Beautiful Illusions

Visit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode

Selected References:

• 2:41 - The Darwin Fish
• 2:59 - “...you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone” (BobDylan.com) from “The Times They Are A-Changin’” (YouTube video)
• 3:18 - See “What is Darwin’s Theory of Evolution” (LiveScience, 2018) and “Darwin and His Theory of Evolution” (Pew Research Center)
• 7:23 - Charles Darwin
• 10:33 - See “Darwin on a Godless Creation: “It’s like confessing to a murder”” (Scientific American, 2009)
• 10:42 - The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin
• 12:40 - The best current fossil evidence suggests that the divergence of humans and chimps began as early as 13 million years ago but it was not a clean split and some hybridization may have been occurring as late as 4 million years ago, so the 6-7 million year number stated in the podcast should not be taken as definitive in any way, for more see the “Chimpanzee-human last common ancestor” Wikipedia entry and “Fossil Reveals What Last Common Ancestor of Humans and Apes Looked Like” (Scientific American, 2017)
• 12:51 - See the “Tree of life” Wikipedia entry and “What is the Tree of Life?” (Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History)
• 14:33 - The “Copernican Revolution” (Wikipedia) actually began during the 16th century, approximately 300 years before Darwin’s time, but certainly did alter human perception of our place in the Universe, for more see “Copernicus’ revolution and Galileo’s vision, in pictures” (EarthSky.org)
• 18:38 - Naturalism
• 18:53 - The mind being a product of the brain is a somewhat controversial assertion, although basically accepted by naturalists who root all causes in the physical, but for more see the “Mind-body problem” Wikipedia entry
• 22:34 - See “Galileo vs The Inquisition: The Real Story”, excerpted from The Patterning Instinct by Jeremy Lent
• 23:05 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 02 - “Our Back Pages”
• 23:33 - See Hamnet (Goodreads), and “The Real 'Hamnet' Died Centuries Ago, But This Novel Is Timeless” (NPR, 2020)
• 29:07 - Existentialism
• 29:53 - See “Maybe You're Not an Atheist–Maybe You're a Naturalist Like Sean Carroll” (Wired, 2016), and “Existential Therapy from the Universe: Physicist Sean Carroll on How Poetic Naturalism Illuminates Our Human Search for Meaning” (Brainpickings)
• 31:09 - The Big Lebowski
• 35:41 - See the “Film noir” Wikipedia entry, “Essential Noir Films: Sean Geraghty on THE BIG LEBOWSKI” (The Black List), and “Is The Big Lebowski a Great Noir Film? A New Way to Look at the Coen Brothers’ Iconic Movie” (Open Culture)
• 36:19 - Kurzgesagt (YouTube Channel) and Kurzgesagt website
• 36:35 - “How Evolution Works” by Kurzgesagt (YouTube video)
• 36:42 - “Optimistic Nihilism” by Kurzgesagt (YouTube video)
• 36:57 - The absurd
• 37:52 - See the entry on Sisyphus from the Ancient History Encyclopedia and The Myth of Sisyphus Wikipedia entry
• 40:00 - Watch the final scene of The Big Lebowski (YouTube video)
• 42:37 - “...it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only” (BobDylan.com) from “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” (YouTube video)
• 43:20 - Listen to the section of “Part of Your World” (YouTube video) from The Little Mermaid starting at 1:24 in the linked video
• 43:38 - Listen to the section of “Space Oddity” (YouTube video) by David Bowie starting at 3:22
• 44:55 - According to Joni Mitchell’s official website the line is actually “I don't know who I am, But you know life is for learning” - listen to the Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young cover of “Woodstock” (YouTube video) from their brilliant 1970 classic album Deja Vu (All Music)
• 48:40 - See “Are you sleepwalking now?” (Aeon, 2018) by Thomas Metzinger, who notably is not a neuroscientist as stated in the podcast, but is actually a theoretical philosopher who does work on neuroethics and neurophilosophy
• 55:47 - Listen to episode 40 of the It’s Not What It Seems podcast where Darron discusses Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert with his brother Doug
• 57:12 - See the “Intellectual humility” Wikipedia entry, “Intellectual Humility: A Guiding Principle for the Skeptical Movement?” (Skeptical Inquirer, 2020), “Intellectual humility: the importance of knowing you might be wrong” (Vox, 2019), and “How ‘Intellectual Humility’ Can Make You a Better Person” (New York Magazine, 2017)
• 1:00:34 - The Big Picture by Sean Carroll and the concept of Poetic Naturalism
• 1:02:30 - See Poetic Naturalism on Sean Carroll's website Preposterous Universe
• 1:03:57 - See “Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man” by philosopher Wilfird Sellars
• 1:05:10 - Sean Carroll’s Mindscape Podcast
• 1:06:16 - See “Of 2 Minds: How Fast and Slow Thinking Shape Perception and Choice” from Scientifc American, excerpted from Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• 1:08:30 - See “What Does It Mean to Live the Good Life?” (ThoughtCo), “The Philosophy of the Good Life” (The Gifford Lectures), and “What is the Good Life? Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, & Kant’s Ideas in 4 Animated Videos” (Open Culture)

