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‘Doom’ and Boom

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Rob's out in an interview with Greg Gutfield, so it's just Peter and James this week. Even so we've got a packed podcast-full of wonders and terrors. First up is Niall Ferguson to discuss his brand new book, Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe. He and the hosts explore our fascination with disaster. (Be sure to catch his interview with Peter on Uncommon Knowledge as well!) Then they're joined by Stephen Meyer, who has a new book of his own: Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal The Mind Behind The Universe. (We've got UK episode for that as well!) Also, Peter is shocked to learn Biden's economy is sputtering and James sets the record straight-on what, you ask? Listen to find out.

Music from this week's episode: God Only Knows by the Beach Boys.

Hosts:
James LileksPeter Robinson
Guests:
Niall FergusonStephen Meyer

Discussion (70)

  • Mark Alexander@MarkAlexander
    Please, give us more experimental genetic vaccines that skip several stages of testing and lack FDA approval. Thank goodness we can be sure such new genetic vaccines have no negative longterm consequences. The relevant authorities have a solid history of accuracy. Whew!
  • Mark Alexander@MarkAlexander

    “The U.S. did not become a slave state... “ Hmmm. I suppose the classic definition of a slave is one who is forced to labor and keeps zero percent of the fruits.

    Does that mean that if I get 1% of the fruits, I’m not a slave? 5%? 10%?

    At what point am I no longer a slave? 25%? 49%?

    Some gut feeling tells me that I have to keep at minimum 50% of the fruits of my labor to claim I am not a slave.

    But... when I add up both Fed and state income taxes, property taxes, all the required “licenses” and fees and surcharges and excises (especially hidden in utility bills), and all the time (time=money) sucked up by bureaucratic requirements and costs for mandated this and supplemental that...

    Not to mention all the people who live off of taxpayers and are slaves of another sort...

    Yeah, we are living in a slave state, but not of the obvious communist variety... but give it space enough and time...

    (Don’t wash your hands of me, James... I have much to recommend me. 😷)

  • kedavis@kedavis

    I think James is wrong to say that observing the light of a star while a planet passes in front of it, is "information." That's just an observation, "information" is what we derive from it Or one could say that the observation itself is "information," but that requires an intelligence to observe it. Without that, nobody would even notice the change in light.

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