Podcast appearances and mentions of justin e h

The steady dings of notifications. The 40 tabs that greet you when you open your computer in the morning. The hundreds of unread emails, most of them spam, with subject lines pleading or screaming for you to click. Our attention is under assault these days, and most of us are familiar with the feeling that gives us — fractured, irritated, overwhelmed.D. Graham Burnett calls the attention economy an example of “human fracking”: With our attention in shorter and shorter supply, companies are going to even greater lengths to extract this precious resource from us. And he argues that it's now reached a point that calls for a kind of revolution. “This is creating conditions that are at odds with human flourishing. We know this,” he tells me. “And we need to mount new forms of resistance.”Burnett is a professor of the history of science at Princeton University and is working on a book about the laboratory study of attention. He's also a co-founder of the Strother School of Radical Attention, which is a kind of grass roots, artistic effort to create a curriculum for studying attention.In this conversation, we talk about how the 20th-century study of attention laid the groundwork for today's attention economy, the connection between changing ideas of attention and changing ideas of the self, how we even define attention (this episode is worth listening to for Burnett's collection of beautiful metaphors alone), whether the concern over our shrinking attention spans is simply a moral panic, what it means to teach attention and more.Mentioned:Friends of Attention“The Battle for Attention” by Nathan Heller“Powerful Forces Are Fracking Our Attention. We Can Fight Back.” by D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh and Peter SchmidtScenes of Attention edited by D. Graham Burnett and Justin E. H. SmithBook Recommendations:Addiction by Design by Natasha Dow SchüllObjectivity by Lorraine Daston and Peter L. GalisonThe Confidence-Man by Herman MelvilleThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Rollin Hu and Kristin Lin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Isaac Jones and Aman Sahota. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show's production team also includes Annie Galvin and Elias Isquith. Original music by Isaac Jones and Aman Sahota. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Sonia Herrero.

In his September cover story for Harper's, Justin E. H. Smith sets out to define Generation X, that nameless cohort wedged between boomers and millennials whose members, in midlife, now face “an annihilation of almost everything that once oriented us.” Smith argues that Gen X, having come of age before the erosion of fixtures like liberal democracy and rock and roll, failed to protect postwar counterculture from commercialism and corporatization. As debates about art and politics loom large today, Smith affirms the essential link between the two while championing what he identifies as his generation's core pursuit of artistic autonomy and human liberation. Editor of Harper's and fellow Gen Xer Christopher Beha sat down with Smith to discuss intergenerational relations, how Smith's essay evolved over the editorial process, and how art at its best interrogates the arguable and not the obvious. Subscribe to Harper's for only $16.97: harpers.org/save “My Generation” Justin E. H. Smith's essay in the September issue of Harper's: https://harpers.org/archive/2023/09/my-generation/ “Permanent Pandemic” Justin E. H. Smith's piece from June 2022 about the endurance and overextension of COVID-19 digital infrastructure: https://harpers.org/archive/2022/06/permanent-pandemic-will-covid-controls-keep-controlling-us/ 2:24: “my ideal audience is Harper's readers” 3:22: the relationship between art and politics 19:07: “as a teenager in the 1980s, there was a widespread sense that our era was kind of a weak aftershock of what our parents had experienced.” 27:04: “I think one way to think about this generation is a generation that came of age intellectually and emotionally and perhaps politically before the September 11 attacks.” 37:06: “If we think that the state of emergency requires of us that we stop thinking about art as an autonomous sphere of creation … once you've lost that, you've lost everything.”

Originally Recorded May 2nd, 2023About Professor Justin E.H. Smith: https://www.jehsmith.com/Check out Professor Smith's book, The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: https://www.amazon.com/Internet-Not-What-You-Think/dp/0691212325Check out Professor Smith's essay on Liberties, titled The World as a Game: https://libertiesjournal.com/articles/the-world-as-a-game/ Get full access to Unlicensed Philosophy with Chuong Nguyen at musicallyspeaking.substack.com/subscribe

In what ways might the roots of the internet actually stretch back much further than we think? Does the internet enhance or distort our humanness? How is our deepening entanglement with algorithms shaping how we think and what we pay attention to? Justin E. H. Smith is a professor at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the Université Paris Cité, and is a writer of both non-fiction, fiction and poetry. His latest book is The Internet is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning, in which he traces the deep history of the internet and asks where these technologies may be taking us next. His previous books include Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason and Divine Machines: Leibniz and the Sciences of Life. He posts regularly on Substack at Justin E. H. Smith's Hinternet. LINKS: Justin's book The Internet is Not What You Think It Is: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691212326/the-internet-is-not-what-you-think-it-is Justin's Substack: https://justinehsmith.substack.com Justin's book on Gottfried Leibniz: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691141787/divine-machines David Abram on technology and animism: https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/magic-and-the-machine/ James William's Stand out of our light (Ted Talk based on book of same name: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaIO2UIvJ4g Yves Citton on the Ecology of attention: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Ecology+of+Attention-p-9781509503735 Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/forestofthought Share and subscribe. We're available on most podcast apps, including: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ue3XA6IQQLC05FQMINuy1 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/…/podcast/forest-of…/id1508610729 Links to all platforms: https://anchor.fm/forestofthought Our theme music is by Christian Holtsteen at stoneproduction.no.

Justin E H Smith joins Celeste Marcus to discuss the thought and style of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

In this episode, I'm chatting with Dr. Tim Jarvis, director of Fullers Bookshop, about taking over the 103-year-old bookshop, local authors, what to see around Hobart, and books!Fullers Bookshop was established in 1920, by W. E. (Bill) Fuller, in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. In 1961 the shop was taken over by Cedric and Ian Pearce, famous not only as booksellers but also as jazz musicians. In 1980, when Cedric became ill, the shop was purchased by Ian Drinkwater. Ian moved Fullers to Murray St in 1981.Clive Tilsley bought Fullers in 1982 and 1992 and moved the bookshop back to Collins Street. In 1996 the Afterword Café was established on the mezzanine level of the shop – this moved Fullers onto another level of business. In 2001, Fullers opened a second shop in Launceston in the north of the state, where Clive spent 13 years establishing the brand in a very competitive book-buying market.In 2009 the Hobart shop moved again – up the road to a bright new space (with a fabulous view of the mountain). In 2014, Fullers sold its Launceston shop, and at the same time, Clive moved back to Hobart.In the 30 years under Clive's guidance, Fullers has confirmed its status as a leading bookseller in Tasmania and a fundamental component of the cultural landscape of the state. In 2021 Tim Jarvis took over ownership, steering the bookshop through the pandemic, and continuing the tradition of Fullers Bookshop being a hub of the community, offering a wide range of author events, readings, books clubs, and publishing. Fullers BookshopFullers Bookshop Book ClubRichard FlanaganJames DryburghPrue BattenBob Brown FoundationPete HayLucinda Wine BarDier Makr RestaurantThe Little Lotus Vegan and Vegetarian RestaurantMONASunbear CoffeeThe Internet Is Not What You Think It Is, Justin E. H. SmithAuto-Da-Fé, Elias Canetti  Support the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

In today's episode, Justin E. H. Smith writes about how genius can appear in the silliest of places, in an UnHerd essay titled The philistine war on AI art.

