#ttbook

[heatherannchristie]

[heatherannchristie]

His name was A Path Lit by Lightning.

[heatherannchristie]

I wish they went a little deeper but it was interesting. I'm really surprised that we are still giving credence to reading a brain from an MRI scan. I'm pretty sure that has been shown to be ineffective.

[garudabluffs]

The Communist Manifesto still inspires

China Mieville is a writer best known for speculative fiction, but he's also written a lot about Marxism, most recently in a history of the Communist Manifesto called “A Spectre, Haunting."

LISTEN 15:36 https://www.ttbook.org/interview/communist-manifesto-still-inspires

The radical philosopher mapping the crises of capitalism February 11, 2023

"Radical politics and radical movements are on the rise everywhere. Against racial violence, and climate change; against gender inequality, corporate greed, low wages, oil pipelines, opioids.  Maybe at heart they all have a common cause.  Maybe they're all — in one way or another — a rebellion against capitalism."

"Over four decades, philosopher Nancy Fraser has worked to expose the deep roots that connect all the crises of our time: racial violence, environmental devastation, the impoverishment of families, challenges to democracy. Think of each as the toxic byproducts of capitalism."

LISTEN 18:50 https://www.ttbook.org/interview/radical-philosopher-mapping-crises-capitalism

[smoresbored]

Secrets of Alchemy

We explore the ancient, obscure, occult science and art of alchemy — it turns out to be a lot more relevant to our lives than you’d believe.

Alchemical studies...

[weirdmormonshit]

View this post on Instagram

Why cognitive dissonance is actually a good thing

Thought experiment:

Imagine you had no absolutely no fear in accomplishing whatever important goal you have for your life. Imagine that this new lack of fear allows you to earn exactly whatever it is you want. Prestige, money, fame, stability… Imagine it’s happening. Feels pretty good, right? Fear can be an inhibitor of our dreams.

Now continue the experiment to imagine you actually had no fear about anything: traffic, cliffs, grabbing a cop’s gun as a joke, jumping off a bridge, eating a handful of worms you found under a dead body... you see where I'm going with this? Fear, as a governing emotion, clearly has a useful function in life. But the problem we face is the recursive nature of fear. It builds on itself in its own evolutionary way. Of course it does that, though. That’s the job of fear. But that's why it requires balance.

Nature obviously rewards the counter balance of extreme fear: those who have a strong sense of courage and vulnerability are the ones who make all of the right business/romantic/public moves.

This concept, that fear is both good and bad for us—it's not as simple as saying the "right" kind of fear, or the "correct amount" of fear because each situation is unique and every move is independent.

So what does it mean for something to simultaneously be good and bad? How can that be reconciled?

Chuck Klosterman explains on an episode of “To the Best of Our Knowledge” that cognitive dissonance is actually good for us, and it’s necessary for critical thinking.

Photo by 92YTribeca

“You’ve got to be able to hold two contradictory thoughts in your head at the same time or you’re not going to be able to think critically.

If you can’t [do that], any time you get into a debate... you’re not going to be able to understand how these differing ideas are somehow interrelated... that there’s an interlocking of all things that seem opposed.”

—Chuck Klosterman

As the interviewer says, “cognitive dissonance gets a bad rap" because it's a miserable experience. It's not comfortable to wrestle with the insecurity of uncertainty. But it's that messy grind—that struggle—that makes the exit from Plato's cave of ignorance possible.

Fuck cognitive dissonance—Long live cognitive dissonance!

[chezshari]

Russ Meyer was a film director known for his sexploitation films full of campy humor, clever satire and women with very large breasts. Most of his movies were very successful. But "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" was not. It was a box office flop when it was originally released in August 1965. But since then, it's gone on to become a cult classic. Dean DeFino tells us why "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" is worth watching and re-watching.

[thesilenceaudible]

Making Knowledge

My first week on the job at To the Best of Our Knowledge has been a crash course is seeing how radio gets made—and it still hasn't lost any of the magic. This morning I sat in as next weekend's show on "dual identities" was mixed. Pictured, left to right: producer Rehman Tungekar, host Anne Strainchamps in the recording booth, and engineer Caryl Owen. You can just make me out as a reflection above Anne's head.