This episode was recorded remotely via Zoom in January 2021

The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti

Visit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode

Selected References:

• 2:05 - Treehouse Brewing Company
• 2:30 - The Brewers Association trade group, which represents the majority of American Brewing companies, defines an American craft brewer as a small, independent brewer with an annual production of 6 million barrels or less, which represents roughly 3% of annual American beer production. Although the vast majority produce way less than this, the number was increased from 2 million barrels in 2011 to reflect the growth of the industry. For reference, the Treehouse Brewing Company has the capacity to produce about 150,000 barrels per year at its current facility which opened in 2017, whereas the Boston Beer Company, makers of Sam Adams and one of the largest craft breweries in the US brewed about 5.3 million barrels in 2019. Additionally, an independent brewer is one in which less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled by a beverage alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer. See “The Importance of Defining Small and Independent” (Brewers Association, 2018)
• 4:17 - The top 250 beers overall and the top 100 rated New England IPAs according to Beer Advocate
• 7:22 - See “What Is the Difference between Ale and Lager?” (Craft Beer & Brewing, 2017)
• 7:34 - See “American Lager” and “American Adjunct Lager”
• 15:39 - See “Alcohol is a Social Lubricant, Study Confirms” (Association for Psychological Science, 2012) and “5 Studies That Help Explain Why Social Drinking Is So Rewarding” (The British Psychological Society, 2017)
• 16:16 - See the entry on “College Drinking” from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
• 16:46 - Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
• 18:13 - Although alcohol use is a complex cultural phenomenon that can potentially serve a variety of prosocial purposes, it is one that merits a much more thoughtful look due to its potential for harm, particularly amongst young people. According to the American Addiction Centers and Alcohol.org, the use of alcohol has been normalized in almost every culture, but it should be noted that alcohol is a toxin, and regular use of the can lead to medical, mental health, and social problems...In the U.S., alcohol is the most commonly used substance of abuse among young people...Individuals ages 12-20 account for 11% of all the alcohol consumed, more than 90% of which is consumed by binge drinking. Current drinking culture can make it difficult for parents and young people to fully understand the severity and potential consequences of alcohol abuse. Teens may drink because of peer pressure, experimentation, stress, or other reasons...this risky behavior can lead to an alcohol use disorder (AUD) and heavy alcohol use in the teenage years can cause lasting cognitive deficits and alter the course of brain development as the brain continues to mature into a person’s early 20’s. Other dangers associated with underage drinking include impaired judgment, which can lead to violent behavior, and drinking and driving, increased risk of carrying out or suffering from physical or sexual assault, injuries, increased risk of later alcohol problems, and death. The CDC estimates that alcohol plays a role in the deaths of 4,358 individuals under age 21 each year on average. (Source: “Binge Drinking Statistics”)
• 20:44 - Watch a video of Neil Young performing “Buffalo Springfield Again” - you can see the Sierra Nevada sitting on the stool next to him