In this episode, I speak with fellow philosopher (and substack writer) Justin E. H. Smith about the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. This is our final episode of 2022! As always, I hope you enjoy our conversation. Justin E. H. Smith is professor of philosophy in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Paris. In 2019-20, he was the John and Constance Birkelund Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers of the New York Public Library. He has written many books, including Irrationality: The Dark Side of Reason and Divine Machines: Leibniz and the Sciences of Life. He also authors a substack, which you can subscribe to at https://justinehsmith.substack.com. Jennifer Frey is an associate professor of philosophy and Peter and Bonnie McCausland Faculty Fellow at the University of South Carolina. She is also a fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and the Word on Fire Institute. Prior to joining the philosophy faculty at USC, she was a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts and an affiliated faculty in the philosophy department. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, and her B.A. in Philosophy and Medieval Studies (with a Classics minor) at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. She has published widely on action, virtue, practical reason, and meta-ethics, and has recently co-edited an interdisciplinary volume, Self-Transcendence and Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology. Her writing has also been featured in Breaking Ground, First Things, Fare Forward, Image, Law and Liberty, The Point, and USA Today. She lives in Columbia, SC, with her husband, six children, and chickens. You can follow her on Twitter @ jennfrey. Sacred and Profane Love is a podcast in which philosophers, theologians, and literary critics discuss some of their favorite works of literature, and how these works have shaped their own ideas about love, happiness, and meaning in human life. Host Jennifer A. Frey is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina. The podcast is generously supported by The Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and produced by Catholics for Hire.

In this episode, I speak with fellow philosopher (and substack writer) Justin E. H. Smith about the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. This is our final episode of 2022! As always, I hope you enjoy our conversation. Justin E. H. Smith is professor of philosophy in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Paris. In 2019-20, he was the John and Constance Birkelund Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers of the New York Public Library. He has written many books, including Irrationality: The Dark Side of Reason and Divine Machines: Leibniz and the Sciences of Life. He also authors a substack, which you can subscribe to here. Jennifer Frey is an associate professor of philosophy and Peter and Bonnie McCausland Faculty Fellow at the University of South Carolina. She is also a fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and the Word on Fire Institute. Prior to joining the philosophy faculty at USC, she was a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts and an affiliated faculty in the philosophy department. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, and her B.A. in Philosophy and Medieval Studies (with a Classics minor) at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. She has published widely on action, virtue, practical reason, and meta-ethics, and has recently co-edited an interdisciplinary volume, Self-Transcendence and Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology. Her writing has also been featured in Breaking Ground, First Things, Fare Forward, Image, Law and Liberty, The Point, and USA Today. She lives in Columbia, SC, with her husband, six children, and chickens. You can follow her on Twitter @jennfrey. Sacred and Profane Love is a podcast in which philosophers, theologians, and literary critics discuss some of their favorite works of literature, and how these works have shaped their own ideas about love, happiness, and meaning in human life. Host Jennifer A. Frey is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina. The podcast is generously supported by The Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and produced by Catholics for Hire.

There are several ways by which to approach the question of the authenticity of Zera Yacub's work. One is philological, by careful attention to the linguistic hints in the manuscripts that the work is not by a native writer of Ge'ez, or that otherwise suggest a later invention or conscious fabrication. Another is so to speak psychobiographical, by close attention to the character of Giusto d'Urbino, particularly as revealed in his correspondence from Ethiopia with the Parisian manuscript collector Antoine d'Abbadie. In a series of articles, Anaïs Wion has compellingly adopted both of these approaches. Less developed in her work is the approach informed by the history of philosophy, to wit: are there Latinate philosophical concepts in Zera Yacub's work, the circulation of which in 17th-century Ethiopia we might have reason to doubt? If there are, three possibilities present themselves. One is that, in spite of our surprise in finding them there, networks of circulation, likely headed up by Portuguese Jesuits, can be discovered that account for their presence. A second possibility is that the appearance of these terms is in part a consequence of lexical choices made by the first translators of the work and adopted in later scholarship. A comparative study of the two most significant translations of the Hatata, B. A. Turaev's Russian translation of 1904 and Enno Littmann's Latin translation of the same year, shows that both authors interpolate terminology that almost certainly comes from their own philosophical educations based on distinctly 19th-century curricula (e.g., Turaev's use of свет разума [“light of reason”] for a Ge'ez term that could be rendered otherwise with far less distinctly Cartesian resonance). A third possibility is that we can account for the presence of these concepts neither as signs of the inclusion of Ethiopia within the broader early modern connected history of Latinate philosophical ideas, nor as artifacts of the translational and scholarly traditions in which Zera Yacub was taken up, but rather as evidence that the work was in fact produced in the 19th century by a learned and deceptive Italian.

I recommend the book by Justin E. H. Smith, The Internet is Not What You Think It Is: A History, A Philosophy, A Warning (Princeton University Press, 2022), and I talk a bit more about the big story of the Bible. I also mention the soon-to-be-released book by Isaac B. Sharp, The Other Evangelicals: A Story of Liberal, Black, Progressirve, Feminist, and Gay Christians--and the Movement that Pushed Them Out (Eerdmans: 2023).

“The demotion of movies comes at a time when the world, in reality, is cracking clean open and we are fast losing the shared traditions that included a common artistic language and art forms with a life-breath in them that came down through the generations.” Justin E.H. Smith reads from his piece “We Don't Need Another Hero” from TANK's entertainment issue. Read here.

“The demotion of movies comes at a time when the world, in reality, is cracking clean open and we are fast losing the shared traditions that included a common artistic language and art forms with a life-breath in them that came down through the generations.” Justin E.H. Smith reads from his piece “We Don't Need Another Hero” from TANK's entertainment issue. Read here.

Justin E. H. Smith joins Leon Wieseltier and Celeste Marcus to discuss the gamification of reality, and the pernicious compulsion to control and describe more and more of human existence via algorithms and technology.

