Curious Worldview Podcast

The best things I’ve consumed recently…

• Sam Harris

Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson might have been the first podcast I ever listened to… I can’t be sure of it, but it’s a memory that hooked me to podcasts. I think it was 2016.

I found his podcast because I religiously binged Harris and Hitch’s atheist debates on youtube.

Over the years, Sam’s become harder to get to because of paywalling. But his book’s ‘Waking Up’ and ‘Lying’ are cherished possessions I’ve revisited several times. I even had a stint on his meditation app early on and made it 60 days, but then fell off. I’ve since watched and read everything Sam’s done with stilted vision. A snippet of his newsletter here and the first half of his podcast there. And even though I knew I wanted to consume more, never felt compelled enough to make the paid leap.

It’s weird, and there are too many examples, but we are so inconsistent with how we allocate value to a dollar. I don’t even think about the $5 dollar coffee, but lament the $2 bus ride. Notice a $10 difference on an energy bill, but am flexible for $100’s of dollars on rent. Sam might produce my favourite podcast, yet, for whatever reason I was stingy to the $10/month to access it. I just dropped $13 on a juice and didn’t flinch, yet it’s taken me years of deliberation to drop even less on something more.

I’m sure economist, Nicholas Gruen will help me answer those questions (he’s an upcoming guest - more about him in the next point).

But I wanted to highlight Sam Harris. Yes, he can drone on, and yes, his TDS get’s old, but man is he a consistent and clear voice of reason. His analysis of Elon, Trump, Rogan, and the sycophancy from the herd who are now closer to more power than they ever thought would be possible feels like I’m having my own opinions echoed exactly as I wished I’d articulated them.

So, shoutout to Sam, consider getting amongst his stuff if you already haven’t.

• Simplifying Complexity

A specific episode, the most recent, is what I want to highlight here. It was between the doyen of erudition, Rory Sutherland and his comrade, the funny, generous and heterodox economist (disagrees with binary trade off thinking), Nicholas Gruen (who will appear as a guest on my own show in person, in Melbourne, next month!)

The host of the Simplifying Complexity podcast brought the two on for a discussion which (if you know anything about Rory) ended up going pretty much as you’d expect. It was all over the map, but wonderfully so. The stated topic was ‘systems thinking’. I still don’t know what that means, but I loved this podcast.

1. Simplifying Complexity - Rory Sutherland and Nicholas Gruen

2. My most recent episode with Rory Sutherland (where I asked him if he’d ever done a floaty)

• Black Mirror - S03/E01 - Nosedive

I’m sure you’ve all seen or heard of Black Mirror, so the show won’t be news to any of you, but after I chopped the new season I went back and scrolled over some previous episodes. Nosedive caught my eye, this, like many Black Mirror eps is just a little too one the nose, it’s lived somewhere in my head ever since I saw it years ago and 100% worth a revisit.

It depicts a world of social scoring which rather than being allocated from an authority on high (God, Big Tech, Government), is instead a constant scoring between you and your fellow mortals. Your rate each interaction you have with someone else, and your score dictates your employment potential, quality of life potential, and ultimately as well, your mate potential.

It forces inauthenticity all the way down. It forces niceness and appeasement and suppresses any instinct one might have towards what we would classify as ‘being human’. It’s not an exact allegory to Instagram & TikTok but it’s definitely in that direction. You aspire to the high score (the likes and followers) but to get there through authenticity feels impossible. The foods got to be just right, the light and the setting just so, the people all equal measure attractive and elusive. Everything reeks of fake, but paradoxically, get’s you the desired result… anyway, don’t think it’s purely allegorical, but nonetheless like the best of Black Mirror, makes you think.

• Will Storr

Will Storr is a wonderful communicator, endlessly interesting and a phenomenally successful author. You probably heard of ‘The Status Game’ which came out a couple of years ago. This is where I discovered Will, as he was doing the podcast rounds, but I’ve since dove deep into some of his other works. ‘The Science Of Storytelling’ and ‘The Heretics’ I listened to, and he’s got loads more there as well.

I’m sure you’ve heard me go on before about the dramatically unequal distribution of book publishing, and although I cannot see the number of books he’s sold. I’m making an assumption based off his reviews and publications he features on that suggest he is likely one of the UK’s most successful living authors.

He also ghostwrote a few books, of the two that confirm Will’s authorship, one spent months as a bestseller, and the other Alain De Botton called a ‘masterpiece’. Which for me would be as high a professional praise I could imagine.

So, I just wanted to give a shoutout to Will (hopefully a guest one day) and recommend that you read ‘The Status Game’.

• Easter down South

Long time listeners will know that I love photography, and am myself an amateur photographer. I am putting together a portfolio website where I will be selling prints! But over the weekend I was down the Aussie coast and put my Chinese DJI drone to work. I am blown away by this technology.

Here is one of the photos (But I think the video’s are better).

Something I’ve produced …

It’s been a while between drinks for this Weekender and as such there are a number of new episodes!

• China & Taiwan - Kerry Brown (I will be writing a travel memoir from Taiwan later this year)

• Money Laundering & Cancer Of Offshore Finance - Axel Humlesjö (investigative journalist who uncovered the biggest money laundering scam in history)

• Congo Colonial History - Adam Hochschild (great episode, I love the Congo)

• 5 Trends Dictating The Future Of The Economy - Philippe Gisjels (Chief Strategy Officer at BNP Paribas - I loved this episode)