp/1733352619
Write to Clint: https://letter.wiki/ClintMargrave/conversations
Follow Clint on Twitter: @clintmargrave
Further References
Clint’s Areo magazine article, “Forgiving Charles Simic” can be found here: https://areomagazine.com/2019/05/02/forgiving-charles-simic/
Shaun Koo’s Areo magazine article on exploitation in academe is here: https://areomagazine.com/2020/03/27/is-capitalism-to-blame-for-exploitation-in-academia/
Clint’s poem “My Therapist Says I Should Date Myself”: http://www.theamericanjournalofpoetry.com/v2-margrave.html
Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim (1954)
David Lodge, Small World: An Academic Romance (1984)
Richard Russo, Straight Man (1997)
John Edward Williams, Stoner (1965)
Timestamps
1:47 Clint reads the sample chapter, “Prerequisites” 9:55 Why so much academic writing is bad writing 18:45 What inspired Clint’s book 22:01 The title 23:24 Influences on the novel 29:03 The culture of academe 35:33 Writing poetry vs. writing novels 37:00 Clint’s poem “My Therapist Says I Should Date Myself” 42:22 The writing process 44:44 Separating the art from the artist 54:14 Why Clint wrote the novel
For more of Rod’s work: https://roderickgraham.com/
Rod’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7yofOWy-IrERYjfkONF3Tw
Write to Rod at Letter: https://letter.wiki/RoderickGraham/
Follow Rod on Twitter @roderickgraham
For more on John R. Wood’s work: https://braverangels.org/author/johnbetter-angels-org/
John’s philosophy of virtue ethics: https://areomagazine.com/2018/08/14/virtue-ethics-for-the-modern-age/
My previous podcast with John: https://soundcloud.com/user-761174326/19-john-wood
Follow John on Twitter: @JohnRWoodJr
Further References
Glenn Loury’s interview with Sam Harris on Making Sense, which I allude to, is now paywalled: https://samharris.org/podcasts/racism-and-violence-in-america/.
You can find a more recent discussion, with John H McWhorter, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RMEiclpA7E
Follow Nicholas Christakis, who has been tracking police brutality since 2014 @NAChristakis on Twitter
Roland G. Fryer’s work can be found here: https://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/publications/reconciling-results-racial-differences-police-shootings Jill Leovy, Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America (2015)
Timestamps
3:03 Is the problem systemic racism or is it general police brutality? 9:26 Policing in different communities 24:40 The police as an institution: militarisation on both sides; feedback loops and the importance of context 31:27 Racial unification: what this moment might lead to 42:00 The role of leftists 47:43 Ways forward
You can find Buster’s book Why Are We Yelling: The Art of Productive Disagreement here: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Are-We-Yelling-hardcover/dp/0525540105.
For my Letter exchange with Buster (one of my two favourite conversations I’ve ever had on the site) see: https://letter.wiki/conversation/225.
Buster’s Letter exchange with B. J. Campbell on guns see: https://letter.wiki/conversation/129.
Belief tracking: https://busterbenson.com/beliefs/
Write to Buster at Letter: https://letter.wiki/BusterBenson/conversations
Write to me at Letter: https://letter.wiki/IonaItalia/conversations
Further References
James Lindsay and Peter Boghossian Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide (2019)
My review of Impossible Conversations for Areo magazine: https://areomagazine.com/2019/09/03/impossible-conversations/
Oliver Traldi’s review of Impossible Conversations for Arc Digital: https://arcdigital.media/the-political-pick-up-artists-6bcece72bb92
Timestamps 2:49 Persuasion vs. changing your own mind 5:02 The value of honest, open conflict 9:11 The voice of power, the voice of avoidance, the voice of truth 13:12 How to make disagreements feel less threatening and more exploratory 17:42 Techniques for helping a group to have more productive disagreements 25:12 Conflicts of head, heart and hands 35:06 Disagreements with people you’re close to 44:22 Opinion tracking 51:40 Tribalism 52:45 Iterated prisoner’s dilemma games 55:10 Lessons in cooperation from Covid-19 1:01:46 How to improve good will.
Jonathan’s book Reinventing Racism: Why “White Fragility” Is the Wrong Way to Think About Racial Inequality is forthcoming. To join the mailing list for preorders, write to dropusalineatteafortwo@gmail.com.
Write to Jonathan and read his correspondence with Matt McManus: https://letter.wiki/JonathanChurch/conversations
Jonathan’s 2019 Areo article “An Economy Theory of Whiteness” is here: https://areomagazine.com/2019/11/26/an-economic-theory-of-whiteness/
You can find more of Jonathan’s writing here: http://www.jonathandavidchurch.com/
Write to me here: https://letter.wiki/IonaItalia/conversations
Further References
Robin DiAngelo, Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (2016): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566247/white-fragility-by-robin-diangelo/
Glenn Loury, “How to Mend Affirmative Action” (1997): https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Economics/Faculty/Glenn_Loury/louryhomepage/cvandbio/How%20to%20Mend%20Affirmative%20Action.pdf
For more on the scholar John A. Powell, see: https://belonging.berkeley.edu/johnpowell
Peggy McIntosh, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” (1989) https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf
Cheryl I. Harris, Whiteness as Property (1993): https://sph.umd.edu/sites/default/files/files/Harris_Whiteness%20as%20Property_106HarvLRev-1.pdf
For more on the scholar Lawrence Blum, see: http://www.lawrenceblum.net/
Lawrence Blum, “White Privilege: A Mild Critique” (2008): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1477878508095586
For more on the Coase theorum: https://www.britannica.com/topic/environmental-economics/The-Coase-theorem
Coleman Hughes, “The Racism Treadmill” (2018): https://quillette.com/2018/05/14/the-racism-treadmill/
Thomas Chatterton Williams, “The Nightmare from which Ta Nehisi-Coates Is Trying not to Awake” in Areo 2017: https://areomagazine.com/2017/10/17/the-nightmare-from-which-ta-nehisi-coates-is-trying-not-to-awake/
Eric Kaufmann, Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities (2018): https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/306/306352/whiteshift/9780141986630.html
Razib Khan’s 2018 Areo article, “Why There Will Not Be a Beige Future”: https://areomagazine.com/2018/11/28/why-there-will-not-be-a-beige-future-skin-color-genetics-race-and-racism/
Timestamps
3:35 The central thesis of Robin DiAngelo’s book White Fragility 8:05 The Kafka trap 11:39 The reification of whiteness 17:40 The Implicit As sociation Test 31:23 The legacy of historical racism 32:20 Racism vs. racial inequality 34:52 Preferential vs. developmental affirmative action 39:00 African-Americans and the race burden 41:35 What is racism? 44:00 Majorities and minorities 46:32 Jonathan’s economic theory of racial injustice 1:09:36 Will pervasive societal racism always be with us?
Massimo’s books include Phenotypic Plasticity: Beyond Nature and Nurture (Syntheses in Ecology and Evolution) (2001): https://www.amazon.com/Phenotypic-Plasticity-Syntheses-Evolution-2001-07-17/dp/B01K17YKGQ
Making Sense of Evolution: The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology, with co-author Jonathan Kaplan (2006): https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo4100801.html
Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (2010): https://www.amazon.com/Nonsense-Stilts-Tell-Science-Bunk-dp-0226667863/dp/0226667863/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid= and How to be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life (2017): https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Stoic-Ancient-Philosophy/dp/0465097952
He is the co-author, with Gregory Lopez of Live Like A Stoic: 52 Exercises for Cultivating a Good Life (2019): https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1116985/live-like-a-stoic/9781846045967.html
He is the co-editor, with Maarten Boudry, of Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo15996988.html
You can find Massimo’s Letter conversation with David Sloan Wilson here: https://letter.wiki/conversation/34
And my article about this conversation here: https://areomagazine.com/2019/07/10/human-cultural-evolution-a-letter-exchange
You can find Massimo’s Letter conversaion with Philip Goff here: https://letter.wiki/conversation/277
For more on the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: https://extendedevolutionarysynthesis.com/
On Stoic Week: https://modernstoicism.com/about-stoic-week/
Follow Massimo on Twitter: @mpigliucci
Write to Open Letters at Letter here: https://letter.wiki/OpenLetters/conversations
Write to me: https://letter.wiki/IonaItalia/conversations
Further Notes
Derren Brown, Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine (2016)
My essay on Stoicism: https://areomagazine.com/2019/01/21/in-praise-of-stoicism-derren-browns-happy-book-review/
For Karl Popper on the demarcation problem see: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/#ProbDema
Larry Laudan on the demarcation problem: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-009-7055-7_6
For Wittgenstein on the definition of a game see: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/#LangGameFamiRese
The SETI institute: https://www.seti.org/
Geoffrey Miller, The Mating Mind: How Sexual Selection Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature (2001): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/114577/the-mating-mind-by-geoffrey-miller/
Richard Lewontin, 1929–
Lawrence Kraus, A Universe from Nothing (2012)
Massimo, Maarten Boudry, Lawrence Krauss and Daniel Dennett on the Limits of Science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRzfCemXYLc
For Wilfred Sellars on the stereoscopic vision of science see: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sellars/#8
Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel (1941): https://maskofreason.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/the-library-of-babel-by-jorge-luis-borges.pdf
Sam Harris, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values (2010)
Massimo’s review of The Moral Landscape: https://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/11-02-02/#feature
Ayn Rand’s objectivism: https://aynrand.org/ideas/overview/
The Discourses of Epictetus: http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.html
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations: http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html
Seneca, Of Anger: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Of_Anger/Book_I
For more on Chryssipus: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chrysippus
Timestamps 3:47 The demarcation problem, the difference between science and pseudoscience 17:26 What made Massimo change fields from biology to philosophy 21:45 What is the relationship between philosophy and science? 38:32 Science and ethics 45:59 The appeal of Stoicism 57:17 Stoic practices 1:11:31 The Stoic fork/dichotomy of control 1:23:11 Free will 1:34:00 The misrepresentation of Stoicism as repression of emotion 1:43:18 The lessons of the pandemic
Razib’s podcast The Insight can be found here: http://insitome.libsyn.com/website;
His blog Gene Expression can be found here: https://www.gnxp.com/
You can find the Brown Pundits blog and podcast here: https://www.brownpundits.com/author/razib_k_khan/.
