A podcast by Matt McCloskey and Michael Vaclav
This week on SOI: - Is this WWIII? - How does the death of God effect the news and reporting of what's true? - Iran, Israel, Covid, etc - how do you know what's true? Who can we trust to tell us the truth? - Without God, narrative allegiances become rigid - A functional story requires honesty - Being who we are is relational - How does tolerance become intolerant? Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
This week on SOI: - The voice of failure - Love vs. death - The unifying spirit - The LA riots - The spirit of Love helps you see clearly - The spirit of evil is self extinguishing - Can you negotiate with evil? Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
This week on SOI: - The trouble of belief - Is reality a fact or a story? - How can we tell what's true in the age of AI - The paradox of the information age - Truth requires faith - AI religions - Transhumanism - How we use pronouns - Respect for what is external vs what is internal - Redefining words to control the world Bill Maher's Monologue on Trump dinner - https://youtu.be/RxlopbcfXpQ?si=kCWxR2LtjC_a9GJF The Abolition of Man - https://www.amazon.com/Abolition-Man-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652942 Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
* Two movies one screen (Scott Adams) * Our perceptions are faulty * What do you sacrifice to? * The only way to move forward is to admit you're wrong * You “grasp” ideas the same way you “grasp” objects with your hand * To be ultimately permissive turns to totalitarian exclusion * Work will set you free * Are you worshiping life or worshiping death? Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
“Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.” - C.G. Jung MSTR True North - https://www.mstrtruenorth.com Peter Thiel interview - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast/id1184022695?i=1000704801264 Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
"Here then is my plea to my fellow Americans. Do not take the bait. Do not feel it necessary to come to a conclusion. Do not even feel that it is your job to follow all the news. Many who think that they follow all the news follow only one slant, and so are more misinformed than those who intentionally look away from the entire circus. Try to observe without interpretation, avoid certainty, and as you return to your senses quite literally, remind yourself that what you think you know may not, in fact, be true." Quote from Heather Heying - https://x.com/thedarkhorsepod/status/1913433827055452535?s=46 * The bias of an information rich environment * The atomization of information * How can we bridge the cultural divide? * Heightened sensitivity to shame, lowered sensitivity to hubris * Perspective bias * Expansion of the opinion haver class * Raising kids in a world so different from ours Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
Can we be in relationship with things, ideas, people, politics, and still stand outside someone else's unique relationship with those very same things? - Dropping the lens of perception - Finding the gold in people - Bill Maher meets Trump - What is good art? - Identity is a co-residence of heart - Gandolf not coming to a conclusion - Accepting and extending invitations Matt's forthcoming book - https://mattmccloskey.substack.com/p/introducing-good-morning Matt's dad's eulogy - https://mattmccloskey.substack.com/p/a-good-man Bill Maher monologue - https://youtu.be/RxlopbcfXpQ Megyn Kelly on Kid Rock - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Bw453hCBI Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
Trials, tribulations, temptations, tension. These are the X that marks the spot for where our understanding is limited and we don't see clearly. If we forthrightly explore that space, we find that what we considered trials, were really invitations. The Cutting Edge - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104040/ Weights and wings - https://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/desert/streams-in-the-desert-april-9th.html Streams in the Desert - https://www.amazon.com/Streams-Desert-L-B-Cowman/dp/0310210062 Veritasium on Entropy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxL2HoqLbyA Lex and Chamath on failure - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFQUDCgMjRc Viktor Frankl - https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/080701429X Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4) Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
This week on SOI: - The co-opting and devaluing of words - Does emotional intelligence exist? - Not knowing a words definition doesn't indicate that you don't know what it means - Reduction of meaning as a way to avoid life - Depression, anxiety, racism - Black Lives Matter - The coining of new terms like “lived experience” - Making implicit things explicit again - Finding yourself unable to defend obvious things like protecting women - The simultaneous desire to avoid and also rewrite history - Matt's desire to grow his heart, not his understanding Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