Keith is joined by Professor Justin E.H. Smith, who just released a new book, 'The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is." He discusses his book which goes into the desire for humans to be connected over long distances but also the failures of the internet to allow actual smart discourse. Follow Keith on Twitter: @keithlaw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Das erste Kapitel von “American Dirt” ist sicher eines der härtesten, die man seit langem hat lesen müssen. Aus der Sicht des achtjährigen Luca erleben wir, wie dessen achtzehnköpfige Familie bei einem Massaker durch ein mexikanisches Drogenkartell auf ihn und dessen Mutter Lydia dezimiert wird. Psychologisch effektvoll erleben wir das Ganze nur durch sekundäre Beobachtungen des jungen Luca - Geräusche, Gerüche, Geschrei - der zufällig im Augenblick des Überfalls im ersten Stock des Hauses pinkeln ist, während im Garten das Mordkommando arbeitet. Kurze Zeit später kommt seine Mutter Lydia ins Bad gestürzt und zusammen erleben sie die Katastrophe, versteckt hinter einem Duschvorhang.“Moment!”, ruft da Heiko Schramm, Freund der Show und ehemaliger Rezensent ebenda, dem Ihr im Übrigen diese und die zwei weiteren Rezensionen ein- und desselben Werkes anregungsweise zu verdanken habt. “Im Prolog von Don Winslows 'Tage der Toten' bringt ein Kartell aber eine neunzehnköpfige Familie um! Einer mehr!”“Das ist wohl wahr.”, antworten wir, aber es gibt einen Unterschied. Zu dem kommen wir gleich, handeln wir jedoch zunächst kurz ab, was sonst noch in “American Dirt” passiert: Das Buch ist lang, doch die Handlung ist simpel und linear; in einem Satz zusammengefasst: Mutter und Sohn, Lydia und Luca, als einzige Überlebende der Familie Perez offensichtlich im Fadenkreuz der Killer des Kartells “Los Jardineros”, fliehen in die USA. Das war's. Die Handlung wird entweder aus der Sicht Lydias oder Lucas beschrieben, sie verzweigt niemals, und ausser ein paar Rückblenden auf das Leben der Familie vor dem Massaker geht es straight von Acapulco im Süden Mexikos nach “El Norte”, nach Norden, nach Arizona, United States of America.Kein Stück Kritik von mir dazu, dieser Rezensent braucht keine Vorblicke, Rückblicke oder Handlungsstränge, die sich irgendwo treffen und wieder verlieren, wenn jemand gut schreibt und einen Plan hat, worüber er schreibt und das in die Tat umsetzt, hat sie in meinem Kassenbuch der Literaturkritik einen ausgeglichenen Kontostand, Soll und Haben in neutralem schwarz, Doppelstrich drunter und abheften.Jeanine Cummins, die Autorin, die mit “American Dirt” ihr viertes Buch vorlegt, schreibt gut, ja, sehr gut, sie weiß, worüber sie schreiben will und setzt das in die Tat um. “Tinder Press”, ihr amerikanischer Verlag, fügt dem Titel auf Amazon noch einen Doppelpunkt und die Worte “The heartstopping story that will live with you forever" hinzu und die New York Times Bestsellerliste hat einen neuen Number-One-Hit.Und doch: Irgendetwas stimmt nicht.Justin E. H. Smith ist nicht der Sänger von The Fall, er ist ein Essayist, unter anderem auch hier auf Substack. Er ist Schriftsteller und Philosoph, aber einer von den “Neuen”, Jahrgang 1972 und betreibt sein Geschäft in feiner Abwägung zwischen Breite und Tiefe, will sagen, er ist eher Habermas denn Richard David Precht, nicht konform, aber auch nicht pseudo-nonkonformistisch wie der Perückenträger aus Solingen. Sein jüngstes Werk, aktuell nur auf englisch erhältlich, trägt den Titel “The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning” und beschäftigt sich mit unserer aktuellen Art und Weise, unser Leben zu betreiben. Unvermeidlich in einem solchen Buch ist das Wort “Algorithmus”, der, der unser Leben angeblich bestimmt. Es beschreibt das Phänomen, dass wir heute von Amazon und Google beraten werden, wo wir doch früher von Freunden die neuesten Bücher, Platten, Videos empfohlen bekamen und nicht etwa von Buchhändlern, Plattenverkäufern und Videoverleihs mit großen John-Travolta-Aufstellern in der Tür. Aber natürlich hat sich etwas verändert. Ohne meine Youtube-History regelmäßig zu löschen, würde ich seit fünf Jahren algorithmisch gesteuert nur Talkshows aus dem Achtziger-Jahre-Westfernsehen sehen, in denen zwischen den Kameraeinstellungen gewechselt wird, nicht um mal eine andere Seite vom Kinski zu zeigen, sondern weil zwischen Kamera und dem Erdbeermund Helmut Schmidt sitzt und die Sichtlinie zu qualmt. Justin E. H. Smith lamentiert jedoch nicht den vermeintlichen Kontrollverlust des Konsumenten, er denkt einen Schritt weiter und darüber nach, ob das größte Problem an den “Algorithmen” vielleicht gar nicht sei, dass wir in Bubbles landen und ein Leben lang die gleichen Youtube-Videos schauen müssen. Smith bemerkt eher, und sehr kritisch, dass auf der anderen Seite des Empfangsgerätes, bei den Filmemachern, den Musikern und ja, den Schriftstellerinnen, eine bewusste oder unbewusste Anpassung and den Algorithmus “passiert”, ja, dass es kreativen Menschen, wie er befürchtet, aus verschiedenen Gründen unmöglich sein könnte, sich den Algorithmen nicht anzupassen, dass diese uns die Freiheit und Vielfalt in der Kreativität rauben könnten.Es sollte klar werden, worauf ich hinaus will. Ich nehme Jeanine Cummins, Autorin von “American Dirt”, proaktiv in Schutz, ich nehme ihr als Autorin jeden Vorwurf der Berechnung; aber das Buch ist ein Paradebeispiel einer innerlichen Algorithmisierung des eigenen Werkes. Ich bin zu hundert Prozent sicher, dass Frau Cummins angesichts der Greuel des aktuellen mexikanischen Alltags empört ist und sicher auch deshalb den Entschluss gefasst hatte, dieses Thema zu verarbeiten. Ihre öffentlich bekannte Biographie enthält Echos ähnlicher Ereignisse, wie im Buch dargestellt. Als der Roman entstanden ist, instrumentalisierte der damalige Präsident Trump den Flüchtlingstrek, der sich von Mittelamerika durch ganz Mexiko bis an die US-amerikanische Südgrenze erstreckte und auf dem zigtausende Menschen auf der Flucht waren. Und natürlich war vor allem “La Bestia” in den Nachrichten zu sehen, “El tren de la muerte”, “Der Todeszug”. Wie gut senden sich doch beeindruckende Bilder kilometerlanger Güterzüge, auf denen Menschen sitzen, an denen Menschen hängen und so versuchen, an die US-amerikanische Grenze zu gelangen. Wie grausam muss das Schicksal sein, solche wahnwitzigen, lebensgefährlichen Wege zu gehen? Das bringt Klicks und mit ein bisschen Manipulation Wählerstimmen. In diesem Umfeld einen hochemotionalen Roman zum Thema zu schreiben erfordert Vorsicht, wenn er gut werden soll. Oder wenigstens authentisch. Oder wenigstens nicht unrealistisch. Jeanine Cummins jedoch hatte ihre Checkliste wohl vorm Beginn des kreativen Prozesses komplett und musste nur noch ihre wirklich gute Schreibe darauf loslassen und es sollte etwas Brauchbares herauskommen:Ein investigativer Journalist stirbt: check. Ein Massaker wie in Winslows “Day of the Dogs”: check. Eine Flucht: check. “La Bestia”: check. Was fehlt? Achso, na klar, Busse mit Teenagern, die in Drogenbandencheckpoints geraten: check. Der Rest ist Folklore und genau die richtige Menge Spanizismen, die man ohne Übersetzung versteht, fürs feeling, you know?Man ist ungefähr dreißig Prozent im Buch und begreift, dass es das tatsächlich ist. Dass es keinerlei Überraschung geben wird. Man denkt zu