Follow Razib on Twitter: @razibkhan
Razib Khan’s previous appearance on this podcast: https://soundcloud.com/user-761174326/09-razib-khan
Razib’s article in the City Journal: https://www.city-journal.org/decay-of-the-american-system
Further References
Nicole Hannah Jones’ commentary (wrongly called “Hannah Nored-Jones” on the show: https://www.nytimes.com/by/nikole-hannah-jones
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
On vaccines: https://www.city-journal.org/coronavirus-vaccine?fbclid=IwAR2AFUjBRxZvguVzCT4hQM4k7WlWO8ta13_sSOygtgkI2L_R2D4Q1VMalck
Timestamps
1:21 When and why did Razib become aware that things were going to get serious? 10:06 Why were we so blindsided by this? 13:30 Differences from SARS coronavirus 1 18:04 Our false sense of control 24:14 How our elites are trained and what they think is important. 25:14 Herd immunity 32:37 Are there long-term sequelae from the virus, after recovery? 36:09 Likelihood of having a severe case 38:06 Obesity 39:48 India 41:40 Seasonality and climate 43:41 Uncertainties 48:28 Social and economic effects of lockdown 59:46 Race 1:00:45 The Chinese virus. Trump, the woke, semantics, names 1:13:38 Updating our priorities 1:16:18 Vaccines, mutation rates, virulence 1:19:29 The future; the difficulty of predictions
Together with Conrad Hamilton, Matt, Ben and Marion are the authors of Myth and Mayhem: A Leftist Critique of Jordan Peterson, with an introduction by Slavoj Zizek (2020): https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Mayhem-Leftist-Critique-Peterson-ebook/dp/B085WB8FXF
More about Marion: http://itesm.academia.edu/MarionTrejo/CurriculumVitae
More about Ben: Ben’s book Give Them an Argument: Logic for the Left (2019): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Give-Them-Argument-Logic-Left/dp/1789042100
Ben’s segment on the Michael Brooks show: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNucPQW8aGvIq7dazojH0ykvk88RkfjoW
Ben’s writing for Arc Digital: https://arcdigital.media/@benburgis
Ben’s writing for Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/author/ben-burgis
Review of Give Them an Argument in Areo: https://areomagazine.com/2019/05/08/give-them-an-argument-logic-for-the-left-book-review/
Write to Ben: https://letter.wiki/BenjaminBurgis/conversations
Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis
More about Matt: Matt’s book The Rise of Post-Modern Conservatism: Neoliberalism, Post-Modern Culture, and Reactionary Politics (2019): https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030246815
Making Human Dignity Central to International Human Rights Law: A Critical Legal Argument (2019): https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/M/bo50460306.html
Matt’s writing for Areo magazine can be found here: https://areomagazine.com/author/mattmcmanus303/
Review of Postmodern Conservatism in Areo: https://areomagazine.com/2019/12/20/a-peculiar-phenomenon-review-of-the-rise-of-post-modern-conservatism-by-matthew-mcmanus/
Write to Matt: https://letter.wiki/MatthewMcManus/conversations
Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattPolProf
Further Notes The previous episode with Ben Burgis and Jon Rosen, on Free Will and Moral Responsibility: https://soundcloud.com/user-761174326/41-jon-rosen-and-ben-burgis Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018) Jordan Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief (1999)
Slavoj Zizek’s debate with Peterson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsWndfzuOc4
Peterson’s interview with the Grievance Studies hoaxers, which includes Helen Pluckrose’s pushback against the concept of postmodern neo-Marxism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWhuQOVTFGw
Johann Hari, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - And the Unexpected Solution (2018)
Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving (1956)
John Rawles, Justice as Fairness: Political not Metaphysical (1985)
George Eliot, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life (1871–82)
Jordan Peterson’s interview on Sam Harris’ Making Sense podcast: https://samharris.org/podcasts/what-is-true/
Maarten Boudry’s letter exchange with Peter Boghossian on belief: https://letter.wiki/conversation/22 My article on that exchange, for Areo: https://areomagazine.com/2019/08/18/can-we-make-ourselves-believe-a-letter-exchange/
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1978) Richard Rorty: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rorty/
Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic. Studies in Popular Beliefs in Mark Fisher, “Exiting the Vampire Castle” (2013): https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/exiting-vampire-castle/
Democratic Socialists of America, Fox news clip from 2019: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democratic-socialists-convention-erupts-due-to-sensory-overload-gendered-pronoun-usage
Contrapoints (Natalie Wynn)’s video on cancelling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjMPJVmXxV8
Timestamps
4:53 Slavoj Zizek 6:45 12 Rules of Life: self-help and politics 28:27 Capitalism 41:46 Jungian archetypes: chaos and order 42:59 Chaos and the feminine 52:37 The West 54:54 His critiques of woke excesses at university 1:05:02 “Postmodern neo-Marxism” 1:17:36 Peterson’s own postmodernism 1:21:21 Peterson’s concept of truth 1:35:47 The desacralisation of the world 1:41:52 Ben’s new book advocating for a more compassionate left 1:48:28 Taking Peterson seriously
Brian’s book, jointly written with Julian Savulescu, can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Drugs-Chemical-Future-Relationships/dp/0804798192 and here: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Drugs-Chemical-Future-Relationships/dp/0804798192.
You can review Brian’s academic work here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brian_Earp
Follow Brian YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/earptube
Follow Brian on Twitter: @briandavidearp
Brian’s previous appearance on this podcast can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/user-761174326/13-brian-earp
Additional References Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969). I discuss the book briefly here: https://uncommongroundmedia.com/ursula-le-guin-left-hand-darkness/
Harry Frankfurt’s “Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person” (1971) is paywalled, but you can find a summary here: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/desire/
Rhys Southan, “Re-Orientation”: https://medium.com/@rhys/re-orientation-fb131ba7bd9b
Timestamps 4:51 The therapeutic possibilities of pro-love drugs 5:37 Biological theories of love: modulating brain chemicals 14:42 The Left Hand of Darkness 17:05 Using MDMA 17:58 Questions of authenticity, first-order & second-order desires 21:05 Changing your sexuality 23:09 Online dating 29:31 The real thing and its imitations: Argentine tango & theatre 38:46 When should we use pro-love drugs, should they be medically prescribed? 45:48 Anti-love drugs. Dampening the libido with antidepressants. 49:10 High-tech conversion therapies 1:03:24 The medicalization of love 1:06:49 Leaving dysfunctional relationships 1:15:19 The future of love and anti-love drugs
You can find Maarten’s scholarly work here: https://ugent.academia.edu/MaartenBoudry
Many of Maarten’s more popular articles are available here: https://sites.google.com/site/maartenboudry/blog
He is the co-editor with Massimo Pigliucci of the 2013 Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem: https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Pseudoscience-Reconsidering-Demarcation-ebook/dp/B00EARH246/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381938709&sr=8-1&keywords=boudry+pigliucci
And, also with Massimo Pigliucci, is the co-editor of https://www.amazon.com/Science-Unlimited-Challenges-Maarten-Boudry-ebook/dp/B078BXMPM4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516100822&sr=8-1&keywords=science+unlimited
You can start a conversation with Maarten at Letter here: https://letter.wiki/MaartenBoudry/conversations
Follow Maarten on Twitter: @mboudry
Further References
Maarten’s conversation with Peter Boghossian on the nature of belief at Letter: https://letter.wiki/conversation/22
For more on Popper and the demarcation problem: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-science/
Larry Laudan, “The Demise of the Demarcation Problem” (1983): https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-009-7055-7_6
Tanner Edis on religious belief and conspiracy theories: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329780971_Cosmic_Conspiracy_Theories_How_Theologies_Evade_Science_From_Genesis_to_Astrobiology
See Maarten’s take on Tanner Edis’ paper here, on Jerry Coyne’s blog: https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/10/02/why-theological-challenges-to-science-resemble-conspiracy-theories/
H. Benson et al, “Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer”: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16569567
Maarten’s essay on the four flavours of contemporary pessimism can be foud here: https://quillette.com/2019/06/26/four-flavors-of-doom-a-taxonomy-of-contemporary-pessimism/
Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (2018)
Hans Rosling, with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think (2018)
Iona’s article on Aarey can be found here: https://areomagazine.com/2019/10/15/the-word-for-world-is-forest-an-ode-to-aarey/
Timestamps
3:38 The demarcation problem and the difference between science and pseudoscience 14:57 Religion and other conspiracy theories 30:31 The four flavours of contemporary pessimism 49:20 Ecomodernism 51:50 Do activists present a greater hurdle to our ability to prevent climate change than denialists?
Saloni’s article on the UK policy is here: https://unherd.com/2020/03/the-scientific-case-against-herd-immunity/
Follow Saloni on Twitter @salonium
Further References
More on the UK policy: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf
More resources on the Coronavirus: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public https://nextstrain.org/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
Why the Corona Virus Has Been So Successful: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/03/biography-new-coronavirus/608338/
For some of the best information on the virus, follow epidemiologist @NAChristakis on Twitter or Facebook (Nicholas Christakis).
To write an open letter about your experiences with Coronavirus or create a daily journal: https://letter.wiki/OpenLetters/conversations.
If you would like to start a correspondence with someone on this or any other topic and don’t have a suitable interlocutor, contact humans@karma.wiki or tweet to me or @JacksonAEdwards.
Write to me at Letter: https://letter.wiki/IonaItalia/conversations
Timestamps
2:03 The situation in Hong Kong 4:40 My personal situation 11:21 Herd immunity 14:04 Psychological impacts of quarantine & social distancing 19:06 More on herd immunity and secondary effects of the epidemic 30:33 The reproduction number 32:18 The second wave 32:57 Seasonality 38:01 Does having had the virus confer immunity? 40:46 Treatments 46:33 Reasons to be optimistic 49:05 Developing a vaccine 51:24 How did the virus evolve? 54:46 How many young people are liable to suffer from serious complications or die? 57:15 Why are we testing so few people? 58:32 Panic buying 1:02:40 What we can do 1:14:35 Why the numbers sound so small 1:20:08 Open letters about your experiences with social isolation and a call for expertise
Nick is the author of five books: Cruel Britannia: Reports on the Sinister and the Preposterous (1999): https://www.amazon.com/Cruel-Britannia-Reports-Sinister-Preposterous/dp/1859842887
Pretty Straight Guys (2003): https://www.amazon.com/Pretty-Straight-Guys-Nick-Cohen/dp/0571220045
What's Left? How Liberals Lost Their Way (2007): https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Left-How-Lost-its/dp/0007229704
Waiting for the Etonians: Reports from the Sickbed of Liberal England (2009): https://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Etonians-Reports-Sickbed-Liberal/dp/0007308922
You Can’t Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom (2012): https://www.amazon.com/You-Cant-Read-This-Book/dp/0007308906
Further references
Zubin Madon’s podcast on the history of totalitarism can be found here: https://medium.com/@ZMadon/flirting-with-fascism-podcast-70c6296a3f21
Timestamps
2:33 What things have stayed the same since Nick wrote What’s Left? The anti-western left. The criticisms he received after publishing the book. 5:58 Is this just left-bashing? 7:25 The leftist arguments against Jeremy Corbyn 9:36 The rise of the illiberal right 12:46 How the fringe can become the mainstream 13:35 Hindu nationalism and fascism 14:52 Brexit 18:40 The cult of Corbyn and the future of the British Labour party 25:31 Social media and news 32:46 Fatalism 35:39 The Iraq War 40:28 Pacifism 42:42 Bolivia 46:18 More on Brexit 48:32 Threats to freedom of speech 55:18 The UK libel laws 57:52 Moral relativism on the left
You can find Colin’s Quillette article, “The New Evolution Deniers” here: https://quillette.com/2018/11/30/the-new-evolution-deniers/
And his article with William Malone and Julia Robinson, “No One is Born in the Wrong Body” here: https://quillette.com/2019/09/24/no-one-is-born-in-the-wrong-body/
Colin’s article with Emma Hilton, “The Dangerous Denial of Sex” can be found here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-dangerous-denial-of-sex-11581638089?mod=opinion_lead_pos5
You can find Colin’s academic work on social spiders, etc. here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Y6HdvgcAAAAJ&hl=en
Further References Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness (1928)
Derren Brown, Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine (2016) I review Brown’s book for Areo magazine here: https://areomagazine.com/2019/01/21/in-praise-of-stoicism-derren-browns-happy-book-review/
My interview with intersex activist Claire Graham: https://soundcloud.com/user-761174326/36-claire-graham
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949)
My interview with Steve Stewart-Williams: https://soundcloud.com/user-761174326/43-steve-stewart-williams-an-astonishing-ape
Timestamps
3:04 Why study social insects? 4:50 Personality in insects and humans. 23:44 Is no one born in the wrong body? 29:05 Does everyone have a gender identity? 37:50 Sex and sexuality 47:45 Is transgenderism the new gay conversion therapy? 54:54 Why are so many people identifying as trans, even at very young ages? 57:59 How is trans activism affecting academia, science and wider society? 1:00:46 How Colin defines sex. 1:03:41 Non-binary; de Beauvoir’s idea that woman is born not made; gender free 1:06:58 The hatred faced by non-passing transwomen; intrasexual gender policing 1:24:29 How will things develop in the future?
David’s book, The Irrational Ape: Why Flawed Logic Puts Us All at Risk, and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World (2019) is available here: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/The-Irrational-Ape/David-Robert-Grimes/9781471178252
Additional References
Visit Letter here: https://letter.wiki/conversations. Looking for a correspondent? DM @JacksonAEdwards on Twitter or email humans@karma.wiki.