• 21:13 - Cascade hops
• 21:56 - See “History of Craft Beer in CA” (California Craft Brewers Association)
• 22:08 - See “Our Story” from Sierra Nevada and listen to an interview with Ken Grossman about the origins and growth of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company on the NPR podcast How I Built This with Guy Raz
• 23:13 - See “Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America” (The Atlantic, 2018)
• 24:16 - See “How America’s Iconic Breweries Survived Prohibition” (History.com, 2019)
• 24:32 - See “How the Army Made Lager America’s Beer” (War On The Rocks, 2018)
• 21:54 - For more on the connection between homebrewing and craft industry, See “The Roots of American Craft Brewing” (CraftBeer.com), and “The Evolution of the ‘Craft’ of Brewing” (BeverageDaily.com)
• 24:52 - See “The Day Homebrewing Was Legalized” (Craft Beer & Brewing) and “Homebrewing Rights” (American Homebrewers Association)
• 25:02 - The American Homebrewers Association is founded in 1978 by Charlie Papazian who also published The Complete Joy of Homebrewing in 1984 which many consider to be the “homebrewing bible”
• 25:50 - See “Beer History” (Craft Beer)
• 32:28 - New England Brewing Company
• 32:47 - Sea Hag and G-Bot, the beer formerly known as “Ghandi Bot”, for more on the name change see “New England Brewing Decides To Rename Its Gandhi-Bot Beer” (Hartford Courant, 2015) 
• 33:20 - See “Cascade Hops: The Variety That Launched A Craft Beer Revolution” (Kegerator.com), the “American IPA” style sheet from Craft Beer, and “How the West Coast-Style IPA Conquered the World” (First We Feast, 2015)
• 33:35 - See “Citra Hops: The Most Citrusy Aroma Hop in the World of Beer” and “Galaxy Hops: The Homebrewer’s Guide to the Variety” and “Amarillo Hops: The Citrusy Hop That Was Discovered By Accident” (Kegerator.com)
• 36:48 - Sip of Sunshine from Lawson’s Finest Liquids, although in retrospect I think the beer we tried that day was actually Double Sunshine, the beer upon which Sip of Sunshine is based
• 37:39 - Heady Topper from The Alchemist
• 37:45 - See “Four Elusive 'White Whale' Beers That Are Still on the Loose” (Eater, 2015), “The Craft Breweries Who Make Them Weigh In: Why White Whales?” (Brew Studs, 2016), “10 Cult Beer Releases, and What to Drink If You Can't Get Them” (First We Feast, 2013) and “Are Rare Beers Worth The Fuss?” (Beverage Dynamics, 2017)
• 38:49 - The style I am describing here is what eventually came to be known as the New England IPA, which was officially classified as the “Juicy or Hazy Double IPA” style by the Brewers Association Beer Style Guidelines in 2018. These IPAs have a high alcohol content over 7.5% and are typically described as having intense fruit flavors and aromas, a soft body, and smooth mouthfeel. They often have an opaque color with substantial haze and have less perceived bitterness than traditional IPAs but are always massively hop forward. This emphasis on late hopping, especially dry hopping, with hops with tropical fruit qualities lends the specific ‘juicy’ character for which this style is known. The New England IPA has undoubtedly been the hottest trend in craft over the past few years with many small and larger craft brewers trying their hand at some version of a hazy IPA-style beer. In 2018, its first year as a competition category at the Great American Beer Festival, the “Juicy or Hazy Double IPA” style garnered more entries than any other style category - dethroning the American IPA as most entered beer for the first time in 16 years. For more on the New England IPA phenomenon, see “How the Hazy New England IPA Conquered America” (Thrillist, 2018), the “New England IPA” style sheet from Craft Beer, “‘Juicy or Hazy’ Ales Debut in BA Beer Style Guide, Representing New England IPAs” (CraftBeer.com, 2018), “The New England Style IPA is The Anti-IPA” (CraftBeer.com, 2017), “What Are New England IPAs (NEIPAs)?” (Beer Cartel, 2018), and “What the Hell Happened to the West Coast IPA?” (Gear Patrol, 2019) 
