Bonus Sample: On Death & Being Human

Bonus Sample: On Death & Being Human

Cult leaders, religious fanatics, dictators, and charlatans all have one thing in common: they exploit our fear of death. Humans act out “immortality projects” in the form of religion, culture, and political ideologies as unconscious ways to override the terror we feel at our uniquely self-aware knowledge that we will one day die. Where the orthodox priest promises eternal life, the cult leader might predict an alien apocalypse, while the authoritarian strongman invokes the transcendent glory of leading a chosen nation and race. In light of a recent death in the family, Julian leans into Ernest Becker’s Pulitzer Prize winning cultural anthropology text, The Denial of Death. He also draws on poetry and the archetypal psychology of Donald Kalsched to ask the big questions. Does existential acceptance of death lead inevitably to nihilism? Is belief in God(s) and an afterlife necessary? Are poor or deeply traumatized people only left with despair in the absence of supernatural faith? Will children raised with no religion have no moral compass? A rich discussion of philosophy and psychology alongside poems, myths, fairy tales, and deeply personal story-telling, especially about how to tell his 7-year-old that grandma won’t be back for Xmas. Not to worry, though. This is, ultimately, an uplifting journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Bonus Sample: An Ode to Curiosity

Bonus Sample: An Ode to Curiosity

When videos surfaced of Alex Pretti kicking an ICE vehicle's taillight 11 days before his murder, claims that the video was AI dominated social media. Some commenters even posted articles that stated ...

2 Helmi 5min

Brief: Did MAHA Put MAGA In Power?

Brief: Did MAHA Put MAGA In Power?

The silence of MAHA influencers around the murder of Renee Good (and ICE generally) has been excessively loud. Yet that’s expected from the coalition that voted for Donald Trump in order to install RF...

31 Tammi 37min

293: Trump and Fascist Dementia

293: Trump and Fascist Dementia

As Trump surges his Gestapo and threatens to annex new territory, his brain is collapsing. He’s sundowning on Truth Social, nodding off in meetings, slurring words, slurping at the saliva pooling in h...

29 Tammi 58min

Bonus Sample: Simone Weil: We Have Obligations Before We Have Rights

Bonus Sample: Simone Weil: We Have Obligations Before We Have Rights

Listen to the full episode Simone Weil was skeptical about the project of “rights.” They argued that obligations come before rights, and that rights only become real when obligations are recognized a...

26 Tammi 5min

Brief: Prospirituality Predictions for 2026

Brief: Prospirituality Predictions for 2026

If conspirituality names the ways religion and spirituality are weaponized to justify power, prospirituality points to religious traditions doing the opposite: grounding resistance, ethical clarity, a...

24 Tammi 28min

292: Women of Jan 6 (w/ Noelle Cook)

292: Women of Jan 6 (w/ Noelle Cook)

Noelle Cook’s The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging is the first ethnography of conspirituality, and it comes via someone who was able to really embed themselves in a volatile...

22 Tammi 1h 8min

Bonus Sample: Oil, Power, and Theocracy

Bonus Sample: Oil, Power, and Theocracy

In 1953 the CIA and MI6 participated in a coup d’etat in Iran. That true sentence (and what usually follows) can create an oversimplified distortion of history—and present. But Iran is in the news aga...

19 Tammi 7min

MAHA’s Selective Skepticism

MAHA’s Selective Skepticism

Whole milk is back! The war on protein is over! Mainline meat! Derek investigates the new inverted pyramid and everything lacking in the new dietary guidelines. Show Notes The New Dietary Guidelin...

17 Tammi 23min

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