Emily St Mandel, Station Eleven: A Novel (2014)
Steve Stewart-Williams, The Ape that Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolved (2018)
John P. A. Ioannidis, “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False” (2005) https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124
David Grimes and John Ioannidis, “Modelling Science Trustworthiness Under Publish Or Perish Pressure” (2018): https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/13117;
Buster Benson, Why Are We Yelling? The Art of Productive Disagreement (2019): https://busterbenson.com/
My conversation with Buster on the book can be found here: https://letter.wiki/conversation/225
Timestamps
3:00–6:35 On Letter 7:56 Relative vs. absolute risk increase or reduction 14:10 False positives & Baysian analysis 24:00 The Sally Clark case: an egregrious miscarriage of justice. 26:14 The prosecutor’s fallacy 27:40 The hair analysis unit & Kirk Odom’s wrongful conviction 36:32 Cargo cults 42:50 False equivalence, esp. with regard to vaccinations 47:28 Statistical significance vs. effect size 53:45 Dietary science & surrogate outcomes 59:58 Berkeley admissions and Simpson’s paradox 1:05:45 Self-reporting and personality tests 1:08:14 The replication crisis in biomedical science 1:12:58 Disinformation and misinformation 1:17:51 Identity protective cognition
You can find Aaron’s podcast, Embrace the Void, here: https://voidpod.com/podcasts;
and his podcast, Philosophers in Space, co-hosted by Thomas Smith, here: https://0gphilosophy.libsyn.com/
You can find Aaron’s conversations on Letter and write to him here: https://letter.wiki/AaronRabinowitz/conversations
Support Aaron here (I’m a patron!): https://www.patreon.com/EmbraceTheVoid
Follow Aaron on Twitter: @ETVPod
Further References
Thomas Chatterton Williams, A Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race (2019) My article on fascism: https://areomagazine.com/2019/08/05/fascism-and-how-to-fight-it-a-letter-exchange/
Martin Luther King, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (1963): https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/letter-birmingham-jail
J. S. Mill, On Liberty (1859): econlib.org/library/Mill/mlLbty.html
Gurwinder Bhogal, “How Not to Deradicalize a Twitter Neonazi”: https://areomagazine.com/2017/10/28/how-not-to-de-radicalize-a-twitter-neo-nazi/
Rohit Chopra, The Virtual Hindu Rashtra (2019): https://www.amazon.com/Virtual-Hindu-Rashtra-Saffron-Nationalism/dp/9353029570
For our discussion of Jordan Peterson, see the timestamps: https://soundcloud.com/user-761174326/14-william-buckner-and-cody-moser
My letter exchange with Nick Kano: https://letter.wiki/conversation/250
Clyde Rathbone’s interview on Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/podcasts/2019/11/20/ev-117-letterswiki-with-clyde-rathbone
Timestamps
6:15 Is civility fetishised? Tone policing and the difficulty of arguing. 19:10 Should some people be excused from civility? Is frankness itself a privilege? 22:35 Is the left is more averse to free speech than the right? 27:13 Freedom of speech in academe 39:47 The ecological fallacy 47:30 Protesting 50:58 Moral signalling 55:27 Free speech and its trade offs; free speech on social media
David’s latest book, Ethical Porn for Dicks: A Man’s Guide to Responsible Viewing Pleasure (2016) can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.com/Ethical-Porn-Dicks-Responsible-Pleasure/dp/0996485236/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
David’s The Myth of Sex Addiction (2012) can be found here: https://rowman.com/isbn/9781442213067/the-myth-of-sex-addiction
David’s 2012 book, Insatiable Wives: Women who Stray and the Men who Love Them can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Insatiable-Wives-Women-Stray-Love/dp/1442200316
David’s column for Psychology Today can be found here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/experts/david-j-ley-phd
David’s writings for the Good Men Project can be found here: https://goodmenproject.com/author/david-j-ley/
You can follow David on Twitter: @DrDavidLey
Further References
My deep dive into circumcision: https://areomagazine.com/2019/09/24/a-wrong-against-boys-an-impossible-conversation-about-circumcision/
Ang Lee’s film Lust, Caution (2007)
David on the no-fap community: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/women-who-stray/201503/the-nofap-phenomenon
Timestamps
1:45 Is there such a thing as sex addiction or porn addiction? 20:10 Is there a correlation between pornography use and sexual violence? 25:42 Moral panics around fiction 30:05 Young people watching pornography when they know nothing about real sex 35:55 Aesthetics versus pleasure 43:40 When our body’s impulses don’t correspond with our wishes; disconnects between mind and body 55:20 Men’s and women’s differing responses to porn 58:38 Towards a concept of sexual integrity 1:00:59 The no-fap community 1:06:30 Masturbation
For a comprehensive guide to Salil’s work, see: http://www.saliltripathi.com/Welcome.html
Salil’s articles for Mint: https://www.livemint.com/topic/salil-tripathi
Salil’s article for Caravan: https://caravanmagazine.in/author/93
Salil’s books can be found here: The Colonel Who Would Not Repent: The Bangladesh War and Its Unquiet Legacy (2016): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300218184/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0
Detours: Songs of the Open Road (2015): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A59F3J8/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i1
Offence: The Hindu Case (2009): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1906497389/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i2
You can follow Salil @saliltripathi on Twitter.
Further References
Letter: https://letter.wiki/conversations
The Impossible Conversations competition: https://www.impossibleconversations.info/
The conversation on Antifa and political violence: https://letter.wiki/conversation/59
My accounts of letter exchanges in Areo can be found here: https://areomagazine.com/author/terpsichoral/
Roger Cohen’s article on Kashmir: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/opinion/trump-modi-houston.html
Isaac Chotiner’s interview with Roger Cohen: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-times-columnist-roger-cohen-on-the-future-of-india
Salil’s article on the Indian media’s behaviour during conflicts with Pakistan: https://caravanmagazine.in/media/question-journalists-support-for-armed-forces
Modi’s article on Gandhi: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/opinion/modi-mahatma-gandhi.html
The Indian Penal Code: https://indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/2263?view_type=browse&sam_handle=123456789/1362
Salil Tripathi on M.F. Husain: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303714704576383173779641758
M.F. Husain’s work: https://www.wikiart.org/en/m-f-husain Salil on the Modi myth: https://caravanmagazine.in/vantage/minds-modi-myth
Meera Sanyal on demonitisation: https://www.amazon.in/Big-Reverse-Demonetization-Knocked-India/dp/9353023947
Salil’s obituary of Meera Sanyal: https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/opinion-lessons-from-an-old-friend-that-india-s-public-life-should-imbibe-1548259689773.html
Salil on whataboutery: https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/5nErFTVfxk0UPN2WT9QpAI/The-role-of-a-writer.html
Rabindranath Tagore’s poem on Indian freedom: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45668/gitanjali-35
Jon Lee Anderson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lee_Anderson
John Pilger on Cambodia: http://johnpilger.com/videos/year-zero-the-silent-death-of-cambodia
Vajpayee’s speech calling for the destruction of Babri Masjid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_Nvqqx5_Po
Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1980)
Timestamps
3:25 Letter and the Impossible Conversations competition 8:45 The portrayal of India in the domestic and international media, esp regarding the situation in Kashmir 14:40 Indian media’s behaviour during conflicts with Pakistan 19:00 Recent coverage of India in the foreign press 23:50 Lynchings and the Modi government 27:40 Trump versus Modi 32:33 Free speech and the Indian penal code 37:00 The Modi myth 43:00 The injustices of Indian bureacracy 46:12 Indian whataboutery 51:32 What inspired Salil to become a journalist 53:10 Salil’s journalistic icons 54:30 The biggest challenges facing journalists today 1:06:42 Salil’s predictions for the future of journalism in India
For Steve’s book, Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Thought You Knew (2012) see: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/darwin-god-and-the-meaning-of-life/A3055F89051D5F4ADE4AFE9473BF0AAB
For Steve’s book, The Ape that Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2019) see: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ape-that-understood-the-universe/3448755E3BF801C936343555DA7AECBB
Find out more about Steve here: https://www.stevestewartwilliams.com/
Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveStuWill
Further References
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (1976) David Sloan Wilson, This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution (2019) Erwin Frey, see the survival of the weakest Geoffrey Miller, The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature (2001) Tim Taylor, The Artificial Ape: How Technology Changed the Course of Human Evolution (2010) Wilhelm von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) Iona Italia, “A Wrong against Boys: An Impossible Conversation about Circumcision,” in Areo Magazine (2019) Battlestar Galactica remake (TV series, 2004)
Timestamps
2:08 The gene’s eye view 7:04 Explaining altruism and strong reciprocity 13:44 Culture as an evolutionary accelerator 15:06 Lactose tolerance 16:12 The survival of the weakest 17:56 Sexual selection as an evolutionary ratchet 23:13 Intelligence and language 24:46 Homosexuality 32:22 Evolution and ethics 33:48 Technology and cumulative culture 38:39 The meme’s eye view 44:50 Inclusive fitness 48:46 Evolutionary psychology doesn’t provide a moral template 53:03 Memes and ethics 53:57 Gene-culture co-evolution 57:06 Traits vs. the selection processes that produce them 58:09 Romantic love and jealousy 1:00:39 Why do men hunt? 1:04:00 How will humanity develop in the future? 1:06:40 Intrasexual competition and mate choices 1:15:46 Why women prefer pretty boys 1:19:07 Memetic fitness 1:20:53 Misconceptions about evolutionary psychology; & when adaptationism goes too far
3:38 What attracted Andy to Diderot? 7:09 Diderot’s radical questioning of political and sexual norms: homosexuality; masturbation; incest fantasies 20:55 “My thoughts are my sluts”—intellectual libertinage 25:44 Diderot’s relationships with women 28:00 Diderot as a playwright 30:24 Religious sexual fantasies 31:00 The Literary Correspondence 31:50 Diderot on painting and on acting 39:15 Samuel Richardson and the new focus on humble people 41:32 La Religieuse (The Nun) 45:12 Diderot on slavery 51:08 Diderot’s letters 56:18 Diderot on free will, materialism, atheism 1:00:18 The Encyclopédie 1:18:05 Diderot’s politics 1:22:05 His unfettered joy in life
Andy’s books: Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely (2019); Anatomy of Blackness: Science and Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment (2011, 2013) and Sublime Disorder, Physical Monstrosity in Diderot's Universe (2001) can all be found on Amazon. Follow his author page here: https://www.amazon.com/Andrew-S-Curran/e/B004FOWWD0/
You can find out more about Andy here: https://www.andrewscurran.com/ And here: https://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/faculty/acurran/profile.html
Follow Andy on Twitter @AndrewSCurran
6:38 Defining terms: compatibilism, semi-compatibilism, determinism, libertarianism 46:50 Moral responsibility 1:02:30 Reasons responsiveness 1:20:07 Sociopathy and the amydala 1:24:30 The sorites paradox (the paradox of the heap) 1:36:15 What does it mean to have control? 1:52:05 Rights forfeiture theory, criminal punishment and free will 2:29:30 How did the three of us arrive at our respective positions?
For the original discussion on Letter, see: https://letter.wiki/conversation/54.