Beginn, dass es vielleicht um das Leben als Emigrant in den Vereinigten Staaten gehen wird, die Flucht nur die Einleitung ist, immerhin heißt das Buch “American Dirt” und nicht “Tierra mexicana”. Aber, nach zweihundert Seiten Klischee und endlosen Absätzen in denen uns die Autorin immer wieder erklärt, wie sehr Lydia trauert, mit Rückblenden an ihr früheres “schönes” Leben, so als würden wir als Leserinnen das nicht beim ersten, zweiten oder .. achten mal verstanden haben, dazu einem abstrusen Handlungsstrang, den wir hier mal nicht spoilern wollen, und wenn es sich immer mehr abzeichnet, dass es um “La Bestia” gehen wird, den Füchtlingsgüterzug, fragt man sich ungläubig: “Echt? Really? Verdaderamente?”, pardon my spanish. Ja, diese Idee hatte Frau Cummins: Die Protagonistin, Frau eines Journalisten und Besitzerin einer Buchhandlung, die aus dem modernen Kleinbürgertum gerissene Lydia Perez, mit 10.000 Dollar, nicht Peso, Dollar, amerikanischen, in Cash in the Täsch, auf der Flucht vor dem Kartell, springt, nicht einmal, nein, mehrmals, mit ihrem achtjährigen Sohn auf den fahrenden Flüchtlingsgüterzug “La Bestia”. Sie nimmt sich kein Mietauto (oder kauft sich einfach eines) oder ein Flugticket oder begibt sich auf eine Kreuzfahrt, oder, oder, oder.. Nein. Sie hat ein durchschnittliches mexikanisches Jahresgehalt in bar in der Tasche und springt von Autobahnbrücken auf fahrende Züge. Mit einem achtjährigen Sohn an der Hand. Ok, ich bin so ziemlich der inkompetenteste Kommentator dieser Handlungsentscheidung, weiß, männlich, komplett unbedroht und zehntausend Kilometer entfernt und ich lehne mich entsprechend ganz weit aus dem Fenster, wenn ich sage: “No. F*****g. Way.”Aber vielleicht bin ich ein kompletter Idiot und das ist wirklich der beste oder der einzige Weg der Verfolgung durch ein mexikanisches Drogenkartell zu entkommen. Ok, Jeanine Cummins, aber dann erkläre es mir bitte, das ist dein Job als Autorin. Gehe mit mir die Optionen durch, erkläre es mir wie Deinem achtjährigen Sohn! Oh. Dem Du es auch nicht erklärst. Nein, die Entscheidung, wie es nach der Flucht aus der Provinz um Acapulco und dem unmittelbaren Zugriff durch das Kartell “Los Jardineros” weitergeht, wird auf einer Seite abgehandelt: “Das Kartell sucht nach uns. Man erkennt uns auf der Straße, ”halcones”, Falken, bezahlte Informanten des Kartells, halten nach uns Ausschau. ‘La Bestia' fährt durch das Gebiet, in denen die “Los Jardineros” keine Falken haben. Ergo: ‘La Bestia' ist der einzig verbleibende Fluchtweg.”Warum ich mich so über diese Plotentscheidung aufrege? Die Fahrt auf “La Bestia” dauert das halbe Buch. Es passiert nichts anderes. Und das merkt auch Jeanine Cummins. Das Buch droht langweilig zu werden und ohne den Plot zu ändern, bleibt nur eines, um den Leser immer wieder bei der Stange zu halten: emoción! Muchos emociónes! Grande emoción!Der US-amerikanische Musiker und Podcaster John Roderick, dem ich mit einer gewissen Devotion folge (und hier ganz nebenbei empfehle) ist Anfang Fünfzig und hat eine Tochter in etwa dem gleichen Alter wie der kleine Luca in “American Dirt”. In einer Episode seiner zahlreichen Podcasts postulierte er kürzlich, dass, seit er selber ein Kind habe, er eines in Film und TV nicht mehr ertrage: wenn Kinder in Gefahr gebracht werden. Früher hätte es ihm nichts ausgemacht, heute jedoch, als Vater, sei es unerträglich. Er finde es billig, einen grausamen Taschenspielertrick auf Kosten des Rezipienten, und die Lektüre von “American Dirt” bringt mich dieser Argumentation näher. Jede Autorin kann natürlich schreiben, was sie will, die Grenzen sind für mich weit, nahezu unendlich. Du willst über Sodomie schreiben, übers Kotzen, Scheißen, Wichsen, go for it, dein Privatvergnügen und das findet im Allgemeinen ein Publikum. Aber, sobald Du in Deinen Werken moralischen Anspruch transportierst endet die Freizone. Hier musst Du Dich als Autor im Gegenzug mit moralischen Ansprüchen des Lesers auseinandersetzen und diesen genügt das aufs Spiel setzen des Sohnes der flüchtenden Lydia, einzig um den Leser bei der Stange zu halten, nicht. Zumal, berechenbar wie das Buch ist, jeder Leser weiß, dass Luca nicht sterben wird. Es wird ein anderer, fast gleichaltriger Junge sein, der den Trek nicht überlebt, und hier, vielleicht überraschend, habe ich keinerlei moralische oder inhaltliche Bedenken im Angesicht dieser grausamen Wendung. Es kommen auf der Flucht aus Mittelamerika in die USA, und, schlimmer, auch nach dieser, Minderjährige um, und das zu thematisieren ist berechtigt und wirksam. Es passiert im Roman plötzlich und ist sinnlos wie alles an dieser Fluchtbewegung. Wir trauern um Beto, ein asthmatisches und viel zu kluges Waisenkind aus den Slums von Tijuana und sind moralisch empört. Und wissen gleichzeitig, dass Luca nun erst recht nicht sterben wird, also, liebe Jeanine, verschone uns mit der zehnten Situation, wo Dir kein Spannungsbogen einfällt und Du uns nur billig Angst machen möchtest. Denn man kann so kinderlos sein, wie man will, die Angst vor dem Verlust des Nachwuchses ist fest einprogrammiert, wenn wir sowas sehen, hören, lesen, krampft der Magen, schluckt der Adamsapfel. Es ist die stärkste und damit die billigste Waffe, den Leser bei der Stange zu halten.Und hier liegt auch der Unterschied zu Don Winslows Kartell-Trilogie: Ja, die Massaker dort sind noch entsetzlicher, die blutigen Enden mehr oder weniger liebgewonnener Handelnder zahlreich, aber sie sind immer entweder handlungsnotwendig oder, so grausam das ist, Hintergrund, Bebilderung. Sie sind also zwingend. Wir haben bei Winslow daher immer die Wahl, emotional zu reagieren oder rational, empört oder lakonisch, entsetzt oder achselzuckend. Diese Wahl lässt uns Jeanine Cummins nicht, sie schreibt einen emotionalen Verkehrsunfall und keiner kann wegschauen.Und so ist “American Dirt” leider nur ein Buch, das hätte gut sein können. Na klar, Bestsellerliste, Millionenerfolg - das muss man erstmal hinbekommen und das schafft man im Allgemeinen nicht mit einem Groschenroman. Oder aber eben doch? Einfache Sprache, ein Handlungsstrang, der keine großen Kenntnisse von Lage und Gebiet braucht, jedes Klischee des Settings bis aufs I-Tüpfelchen vorgebracht und viel, viel Kitsch und Emotion - fertig ist der Bestseller. Wir lernen kaum Neues, es werden keine überraschenden Perspektiven eingenommen und das ist so unendlich schade. Denn, wo es große Gegensätze gibt, zwischen Gut und Böse, zwischen Reich und Arm, in Landschaft und Meteorologie, gibt es unendlich Stoff, den zu entdecken und verarbeiten es lohnt. Jeannine Cummins jedoch ging den einfachen Weg - und ich den damit schweren, weil gleichzeitig langweiligen und emotional grausamen durch dieses Buch - damit Ihr das nicht tun müsst.In den nächten zwei Episoden von Studio B - Lobpreisung und Verriss wird zunächst Anne Findeisen und danach Irmgard Lumpini “American Dirt” rezensieren und sicher zu anderen, interessanten Schlüssen kommen. Ich werde die Zeit nutzen, mich mit Geschichte, Gegenwart und Zukunft von “cultural appropriation” zu beschäftigen und versuchen herauszubekommen, was “kulturelle Aneignung” eigentlich sein soll, denn das wird spätestens zur Diskussion zum Buch abgefragt werden.Spannende Wochen! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lobundverriss.substack.com

