Meditations with Zohar

This week, Zohar is joined by Talmud scholar Daniel Boyarin to discuss the intellectual and spiritual legacy of the rabbis, Talmud as the irresolvable pursuit of truth, Christianity, sophistry, antisemitism, Maimonides, the fact/value distinction, academic vs. religious methodology, and more. If you enjoyed this episode, please give us a rate and review. You may also enjoy The Lightning Podcast.

This week, Zohar Atkins joins Trae Stephens, investor, serial entrepreneur, and faith-based public thinker, to talk about what makes for a good quest, the ethics and theology of doing things that scale and things that don't, political theology, why optimism is rational, and how to make life-altering decisions.

This week Zohar joins Rohit Krishnan, investor, blogger at Strange Loop Canon, and author of Building God, to talk about Edge, AI, Sabbaticals, Mastery and Generalism, Investing, Creativity, P-Zombies, Techno-Optimism, Conviction, and Forgetting. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show to help us grow. You might also enjoy The Lightning Podcast.

This week Zohar is joined by public intellectual Seth Kaplan to discuss his new book Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time. Kaplan takes his analysis of Fragile States and applies the same lens to American neighborhoods. Zohar and Seth talk about what makes for good neighborhoods, why culture can't be reduced to economic or political analysis, the role of religion in community, and whether loneliness and failing neighborhoods are a driver of radicalism.

This week, Zohar is joined by David Bashevkin, Rabbi, scholar, author of Sin*a*gogue, and founder of 18Forty to talk about the meaning of community, why holiness and inconvenience are often linked, whether being small in number is an essential part of Jewishness, the legacy of Hasidism, and the spiritual search as a fundamental structure of existence.

This week, Zohar is joined by Eric Linus Kaplan, podcast host ("Terrifying Questions") and TV writer ("The Big Bang Theory," "Futurama," "Flight of the Concords," and "Malcolm in the Middle") to talk about whether God has a body, whether we should listen to physicians who have rashes, the value of Heidegger's thought, the meaning of sophistry, and the feeling of the "whoosh."

This week, Zohar is joined by Rabbi Ari Lamm, host of The Good Faith Effort podcast, to talk about the theology of human independence, self-deception, the philosophy of language, what makes interpretation faithful or deviant, the rabbinic concept of the bat kol (divine echo), and what it means to be a rabbi.

This week, Zohar is joined by return guest Tara Isabella Burton to discuss her most recent book, Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians. They discuss renaissance humanism, the theological origins of postmodernity, irony, commitment, transhumanism, Oscar Wilde, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Edison, and Grimes.

This week, Zohar is joined by Geoffrey West, theoretical physicist, Distinguished Professor and Past President of the Santa Fe Institute, and author of Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies, to talk about whether universities are more like cities or companies, what makes human consciousness unique, love as a guiding force, Heidegger, longevity, interdisciplinarity, and why generative AI is all too human.

This week, Zohar is joined by scientist turned journalist turned public intellectual, David Epstein, to discuss his book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, who should generalize when, how to date and parent as a generalist, the merits of Merlin figures, whether extending human life will change the way we think about life stages and education, why so many artists and athletes are incapable of explaining their own achievements, and more.

This week, Zohar sits down with Roosevelt Montás, Senior Lecturer in American Studies and English at Columbia University, and former Director of the Center for the Core Curriculum at Columbia College from 2008 to 2018, to talk about the contrarian promise of a liberal arts education, how to read religious texts, the importance of quieting the mind, the challenges of self-discovery in an age of politicization and social media.

This week, Zohar is joined by Sam Arbesman, Scientist in Residence of Lux Capital, and author of the Half-Life of Facts, to talk about the pursuit of knowledge, the sociology and business of science, and the enduring importance of imagination and narrative.

This week, Zohar is joined by Christian Bök, acclaimed experimental poet, to discuss ambition, ephemerality, affordances, technology, games, romanticism, mentorship, poetic history, the egotistical sublime, and whether it is possible to retrieve Eurydice from Hades without looking back.