For my article on the discussion see: https://areomagazine.com/2019/07/28/on-free-will-a-letter-exchange
For Ben Burgis’ responses, see: https://areomagazine.com/2019/08/02/free-will-and-sam-harris-puppet-analogy-a-reply-to-iona-italia/ And https://areomagazine.com/2019/10/08/free-will-the-libet-experiments-and-the-war-on-terror/
Join Jon Rosen’s discussion group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1750878868488774/
Follow Ben Burgis on Twitter @BenBurgis
Follow Jon Rosen on Twitter @rosenbaier
Additional References
For Frankfurt cases: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/compatibilism/
Gagandeep Singh: https://www.hindustantimes.com/dehradun/i-was-just-doing-my-duty-says-cop-who-saved-muslim-youth-s-life/story-CB1NP0uP1vz34NsV12bjGK.html
Pereboom’s four case argument: https://philosophicaldisquisitions.blogspot.com/2015/01/perebooms-four-case-argument-against.html
For more on John Martin Fischer: http://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/philosophers/fischer/
David Lewis, “The Paradox of Time Travel”: https://www.csus.edu/indiv/m/merlinos/paradoxes%20of%20time%20travel.pdf
Ryan Lake, “No Fate But What We Make: A Defence of the Compatibility of Freedom and Causal Determinism”: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3457/849101f0502d9ad148c0e41eddef4c50fa84.pdf
Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” (1973)
Sam Harris, “In Defence of Profiling”: https://samharris.org/in-defense-of-profiling/ Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis (approx. 405 BCE)
2:13 General information about Malaysia: history, politics, economics 4:36 Demographics and religion 8:03 Malaysian independence 9:15 The history of Malaysian party politics since independence 10:10 The evolution of Malay nationalism and the rise of Islamist politics 15:06 Anwar Ibrahim 16:21 Sodomy laws and gay rights in Malaysia 17:38 The decriminalisation of homosexuality in India 20:18 Changes to Islam within Malaysia: from tropical Islam to a more austere & authoritarian form 27:05 The controversy around the teaching of khat (Malay-Arabic calligraphy) 29:30 Zakir Naik’s accusing Hindu and Chinese Malaysians of disloyalty and the resulting controversy 33:20 Is there a ghettoisation of different communities? The geographical breakdown by race. 34:18 Relative prosperity of the different racial communities 40:47 The Malaysian economy and the temptation towards authoritarianism 43:48 Free speech, the media and Malaysian civil society 47:49 Arabisation 51:20 A new Orientalism on the part of Westerners 59:58 Legal systems in Malaysia 1:02:08 Intercommunity relations 1:03:46 Women in Malaysia 1:05:35 Imran’s predictions for the future of the country
For Imran’s articles, see here: https://areomagazine.com/author/imranshamsunahar/; https://quillette.com/author/imran-shamsunahar/; https://www.scmp.com/author/imran-shamsunahar; https://nationalinterest.org/profile/imran-shamsunahar
Imran’s contributions to the War is Boring blog can be found here: https://warisboring.com/author/imran-shamsunahar/
See also https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Racial-divisions-of-Malaysia-s-politics-harm-whole-country
We refer specifically to this article in the podcast: https://quillette.com/2018/01/31/neo-orientalism-left/
Follow Imran on Twitter here: @AsiaAnalyst47
Timestamps
3:50 Eric argues that people’s feelings about immigration aren’t linked to economic anxiety 4:42 Brexit/Trump/populist right support isn’t linked to social class. What does predict this? 7:44 Psychological dimensions of conservative attitudes: is it reactionary? Retrograde or just nostalgic? 13:21 The Islam factor 24:52 Four white majority responses to immigration change: fight, flee, repress & join. 25:24 The fight response 25:38 The flee response: white flight from minority neighbourhoods, white self-segregation 31:11 The repress response: fear of expressing anti-immigration views; the ethics of anti-racism. 35:11 The concealed condition: uncovering anti-immigration views that people are reluctant to admit to. 37:34 The join response: friendship, intermarriage, assimilation. 38:27 The coming mixed race majority 39:30 How important is ancestry to belonging? Civic versus ethnic nationalism. Majority melting pots. 46:08 Assimilation 49:12 Why there is a danger of a far right resurgence right now 50:30 On what basis do you choose which immigrants to allow in? 59:45 What steps should we take, going forward? How to combat racism? 59:52 Separating racial appearance from membership in an ethnic group 1:05:24 Choosing a racial identity, what influences identification as white/non-white? 1:11:14 The Social Justice left as a force multiplier for right-wing populism
Eric’s book, Whiteshift: Population, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities (2019) can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Whiteshift-Populism-Immigration-Future-Majorities/dp/1468316974 For more about Eric’s work: http://www.sneps.net/ Follow Eric on Twitter: @epkaufm
Further Reading Jonathan Haidt, “The moral roots of liberals and conservatives,” TED talk, 2008: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs41JrnGaxc Michael Lind, “The Beige and the Black” https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/16/magazine/the-beige-and-the-black.html Razib Khan, “Why There Will Not Be a Beige Future.” https://areomagazine.com/2018/11/28/why-there-will-not-be-a-beige-future-skin-color-genetics-race-and-racism/
For the Hidden Tribes analysis see: https://hiddentribes.us/
2:07 Evolutionary theory as a comprehensive way of looking at life 7:20 Evolutionary theory and English literature 11:52 Gene-centric evolutionary theory versus the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis 15:50 Looking at learning and management from an evolutionary standpoint: Toyota 17:07 How a knowledge of evolution can influence public policy 25:40 An evolutionary view of psychotherapy 27:00 Multi-level selection theory. Application to cancer therapies. 28:20 How chicken farming illustrates group level selection theory 33:37 The problem of good—how did altruism evolve? 36:54 Water striders 41:11 How these ideas apply to introverts and extroverts and business school hirings 42:41 How they apply to Battlestar Galactica 44:37 The neighbourhood project 48:25 Systems of meaning 50:15 Measuring prosociality among schoolchildren: what influences it? How to increase it? 54:03 Response from more gene-based evolutionary theorists; social science and humanities scholars who have adopted evolutionary approaches 57:10 Equivalence 58:35 Replicators versus vehicles 1:02:14 Applying these principles to our own lives: success and the morality of the cancer cell
David’s book This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution (2019) can be found here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/246844/this-view-of-life-by-david-sloan-wilson/9781101870204/.
For more about David’s work see: https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/persons/david-sloan-wilson/ And https://evolution-institute.org/profile/david-sloan-wilson/ And https://www.prosocial.world/
Find David’s other books here: https://www.amazon.com/David-Sloan-Wilson/e/B001H6MNP6%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share, esp. The Neighbourhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time (2012): https://www.amazon.com/Neighborhood-Project-Using-Evolution-Improve/dp/0316037672
Follow David on Letter.Wiki: https://letter.wiki/DavidSloanWilson/conversations
Follow David on Twitter: @David_S_Wilson
Further Notes
I discuss Sloan Wilson’s ideas and correspondence with Massimo Pigliucci here: https://areomagazine.com/2019/07/10/human-cultural-evolution-a-letter-exchange/
For the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis see: https://extendedevolutionarysynthesis.com/
Steven C. Hayes and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): https://stevenchayes.com/category/acceptance-and-commitment-therapy/
For Omar Tonsi Eldakar’s work on waterstriders see https://phys.org/news/2009-11-mom-nice-guys-girls.html
Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking (2012).
See also: https://www.quietrev.com/
Battlestar Galactica: https://www.syfy.com/battlestargalactica
For a critical view, see Jerry Coyne: https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/david-sloan-wilson-loses-it-again/
See David Sloan Wilson on social constructivism: https://evolution-institute.org/saving-social-constructivism/
Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene (1976)
3:20 Roc’s name 9:00 Childhood and adolescence 28:28 College 31:20 Race and social circles 35:42 “Conservative” ideals which are actually commonsense ideals 37:00 The black community 38:50 Compassion and resilience 43:05 Privilege 48:30 Money, success, winning at the system 53:30 Growing up in the analogue world; living in the digital one 1:09:47 On speaking “for” your community 1:17:25 Shared goals 1:13:34 Science fiction
Roc’s book, Inner Demons: Blazing a Path to Happiness (2018), can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Demons-Blazing-Path-Happiness-ebook/dp/B07GDPB9ZL
Follow Roc’s podcast and find out more about him here: https://www.rocsworld.com/
Follow Roc on Twitter @TheRocsWorld
1:27 Defining intersex—how common is it?; different types 8:06 Intersex versus trans 12:20 What does it mean to be assigned the “wrong” sex at birth? 25:03 Is sex a spectrum? 30:33 Hermaphrodites 32:33 The condition MRKH and Claire’s own experiences being diagnosed 38:20 CAIS (complete androgen insensitivity syndrome); past approaches to intersex people and more recent changes 47:10 Claire’s Twitter ban; trans activists and intersex people 1:07:40 Some misconceptions about intersex people
You can find out more by following Claire here: https://mrkhvoice.com/
Further References
Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex (2002); Alice Dreger, Galileo's Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and One Scholar's Search for Justice (2015)
Fact checking the statistics about the incidence of intersex: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000222z
You can follow intersex activist Emily Quinn on YouTube (highly recommended): https://www.youtube.com/user/Emilord
And see intersex activist https://www.youtube.com/user/pidgejen
Aphra Behn, “To the Fair Clorinda” (1688): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50479/to-the-fair-clorinda
Natalia Wynn (“ContraPoints”) and her facial feminisation surgery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9mspMJTNEY
2:42 Dayne and Clyde’s backgrounds and why they decided to found Letter 10:50 What is Letter? How does the form nudge us towards more worthwhile forms of exchange. 16:16 How to avoid trolls and call-out culture on a platform. 27:00 How certain technologies facilitate and encourage certain types of use 34:02 The advantage of having a discussion in written form 37:20 Twitter 42:02 Time well spent 44:12 Addiction, unitasking and focus; longer term value 51:19 Connection 58:38 Long-term goals and target audience 59:58 Role models 1:03:20 Facebook 1:08:50 Avoiding outrage culture
References
You can find Letter here: https://letter.wiki/conversations
For an account of what we are trying to do: https://areomagazine.com/2019/07/12/lets-change-the-nature-of-public-debate-an-introduction-to-letter/
On the letter exchange between Massimo Pigliucci and David Sloan Wilson: https://areomagazine.com/2019/07/10/human-cultural-evolution-a-letter-exchange/
On the letter exchange between Gurwinder Bhogal and Iona Italia: https://areomagazine.com/2019/07/19/memory-and-identity-a-letter-exchange-with-gurwinder-bhogal/
Further References
Mike Nayna’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzk08fzh5c_BhjQa1w35wtA
Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (2008)
Sam Harris’ Making Sense podcast: https://samharris.org/podcast/
Sam Harris’ and Ezra Klein’s conversation: https://samharris.org/podcasts/123-identity-honesty/
Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (2016)
25:04 Can we derive moral values from reason? 27:30 Veganism 42:20 The nature of sentience 53:20 AI 59:50 Humans versus non-humans 1:03:50 Cognitive dissonance in everyday life 1:08:20 Are the lives of endangered animals worth more? Is there a value to things even when humans can’t experience them? 1:17:20 Potential problems with sentientism 1:30:02 Humanists and their responses to sentientism
Jamie would love to hear your questions or feedback about Sentientism on Twitter at @jamiewoodhouse or @sentientism, via his website or on Medium.