Matt and Michael break their three day fast with whiskey and a podcast. This week on SOI: - Michael's brain is working differently - Fasting - Routines - Turn down inputs and find God - Perceptions vs reality. Guilt vs using perception as an excuse - Resentment - Job, the leviathan - The biological drives of men and women - Chess, to win or to live with people who like playing chess - Parenting after divorce - Spaghetti Driers Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - http://mediciroasting.com
“We use a most unfortunate idiom when we say, of a lustful man prowling the streets, that he ‘wants a woman'. Strictly speaking, a woman is just what he does not want. He wants a pleasure for which a woman happens to be the necessary piece of apparatus. How much he cares about the woman as such may be gauged by his attitude to her five minutes after fruition (one does not keep the carton after one has smoked the cigarettes). Now Eros makes a man really want, not a woman, but one particular woman. In some mysterious but quite indisputable fashion the lover desires the Beloved herself, not the pleasure she can give.” - C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves This week on SOI: - What is romance? - Sex as a part of Eros - G.K. Chesterton - “'I did try to found a little heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.'” - Sex after marriage - Polyamory - The hiddenness of soul wounds - Memory is like a vibrating string - Peterson w/ Katy Faust - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast/id1184022695?i=1000698177286 - Aella on Triggernometry - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shB6ovnjYEs Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
This week on SOI: - Midlife crises - Wrestling with the question of “Who am I?” - The end of the enlightenment - Cultural lack of curiosity - Protecting the structures of identity - Identity becomes aesthetic and absurd when it lacks a center - The Fifth Element https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGfYLRCJZ1c - 22 Senators all read the same script - https://x.com/yalligatorgar/status/1896975161062253017 - The Abolition of Man - https://www.amazon.com/Abolition-Man-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652942 - Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say - https://www.amazon.com/Speak-What-We-Feel-Frederick/dp/0062517538 - You have to be able to say things that are untrue - You can't live life in reverse, can you can't just live the back half Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
This week on SOI: - Matt's experience cleaning his windows - Engaging the world vs receding from it - The feeling of failure - The allure of counterfactuals - The human need to tend to life - Resentment and the story of Cain and Abel - The Kingdom of Heaven is here and now - Discovering who you are, and what you're capable of - Falling short is how we discover who we are Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
The age of tolerance has given way to the primacy of the in group. Principles, friendship, even family, matter less than allegiances. This week we grapple with how our culture got here, and what we might do about it. - The spiritual nature of division in the West - You're included in my circle, but I'm not included in yours - The disturbing social division of politics - How do we tolerate our neighbors in the age of tolerance - If relationships aren't foremost, what is? - The hierarchy of beliefs and ideologies - The end of the enlightenment - The false god of science - Evil is that which believes its knowledge is complete - The need for a shared belief in a higher power to address simple ideas like, what is best and what is helpful for people - Student loan forgiveness Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
This week on SOI: - Do we see reality? Or are we in the Truman Show? - How to conceive of ideas like good, evil, honor, and righteousness - Believing children are worthy of their full potential, without evidence - The 1619 Project, and the suicidal direction of acting as if we are bad - USAID, and the man behind the curtain - What is the value of “acting as if” something is true? - Why did Gen X and the Millennials never take office? - Hope for those who have hope Mike Benz - https://open.spotify.com/episode/2rXdCTkipx2Iu5dX1Gh0s5?si=0ffa07e0d89b434d Clinton/Goze - https://x.com/notmyfault99/status/1889472320387031103?s=42 Eric on Piers Morgan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwXHXHRTK-M Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
This week on SOI: * Elon, DOGE, and USAID - https://x.com/rapidresponse47/status/1887151291895267553?s=42 * Trump and Gaza (King Solomon: “Cut the baby in half.”) * “If we are not being pulled by a promise, we are being driven by fear “ - Bill Johnson / (Clip) https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFOCPVXP0AM/?igsh=MXd3bW1sZ3RlbWU0dA== * The coddling of the American mind - https://www.thecoddling.com * Getting better at anything requires suffering * Being decisive * What is the relationship between wisdom and fear * The difference between fear and reverence * Our experience with firearms and freedom * Danger as a negative vs growth and resilience * Becoming more risk averse as we get older Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
