10 Podcast Episodes Everyone Should Listen To
10 Podcast Episodes Everyone Should Listen To
Do you ever hear something and wonder, "Why didn't I learn this in school?" Yeah, us too. Today's stuff explores the most timeless and timely ideas I've come across lately on podcasts.
Hello, good people! The birds are chirping and spring has sprung. I hope you are doing well. Let’s jump into today’s Stuff!
ONE FROM THE AGES
Epictetus on the importance of attentional discretion:
“You become what you give your attention to…. if you yourself don’t choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will and their motives may not be the highest.” - Epictetus
ONE FROM TODAY
“What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance? What if instead we celebrated how much time we had spent listening, pondering, meditating, and enjoying time with the most important people in our lives?”
Source:Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown
ONE FROM US
Podcasts and YouTube have slowly transformed the media world, particularly for younger generations. While doing some research for an article I’m preparing, I learned that the YouTuber Pewdiepie has as much name recognition amongst Gen Z males as Lebron James and higher favorability scores. I’ve never heard of Pewdiepie or the Gen Z female favorite Shane Dawson. Apparently this is typical. Shane Dawson is among the most recognizable celebrities in the Gen Z world, yet 60% of 32-38 year olds (I’m 32) have never heard of him. It is hard to over-exaggerate how different the lives and attitudes of our youngest generations are compared to Millennials and the generations before them. Worth paying attention to.
Still, there are many great aspects of this media transition, which people of all ages have mostly embraced. Podcasts are an especially wonderful development. They are like on-demand radio with more options and a greater potential for complex development than anything that runs through a radio station. You get everything from phenomenal storytelling, to high-level teaching, to nuanced conversation. Of course, you can also find an abundance of garbage, so discretion is necessary.
Over the past couple years I’ve come across a number of great podcast episodes that left me thinking: Whoa! Everyone should hear this. So, keeping with the theme of stuff we should have been taught, here is a short list of podcast episodes with information that is essential, yet isn’t broadly discussed or understood. I’ll give an internet link but they can be found on any podcast app. Enjoy!
On Health: The Portal Ep. 22 with Ben Greenfield and Eric Weinstein
On Police Shootings: Revisionist History Season 4, Ep. 7 - Descend into the Particular
On Nukes: Making Sense Ep. 210 with William J. Perry, Lisa Perry, and Sam Harris
On Deep Fakes: Making Sense Ep. 220 with Nina Schick and Sam Harris (note: I would not recommend Schick’s book. A bit dull and rushed.)
On the Downside of Self-Driving Cars: Art of Manliness Ep. 619 with Matthew Crawford and Brett McKay
On Fixing the Traps that Pull us to Existential Risk: Dark Horse Podcast with Daniel Schmachtenberger and Bret Weinstein
On the Power of Social Media: Conversations with Coleman with Tristan Harris and Coleman Hughes
On The Intellectual Roots of Wokeness: Conversations with Coleman with James Lindsay, Peter Boghossian, and Coleman Hughes
On the Constitutional Foundations: Constitutional Ep. 1
On Logical Fallacies: Philosophize This Ep. 73 - How to Win an Argument
Seems like these are the sort of essential topics that should be discussed in depth in every class. I’d add plenty of other ideas, but these stand out as some of the most important ideas to have nuanced discussions about, and the most neglected or superficially covered in schools.
*****
As always thank you for reading and sharing with your kindred spirits!
In other news, Justin and I have been hard at work building a new and much improved amalgamation of our past group membership offerings. Very excited. More details to come.
Life is too short to be normal,
Shane