This week, Zohar is joined by poet and novelist Ben Purkert to discuss his debut novel The Men Can't Be Saved, taglines, Ben Lerner, Being John Malkovich, copywriting, the relationship between art and commerce, Jewishness and Judaism, writing as a practice of self-discovery, spirituality in the modern world, masculinity and its discontents, branding, comedy, and academia. Pre-order Ben's book here.

This week, Zohar sits down with Nicholas Lyons, investor, autodidact, ex-banker, numerologist, and champion of Verus (a blockchain technology), to talk about consilience, reflexivity, network effects, the promising business model of web3, and whether new technology can cure us of cynicism and misinformation.

This week, Zohar is joined by Michael Gibson, venture capitalist, founder of the Thiel Fellowship, and author of Paper Belt on Fire, to talk about why philosophers aren't saints, his pivot from studying philosophy to investing, why charisma is a mixed bag, how Aristotle can help with talent scouting, and the future of education.

This week, Zohar is joined by journalist and pundit Damon Linker, to discuss passionate skepticism, Strauss vs. Heidegger, religion, the legacy of the Enlightenment, humility, judgment, and changing your mind.

This week, Zohar is joined by Jennifer Frey, philosopher, professor, and podcaster, to talk about how to read the ancients, the importance of philosophical friendship, Christopher Lasch's critique of the "therapeutic," the relationship between theoretical and practical wisdom, education as character formation, and why everyone is a conservative about something.

This week Zohar is joined by intellectual biographer Cynthia Haven to discuss the life of the mind, mimetic desire, envy, forgiveness, the Joseph story, Girard, California, and the "double passport" we all carry.

This week, Zohar is joined by Jay Tolson, editor of the Hedgehog Review, to discuss the meaning of modernity and "late" modernity, the communal spirit of religion and the military, the rising threat of authoritarianism, conspiracy theory, and the promise of moral education.

This week, Zohar is joined by Kieran Setiya, philosopher, MIT Professor, author of Life is Hard and Midlife, and podcast host of Five Questions, to discuss the genre of self-help, brokenness, AI, why moral philosophy can't be outsourced, existentialism, phenomenology, podcasting, the conditions of knowledge, and how to balance the ameliorative and the contemplative.

This week, Zohar is joined by Martin Gurri, former CIA analyst and author of The Revolt of the Public, to talk about trust, power, communication, polarization, technology, and strategy in an age of waning institutional legitimacy and fragmented authority.

This week, Zohar is joined by Leon Kass, Dean of Faculty at Shalem College, to discuss the Book of Genesis, Rousseau, Odysseus, moral vs. intellectual virtue, the challenge of transmitting tradition, and the need for clever people to accept their limits.

This week Zohar speaks to Peter Cole, acclaimed poet and translator, about medieval Hebrew and Arabic poetry, Yehuda Amichai, liminality, modernism, solitude and tradition, the sacred and the secular, and the war for the imagination.

This week, Zohar is joined by literary critic and Stanford Professor, Marjorie Perloff, to discuss the meaning of the avant-garde, the poetic influence of Wittgenstein, why postmodernism has exhausted itself, whether we should care about popularity, the corrosive effects of mass culture, the novelty of T.S. Eliot and Frank O'Hara, the importance of tradition, and why confessional art is often boring.