Our podcast friend, Matt's dog Lukah, passed away last weekend. We pay our respects and reflect on grief and a man's bond with his dog. Then we talk about Elon Musk, George Orwell's 1984, and the difficulty of morality. Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
Elon salutes Hitler? The Left has become “the boy who cried wolf,” and Americans seem to be over it. The problem is that there's a danger in that - we don't want the boy who cried wolf to die all alone when the wolf actually comes. We consider possible solutions to this danger, and contend that the only solution is spiritual, not legislative. After You've Loved Someone (Boy cried wolf lyrics) - https://youtu.be/8VuelSN0kug?si=HqJRqPycp794oE1H Malcolm Gladwell Episode - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4TzvJ0BBdP8wB8eDVc3poE?si=466efd36994b4530 Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
“It is sometimes so bitterly cold in the winter that one says, 'The cold is too awful for me to care whether summer is coming or not; the harm outdoes the good. But with or without our approval, the severe weather does come to an end eventually and one fine morning the wind changes and there is a thaw. When I compare the state of the weather to our state of mind and our circumstances, subject to change and fluctuation like the weather, then I still have some hope that things may get better.” - Vincent Van Gogh Find us here: Alison Vaclav - https://www.instagram.com/pagemageworkshops/ x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
From the Pharisees to Jesus, from the cable channels to podcasts, from the Oscars to Instagram, the arbiters of fact, truth, and celebrity seem always to loose their grasp as the world rejuvenates around them. Show Notes: Wesley Huff on Joe Rogan: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0alzUZNnXcEL9MJzE9KD9P?si=qqE2YbplQDeuEsynf7ONeg C.S. Lewis Quote: https://x.com/tillwehvfaces/status/1876961046486823178 Jordan Peterson Lecture (“They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work”): https://youtu.be/dt-BeOTiNvk?si=bU8ngyk0blHLEzGa Find us here: x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
"The beauty of doing nothing is that you can do it perfectly. Only when you do something is it almost impossible to do it without mistakes. Therefore people who are contributing nothing to society, except their constant criticisms, can feel both intellectually and morally superior." -THOMAS SOWELL- x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
Our last episode of 2024! We look back on the year, and the super-cycle that was 2020-2024, and talk about the possible renaissance that 2025 may bring. Stick around til the end for an unexpected heated debate about whether love languages exist. x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
Tonight we apply the philosopher's thought experiment of The Ship of Theseus to the issues of meaning, and Matt tells the story of rebuilding his father's table. Plutarch in his Life of Theseus: The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned from Crete had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and strong timber in their places, insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same. Matt's Table - https://www.instagram.com/p/DByxMOkptd-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== The Table of McCloskey (Substack) - https://mattmccloskey.substack.com/p/the-table-of-mccloskey?r=12nd17 Chateau de Purnon - https://www.youtube.com/c/Ch%C3%A2teaudePurnon x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
We discuss Fyodor Dostoevsky's advice about lying, Matt's desire to be a good father, sourdough bread, and turtles all the way down. “Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself. The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than any one. You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offense, isn't it? A man may know that nobody has insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exagerated to make it picturesque, has caught at a word and made a mountain out of a molehill he knows that himself, yet he will be the first to take offense, and will revel in his resentment till he feels great pleasure in it, and so pass to genuine vindictiveness.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
How do you have productive conversations with people who disagree with you? How do you discuss things that are hard? Good question. We appeal to grace and humility. Elizabeth Gilbert TED Talk - https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_your_elusive_creative_genius?subtitle=en The History of Glass - https://youtu.be/2oDXbFcHliM?si=shDdxQjAU2zgsh95 x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
We discuss the reactions to the 2024 election results over the last week, and the way women's rights were handled by the two campaigns, the media, and on social media. x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
Americans have spoken in a stunning referendum. We try to understand what this 2024 election result says about our country, and discuss what it means to be an American. Show Notes: Bureaucracy swapped with Democracy: https://x.com/Banned_Bill/status/1853842945767592429 Konstantin Kisin's 10 Reasons: https://x.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1854151133385613690 x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