“Sentientism,” writes Jamie, “is a simple, potentially unifying moral philosophy that commits to using evidence, applying reason and granting moral consideration to all sentient beings. It can be seen as an extension of secular humanism. People from over 50 countries are working to build a global community around sentientism. Anyone interested is welcome to participate, whether or not the term sentientism fits personally.” You can find some sentientist groups here:
• Facebook (public) https://www.facebook.com/Sentientism/ • Facebook (private) https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism/ • Twitter https://twitter.com/sentientism/lists/sentientists/members • Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Sentientism/ • GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/840236-sentientism • LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12263069/?fbclid=IwAR3aybCvf_mPkB72nufGvM9iyWpmpYZgdjqQwUNK5B2bclJxpxPGEXDmHK0 • Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sentientism/
Jamie’s writing on Sentientism has been published by Areo and by the Center For Inquiry’s Free Inquiry
Further References
Peter Singer: https://petersinger.info/
Sam Harris, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values (2010)
My description of the Sanjay Gandhi national park: https://fireandvultures.wordpress.com/2017/10/25/india-diary-the-word-for-world-is-forest-trail-hiking-in-the-sanjay-gandhi-national-park/
The petition to save Aarey forest: https://www.change.org/p/cm-devendra-fadnavis-jica-stop-the-cutting-of-3500-trees-in-aarey-forest
Alan Weisman, The World Without Us (2007)
Derren Brown, Happy: Why More or Less Everything Is Absolutely Fine (2016)
Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” (1973)
4:06 Melissa’s Methodist upbringing in Singapore 8:49 Press censorship in Singapore; Singapore society in general 14:30 Why Melissa decided to come and study in the US; her studies in genetics (transcriptomics) 21:50 Her meeting with Faisal al Mutar 24:10 Their secular humanists Facebook page 27:55 On the right way to make tea 35:00 Melissa’s early work with Faisal 36:30 Ideas Beyond Borders 49:45 Literacy in the MENA region 51:55 Bringing a new Enlightenment to the Arab world 1:06:30 The books that most influenced us
Find out more about Ideas Beyond Borders here: https://www.ideasbeyondborders.org/;
Follow Melissa on Twitter @MsMelChen
Other References S. Frederick Starr, Lost EnlightenmentCentral Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane (2015)
Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (2018)
Sam Harris, Lying (2011); The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values (2010)
Deeyah Khan, documentary filmmaker: http://deeyah.com/
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (2006)
David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World (2011)
“Donald Trump” [Tony Schwartz] The Art of the Deal (1987)
George Eliot, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life (1871–2)
Annika Harris, I Wonder (2013)
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (1976)
John Rawls, The Theory of Justice (1971)
Derren Brown, Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine (2016)
My review of Happy for Areo: https://areomagazine.com/2019/01/21/in-praise-of-stoicism-derren-browns-happy-book-review
Letter Find out more about our new partners, Letter: https://letter.wiki
I’ve written about it here: https://areomagazine.com/2019/07/12/lets-change-the-nature-of-public-debate-an-introduction-to-letter/
And I’ve written about one of our letter exchanges here: https://areomagazine.com/2019/07/10/human-cultural-evolution-a-letter-exchange/
3:40 Chapo Trap House and the phenomenon of internet trolling 8:34 Jordan Peterson 38:01 Postmodernism versus analytic philosophy 40:10 The difference between the new critical theorists and the classic postmodernists 43:56 The implications of this for literary criticism 50:19 Baudrillard—Oliver's favourite postmodernist 51:33 Why postmodernism isn't neo-Marxist 55:35 Complicity and trolling 1:07:30 Free speech, social media and content moderation 1:27:52 Should Oliver celebrate things more and write fewer snarky takedowns?
Oliver’s column for Arc Digital can be found here: https://arcdigital.media/@olivertraldi.
Oliver’s articles for Areo can be found here: https://areomagazine.com/author/ideologjammin/
You can follow Oliver on Twitter @olivertraldi
Victor’s podcast can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8gR852kIfIaSLTY5FFMBUg
You can follow Victor on Twitter @cognitivicta
Further References
Oliver’s article on Chapo Trap House and Jordan Peterson: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/10/clean-rooms-and-dirtbags/
Oliver on complicity: https://arcdigital.media/one-of-the-most-prominent-norms-on-social-media-is-complicity-c24bd117101c
Democratic Socialists of America: https://www.dsausa.org/
“The Intentional Fallacy” from The Verbal Icon: Studies in the Meaning of Poetry. W. K. Wimsatt, Jr., and Monroe C. Beardsley (1954): http://faculty.smu.edu/nschwart/seminar/Fallacy.htm
Jordan Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief (1999) and 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018)
Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay’s interview with Jordan Peterson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWhuQOVTFGw
Cathy Young’s piece on Candace Owens for Quillette: https://quillette.com/2018/05/08/problem-candace-owens/
Jordan Peterson’s interview with Cathy Newman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcjxSThD54
Jordan Peterson discusses his concept of truth on Sam Harris’ podcast Making Sense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OqrZs9srHs
Jean Baudrillard, The Iraq War Did Not Take Place (1995): http://halliejones.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Baudrillard-The-Gulf-War-did-not-Take-Place.pdf
“Postmodernism isn’t playing around anymore” article by Oliver Traldi: https://areomagazine.com/2018/01/08/postmodernism-isnt-playing-around-anymore/
John Milon, Paradise Lost (1667); Alexander Pope, To a Lady. Of the Characters of Women (1743).
Gurwinder Bhogal on deradicalising Neo-Nazis on Twitter: https://areomagazine.com/2017/10/28/how-not-to-de-radicalize-a-twitter-neo-nazi/
Also mentioned: Kate Manne; Luce Iragaray; Robin Di Angelo; Sarah Haider; Shoe 0n Head; James Damore; Stefan Molyneux; Robby Soave
24:11 Should we continue to criticise Islam in the age of Trump or is white nationalism and, in India, Hindutva now a greater threat? 31:13 The close-knit Ahmadi community & the pressures it brings. Sexual segregation. Rules about marriage. Double standards for Ahmadi women. 36:31 Homosexuality in Ahmaddiyat 38:24 Proselytisation 39:48 Raising children within a religion 41:42 Ahmadis in the Western media: contradictions and hypocrises 49:12 Should we respect religion? 51:07 Our overemphasis on terrorism 53:30 Why Ahmadi teachings are non-violent 56:01 Mediated readings of the Quran 1:02:19 Sohail’s experiences of leaving the faith: why he became an activist 1:11:04 Philosophy communities, which might replace religious ones 1:24:17 Adultery versus polyamory
Sohail’s video “Why I am leaving Islam and Ahmadiyyat” can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-jPHr0LrYY
Please check the extensive shownotes to that video for links to his written and video work.
His interview with the Secular Jihadists can be found here: https://secularjihadists.libsyn.com/ep101-leaving-ahmadiyya-islam-with-reason-on-faith
For more on the Ex-Muslims of North America: https://exmuslims.org/
For more on Muslimish, see: https://www.muslimish.org/
You can follow Sohail on Twitter @ReasonOnFaith
Other references
Eiynah “Nice Mangos” on criticising Islam in the age of Trump: https://soundcloud.com/politeconversations/the-complexity-of-critiquing-islam-under-trump
Douglas Murray, “Here we go again, but this time, je suis Berlin”: https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/12/go-time-je-suis-berlin/
Sohail’s response to this article: https://reasononfaith.org/commenting-on-douglas-murrays-article-post/
See also Qasim Rashid (@QuasimRashid, formerly @MuslimIQ); Alishba Zarmeen (@SecularlyYours)
Ali Amjad Rizvi, The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason (2016)
Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2014)
The episode of this podcast in which we discuss the theory that early humans were polyamorous is Episode 14 with Cody Moser and William Buckner: https://soundcloud.com/user-761174326/14-william-buckner-and-cody-moser
5:20 How to begin a story with a moment of unexpected change 5:58 Evolutionary psychology and storytelling 11:46 Status 16:38 Anti-heroes 24:31 Three routes into story: milieu, what if and argument 28:05 The problem with recipes for storytelling 30:01 The broken protagonist 38:37 Loss of control 50:20 What psychology teaches us about stories and vice versa 53:23 Plot-driven versus character-driven novels 57:08 The novel and the advent of human rights 1:00:18 The idea of the ‘trashy’ novel 1:01:48 TV series & soap operas 1:08:04 The story event 1:14:56 Fantasy 1:16:32 Avoiding cliché & other pitfalls
Will Storr’s book, The Science of Storytelling is available in the UK here (and is forthcoming in the US): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Storytelling-Will-Storr/dp/0008276943.
You can find Will’s The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science (2014) here: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/will-storr/the-heretics/9780330535861
Complete details of all Will’s work can be found here: http://willstorr.com/
You can follow Will on Twitter @wstorr
Literary works mentioned: Shakespeare, King Lear and Julius Caesar; T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926); Jane Austen, Emma (1815); J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997); Patrick Süskind, Perfume (1985); Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824); Nabokov, Lolita (1955); Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969); Henry Fielding, Tom Jones (1749); Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740) and Clarissa (1748); Ben Jonson, The Alchemist (ca. 1610); J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (1954–55).
TV, radio, film: Game of Thrones; Lost; Twin Peaks; Breaking Bad; The Sopranos; The Archers; Babylon 5; Star Wars; Star Trek Discovery; Six Feet Under.
Other references: Amy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY9HuVYWn_Y; Tony Tanner, Jane Austen (1986). The critic of Tanner’s I refer to around the 39 minute mark was John Mullan; Roy Baumeister http://www.roybaumeister.com/; James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791); Lynn Hunt, Inventing Human Rights (2007); Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, “The Reasons that Induced Dr. S. to Write a Poem Call’d the Lady’s Dressing Room” (1734). In the podcast, I misattribute lines from this to “Verses Address’d to the Imitator of Horace” (1733).
2:46 Jay’s film Islam and the Future of Tolerance 7:03 Why Jay became a documentary filmmaker 10:05 Why Jay chose to film Sam Harris & Maajid’s Nawaz’s book, Islam and the Future of Tolerance 19:01 Three different mindsets: political, philosophical, psychological 28:00 How responsible is a writer for the way in which he or she is interpreted? 38:24 Different types of Muslims 45:19 Reform versus apostasy 49:16 The problem with Islam 54:19 Who is Maajid Nawaz most skilled at reaching? 56:53 What Jay means by religion and religious ideas and why he is against them. 1:02:23 Jordan Peterson’s definition of religion 1:07:00 Finding meaning without religion 1:11:44 Finding ethics without religion 1:25:22 Creating new gods 1:33:44 Philosophy and modern life
You can find out more about the documentary film Islam and the Future of Tolerance here: http://www.islamandthefutureoftolerance.com/
It is based on Sam Harris & Maajid Nawaz’s book of the same name, published in 2015.
For Jay’s film Opposite Field see: http://www.opposite-field.com/
and for his film All Rise see: http://www.docnyc.net/film/all-rise/
You can follow Jay on Twitter @jay_shapiro
Other references:
Mike Nayna, documentary filmmaker: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzk08fzh5c_BhjQa1w35wtA
Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (2004) and The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values (2010)
Maajid Nawaz, Radical: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism (2012)
The Quilliam Foundation: https://www.quilliaminternational.com/
The Intelligence Squared debate on the topic Is Islam a Religion of Peace?, featuring Maajid Nawaz, Zeba Khan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Douglas Murray: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUGmv5TGaTc
Ali Rizvi’s The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason (2016) David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World (2011)
Sean Carroll’s Moving Naturalism Forward conference: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/naturalism2012/
Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life (2004)
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)
Laurence Krauss, A Universe from Nothing (2012)
Oliver Morton, Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet (2007)
Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (2010
Noah Yuval Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2016)
Other people mentioned: Coleman Hughes, Jordan B. Peterson, Haras Rafiq
Timestamps:
3:45 Armin’s upbringing in Iran 9:05 Armin’s fear of hell and how it drove him to attempt suicide 18:29 How seriously do people generally take religion? 21:32 Sex and religion 23:33 The true costs of religion 25:42 Armin loses his faith 28:27 Opposition to theocracy in Iran 32:03 Iranian ethnonationalists; Zoroastrianism 52:33 The MEK 56:12 The monarchists 01:02:03 Secular democrats 01:02:49 Ethnic minority groups in Iran 01:04:03 People with economic grievances 01:04:50 Conflicts between the various groups 01:07:01 Opposition to foreign intervention 1:11:57 Paranoia and conspiracy theories 1:23:08 Grass roots opposition to Islamic extremism and theocracy 1:37:44 How can we support atheists and secularists within Iran
Armin Navabi is the founder of http://www.atheistrepublic.com/ and the co-host of the podcast “Secular Jihadists” (with Ali Rizvi, see episode 8 of this podcast). You can find them here: https://secularjihadists.libsyn.com/ and here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmR6dMMdVE9lhsRAOn56K3A.
Armin is the author of Why There Is No God: Simple Responses to 20 Common Arguments for the Existence of God (2014).
Follow Armin on Twitter @ArminNavabi or on Facebook: Armin.Navabi.