This week, Zohar is joined by Anna Gát, Founder and CEO of Interintellect to talk about the importance of third spaces, how setting high expectations lead to better dialogue, the future of religion, post-political discourse, online community, European vs. American approaches to the Western canon, and the tension between being an author devoted to self expression and a community builder committed to hospitality. Meditations with Zohar is supported by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between big ideas and real world problems. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist Joe Lonsdale to discuss optimism, decadence, globalization and tribalism, virtue ethics and utilitarianism, Romans and Jews, The University of Austin and liberal arts, Rabbi Soloveitchik, Hannah Arendt, Michael Polanyi, Nietzsche, and the conflicting values at the heart of Western Civilization. Meditations with Zohar is supported by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between big ideas and real world problems. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week Zohar is joined by Russ Roberts, Economist, Host of the EconTalk Podcast, and President of Shalem College, to talk about Decision Making, Regret, Parenting, Skepticism, Mindfulness, Religious Life, Jewish thought, and the pros and cons of having a theory of everything. Meditations with Zohar is supported by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between big ideas and real world problems. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by Rabbi David Wolpe, a beloved Jewish thinker and community leader, to talk about the blessings and challenges of public life, King David, sincerity and authenticity, religion and politics, study and song, celebrity and sanctity, the past and future of authority, whether intellectual honesty is overrated, and the majesty of the human face. Meditations with Zohar is supported by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between big ideas and real world problems. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by Mark Lilla, Professor of Humanities at Columbia, and wide-ranging public intellectual, to talk about Great Books and the purpose of humanities education, falling in love with ideas, conversion and deconversion, ignorance and bliss, the theology of accommodation, and the instructive, all too human example of thinkers who err. Meditations with Zohar is supported by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between big ideas and real world problems. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week Zohar is joined by Venture Capitalist and Torah Scholar Michael Eisenberg to discuss his unique synthesis of business, tech, theology, and Biblical interpretation. They discuss the meaning of place in Jewish theology and contemporary life, what's wrong and right with mysticism, how sharing a religious code enables trust, how to create social change, pronatalism, and the possibility of wisdom in a secular age. Meditations with Zohar is supported by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between big ideas and real world problems. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week Zohar is joined by Public Philosopher and UChicago Professor Agnes Callard to discuss the life and legacy of Socrates, trolls and sophists, knowledge and inspiration, therapy, color, mysticism, identity politics, the idealism of youth, how to be a good conversationalist, and when to defer. Meditations with Zohar is supported by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between big ideas and real world problems. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by Law Professor and public intellectual Jamal Greene, to talk about his new book, How Rights Went Wrong, the importance of compromise, Robert Cover, Hegel, parenting, Moses and Aaron, and the pitfalls of juristocracy. Meditations with Zohar is supported by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between big ideas and real world problems. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by writer, editor, and public intellectual, Bill Kristol, to discuss the danger of nostalgia and the virtue of moderation, the Biblical conflict between kings and prophets, the wisdom of Talmudic debate, the teaching of Leo Strauss, the ambiguous legacy of the American Founding, and whether history has ended. Meditations with Zohar is supported by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between big ideas and real world problems. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by acclaimed teacher and Bible scholar, Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, to discuss the irony and anguish of the human condition, the grandeur of spiritual life, Midrash as the unconscious of Scripture, how scholars are like saints, and Kafka's definition of literature as an axe that breaks the frozen sea within us. Meditations with Zohar is supported by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between big ideas and real world problems. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by political philosopher and public intellectual Teresa Bejan to discuss civil and uncivil disagreement, the virtues of localism, why she might have been a winemaker, the necessity of both conflict and forbearance, how to teach liberal arts inclusively, and the wisdom of Roger Williams and Hobbes. Meditations with Zohar is sponsored by Cometeer, an exceptional new coffee company using cutting-edge technology to preserve and deliver specialty coffee in its purest, most original form. Use the link cometeer.com/zohar to get $20 off your first order. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by acclaimed poet Rae Armantrout to talk about the meaning of influence, the importance of artistic community, how poetry is like prophecy, whether art guards against paranoia or induces it, and how to juggle aesthetic complexity with ethical commitment and political urgency. Meditations with Zohar is sponsored by Cometeer, an exceptional new coffee company using cutting-edge technology to preserve and deliver specialty coffee in its purest, most original form. Use the link cometeer.com/zohar to get $20 off your first order. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week Zohar is joined by Matt Levine, Bloomberg Columnist and author of Money Stuff, to talk about the emotional life of the writer, what we can learn from the lyric poet Archilochus, the ethics of Jacob's trade with Esau, the tension between truth and politics in the workplace, the history of finance, and why delight is its own reward. Meditations with Zohar is sponsored by Cometeer, an exceptional new coffee company using cutting-edge technology to preserve and deliver specialty coffee in its purest, most original form. Use the link cometeer.com/zohar to get $20 off your first order. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by Tara Isabella Burton, novelist, theologian, and journalist, to discuss new age religion, "best self-ism," the allure of the virtual, remix culture, whether Jesus would have had an anonymous Twitter account, and how to get real. Meditations with Zohar is sponsored by Cometeer, an exceptional new coffee company using cutting-edge technology to preserve and deliver specialty coffee in its purest, most original form. Use the link cometeer.com/zohar to get $20 off your first order. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by Nick Gillespie, public intellectual and editor at large of Reason Magazine, to discuss creative disruption, the legacy of David Foster Wallace, why libertarians and postmodernists should be friends, the underestimated importance of art and culture in politics, and how to live with epistemic humility. Meditations with Zohar is sponsored by Cometeer, an exceptional new coffee company using cutting-edge technology to preserve and deliver specialty coffee in its purest, most original form. Use the link cometeer.com/zohar to get $20 off your first order. Read more from Zohar in his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by John Tomasi, fusionist political philosopher and Brown University professor turned inaugural President of Heterodox Academy, to discuss the agony and the ecstasy of academia, whether philosophers should care about the weather, why skepticism and faith can be friends, the sublime loneliness of public libraries, and the importance of leaving the familiar. Meditations with Zohar is sponsored by Cometeer, an exceptional new coffee company using cutting-edge technology to preserve and deliver specialty coffee in its purest, most original form. Use the link cometeer.com/zohar to get $20 off your first order. Read more from Zohar in his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by philosopher and classicist Zena Hitz to discuss authenticity, faith, learning for its own sake, moral fragility, Socratic irony, and how to save the humanities. Meditations with Zohar is sponsored by Cometeer, an exceptional new coffee company using cutting-edge technology to preserve and deliver specialty coffee in its purest, most original form. Use the link cometeer.com/zohar to get $20 off your first order. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by Noah Feldman to discuss theology, pluralism, Maimonides, "bad Jews," and the importance of striving. Meditations with Zohar is sponsored by Cometeer, an exceptional new coffee company using cutting-edge technology to preserve and deliver specialty coffee in its purest, most original form. Use the link cometeer.com/zohar to get $20 off your first order. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is distributed by SoulShop and produced by Lyceum Studios.

