Episodes

Dr. Gregg Henriques talks to Jim about his unified theory of psychology; clinical vs scientific, postmodernism, justification theory, Gameb, shadow work, and much more... Dr. Gregg Henriques talks to Jim about the many facets of his unified theory of psychology -- basic vs human psychology, the value of folk psych, the field of psychology compared to other academic fields, clinical vs scientific psych & what can be learned from the medical field, pros & cons of unifying theories, postmodern infl...

In this Currents episode, Jim talks to Michael Vassar about how he defines the passive-aggressive revolution & the ways it could manifest in the US, how the George Floyd protests impact the revolution, police bureaucracy vs bad actors, potential investigative & prosecution rights for private citizens, Trump's church photo op, the pandemic economic response, Trump voter types, white nationalism, and more. Episode Transcript Michael Vassar is an American futurist, activist, and entrepreneur. He is...

Jake Bornstein talks to Jim about Game A vs Gameb, exploration vs exploitation, uncertainty & clarity, leadership, decentralization, psycho-tech, and much more... Jake Bornstein talks to Jim about what he learned from his eclectic career, understanding value, competing with Game A, collapse-first vs construction-first approaches to systems change, how Talentism works with & impacts Game A, corporate exploration vs exploitation, the cognitive science behind Talentism's processes, non-adaptive res...

In this Currents episode, Jim talks to Joe Norman about appropriately-sized community collaboration, family & local organization, government & market dysfunctions, cooperation-based sacrifice, bad actors & sociopaths, unique dynamics of local markets, localism as a complex ecosystem, emergence, the limits of diversification & trade, multi-scale localism, wicked societal risks, the politicization of masks, and more. Episode Transcript Joe's Community Tweet Jim's article, A Journey To GameB Joe Ro...

Zak Stein talks to Jim about, societal change, intergenerational transmission, the nature of education, teacherly authority, parenting, schooling, and much more... Zak Stein has a wide-ranging talk with Jim about our culture's dwindling capacity to understand & address today's increasingly complex problems. Zak starts by defining this moment as a time between worlds & draws its connection to societal transformation. They go on to talk about the meta crisis, intergenerational transmission, negati...

Arthur Brock talks to Jim about Holochain -- agent-centric design, key management, data integrity, validation, zomes, DNA, hApp's, search, HOT token, and much more... Arthur Brock & Fernanda Ibarra talk to Jim about how Holochain works, its agent-centric design & how it's different from Etherium and Blockchain, key management, intrinsic data integrity, decentralized validation, micro-service development architecture, zomes, DNA, hApp's, UI development, distributed hash tables & searchability, go...

In this Currents episode, Jim talks to Brian Hanley about his view on the economic impact & recovery of COVID-19, the dramatic social impacts emerging, his views & experience with vaccine creation, vaccine risks & effectiveness, his proposal for rolling out vaccines immediately, immunity dynamics, and more. Episode Transcript Brian Hanley is the founder and chief scientist for Butterfly Sciences. Brian holds a Microbiology PhD from UC Davis with honors completed in under three years. Brian guest...

Jack Murphy talks to Jim about The Liminal Order, attacks on masculinity, gender, post-modernism, impacts of social justice, racism, Trump, localism, and much more... Jack Murphy talks to Jim about his professional & political background, why he started The Liminal Order, his book, Democrat to Deplorable, the left's attack on masculinity, Jack's view on the manosphere & men's rights movement, the toxic masculinity meme, gender equality vs equity, post-modernism, the authoritarian left, Gameb, id...

Robert Conan Ryan talks with Jim about Neo Schumpeterianism: boom & bust cycles, 6 paradigms, organic vs digital, meaning-making, utopias, and much more... Robert Conan Ryan talks with Jim about Neo Schumpeterian economic theory, booms & busts dynamics, leverage cycles, golden ages, nuclear power propaganda & legislation, 5 paradigms of Neo Schumpeterianism & the emerging 6th organic paradigm, organic vs digital dynamics, the cultural dimension of revolution, culturally constructed & leveraged e...

In this inaugural Currents episode, Jim talks to Simon DeDeo about speech censorship at elite Anglosphere universities, differing generational perspectives on personal liberty, the coddled mind & postmodern neo-Marxist theories, Simon's platonic cocktail party model, hospitality as a norm, College incentives, alternate metaphors for collective education, and more. Episode Transcript Simon on Twitter Jonathan Haidt Jordan Peterson Simon DeDeo is an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon Universit...

Hanzi Freinacht talks to Jim about his book, Nordic Ideology; code, depth, complexity, cultural changeability, attractor points, game change, protopia, and much more... Hanzi Freinacht, political philosopher, historian, sociologist, & author talks with Jim about effective value memes, cultural code, what it means to have high depth, dynamics of cognitive complexity, the changeability of culture & systems, social engineering, compulsion vs seduction, prioritizing subjective states, cultural attra...

Jim talks to John Robb about Defeat Disinfo, memetic armies, emerging economic implications of COVID-19, wicked risks, the break up of US, and more... In this short extra episode, Jim talks to John Robb about the implication of Defeat Disinfo & how social platforms might respond, memetic armies & street fights, weak political responses to the pandemic, the emerging economic implications of COVID-19, the long-term complexity perspective, wicked risks & robust response methodologies, potential reg...