In today's episode, Justin E. H. Smith writes about our quest for self-knowledge and how it has corrupted humanity, in an exclusive essay for UnHerd titled How empty is your soul?

Joel takes over the podcast for another wide-ranging "reviewer round-up" with two excellent first-time guests. They talk a lot about books that intersect with the conversation about race in America, and of course, list off the titles they are currently reading.Joshua E. Livingston is a writer and community developer currently residing in Indianapolis. He is the director of Cultivating Communities and the author of Sunrays on the Beachhead of the New Creation (Wipf & Stock, 2021).Myles Werntz is associate professor of theology and director of Baptist studies at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. He is the author or editor of several books, including Bodies of Peace, A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence, and the brand new book, From Isolation to Community: A Renewed Vision for Christian Life Together (Baker Academic).Books and Writing Mentioned in this Episode:If you'd like to order any of the following books, we encourage you to do so from Hearts and Minds Books(An independent bookstore in Dallastown, PA, run by Byron and Beth Borger) Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism by Jonathan TranJosh's written review of Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial CapitalismSunrays on the Beachhead of the New Creation by Josh LivingstonBodies of Peace: Ecclesiology, Nonviolence & Witness by Myles WerntzA Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence: Key Thinkers, Activists & Movements for the Gospel of Peace by David Cramer & Myles WerntzFrom Isolation to Community: A Renewed Vision for Christian Life Together by Myles WerntzThe Loneliest Americans by Jay Caspian KangMinor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park HongHow to Be Normal: Essays by Phil ChristmanMyles' written review of How to Be NormalMidwest Futures by Phil ChristmanBreaking Ground: Charting Our Future in a Pandemic Year by Plough/CommentRacecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life by Barbara Fields & Karen FieldsHeathen: Religion and Race in American History by Kathryn Gin LumShared Wisdom: Use of the Self in Pastoral Care and Counseling by Pamela Cooper-WhiteThe Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People are Drawn in and How to Talk Across the Divide by Pamela Cooper-WhiteThat We May Be One: Practicing Unity in a Divided Church by Gary B. AgeeHumbler Faith, Bigger God: Finding a Story to Live By by Samuel WellsThe Internet is not What You Think it is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning by Justin E. H. SmithLife Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community by Dietrich BonhoefferTools for Conviviality by Ivan IllichH20 & the Waters of Forgetfulness by Ivan IllichDeschooling Society by Ivan IllichConfessions by Augustine (Translated by Sarah Ruden)Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time by Sarah RudenSimone Weil: An AnthologyLeisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef PieperIndigenous Theology and the Western Worldview by Randy WoodleyLisey's Story by Stephen King

In this wide-ranging discussion, Oliver talks to philosophy and history professor Justin E.H. Smith about his new book The Internet is Not What You Think It Is. Suggested Reading Smith, "It's All Over," https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/its-all-over/ "It's All Just Beginning," https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/its-all-just-beginning/ "The Internet Is Not as New as You Think," https://www.wired.com/story/the-internet-is-not-as-new-as-you-think/ "Working Arrangement," https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/family/working-arrangement "Meritocracy and the Future of Work," https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2021/04/meritocracy-and-future-work Justin E.H. Smith's substack: https://justinehsmith.substack.com/

Welcome to episode 344 of the show with Professor Justin E. H. Smith, author of The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is, joining us on the program to discuss topics from his book. “An original deep history of the internet that tells the story of the centuries-old utopian dreams behind it—and explains why […] The post 344: Justin E. H. Smith | Philosophy Of The Internet In “The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is” appeared first on The Armen Show.