To learn more about the secularist campaign in Iran, follow the social media hashtags #MyStealthyFreedom #WhiteWednesdays and #MyCameraIsMyWeapon and read Masih Alinejad’s book The Wind in my Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran (2018).
4:18 The Evergreen system of education & why it appealed to Benjamin 10:45 Benjamin’s introduction to intersectionality and the supposed ubiquity of white male privilege 14:35 The confrontation between Nicholas Christakis and the Yale students 17:26 Social justice v. mob justice 19:56 Student fragility and the empowering of the administration. 22:09 The Evergreen protests 35:12 The sloganising of thought 39:07 Naima Lowe and her line of argument 45:37 The library meeting 46:55 What is the nature of power? 48:46 Student resistance to Social Justice ideology 1:12:20 Bret’s actions following the showdown 1:13:68 Is there anything the activists said that Benjamin agreed with? 1:18:40 Economic issues 1:24:48 Why didn’t the professors resist? 1:30:00 Benjamin’s religious upbringing; is Social Justice a cult? 1:43:00 ‘White’ knowledges 1:49:50 Equality versus equity 1:52:42 More on student opposition to the Social Justice agenda 1:57:00 What can we do to stem this tide?
Benjamin’s YouTube channel, The Boyce of Reason can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm13xHVNFVwzHzK3QHSaZ3Q
You can watch his complete playlist of videos on Evergreen (#ExposéEvergreen) here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRdayXEOwuMG1jaAtJE0KbpyY_Kh-JTUl
Follow Benjamin on Twitter: @BenjaminABoyce
Other references: Jerry Coyne discusses Benjamin and Evergreen: https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2017/06/20/more-on-the-evergreen-state-situation/
Mike Nayna’s video documentation of the Evergreen protests & the issues raised: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLHyNSlsz44_GceBMuwAyflt3lDWMEjTG
Sam Harris interviews Nicholas Christakis about the events at Yale: https://samharris.org/podcasts/facing-the-crowd/
Bret Weinstein appears on Tucker Carlson’s show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv8EZOQVjgk
Benjamin’s interview with Mike Nayna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfSAEfZgZ2s
2:24 How Matt became interested in the history of conservative thought 4:00 What characterises a classic conservative tradition 4:27 Facts do care about your feelings: the conservative tradition and the role of emotion 8:46 How living in postmodernity affects conservative thought 17:35 Changes in conservative thought resulting from greater globalisation and economic insecurity 17:40 Conservative identity politics 24:40 Conservative thought and the question of meaning 27:04 The right’s posturing versus the left’s sincerity 32:32 The right’s pessimism, the left’s optimism 36:24 Trump 38:18 Conservative family values and the decline in the welfare state 40:51 The far right & left-wing economic politics 46:56 Neoliberalism 49:31 Defeating the right
Matt McManus is the author of Immorality and the Immortal Conservative (2016) and of the forthcoming books Making Human Dignity Central to International Human Rights Law; Essays on our Hugely Tremendous Times and The Rise and Emergence of the Post-Modern Conservatism: Neoliberalism, Post-Modern Culture, and Right-Wing Populism.
His many essays for Areo can be found here: https://areomagazine.com/author/mattmcmanus303/
You can also follow Matt on Twitter: @MattPolProf
Other references: Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) and Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Stephen Harper, Right Here, Right Now: Politics and Leadership in the Age of Disruption (2018)
Ben Shapiro, How to Debate Leftists and Destroy Them: 11 Rules for Winning the Argument (2014)
Ben Burgis, Give them an Argument: Logic for the Left (forthcoming, 31 May, 2019)
4:54 Universals that we express between ourselves 6:06 The social suite 10:06 Fiction, empathy & social learning 14:20 Qualities we share with other animals 16:24: Groups, in-group bias, co-operation (at 23:28 Helen interjects to talk about intersectionality) 31:37 Would aliens visiting us be friendly? 37:15 AI 40:01 Why isn’t Earth a dystopia? 43:09 The decline in poverty worldwide 44:55 Steven Pinker’s approach v. Nicholas’ approach 45:58 Are people really happier? What about meaning? 50:30 Social media, the digital world, bureaucracy 53:05 The main lessons of the book Blueprint
You can find Nicholas’ book Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society here: https://www.amazon.com/Blueprint-Evolutionary-Origins-Good-Society/dp/0316230030
His book Connected: The Surprising Power of our Social Networks and how they Shape our Lives can be found here: http://www.connectedthebook.com/
Find out more about Nicholas’ work with the Yale University Human Nature Lab here: https://yins.yale.edu/our-labs/human-nature-lab.
You can follow Nicholas on Twitter @NAChristakis.
Other sources mentioned in the podcast: Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion: https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/0307455777;
Pietraszewski et al (2015) “Constituents of Political Cognition: Race, Party, Politics, and the Alliance Detection System,” Cognition 140, pp. 24–39: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027715000578
Jonathan Gottschall (his work in general): http://jonathangottschall.com/
The article by John Staddon Helen critiqued: https://quillette.com/2019/04/11/is-secular-humanism-a-religion/
3:45 misconceptions about Argentine tango 5:30 differences between ballroom, stage and social tango 12:51 how Joe discovered tango 17:35 the addictive quality of tango 18:14 Extract from my book. “My favourite Californian.” 22:11 the tango embrace 24:00 the experience of the traditional milonga (tango dance night) 31:40 how do you reject a request for a dance? 35:20 “Emotional investment and tango.” A piece I wrote about the emotional highs and lows of dancing tango. 41:29 what characterizes tango music? 51:32 leading and following: the different roles in the dance 1:00:53 “Dancing with my girlfriend’s boyfriend.” I read an extract from my writing on sexuality and tango.
If you’re living outside the US, you can order my book directly from the publisher: https://www.milongapress.com/catalogue/our-tango-world-1/
US readers can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Our-Tango-World-vol-1-Community/dp/1999755189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1544287015&sr=8-1&keywords=our+tango+world
Ballroom tango: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTNjZGLdDb0
Stage tango, from 3:16: https://youtu.be/Lhn3AMs5jbk?t=198
A performance of improvised social tango by Manish Dharmani and Iona: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbVRHs7q8eY The triplets passage I refer to at 55:05 of the podcast can be seen at 1:17–1:22 of the video.
Some other contrasting examples of improvised social tango: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqOQBWWWASI&t=13s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBItUyr_eBs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k-VGZbWzV4
My favourite Pugliese song (Pugliese’s emotional intensity is alluded to several times): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBjMighiGSg
Bandoneon playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTPec8z5vdY
For people who want to listen to more tango music, I recommend this site: https://ddpsfavoritetandas.wordpress.com/
If you are interested in the poetry, explore here: https://poesiadegotan.com/
2:00 Addiction to alcohol, sugar etc. Is there an addictive personality? 22:38 The nature of comedy. 29:00 Twitter and freedom of speech 34:00 (roughly) Dealing with critics 45:00 Victimhood culture and the cultivation of vulnerability; trauma and PTSD 53:00 Intersectionality 55:37 Sex! 1:00:00 Men & masculinity 1:09 Consent 1:16 Hostility towards freelancers 1:20 On being hated
You can find Bridget’s podcast, Walk-Ins Welcome here and on most reputable (& some disreputable) podcast apps: https://player.fm/series/walk-ins-welcome-w-bridget-phetasy
Some of Bridget’s other writings can be found here: https://muckrack.com/bridget-phetasy/articles.
Follow Bridget on Twitter: @BridgetPhetasy.
You can follow Heather on Twitter @HeatherEHeying. You can find a copy of Heather’s book "Antipode: Seasons with the Extraordinary Wildlife and Culture of Madagascar" here: https://www.amazon.com/Antipode-Seasons-Extraordinary-Wildlife-Madagascar/dp/0312281528.
2:15 How and why Heather developed a passion for evolutionary biology 9:20 Why Heather chose a teaching-centred career over research 12:07 Iona reads a passage from Heather’s book Antipode 14:14 More about Madagascar 17:30 Higher education and teaching 20:00 The experience of teaching at Evergreen 22:45 The importance of exposing young people to adventure—how to cultivate resilience 30:00 Postmodernity, the hegemony of the virtual 33:59 The importance of doing something that gives you clear physical feedback 38:49 Motivation 40:00 The problem with having a geographically narrow point of view 47:09 How an evolutionary perspective can help us lead happier, more productive lives today 50:50 Diet, starch, keto and paleo 57:40 The importance of remembering we are animals
For more on the Evergreen drama, see Mike Nayna’s video series on YouTube. The first part is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH2WeWgcSMk.
For more on Lenore Skenazy and Let Grow, see https://letgrow.org/.
Daniel Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/1594484805
For more on anti-Muslim feeling in India, see episode 15 with Rohini Mohan & Rohit Chopra & the shownotes there.
The Reuters poll on the 10 most dangerous places in the world for women: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-women-dangerous-poll-factbox/factbox-which-are-the-worlds-10-most-dangerous-countries-for-women-idUSKBN1JM01Z
2:54 Differences between women and men: socialised or determined? Some hypocrises and contradictions. 12:05 Female intrasexual competition: is it exaggerated? 18:14 Debunked evolutionary theories 19:21 Systematising v. empathising 31:39 How do people feel about female politicians? 36:50 Hillary Clinton & Donald Trump 47:00 Anti-Semitism versus criticism of Israel
You can find Cathy Young’s work for Arc Digital here: https://arcdigital.media/@CathyYoung63 For Reason: https://reason.com/people/cathy-young/all For Newsday: https://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/cathy-young
Cathy’s article on perceptions of female politicians: http://bit.ly/CathyYoungFemalePoliticians
Jeremy Corbyn and the anti-Semitic mural: https://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/there-is-only-one-word-for-jeremy-corbyn-1.461313
Bari Weiss on the women of the wall: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/opinion/religion/israel-women-western-wall.html
You can follow Cathy Young on Twitter: @CathyYoung63
1:50 What is Vrij Links?
4:00 How does the left differ in the Netherlands from elsewhere in the West?
8:00 The difficulties of criticising religion and, in particular, Islam.
9:31 Shirin Musa (@ShirinMusa) and her organisation Femmes for Freedom and the dilemmas faced by liberal and secular Muslims and ex-Muslims.
13:21 Faith schools
17:16 Housing issues
18:35 What factors influence whether Muslim immigrants are more liberal or more conservative?
32:41 Climate change
37:32 Anti-Semitism
41:56 Dutch academia
44:12 The Dutch right wing
47:18 What the Dutch —especially the left—should focus on
You can find the Vrij Links manifesto in English here: http://bit.ly/VrijLinksManifesto
For more about Femmes for Freedom: https://www.femmesforfreedom.com/english/
Ali Amjad Rizvi’s book, The Atheist Muslim is available here: http://bit.ly/TheAtheistMuslim
Boris van der Ham and Rachid Benhammou’s book Nieuwe Vrijdenkers is available here (in Dutch): http://bit.ly/NewFreethinkersInDutch
For more on Humanists UK: https://humanism.org.uk/
For more on Jordan Peterson’s talk in Amsterdam: https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2018/10/academics-protest-about-jordan-peterson-invite-he-calls-them-cowards/
Follow Tamara Brouwer on Twitter, her handle is @TamaraBrouwer1.
1:31 John’s multiracial, bipartisan family background 14:06 John’s work with Better Angels 18:57 The experience of taking one of John’s Red–Blue Workshops 27:20 A tale of cross-cultural friendship 30:22 Political divisions among African-Americans 38:40 Reasons for African-American societal disadvantages 41:35 People as individuals versus people in groups 53:51 Is it useful to talk about race? Plus, some funny confusions that arise from being mixed race. 1:18:00 “Microaggressions”—what are you? 1:02:00 The cultural significance of hair for the African-American experience 1:04? Black pride and white pride 1:10:28 Moral foundations theory 1:12:52 John’s theory of virtue ethics.