• 44:00 - Generally speaking, the west coast IPAs that pioneered the American style highlight the bitterness of hops over everything where east coast IPAs strike a balance between malty sweetness and hoppy bitterness. Whereas west coast IPAs are dryer and have an aggressive bitterness, an east coast IPA is sweeter on the front end, which fades into bitterness, thanks to the hops. As an offshoot of the east coast style, New England IPAs are distinctly juicy, as in they can sometimes taste like you took a bite into a tropical fruit or citrus with the rind still on. Previous holdouts, who due to the early dominance of the west coast style thought that “craft” and “bitter” were synonymous, as well as newbies to the craft beer scene, have typically found it somewhat easier to get in on the game through the New England IPAs more approachable flavors, which has increased overall interest in craft beer. - For more see “East Coast IPA vs West Coast IPA: What's the Difference?” (Gear Patrol, 2020)
• 49:39 - See “How The Rise Of Craft Beer Is Contributing To The Decline Of The Homebrewing Lifestyle” (Forbes, 2016)
• 49:43 - Counterweight Brewing Company
• 49:45 - DuVig Brewing Company
• 49:49 - In January 1985 there were 100 craft breweries open and operating in the US, including early craft pioneers like Sierra Nevada and the Boston Beer Company, by 1996 the number of craft breweries had grown to 1000, and 50 different categories were recognized and judged at the Great American Beer Festival. The first “American Craft Beer Week” took place in 2006, and in 2014 craft beer production volume saw an 18% increase over the previous year with IPA taking over the overall production lead for the first time. By 2016 there were over 5000 craft breweries operating in the US, by 2019 there were over 8,000. In 2019 craft breweries captured 13.6% of the overall US beer market with sales totaling over $29 billion dollars, up from just slightly over $10 billion in 2011, and Ken Grossman, who founded Sierra Nevada back in 1980, has a net worth of $1 billion dollars. - For more see “Beer History” (Craft Beer), “National Beer Sales & Production Data” (Brewers Association), “Retail dollar sales of craft beer in the United States from 2011 to 2019” (Statista), and the Forbes profile of Ken Grossman
• 53:16 - See “2020 Zymurgy’s Best Beers in America Results” a list compiled by Zymurgy, which is the bi-monthly magazine of the American Homebrewers Association
• 56:42 - See “The History of Beer” (Craft Beer & Brewing), “Who Invented Beer?” (History.com), and the “History of beer” Wikipedia entry
• 57:00 - See “An ancient thirst for beer may have inspired agriculture, Stanford archaeologists say” (Stanford News, 2018), “The History Of Beer And Why Civilization As We Know It May Have Started Because Of It” (All That’s Interesting, 2016)
• 58:49 - See the “Stout” Wikipedia entry and various style sheets from Craft Beer for American Stout, American Imperial Stout, Irish-Style Dry Stout, English-Style Oatmeal Stout, English-Style Sweet Stout (Milk Stout)