Sean found the Internet on the Internet, Marco found it in his garden, but Professor Justin Smith will explain to us that maybe we didn't “find” or “invented” it all. The Internet could have always been present around us, and the latest technological achievements are nothing more than a natural extension of our humanity.“Ranging over centuries of the history and philosophy of science and technology, Smith shows how the “internet” has been with us much longer than we usually think. He draws fascinating connections between internet user experience, artificial intelligence, the invention of the printing press, communication between trees, and the origins of computing in the machine-driven looms of the silk industry.”Stay with us, enjoy this podcast, and think about what this could mean to you and our society as we move into an even more technologically advanced future.  About the book: The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a WarningMany think of the internet as an unprecedented and overwhelmingly positive achievement of modern human technology. But is it? In The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is, Justin Smith offers an original deep history of the internet, from the ancient to the modern world―uncovering its surprising origins in nature and centuries-old dreams of radically improving human life by outsourcing thinking to machines and communicating across vast distances. Yet, despite the internet's continuing potential, Smith argues, the utopian hopes behind it have finally died today, killed by the harsh realities of social media, the global information economy, and the attention-destroying nature of networked technology.Ranging over centuries of the history and philosophy of science and technology, Smith shows how the “internet” has been with us much longer than we usually think. He draws fascinating connections between internet user experience, artificial intelligence, the invention of the printing press, communication between trees, and the origins of computing in the machine-driven looms of the silk industry. At the same time, he reveals how the internet's organic structure and development root it in the natural world in unexpected ways that challenge efforts to draw an easy line between technology and nature.Combining the sweep of intellectual history with the incisiveness of philosophy, The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is cuts through our daily digital lives to give a clear-sighted picture of what the internet is, where it came from, and where it might be taking us in the coming decades.______________________________GuestJustin E. H. SmithProfessor of philosophy in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Paris [@Univ_Paris]On Twitter | https://twitter.com/jehsmithOn Substack | https://justinehsmith.substack.com/Website | https://www.jehsmith.com/______________________________ResourcesBook | The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning: https://www.amazon.com/Internet-Not-What-You-Think/dp/0691212325Wired Article: https://www.wired.com/story/the-internet-is-not-as-new-as-you-think/When Virtual Reality Is A Commodity, Will True Reality Come At A Premium?: https://sean-martin.medium.com/when-virtual-reality-is-a-commodity-will-true-reality-come-at-a-premium-4a97bccb4d72______________________________This Episode's SponsorsBlueLava ✨ https://itspm.ag/blue-lava-w2qsDevo  ✨ https://itspm.ag/itspdvwebAre you interested in sponsoring an ITSPmagazine Channel?

This week, the panel is joined by June Thomas, co-host of Working (Slate's podcast on the creative process). They begin by digesting HBO's Julia Child series, Julia, starring one of June's favorites: Sarah Lancashire. Then, the panel dives into the world of AI with After Yang. Finally, the panel answers Dana's very important question: is Chris Pine the Robert Redford of our time?  In Slate Plus, the panel discusses their favorite Canadian cultural products. Email us at culturefest@slate.com. Endorsements Dana: An audiobook which revolutionized the way Dana thinks about Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway read by Juliet Stevenson (of Truly, Madly, Deeply fame). June: The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War by Louis Menand about a wide range of ideas from World War 2 to The Cold War. Steve: An essay by general interest writer and professor Justin E. H. Smith, titled “The Punk-Prophet Philosophy of Michel Houellebecq,” for Foreign Policy, in which he writes an uninhibitedly intelligent assessment of the famed French novelist and essayist. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Nadira Goffe. Outro music is "I Want a Change" by The Big Let Down. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts, a bonus segment in each episode of the Culture Gabfest, full access to Slate's journalism on Slate.com, and more. Sign up now at slate.com/cultureplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the panel is joined by June Thomas, co-host of Working (Slate's podcast on the creative process). They begin by digesting HBO's Julia Child series, Julia, starring one of June's favorites: Sarah Lancashire. Then, the panel dives into the world of AI with After Yang. Finally, the panel answers Dana's very important question: is Chris Pine the Robert Redford of our time?  In Slate Plus, the panel discusses their favorite Canadian cultural products. Email us at culturefest@slate.com. Endorsements Dana: An audiobook which revolutionized the way Dana thinks about Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway read by Juliet Stevenson (of Truly, Madly, Deeply fame). June: The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War by Louis Menand about a wide range of ideas from World War 2 to The Cold War. Steve: An essay by general interest writer and professor Justin E. H. Smith, titled “The Punk-Prophet Philosophy of Michel Houellebecq,” for Foreign Policy, in which he writes an uninhibitedly intelligent assessment of the famed French novelist and essayist. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Nadira Goffe. Outro music is "I Want a Change" by The Big Let Down. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts, a bonus segment in each episode of the Culture Gabfest, full access to Slate's journalism on Slate.com, and more. Sign up now at slate.com/cultureplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justin Smith, author, "The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is" Tomaš Dvořák - "Game Boy Tune" - "Mark's intro" [0:01:30] - "Interview with Justin E. H. Smith" [0:03:55] - "Mark's comments" [0:39:45] Colin Potter - "The State" [0:54:53] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/114234

Our memory is collective. The only reason we know more than the previous generations isn't that we have genetically superior brains, it's because the previous generations left us their Cliffs Notes—from building cars to curing diseases. *Special thanks to actor Steve Little for lending his voice to this project. Recommend Books: The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake (http://amzn.to/1T9IlRO) by William Blake Fahrenheit 451 (http://amzn.to/1T9InZU) by Ray Bradbury I, Robot (http://amzn.to/1TzpLQe) by Isaac Asimov The Philosopher: A History in Six Types (https://amzn.to/2xgiuTA) by Justin E. H. Smith Music Ross Bugden – Chosen, Still Gillicuddy – Springish Blue Dot Sessions – Celestial Navigation, Our Digital Compass, An Accumulation, The Zeppelin We can't continue to produce important episodes like this one without your solidarity. There is no Southpaw network without your financial support. In return, not only do you help produce our shows but you also get access to more great content. It's mutual aid. Find our Patreon, swag, and other ways to support us at: https://www.southpawpod.com You can find Southpaw on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: @SouthpawPod