You can follow John R. Wood Jr on Twitter: @JohnRWoodJr
Find out more about the work of Better Angels here: https://www.better-angels.org/
You can read more about virtue ethics here: https://areomagazine.com/2018/08/14/virtue-ethics-for-the-modern-age/
And if you’d like to hear more of John talking about his life and work: https://player.fm/series/none-taken-with-chris-paul/episode-67-john-wood-jr
5:20 The changes Josh has witnessed since he began working in media 6:15 The loss of consensus 7:19 Twitter 11:28 The modern equivalent of the coffee house or public square 14:55 New media and Huffpost Live 18:51 Contrarianism versus trollery 24:29 The pace of media 31:04 Self-censorship and cancel culture 32:28 The kind of engagement social media rewards 35:51 The Intellectual Dark Web 52:19 Free speech—its uses and abuses
You can subscribe to Josh Szeps' podcast here or at most good podcast sites: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wethepeople-live/id1002920114?mt=2
Find tickets to Josh's show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival here: https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019
You can hear listen to Josh interviewing me on his podcast here: https://player.fm/series/wethepeople-live-1425329/ep-132-sarah-jeong-reverse-racism
And follow Josh on Twitter: @joshzepps
7:02 Derren Brown’s book Happy 7:50 The positive thinking movement 9:18 The concept of the self from the ancient Greeks to Margaret Thatcher 22:33 Suicide 23:42 Being a Westerner at different points in history from the Medieval monasteries to Silicon Valley 25:11 “The Death of a Dreamer”: the story of Austen Heinz 36:37 Social perfectionism 43:26 Likeability 45:51 Self-loathing 50:06 Cognitive behavioural therapy, Adlerian psychology & other approaches 58:07 Connection versus status 1:03:33 Why do so many of the most loved people hate themselves? 1:06:10 Social media, narcissism & depression
Read more of Will Storr's writings here: http://www.willstorr.com
Find Will's latest book, Selfie, here: https://www.amazon.com/Selfie-How-West-Became-Self-Obsessed/dp/1447283643
Or follow Will on Twitter @wstorr.
Other references Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human: http://jonathangottschall.com/storytelling-animal
Derren Brown, Happy: Why More or Less Everything Is Absolutely Fine: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Happy-More-Less-Everything-Absolutely/dp/0593076192 I review this for Areo magazine here: https://areomagazine.com/2019/01/21/in-praise-of-stoicism-derren-browns-happy-book-review/
You can find the Cosmopolitan March 2019 article about Jordan Peterson (“Why does every guy you know worship Jordan Peterson”) by searching for the keywords here: https://www.pressreader.com/
The Esalen institute: https://www.esalen.org/
Will’s article on Austen Heinz: https://quillette.com/2019/01/30/the-death-of-a-dreamer/
David Burns website (an introduction to cognitive behavioural therapy, CBT): https://feelinggood.com/
Ishiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga, The Courage to be Disliked: https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Be-Disliked-Phenomenon-Happiness-ebook/dp/B078MDSV8T
Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-Modern-Ancient/dp/0465028020
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: https://www.thecoddling.com/
(I review this for Areo here: https://areomagazine.com/2018/10/26/good-intentions-gone-awry-jonathan-haidt-and-greg-lukianoffs-the-coddling-of-the-american-mind-book-review/).
The ripple effect: http://humanityhealing.org/who-we-are/the-ripple-effect/
For more on Mary Orben & her work on social media: http://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/find-an-expert/amy-orben
Jean Twenge: iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/iGen/Jean-M-Twenge/9781501152016
2:12 Is the free speech crisis on campus over? 4:34 What is deplatforming? 11:06 Should there be a right to debate? 22:07 Have things really got better over the past year and if so why? 25:47 The polarisation of US politics following Trump’s election 31:42 Inflammatory speakers, trolling & outrage culture 32:27 Victimhood culture 55:24 Microaggressions 1:07:32 Over- and underestimating racism 1:09:18 The Covington Catholic affair 1:24:34 Identity politics 1:29:42 The gay rights movement 1:35:15 Equality of opportunity versus equality of outcome 1:52:48 Have there been changes in the atmosphere on campus over the past five years?
You can follow Jeffrey on Twitter @JeffreyASachs.
His recent articles on campus culture and free speech can be found here: https://niskanencenter.org/blog/the-campus-free-speech-crisis-ended-last-year/
here: https://niskanencenter.org/blog/there-is-no-campus-free-speech-crisis-a-close-look-at-the-evidence/
and here: https://heterodoxacademy.org/viewpoint-diversity-community-partisanship/
Other references: Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (1946)
René Girard, Violence and the Sacred (1972)
Glenn Loury and Sam Harris in conversation about police violence against African-Americans: https://samharris.org/racism-and-violence-in-america/
6:41 The difference between Hinduism and Hindutva 12:55 How is ethnonationalist militancy compatible with Hinduism? 19:42 Buddhism and violence 23:24 The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) 26:27 What ethnonationalist groups have in common 31:04 The caste system 54:16 Arranged marriage in India 58:04 Hypocrises of Indians living in the US 59:17 Violence in the media 1:00:43 More on arranged marriage 1:06:38 Modi & his government 1:08:21 Babri Masjid 1:20:51 Yogi Adityanath 1:33:09 Indian secularism 1:42:47 The future of Hindu nationalism & how to combat it
Rohini Mohan is the author of The Seasons of Trouble: Life Amid the Ruins of Sri Lanka's Civil War (2014): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/239396/the-seasons-of-trouble-by-rohini-mohan/9781781688830/
Rohit Chopra is the author of three books: Inter-Religious Marriages Among Muslims: Negotiating Religious and Social Identity in Family and Community (2005), with Abdullahi An-Naim; Technology and Nationalism in India: Cultural Negotiations from Colonialism to Cyberspace (2008); and The Virtual Hindu Rashtra. Saffron Nationalism and New Media (2019). His latest work can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/9789353029579-Books/s?k=9789353029579&rh=n%3A283155
You can follow @rohini_mohan on Twitter.
For a particularly moving article of hers, see "A Template for Hate": https://harpers.org/archive/2018/09/india-bharatiya-janata-party-intolerance-bjp-muslim-hindu/
You can follow Rohit Chopra on Twitter, where he tweets as @IndiaExplained.
His podcast with Bunty Bolta can be found here: https://audioboom.com/channel/the-india-explained-podcast and on most other podcast apps.
Other References:
Shashi Tharoor, Why I am a Hindu (2018) The work of Ashis Nandy (b. 1937) and Nirad Chandra Chaudhuri (1897–1999) Urvashi Butalia, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India (2000)
1:43 The different evolutionary social sciences 7:25 Are humans a naturally promiscuous or polyamorous species? 11:42 The design of the human penis 23:17 Polygamy 32:33 The eating habits of hunter-gatherers 40:55 Has violence declined since prehistoric times? 51:07 Is there anything positive about the human propensity towards violence? 56:12 Male control over female mate choice & its evolutionary implications 1:01:15 Penis size 1:03:33 How important is intrasexual competition? 1:04:49 Jordan Peterson’s remarks on lipstick 1:09:55 Homosexuality 1:35:14 Men’s greater tendency towards violence 1:42:00 Are some societies ‘better’ than others?
You can follow William Buckner on Twitter, @evolving_moloch and read more of his writings here: https://traditionsofconflict.com/publications/
William Buckner's articles for Areo magazine can be found here: https://areomagazine.com/author/williamvbuckner_140185461_1432130083/
You can follow Cody Moser on Twitter @LTF_01 and read more of his writings here: https://culturologies.wordpress.com/
Cody Moser's articles for Areo magazine can be found here: https://areomagazine.com/author/littlefoot01/
Other references: Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá, Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality (2010)
Richard B. Lee, “Hunter-Gatherers and Human Evolution: New Light on Old Debates” (2018): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326817410_Hunter-Gatherers_and_Human_Evolution_New_Light_on_Old_Debates
Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (2011)
Jordan B. Peterson, remarks on lipstick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9dZSlUjVls&t=2s
Richard Dawkins on homosexuality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHDCAllQgS0 And https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDmQns78FR8
William Buckner, “The Behavioral Ecology of Male Violence”: https://quillette.com/2018/02/24/behavioral-ecology-male-violence/
01:52 The history of secular circumcision, beginning in the Victorian era with the anti-masturbation campaign 6:20 Extract from a medical case study on a masturbator. 9:10 Shift from concerns about masturbation to concerns about STDs in the 1960s. 12:13 Why Brian dislikes the term genital mutilation. 19:02 Sensitivity 26:00 The Hippocratic oath 30:23 African men & the HIV study 33:37 The hygiene argument 36:42 The World Health Organisation 39:49 Ali Rizvi on why prophylaxis is not a good argument 49:37 FGM and the Dawoodi Bohra 53:51 The infant experience 54:35 African circumcision of teens 57:13 Why there has never been a class action lawsuit? 1:00:11 Male vulnerability 1:05:16 Resource allocation: are anti-FGM and anti-circumcision activists in competition with each other? 1:07:49 Jews and circumcision 1:20:15 Women’s experiences of sex with circumcised men 1:41:05 How Brian became the go-to guy for this topic 1:44:19 Future dangers
You can read more of Brian David Earp's work at: http://oxford.academia.edu/BrianDEarp and follow him on Twitter at @briandavidearp.
Further resources: https://15square.org.uk/
http://arclaw.org/
https://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/
http://www.beyondthebris.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Education/Jews-Against-Circumcision-165424110207450/
Robert Darby, A Surgical Temptation: The Demonization of the Foreskin and the Rise of Circumcision in Britain (2005)
American Circumcision: The Movie (2019): https://circumcisionmovie.com/
Marie Fox and Michael Thomson, “Foreskin is a Feminist Issue” (2009): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08164640902852415?journalCode=cafs20
Shaye J. D. Cohen, Why Aren't Jewish Women Circumcised? Gender and Covenant in Judaism (2005): https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520212503/why-arent-jewish-women-circumcised
1:52 Why Thomas doesn’t use the term mixed race 10:21 Perception that being brown/black is synonymous with oppression 15:08 Whiteness 16:12 Skin colour inheritance 20:35 The importance of representation; links between race and class 27:44 Hip hop as performative blackness 33:40 “Acting white” 34:48 Mixed race identity as an opportunity 37:15 The yearning for belonging 40:05 Adrian Piper 42:15 Ancestral guilt and ‘worshipping the wound’ 50:47 The rejection of optimism 53:07 What prompted Thomas to write Self-Portrait in Black and White 56:18 Thomas reads an extract from the book 1:03:57 Richard Spencer, the European far right, & the identity politics arms race 1:09:44 Culture & multiculturalism 1:11:55 White guilt 1:15:21 Transcending the mental habits of race
Thomas Chatterton Williams' memoir "Losing My Cool" is available here: https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Chatterton-Williams/e/B0035FEJHC%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
Thomas Chatterton Williams, Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race (2019): https://www.amazon.com/Self-Portrait-Black-White-Unlearning-Race/dp/0393608867
You can read an extract from his upcoming book, "Self Portrait in Black and White" here: https://www.vqronline.org/essays-articles/2015/01/black-and-blue-and-blond
For more of Thomas's writings, see: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/magazine/adrian-pipers-self-imposed-exile-from-america-and-from-race-itself.html https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/04/the-french-origins-of-you-will-not-replace-us and https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/opinion/ta-nehisi-coates-whiteness-power.html?_r=0 ….
Follow Thomas on Twitter at @thomaschattwill.