We're under a week away from one of the wildest elections of our lifetimes. We make some predictions, and talk about how we see the race. Two years ago we had a rule that we wouldn't talk about politics on SOI - and yet, here we are. Show References: Darkhorse podcast - https://open.spotify.com/episode/6z2NBMHmqbIJeUDJuYmSSH?si=89e24d2c141b407c Heather's article - https://naturalselections.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web Trump on Rogan - https://youtu.be/hBMoPUAeLnY?si=EOGdPLokUX8DEka4 Honestly with Ben Shapiro and Sam Harris - https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SAycEtcQVIK4v5JRnTrFC?si=276503238b9e4460 x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A
We grapple with the question "is there a 'best' way to live?" We make our way through subjects of energy, adventure, wisdom, tradition, marriage, fatherhood, and ultimately decide that Peter Pan is not to be aspired to, but growing up certainly is. Matt's Essay - https://mattmccloskey.substack.com/p/theres-no-right-way-to-play-a-song?r=12nd17 Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
The western world seems to be locked in an ideological battle between freedom and creativity vs safety and assurance. x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
When truth is moved from the external to internal, the world becomes inverted. G.K. Chesterton says that a man should be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth. If we jettison our highest ideals every virtue and every vice races to the bottom, and extinguishes. "The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues. When a religious scheme is shattered (as Christianity was shattered at the Reformation), it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone." - G.K. Chesterton x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Our cultural zeitgeist lasts for only about a week these days. What's the current theme, and when will we ever know what's truly going on? x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Politics is no longer Left vs Right - it's Truth vs The Big Lie. The Big Lie happens to be currently wearing blue garb, but it will discard it as soon as its usefulness has run out. The Government is Lying to You - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6NmjK2pgiQ x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Discipline is freedom, and revelation is only possible in the ultimate case. We discuss the truth tellers and dissidents who are willing to pay the price of saying what they believe to be true, and make the case for hope against the case for hedonism. Show Notes: At the end Matt references Rescue The Republic - https://jointheresistance.org Akira The Don - https://open.spotify.com/artist/14ep6TM2JzapH5nk7vaora?si=aEcladceThOJm8RIGFyD0Q x.com/mattmccloskey x.com/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvacla
What does it mean to check out, to arrive, to relax, to finally “get there?” We contend that to decline the creative life is to accept an early death. https://x.com/mattmccloskey https://x.com/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - https://www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods Cafe Medici - https://mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorWqoBTJtkkDUpUirL9vebSCBHLRHBatyDqs9eDe2OliQmjTc2A All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
We discuss the nature of speech, censorship, fear, growth, and freedom. Erwan's Tweet: https://x.com/ErwanLeCorre/status/1829605956814324094 Eric Weinstein Interview: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/833-eric-weinstein-are-we-on-the-brink-of-a-revolution/id1347973549?i=1000668014150 Bret Weinstein Interview: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-joe-rogan-experience/id360084272?i=1000668364497 All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
In Michelle Obama's speech at the DNC, she said that “My girl Kamala Harris… is one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency.” We discuss the Cartesian crisis as coined by Bret Weinstein, and what we're to do when it seems like everyone is watching a different movie about reality. Bret defines the Cartesian crisis - https://x.com/thedarkhorsepod/status/1776277113852907986 All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
We discuss the allegory of Plato's Cave, and how the information age has personalized each of our shadows on the wall. Conversation inspired by this Darkhorse episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2nt1OerbCQSMws8NW8Zr4H?si=01c94c3b6a0f4fec All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Matt sat in his car as tears formed in his eyes. It was probably grief, but where did it come from? Was it a thought, a memory, or something harder to explain? References: The Master and His Emissary - https://a.co/d/bqzulUQ People of the Lie - https://a.co/d/2faPxsZ Metaphors We Live By - https://a.co/d/i7rZKd0 C.S. Lewis - https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3058-to-love-at-all-is-to-be-vulnerable-love-anything All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