What does it mean to be a philosopher? What does it mean to DO Philosophy? What are the boundaries of philosophy as a discipline? These are just some of the themes that have pervaded the work of Justin Smith. Justin Smith is a professor of philosophy in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Paris, and he has written several books, including the upcoming “The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning” out March 22nd 2022.Justin and Greg dive deep into Justin's 2016 book “The Philosopher: A History in Six Types,” what it means to be a modern philosopher, the “bookshelf classification” problem, and how philosophy can address the modern economy of attention. Episode Quotes:On social media:And rather than social media being truly subjected to democratic oversight, things are going to continue to get worse. In terms of the topsy turvy social upheaval of social mobbing that is, in a sense, ruining everything. You can't do anything in the way you could have expected to do it 10 years ago.And in terms of the universal surveillance that these new technologies are affording, these things are just going to keep getting worse and worse until there's real democratic oversight. And that's going to be extremely hard. And I think that it's only going to come after a period of worsening of the conditions of our social life together up to a point where people just won't take it anymore.Philosophy as an academic discipline:Now, I think philosophy as an academic discipline has failed tremendously to discover interesting things about how we think. Because what it in fact ends up doing is reflecting on the way “we,” not Qua* human beings, but “we, Qua* WEIRD, 21st century wealthy, educated Americans take things to be.The importance of philosophy:One thing is that we live in a world where we're side by side, neighbor by neighbor, with people we don't understand. People who are strangers to us and of whom we're extremely suspicious and this leads to constant conflict. And one thing about this approach that I am promoting is that it enables a kind of humility.Once you start to realize all of the delirious range of ways people have made sense of the world around them and still somehow managed to thrive, even though these ways are totally foreign from the way we make sense of the world. Modern philosophy:So there's this new demand to find philosophy where we weren't detecting it before. That's coming down almost as a kind of administrative pressure - like philosophers, at least in the United States are under pressure to do this. And ironically for me, it's making them open, but also somewhat inconsistent because even though they're becoming more open about what can count as philosophy, they're still pretending, there is somewhere, a well-defined demarcation such that such that John Locke is a philosopher and Lawrence Stern is not, right?Show Links:Guest Profile:Professional Profile at Paris Diderot UniversityJustin E. H. Smith's WebsiteJustin E. H. Smith on TwitterHis work:Justin E.H Smith on SubstackThe Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a WarningIrrationality: A History of the Dark Side of ReasonNature, Human Nature, and Human Difference: Race in Early Modern PhilosophyThe Philosopher: A History in Six TypesDivine Machines: Leibniz and the Sciences of Life

In this episode, I speak with the philosopher, podcaster, and substacker extraordinaire, Justin E.H. Smith about Cormac McCarthy's fourth novel, Suttree. We were both struck by how different this novel is from McCarthy's later, more famous works—both in its style and in its literary ambitions. We resist the common temptation to read McCarthy as a nihilist; we puzzle over the beginning and the end of the novel, and how they relate to one another; and quite generally we just had a great time trying to figure out what McCarthy was up to in this beautiful and somewhat mystifying novel about one man's journey into the depths of the seedy underbelly of Knoxville, Tennessee. I hope you enjoy our conversation! Jennifer Frey is an associate Professor of Philosophy and a Peter and Bonnie McCausland Fellow at the University of South Carolina, as well as a fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and the Word on Fire Institute. Prior to joining the philosophy faculty at USC, she was a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts and an affiliated faculty in the philosophy department. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, and her B.A. in Philosophy and Medieval Studies (with a Classics minor) at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. She has published widely on action, virtue, practical reason, and meta-ethics, and has recently co-edited an interdisciplinary volume, Self-Transcendence and Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology. Her writing has also been featured in Breaking Ground, First Things, Fare Forward, Image, Law and Liberty, The Point, and USA Today. She lives in Columbia, SC, with her husband, six children, and six chickens. You can follow her on Twitter @jennfrey. Click here to find the podcast on your preferred streaming platform, my social media profiles, and recent episodes! Subscribe Become a Patron! Preview on iTunes Sacred and Profane Love is a podcast in which philosophers, theologians, and literary critics discuss some of their favorite works of literature, and how these works have shaped their own ideas about love, happiness, and meaning in human life. Host Jennifer A. Frey is associate professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina. The podcast is generously supported by The Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and produced by Catholics for Hire. Audio Edited & Music Produced by Anthony Monson

Episode 47: Justin E. H. Smith by Sacred and Profane Love

In this episode of “Keen On”, Andrew is joined by Justin E.H. Smith, the author of “The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning”. Justin E.H. Smith is currently professor of philosophy in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Paris. He writes literary non-fiction, poetry, and fiction, and he also translates poetry. He is the former John and Constance Birkelund Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers of the New York Public Library. Visit our website: https://lnkd.in/gZNKTyc7 Email Andrew: a.keen@me.com Watch the show live on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ajkeen Watch the show live on LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/gatW6J8v Watch the show live on Facebook: https://lnkd.in/gjzVnTkY Watch the show on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gDwPgesS Subscribe to Andrew's newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gzwFsxPV Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode, Justin E. H. Smith joins Mark Bauerlein to discuss his new book, "The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning."

Justin E. H. Smith joins Mark Bauerlein to discuss his new book, “The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning.”

Justin E. H. Smith joins Mark Bauerlein to discuss his new book, “The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning.”

Philosopher and historian of technology Justin E. H. Smith has been diving into the past to see where our dreams about the internet have come from. And he has a warning for what he thinks is going wrong in how things have evolved in recent years — and what tech might be doing to us as learners and thinkers. Understanding that past, he argues, can help make a course correction.

For Valentine's Day, there was only one question “What Is X” could ask, one that thinkers through the ages, from Plato to Howard Jones, have not managed to answer: What is love? In this episode, Justin E. H. Smith is joined by New School media studies professor Dominic Pettman, the author of books such as Peak Libido and Creaturely Love, for a wide-ranging discussion of desire, romance and what it means to be completed by someone (or something) else. Starting with Plato's Symposium, they move on to Agamben and Badiou, Leibniz and Lacan, Proust and Fourier, Spinoza and Berlant. (One lesson from this episode: philosophers might be our best aphorists of love.) With these thinkers, they're prepared to tackle the big issues: the tension between love of hyper-singularity and love for the generic nature of humanity; whether love is work or grace; how Aristophanes predicted Sex and the City; whether you can marry the Berlin Wall, or a white-naped crane; and just how it is love is a concept we can use to describe both our romantic partners and the crucial cup of coffee we have each morning.

I talk to philosopher Justin E. H. Smith (author of 'Irrationality') about why, in his view, people know everything a priori, and therefore never change their minds. It's a wild ride. Also discussed: Bigfoot, Pascal's Wager, and what even *is* “rationality” anyway? Become a supporter at https://www.patreon.com/changedmymind Email us at changedmymindpod@gmail.com Subscribe to my Substack at https://luketharrington.substack.com Visit Justin at https://www.jehsmith.com

When it comes to gender, there are many big questions that people often get stuck on. On this episode of “What X?," Justin E. H. Smith asks Robin Dembroff, a professor of feminist and LGBTQ philosophy at Yale, to help untangle them. Justin and Robin start off by disambiguating sex and gender, with some help from the philosophical vocabulary of essence and telos. Gender, Robin argues, is the entire process of defining, classifying, and regulating people according not only to their body parts but on the basis of ideas of maleness and masculinity, and femaleness and femininity. The result: a set of norms and expectations that guide the direction of one's life—and whose enforcement makes us miserable. If this is true, can any of these labels be salient identifications without limiting us? And if not, can we even imagine a life without gender?And a special note from the host on Season 2: “I realized over the course of Season 1 that I'm not nearly as convincing a Socrates-figure as I had imagined. But this may be another way of saying I'm a better conversationalist than I thought myself to be. I find I generally agree with people, at least during the time I'm speaking with them, while afterwards their spell begins slowly to wear off and I recall all the more enduring commitments I have that are in fact in tension with all the things I was nodding along to just a short time before. This might seem contradictory, hypocritical even, to some who position themselves in the world as polemicists or fighters for some particular cause. But everyone believes what they believe for what at least they take to be good reasons, and it's worth learning what those are. Part of that learning is the effort we undertake in conversation to put ourselves in their position, and to see what things look like when we agree with them. So, while this podcast still strives toward a determination of Agreement (marked by the sound of bells), Disagreement (goat's bleat), or Aporia (wind), the goat has turned out to be a rare character on this show. I make no apologies for that.”