This episode was recorded remotely via Zoom in December 2020

The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti

Visit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode

*A note about the audio in this episode - due to COVID this conversation was recorded in a large garage on a brisk 40 degree November Sunday, so there’s a bit of natural reverb, along with the buzz of propane heaters and leaf blowers audible in the background. Like so many things over the past 9 months, it’s not optimal, but we make the best of a challenging situation, and the cleaned up audio is certainly listenable, if not quite up to BI's usual standards.*

Selected References:

• 2:09 - The Elf on the Shelf (Say Goodbye to the Santa Claus Lie, Against the Santa Lie)
• 2:24 - Listen to “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” as performed by Bing Crosby (YouTube video) and read about the history of the song and the lyrics 
• 3:28 - See “Let’s Bench the Elf on the Shelf” (Psychology Today, 2012) or “You’re a Creepy One, Elf on the Shelf” (The Atlantic, 2012)
• 4:45 - Magical realism
• 13:58 - See the Magical thinking Wikipedia entry and “Why Everyone Believes in Magic (Even You)” (Live Science, 2012) and “Do You Believe in Magic?” (New York Times, 2007) and “All Paths Lead to Magical Thinking” (Psychology Today, 2013)
• 16:08 - See “Should parents lie to kids about Santa Claus? We asked the experts.” (Popular Science, 2019) which draws on the opinions of philosophy professor David Kyle Johnson and psychology professor Cyndy Scheibe
• 16:48 - According to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, “The concrete operational stage is the third stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. This stage, which follows the preoperational stage, occurs between the ages of 7 and 11 (middle childhood and preadolescence) years, and is characterized by the appropriate use of logic. During this stage, a child's thought processes become more mature and "adult like". They start solving problems in a more logical fashion.”
• 18:15 - See “What should I tell my kids about Santa?” (BBC, 2018) or “What psychologists really think about you lying to your kids about Santa” (Washington Post, 2016) or “Should parents lie to children about Santa?” (EurekAlert, 2016)
• 21:04 - See “Against the Santa Lie” which is a blog post by David Kyle Johnson that contains the hate mail he received based on his Op-Ed piece “SORRY, VIRGINIA…” (Baltimore Sun, 2009)
• 31:51 - See “Santa Claus: Real Origins & Legend” (History.com) and “From St. Nicholas to Santa Claus: the surprising origins of Kris Kringle” (National Geographic)
• 33:33 - Originally published anonymously on December 23, 1823, the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore, changed Santa from a figure who was, until that time, traditionally depicted as a thinner, less jolly, horse-riding disciplinarian, a combination of mythologies about the British Father Christmas, the Dutch Sinterklaas, and the fourth-century bishop Saint Nicholas, into the cheerfully chubby, magical, gift-giver, complete with his eight reindeer, with whom we are now well acquainted. Moore claimed authorship of the poem, which is popularly known today as “Twas the night before Christmas” in 1836, but this claim is now in question and many believe the author was actually the writer Henry Livingston. 
• 33:38 - Using imagery from the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” the famous political cartoonist Thomas Nast is credited with creating the first illustrations of Santa as we know him today. In total, 33 of Nast’s Santa drawings were published in Harper’s Weekly from 1863  to 1886. In addition to his Santa contributions, Nast’s drawings of Uncle Sam, the Republican Party elephant, and the Democratic Party donkey, among others, are widely credited as forming the basis of popular depictions used today. For more see “A Civil War Cartoonist Created the Modern Image of Santa Claus as Union Propaganda” (Smithsonian Magazine, 2018) and “The Man, the Myth, the Legend: Thomas Nast’s Santa Claus” (Daily Art Magazine, 2019)
• 36:44 - For the complete history of Rudolph see “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (History.com)
• 36:54 - The “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” TV special was created by Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment and released in 1964, and although it is at this point undoubtedly considered a Christmas classic, it is not universally beloved as some of its plot points and themes are questionable by today’s social standards. For more on this perspective see “Don’t Subject Your Kids to Rudolph” (The Atlantic, 2020). To hear the noise his nose makes, check out this video. 
• 37:11 - Listen to “Run, Rudolph, Run” by Chuck Berry (YouTube video)
• 41:25 - See “Gift exchange” (Britannica) - “Gift exchange may be distinguished from other types of exchange in several respects: the first offering is made in a generous manner and there is no haggling between donor and recipient; the exchange is an expression of an existing social relationship or of the establishment of a new one that differs from impersonal market relationships; and the profit in gift exchange may be in the sphere of social relationships and prestige rather than in material advantage” - and “The History and Complexities of Gift Giving” (Reporter Magazine from the Rochester Institute of Technology) 
• 45:06 - See the Feast of the Seven Fishes Wikipedia entry or “An Eye-Opening Look at the Feast of the Seven Fishes” (Saveur Magazine, 2018) or “The Origin of the Feast of the Seven Fishes” (Eataly)
• 45:56 - Listen to “The Two Cultures” episode of the the Context podcast from November 2018
• 46:08 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 04 “Too Cultured”
• 48:30 - See “Is It OK To Lie About Santa And The Tooth Fairy?” (NPR, 2019)
• 52:50 - Google Santa Tracker