This week, Zohar is joined by novelist Sheila Heti to discuss artistic inspiration, faith, idleness, and indecision. Meditations with Zohar is sponsored by Cometeer, an exceptional new coffee company using cutting-edge technology to preserve and deliver specialty coffee in its purest, most original form. Use the link cometeer.com/zohar to get $20 off your first order. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

On the premiere episode of Meditations with Zohar, economist Tyler Cowen joins Zohar to discuss life in the internet age, what we can learn from empty restaurants and the philosophy of Leo Strauss. Tyler is a prolific writer, podcaster, and thinker, but his latest work is Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World, co-authored with Daniel Gross. Meditations with Zohar is sponsored by Cometeer, an exceptional new coffee company using cutting-edge technology to preserve and deliver specialty coffee in its purest, most original form. Use the link cometeer.com/zohar to get $20 off your first order. Read more from Zohar at his Torah newsletter Etz Hasadeh or his philosophy newsletter What is Called Thinking. Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.

Meditations with Zohar, a new podcast hosted by Zohar Atkins will follow Zohar and his guests discussing big ideas at the intersection of philosophy, theology, art, and culture, bringing a personal and heartfelt touch to ideas that can often seem abstract, impersonal, and merely academic.  Join Meditations for a chance to experience yourself not just as a logical being, but as a being in pursuit of meaning, awe, and, enduring questions.  Meditations with Zohar is a production of SoulShop and Lyceum Studios.