Steven Levy talks with Jim about his new book, Facebook: The Inside Story. Which covers the people, circumstances & philosophies that define Facebook. Steven Levy has a wide-ranging conversation with Jim about his new book, Facebook: The Inside Story. They cover Steven's multi-year access to Facebook & Mark Zuckerberg while researching the book, Facebook’s initial denial of impact on the 2016 election, hate speech vs free speech, engagement metric incentives, micro-targeting & political advertis...

Richard Bartlett talks to Jim about his experiences with decentralized work & organization, Gameb, group size dynamics, big change movements & much more... Richard Bartlett talks to Jim about his experiences with decentralized work & organization, transitioning from game a to Gameb, models for financial solidarity, technology-first vs psychology-first approaches to collaboration, dyad vs crew vs congregation dynamics, competency-based networks, practices vs principles, moving podcasts towards co...

In this short extra episode, Jim talks to John Robb about network decision making & consensus vs dissent dynamics, COVID as a decision making test, herd immunity vs social distancing, key population dynamics, John’s big tech solution & its main roadblocks, reflections on UBI & stimulus, the value of simple solutions, the failed US political response & potential fixes, regional compacts & local responses, managing the backside of the curve, broad testing feasibility, and more. Episode Transcript ...

Joe Brewer talks to Jim about homeostasis in living systems, future collapse, fat-tail risks, evolutionary transitions, collaboration, bioregionalism, and much more... Joe Brewer talks to Jim about the memetics of regeneration & its connection to homeostasis in living systems, eco pessimism & Joe's view of future collapse, foodchain fragility, fat-tail risks, the role of emotions in existential risk, understanding manufacturing disruptions, potential silver linings in collapse, incremental vs tr...

In this short extra episode, Jim talks to Nora Bateson about how the pandemic is changing our relationship to time & mortality, recontextualizing the essential, non-linear future speculation, opportunities & dangers, the fragility of efficiency, changing how we work & travel, our political priorities, prioritizing community, family, locality, health and more. Episode Transcript JRS: EP30 Nora Bateson on Complexity & the Transcontextual Nora Bateson is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and educa...

In this short extra episode, Jim talks to Michelle Girvan about the network dynamics of COVID-19 spread, fat-tailed risks, unintuitive network insights, social distancing dynamics, efficiency vs robustness, challenges of modeling the backside of the curve, the need for testing, economic analysis, potential corporate roles, the Network Epidemiology Online Workshop Series, and more. Episode Transcript JRS: Extra: On COVID-19 Strategies with Robin Hanson JRS: Extra: On COVID-19 Opportunities with J...

Laurence Gonzales talks to Jim about his book “Deep Survival” a look at survival in extreme conditions from a cognitive science & “you are there” POV, and more... Author Laurence Gonzales talks to Jim about his book “Deep Survival” a fascinating look at survival in extreme conditions from both a cognitive science and “you are there” narrative perspective. Includes: multiple survival stories, the value of being cool in survival situations, preparing for an emergency, his perceive & believe heuris...

In this short extra episode, Jim talks to Jessica Flack about stressing & testing cultural organization styles, optimizing for wholistic robustness, acting-oriented sensemaking, a department of wicked risks, top-down vs bottom-up response dynamics, liminal spaces, speculative market safeguard techniques, long-term thinking, safety nets, inequality, and more. Episode Transcript JRS: EP48 Jessica Flack on Complex System Dynamics Hedonometer Long-Term Stock Exchange Jessica Flack is a professor at ...

In this short extra episode, Jim talks to Robin Hanson about possible dosage related effects on exposure and the related trade-offs of viral dose & deliberate infection strategies, the need for more investment in robustness, capacity vs flexibility, optimizing for adaptability, our lack of leadership, and more. Episode Transcript JRS: EP2 Robin Hanson – Decision Making and “The Age of Em” Robin Hanson is an Associate Professor of Economics, and received his Ph.D in 1997 in social sciences from C...

In this short extra episode, Jim talks to Simon DeDeo about what moving out of social isolation could be like, social norms for risk management, the wide diversity of COVID reactions, making sense personally & collectively, homeostasis & hysteresis, post-COVID impacts on data privacy, travel, free time, education, and more. Episode Transcript Simon's post on Getting the quarantine end game right... JRS: EP1 Simon DeDeo – The Evolution of Consciousness Simon DeDeo is an Assistant Professor at Car...

Jessica Flack talks to Jim about causality in complex systems, theoretical biology, emergence, agent-based modeling, social policing, & much more... Professor Jessica Flack talks to Jim about micro vs macro causality in complex systems, coarse-graining, primate power hierarchies, downward causation, robustness, free will as a feeling, consciousness theories, theoretical biology, laws in adaptive systems, the non-spookiness of emergence, her work's philosophical connections, question asking vs an...

In this short extra episode, Jim talks to Bonnitta Roy about what it means to ‘stay with the trouble’, habitual behavior, the value of reflection, consumerism, scarcity & abundance, resourcefulness, the allure of going back to the rat race, system dependence vs interconnection, lack of community in the capitalist system, Game B, the downsides & narrow capabilities of monetary efficiency, and more. Episode Transcript Referenced Quote Bonnitta Roy teaches insight practices for individuals who are ...