Additional References For more on Adrian Piper: http://www.adrianpiper.com/
Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (2018)
John H. McWhorter, “Antiracism: Our Flawed New Religion” (2015) https://www.thedailybeast.com/antiracism-our-flawed-new-religion
The preface to Iona’s piece on mixed race themes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdUunlGWqrw&t=17s
2:56 Gita’s work as a trainer preventing workplace sexual harassment 4:17 The low proportion of women in Indian workplaces 17:54 Gender sensitisation training 20:24 The importance of openness 33:12 The Me Too movement in America 48:10 Me Too in India; the case at SRM University in Tamil Nadu 58:31 Consent complications 1:05:00 Legal ramifications in India 1:15:27 George Takei clears his name 1:23:32 Title IX 1:31:02 How the Indian situation might develop in the future
In this episode, I discuss the MeToo movement and its impact on India and Indian culture with expert on the Indian workplace Gita Jaisinghani.
You can follow Gita on Twitter @gita_ .
To find out more about the case at SRM University in Tamil Nadu we allude to, start here: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/srm-university-students-stage-protest-on-campus-alleging-inaction-on-sexual-harassment-complaint/articleshow/66760777.cms
Laura Kipnis, Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus (2017)
George Takei;
Binny Bansal;
Phaneesh Murthy of Infosys.
6:33 Action is character 8:29 Impersonate the person you want to be 11:51 Confidence is domain specific 14:15 Advice for dating situations 18:25 Shame as a tool 22:48 The power of being inauthentic 25:28 Standing up to bullies 31:00 Advice for shy guys 33:05 The process of becoming more confident and some of the setback you will face
You can find Amy Alkon's "science-help column" here: https://www.creators.com/features/advice-goddess-amy-alkon
Follow Amy on Twitter at @amyalkon.
And you'll find her book, Unf*ckology: A Field Guide to Living with Guts and Confidence, here: https://www.amazon.com/Unf-ckology-Field-Living-Confidence/dp/125008086X I highly recommend it!
Further References Amy Alkon, Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say Fuck (2014); I See Rude People: One Woman’s Battle to Beat Some Manners Into Impolite Society (2009); Free Advice, with Caroline Johnson and Marlowe Minnick (1996) Robert Trivers: http://www.roberttrivers.com/Robert_Trivers/Welcome.html James Pennebaker and John Frank Evans, Expressive Writing: Words that Heal (2014) Sonja Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want (2017) David Buss, “The Evolution of Happiness” (2000): https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-13324-002
2:06 What genetics can tell us about ancient and more recent Indian history 12:37 Caste and genetics 22:14 Hindu ethnonationalists and the out of India theory 29:21 How conflicts between different peoples can lead to the development of mythologies 40:56 The Indus Valley civilisation and its conflicts with other groups 45:39 Barbarians and citizens, tribes and states 53:21 The caste system 1:12:55 Skin colour 1:49:24 Telling people apart 1:52:50 Colouring more generally 2:04:27 Growing up straddling two cultures 2:10:29 Political tribalism
Follow Razib on Twitter: @razibkhan.
You can also read his blog here: https://www.gnxp.com/ . And follow his podcast at https://insitome.libsyn.com/ .
Further References Al Biruni’s India, edited and translated Edward C. Sachau (1910): https://archive.org/details/alberunisindia_201612
Episodes on India from the podcast The Insight: https://insitome.libsyn.com/the-indo-european-enigma and https://insitome.libsyn.com/ani-asi-ivc-and-the-gentics-ofindia
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (2006)
For my thoughts on the casting of Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, see: https://areomagazine.com/2018/11/11/a-persian-popinjay-a-review-of-the-film-bohemian-rhapsody/
2:48 What does it mean to be an “atheist Muslim”? 6:42 Different aspects of religion: tradition/ritual/belonging versus ideology and belief 11:25 Mild apostasy versus transformative apostasy 13:55 New atheism 18:37 On not staying in your lane 20:06 Raif Badawi 22:14 Criticising Islam without anti-Muslim bigotry. 26:14 Twitter 28:09 Reformers 30:08 More on Twitter 31:18 Offence and blasphemy 33:18 Different types of effective speech for different audiences 37:10 Different kinds of Muslims 42:55 Political polarisation and ex-Muslims 46:21 The Social Justice left; left and right-wing identity politics 50:48 Dave Rubin 55:00 Mockery and satire 58:46 The left’s problem with messaging 1:03:31 Belief and identity 1:10:27 Cultural appropriation 1:18:41 Women as the bearers of identity
Ali Rizvi is a musician, writer, clinical pathologist and secular activist. Ali’s book, The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Atheist-Muslim-Journey-Religion-Reason/dp/1250094445
His podcast, Secular Jihadists for a Muslim Enlightenment, co-hosted with Armin Navabi, is here: https://www.secularjihadists.com/ You can follow Ali on Twitter @aliamjadrizvi
Other References
Ex-Muslims of North America (EXMNA): https://exmuslims.org/
Phil Zuckerman: https://philzuckerman.com/bio/
Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (2004)
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (2006)
Richard Dawkins, “The Case for Militant Atheism”: https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_dawkins_on_militant_atheism?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
Maryam Namazie: https://maryamnamazie.com/about/
The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain: https://www.ex-muslim.org.uk/
Raif Badawi: https://www.raifbadawi.org/
Bill Maher;
Tropic Thunder (2008);
The Interview (2014);
The Sokal Squared Hoax: https://areomagazine.com/2018/10/02/academic-grievance-studies-and-the-corruption-of-scholarship/
Further References https://onelawforall.org.uk/
Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe (2017)
Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2014)
Will Declining Monogamy Lead to an Increase in Violence? - Areo: https://areomagazine.com/2018/10/10/will-declining-monogamy-lead-to-an-increase-in-violence/
Argument Clinic - Monty Python's Flying Circus: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hwqn9
Razib Khan on the history of caste in India: https://soundcloud.com/twoforteapodcast/09-razib-khan
Timestamps 2:10 Contrasts between UK, US and Argentine secularism 7:52 Faith schools 10:27 Why secularism is the best deal even for Christian believers 13:28 Collective Christian worship in schools and at councils 14:40 The religious arms race in India 15:12 Sharia courts in the UK 23:30 Self-appointed mouthpieces for interest groups like MEND and the Muslim Council of Britain, costuming, Marks & Spencer’s hijabs, imposing religion on children 32:54 Lack of sexual education in faith schools 33:29 Integration 34:55 Should people identify with a watered-down Christian heritage to counteract the growing influence of Islam and to provide a sense of identity? The search for an alternative to traditional religion. People who hold on to religion as a means of connecting with their heritage. 43:07 Is the UK version of secularism tainted by a protestant perspective? ~45:00 The benefits of monogamy 47:17 Tribalism, social media 48:28 Grooming gangs 57:17 Dogwhistles and language policing ~59:00 Diversity, human rights, individualism ~1:00:02 Religion and nationalism in India 1:14:36 Child sex abuse and Islamic culture 1:29:44 Circumcision
You can find Jon and Greg’s book here: https://www.thecoddling.com/
Jon’s book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012) can be found here: https://righteousmind.com/
For more on FIRE: https://www.thefire.org/
Greg’s book Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate (2012) can be found here: http://www.unlearningliberty.com/
Timestamps 1:44 How campus culture has changed since 2011.
1:39 From honour culture, through dignity culture, to victimhood culture 7:26 When did Bradley and Jason first become aware of the shift in culture 9:27 Microaggressions 14:30 Standpoint theory and identity politics 18:30 How campus culture has changed 23:39 The spillover into larger society 27:00 Has this brought any positive developments? 33:38 Campbell and Manning’s theoretical and philosophical background 36:31 Diversity training 40:00 Privilege 43:25 Spillover into personal relationships 50:10 Threats to free speech on campus 55:30 Some ways to combat all this
Further References
Emile Durkheim: https://www.iep.utm.edu/durkheim/
Donald Black’s theory of law and social control, reviewed by Bradley: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396607/obo-9780195396607-0067.xml
For the free-range parenting, see: http://www.freerangekids.com/
And Lenore Skenazy’s Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry (2009)
FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education): https://www.thefire.org/
Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (2018): https://www.thecoddling.com/
For Haidt and Lukianoff’s original article is here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/
I reviewed The Coddling of the American Mind for Areo magazine: https://areomagazine.com/2018/10/26/good-intentions-gone-awry-jonathan-haidt-and-greg-lukianoffs-the-coddling-of-the-american-mind-book-review/
And Haidt and Lukianoff have also appeared on this podcast, to discuss the book: https://soundcloud.com/user-761174326/06-jonathan-haidt-and-greg-lukianoff
1:23 How Jesse first became interested in trans issues and how his views have evolved 19:00 The N-word 24:09 Trans children 30:42 Puberty blockers 40:16 Non-binary people 46:00 How and why Jesse has fallen foul of some trans activists 50:01 Jesse’s upcoming book on the replication crisis
Jesse’s writing for New York Magazine can be found here: http://nymag.com/author/jesse-singal/
Especially relevant articles: https://www.thecut.com/2016/02/fight-over-trans-kids-got-a-researcher-fired.html; https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/when-a-child-says-shes-trans/561749/
Sign up for Jesse’s blog here: https://jessesingal.substack.com/ Follow Jesse on Twitter @jessesingal
Further References: Alice Dreger, Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists and One Scholar’s Search for Justice (2015)
Michael Bailey, The Man Who Would be Queen: The Science of Genderbending and Transsexualism (2003)
Hannah Louise Poston, “The News from the World of Beauty: A Close Reading of a Snapchat Scandal” (2018): https://www.vqronline.org/essays-articles/2018/06/news-world-beauty
Natalie Wynn (“Contra Points”): https://www.youtube.com/user/ContraPoints/videos
Natalie Reed’s blog: https://freethoughtblogs.com/nataliereed/
Tea for Two: A podcast about politics, culture and society and about how everyone is wrong except us. With Iona Italia, Helen Pluckrose and guests.
Episode 2: Sarah Haider
More on Sarah's organisation, Ex Muslims of North America, can be found here: http://exmuslims.org. You can follow Sarah Haider on Twitter, https://www.twitter.com/SarahTheHaider.
You'll also find her published articles in the online magazine, Free Inquiry. Sarah's talks have been featured on YouTube.
This podcast has been brought to you in association with Areo magazine. To support us, visit our Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/Areo
2:17 Why Sarah hates the term community 11:15 The different types of atheists 15:00 Cleaning up the left, why we focus on that 23:32 Atheists in India 25:00 Arguments that now’s not the time to stick to certain principles because we need to fight Trump 27:00 Intersectionality and the prioritising of certain groups over others 28:21 Opposing both racism & Islamic extremism 28:57 The Left and Islam 33:56 Insincerity in dialogue, language as signalling 45:17 Separating ideas from people in the case of Muslims 49:05 The Intellectual Dark Web 55:47 The risks of honesty and activism—Sarah’s experience of the smears & taints that come with that. The temptation to join a tribe. 1:07:29 Sarah on genetic differences, race & the idea of human dignity 1:10 Science, ethics and how to use data; dealing with embarrassing facts 1:15 Second-generation Muslims in the US versus in Europe 1:17 The melting pot versus the mosaic model of integration: immigrants and identity, including Sarah’s own experiences 1:26 Sarah’s own relationship to religion
Tea for Two: A podcast about politics, culture and society and about how everyone is wrong except us. With Iona Italia, Helen Pluckrose and guests.
Episode 1: Introduction to our podcast.
0:00. Our backgrounds and how we came to hold our current ideas of secularism & universal liberalism 10:27 A summary of my political views—Iona 14:00 Why we dislike the concept of privilege 19:07 Universal liberalism: strengths and shortcomings—Helen 23:31 The social justice left approach versus the universal liberal approach—Helen 26:00 Why I mostly critique the left—Iona 30:00 Free speech 34:08 Why I mostly critique the left—Helen 38:16 Charles Murray’s The Bell Curve—Iona; our views on Murray and race and IQ in general 45:00 Differences between men & women 47:10 James Damore’s memo 55:38 The importance of amicable disagreement 1:01 Cross-generational connections—Iona 1:04 Separating the people from the ideas 1:06 Anti-black/brown racism and anti-white racism; FGM & circumcision 1:12 Similarities and differences between Helen and me.