One of Michael's axioms is “There is an objective reality, and I have a subjective experience of it.” Matt objects to this statement, and they unpack issues of objectivity by way of art, creativity, lies, stories, fiction, god, and humility. All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering. - Carl Jung Politics, culture, relationships - what is the suffering that has been substituted with crazy? All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
What do you do when lies are all around you? Take the risk of telling the truth. All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
We discuss the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the hope that can be seen through the cracks in a weakening narrative, and what 200 episodes of Shores has meant to us. “You cannot gaslight an entire nation of free people into hating each other this completely for this long… …pretending that *everyone* who sees a buck naked emperor is a charlatan is no longer working very well.” - Eric Weinstein Eric Weinstein quote: https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1813439562234150935 Darkhorse analysis of the assassination attempt: https://open.spotify.com/episode/49Oy1xwAaJ9GQOl75lZSXF?si=794e3d9284974793 All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
“In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost. Ah, how hard a thing it is to tell what a wild, and rough, and stubborn wood this was, which in my thought renews the fear!” ― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav Sovereign Goods - https://sovereignthreadgoods.etsy.com?coupon=SHORES Medici Coffee - https://mediciroasting.com/collections/coffee
We may be victims of our circumstances, but we may also be prodigies of our circumstances. Dostoevsky Quote - https://x.com/coffeewclassics/status/1803477508580356351?s=46 Abolition of Man - https://a.co/d/0i2VWvLZ All In with Trump - https://open.spotify.com/episode/0qrvFuvlvecGC1tict7kgc?si=a4645412fb6b4fcb Sovereign Goods - https://sovereignthreadgoods.etsy.com?coupon=SHORES Medici Coffee - https://mediciroasting.com/collections/coffee All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Biden, Trump, RFK Jr - What problems does the future hold, and can we see and agree on them? In part this is a problem of perception, and in part the result of everyone standing with daggers out. All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
We discuss bitcoin, climate change, recycling, vaccines, covid, relationships, lord of the rings, and how the Truth is relational, explorational, and adventurous. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you… the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. - C.S. Lewis All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed. - Friedrich Nietzsche References: C.S. Lewis Quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10198766-patriotism-has-then-many-faces-those-who-would-reject-it Chris Cuomo Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3cdErzfQnI All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Hemingway's meditation on the futility of masculinity, the role of men and women in society, solar flares, and the risk of creativity. All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
(Note: 3 minutes in Matt's mic stops recording, so his voice is a little quiet. We realize this and turn it back on at minute 8) Life cannot be understood, it can only be lived, and related to. “[I]n our own time and place, [avoiding God] is extremely easy. Avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads off the beaten track. Concentrate on money, sex, status, health and (above all) on your own grievances. Keep the radio on. Live in a crowd. Use plenty of sedation . . .” - C.S. Lewis “It's not that students don't "get" Kafka's humor but that we've taught them to see humor as something you get -- the same way we've taught them that a self is something you just have. No wonder they cannot appreciate the really central Kafka joke - - that the horrific struggle to establish a human self results in a self whose humanity is inseparable from that horrific struggle. That our endless and impossible journey toward home is in fact our home. It's hard to put into words up at the blackboard, believe me. You can tell them that maybe it's good they don't "get" Kafka. You can ask them to imagine his art as a kind of door. To envision us readers coming up and pounding on this door, pounding and pounding, not just wanting admission but needing it, we don't know what it is but we can feel it, this total desperation to enter, pounding and pushing and kicking, etc. That, finally, the door opens...and it opens outward: we've been inside what we wanted all along. Das ist komisch." - David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster and Other Essays All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
“Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived, or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?” — Hunter S. Thompson Sovereign Goods - https://sovereignthreadgoods.etsy.com?coupon=SHORES All Matt's Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey All Michael's Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
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