Say you're researching your ancestry, and you hit a dead end: the genealogical trail goes cold. Is it really a dead end? Or might this open up new ways of understanding who we are and how we came to be? In other words: What do we mean when we say something exists in our historical memory? Can we actually remember historical events that you were not alive to see? On this week's episode of “What Is X?,” Justin E. H. Smith talks to writer and critic Julian Lucas about memory, and historical memory in particular. Justin asks, what is the relationship between memory and the historical record? Julian defines "memory" as a presentist, personal relationship to the past, one that is mediated by places, objects, and ritual practices—it is an approach to history that brings it into conversation with the lives we lead today. Over the course of an hour, Julian and Justin discuss the uses and misuses of history (cf. corporate appropriations of MLK), occasional bad vibes of historical reenactments, the poetry of Derek Walcott, and what African diaspora memory practices can teach us about the contingencies of history. Most pressingly, they try to uncover the root of Justin's childhood conviction that his grandfather was George Washington.

Justin: It is morally imperative to not say true things on social media ... Why Justin loves Substack ... Pros and cons of writing without an editor ... AOC's real audience at the Met Gala ... Are social media editors purposefully riling up the mob? ... Sally Rooney and Israel, the Twitter Discourse perfect storm ... The "false representative class" of online pundits ...

Justin: It is morally imperative to not say true things on social media ... Why Justin loves Substack ... Pros and cons of writing without an editor ... AOC's real audience at the Met Gala ... Are social media editors purposefully riling up the mob? ... Sally Rooney and Israel, the Twitter Discourse perfect storm ... The "false representative class" of online pundits ...

I talk to philosopher Justin E. H. Smith (author of 'Irrationality') about why, in his view, people know everything a priori, and therefore never change their minds. This is a preview of a bonus episode available exclusively to Patreon supporters. Become a supporter at https://www.patreon.com/changedmymind Email us at changedmymindpod@gmail.com Visit Justin at https://www.jehsmith.com

Since the mid-twentieth century, there has been an ongoing quarrel over the definition of mental health: Are disorders like depression, OCD, or schizophrenia biologically determined or are they socially constructed?In this episode of “What Is X?,” Justin E. H. Smith talks to Danielle Carr about the history of psychiatry and the politics of madness, from 1930s asylums and the DSM to the antipsychiatry movement and Elon Musk's newest hobby: neural implants. They discuss the big business of mental health in our therapeutic society—evident in the popularity of mental wellness apps, the proliferation of SSRIs, and Silicon Valley's fascination with brain chemistry. But could the extent and prevalence of everyday unhappiness point to problems that medicine and technology can't solve? Do they call for changing the social conditions that contribute to these feelings of loneliness and immiseration? “Mental health,” Carr argues, “is a terrain of struggle over the question of what human flourishing is and how to achieve it.” Does Justin agree?

I've always been interested in the quest for rationality in public policy, and I've surprisingly encountered resistance here and there amongst people saying that humans are at their core irrational beings. What is the proper balance, then, between logic and emotion in Rational decision making? Wanting to explore this thought, I've sought out an expert on the topic. Justin E. H. Smith is professor of the history and philosophy of science at the University of Paris. He is the author, among other books, of Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason (Princeton University Press, 2019), and of the forthcoming The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is (Princeton, 2021). He writes a regular Substack newsletter at https://justinehsmith.substack.com. Follow me at https://therationalview.podbean.com Join the discussion at https://facebook.com/groups/therationalview Insta @the_rational_view Twitter @AlScottRational #TheRationalView #podcast #evidencebased #science #reason #emotion #rationality #irrationality #judgement 

Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason by Justin E. H. Smith Jehsmith.com A fascinating history that reveals the ways in which the pursuit of rationality often leads to an explosion of irrationality It's a story we can't stop telling ourselves. Once, humans were benighted by superstition and irrationality, but then the Greeks invented reason. Later, the Enlightenment […] The post Chris Voss Podcast – Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason by Justin E. H. Smith appeared first on Chris Voss Official Website.

Justin's recent NYT op-ed, "The End of Satire" ... Neo-Nazi memes and satire from the bottom ... How Justin's views about free speech have changed ... The line between satire and fake news ... Our surreal reality, where Trump's "gorilla channel" seems plausible ... In the age of Trump, what's the use of satire? ... Justin's new book, Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason ...

In this episode of The Good Fight, Yascha Mounk talks to Justin E. H. Smith, Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the Sorbonne, and one of our time's most thoughtful and wide-ranging essayists, about the assault on rationality in our politics and how (not to) respond. Email: thegoodfight@newamerica.org Twitter:@Yascha_Mounk This podcast was made in collaboration with New America. Podcast production by John T. Williams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justin E. H. Smith‘s new book is a fascinating historical ontology of notions of racial difference in the work of early modern European writers. Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference: Race in Early Modern Philosophy (Princeton University Press, 2015) argues that “in order to understand the forces that shaped thinking about racial difference in early modern philosophy, we must look to the philosophers' own interest in a scientific classification and physical anthropology, with an eye to the way these projects were influenced by early modern globalization and by the associated projects of global commerce, collection, and systematization of the order of nature.” The resulting book is a thoughtful contribution to both the history of philosophy and science in early modernity, and to the modern history of concepts of race and identity, and is highly recommended to readers and teachers in both fields. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justin E. H. Smith‘s new book is a fascinating historical ontology of notions of racial difference in the work of early modern European writers. Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference: Race in Early Modern Philosophy (Princeton University Press, 2015) argues that “in order to understand the forces that shaped thinking about racial difference in early modern philosophy, we must look to the philosophers' own interest in a scientific classification and physical anthropology, with an eye to the way these projects were influenced by early modern globalization and by the associated projects of global commerce, collection, and systematization of the order of nature.” The resulting book is a thoughtful contribution to both the history of philosophy and science in early modernity, and to the modern history of concepts of race and identity, and is highly recommended to readers and teachers in both fields. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices