Today I have a different kind of guest than I usually do. He's a fantasy and sci-fi author by the name of Christopher Paolini. You may be aware of his best-selling young adult fantasy book Eragon, which he wrote at the age of 15 and was also made into a major-budget film. The rest of the books in that series are Eldest, Brisingr, and Inheritance. You may also be aware of his more recent sci-fi novel called "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars". I've been a huge fan of Christopher for a very long time, and it was an honor to pick his brain. 
In this episode, we talk about Christopher's writing process, the art of storytelling, the difference between young adult fiction and adult fiction, his strange path to becoming an author, the shortening of our collective attention spans, and much more. This was really one of my favorite recent interviews, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Art Of Storytelling with Christopher Paolini (S3 Ep.36)

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Rob Henderson discusses his memoir and the impact of his early life experiences. He challenges the overemphasis on education as a measure of success and highlights the importance of stable family structures. Rob also questions the narrative of overcoming trauma and the limitations of post-traumatic growth. He acknowledges that some foster parents have ulterior motives, such as financial gain. Additionally, he explores gender differences in foster care and the challenges of addressing single parent homes. The conversation covers topics like the importance of two-parent homes in the neighborhood, the influence of background on work on luxury beliefs, using race as a proxy for disadvantage, the hypocrisy of luxury beliefs, the effectiveness of therapy, and the ethics of surrogacy.

From Foster Care to Cambridge with Rob Henderson

Today we discuss Abigail Shrier's new book, "Bad Therapy". She explains the harmful effects of therapy, particularly on children and adolescents, and the risks associated with overdiagnosis and overmedication. Shrier also explores the treatment prevalence paradox, where the rates of mental health issues continue to rise despite increased access to therapy. She emphasizes the importance of authoritative parenting and the negative impact of excessive mental health interventions in schools. Additionally, she discusses the controversy surrounding ADHD diagnosis and the ineffectiveness of drug education programs. We discuss the impact of mental health surveys on children, the influence of social media on mental health, the role of mental health professionals in social contagions, the rarity of happiness, the power of exposure therapy and the therapeutic approach, the contagion of Tourette's on TikTok, the controversy surrounding multiple personality disorder, the overdiagnosis of seasonal affective disorder, the importance of exposure therapy in dealing with anxiety, and the implications for parents in approaching therapy.

Is Therapy Bad for You? with Abigail Shrier

My guest today is Mary Harrington. Mary is a writer and contributing editor at UnHerd. She's the author of a great book called Feminism Against Progress. In this episode, we talk about her general critique of feminism, we talk about what she calls progress theology, we talk about the changing social status of motherhood, we talk about the Barbie movie, gender dysphoria, and much more

Feminism Under The Microscope with Mary Harrington

My guest today is Philip Goff. Philip is a philosophy professor at Durham University. He's the author of Galileo's Error and Why the Purpose of the Universe.

Philip believes that science gives us objective reasons to believe that there's value in the universe and he comes at this from a very different angle than say Sam Harris, who reaches the same conclusion for different reasons in his book, The Moral Landscape. Philip relies heavily on the so-called fine tuning argument. So we talk a lot about that in this podcast. We also talk about Philip's theory of panagentialism and much more.

Why? The Purpose of the Universe with Philip Goff

My guest today is Cindy Yu. Cindy Yu is an assistant editor at the Spectator Magazine, and she's the host of the "Chinese Whispers" podcast, which is actually one of my favorite podcasts.

We talk about whether China will invade Taiwan. We talk about whether the West should adopt a Cold War-like mentality towards China. We discuss the phenomenon of Chinese espionage in the West. We talk about the wave of immigration from Hong Kong into the UK. We discuss the nosedive in China's birthrate over the past 10 years. We talk about the so-called century of humiliation. We talk about the legacy of Xi Jinping. We also talk about the apparent futility of the democracy movement in China and much more.

The Art Of Storytelling with Christopher Paolini (S3 Ep.36)

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