This episode was recorded in November 2020

The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti

Visit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode

Selected References:

• 2:03 - Existentialism entry from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) and Existentialism: Crash Course Philosophy #16 (YouTube video)
• 2:20 - Atheism (IEP)
• 6:07 - The Quran, The Book of Mormon, The Bhagavad Gita, Buddhism, Daoism
• 10:41 - The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow
• 14:46 - Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior by Leonard Mlodinow 
• 15:13 - See “Why People Choose Coke Over Pepsi” and “How the Brain Reveals Why We Buy” 
• 15:45 - Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• 15:54 - Douglas Vigliotti
• 17:40 - Keith Stanovich and Richard West coined the terms System 1 and System 2 in their work on dual process theory, as noted by Kahneman in the first chapter of Thinking, Fast and Slow entitled “The Characters of the Story”  - Psychologists have been intensely interested for several decades in the two modes of thinking evoked by the picture of the angry woman and by the multiplication problem, and have offered many labels for them. I adopt terms originally proposed by the psychologists Keith Stanovich and Richard West, and will refer to two systems in the mind, System 1 and System 2.
• 18:16 - Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman
• 18:34 - Thus Spake Zarathrustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
• 19:10 - The Overman 
• 20:18 - See “Tool-Making Crows Are Even Smarter Than We Thought” video from National Geographic regarding the New Caledonian Crow
• 20:22 - See images of bowerbird nests and  “What Makes Bowerbirds Such Good Artists” (Scientific American, 2015) “Bowerbirds, Art, and Aesthetics” (Communicative & Integrative Biology Journal, 2012)
• 21:05 -  See “You Don’t Have a Lizard Brain” and “It’s Time To Correct Neuroscience Myths” and “A Theory Abandoned But Still Compelling”
• 24:23 - Self-Consciousness gives us an ability to reflect on our experience and project into the future and recognize that we exist
• 26:50 - Simulacrum and Simulation by Jean Beaudrillard
• 27:13 - Hyperreality
• 27:17 - The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
• 27:20 - Postmodernism
• 30:04 - BeautifulIllusions.org - “Today abstraction is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror, or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being, or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal.” -Jean Beaudrillard
• 30:08 - Read “On Exactitude in Science” by Jorge Luis Borges
• 31:32 - See “Baudrillard’s Thoughts on Media” (Philosophical Society.com)
• 33:10 - See “Modern human brain organization emerged only recently” (Science Daily, 2018) - “The Homo sapiens fossils were found to have increasingly more modern endocranial shapes in accordance with their geological age. Only fossils younger than 35,000 years show the same globular shape as present-day humans, suggesting that modern brain organization evolved some time between 100,000 and 35,000 years ago.”
• 33:13 - See “The (Violent) Origin of Sports” (Psychology Today, 2008) and the Wikipedia entry on the history of sport - “It is likely that after the switch from hunter-gathering to farming becoming the primary means of providing food became dominant, those individuals who had previously been assigned to the Hunter role- and were likely naturally more physically built for the purpose- had little way to utilize their skill sets in a practical setting anymore, so instead entered a form of perpetual preparation for hunting and practicing the skills required, which then let to competitive bouts intended to indicate whomever was the most "prepared" for the different elements of the hunt- for example the speed to chase down, strength to wrestle down or accuracy to rapidly dispatch the prey and associated wagering on the outcomes of contests, which them evolved gradually into what we would recognize as sports as we would know them today.”
• 33:35 - See “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant” by David Graeber (STRIKE! Magazine, 2013), and this 2018 Vox interview with Graeber about his book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory
• 34:07 - George Carlin on “natural” (YouTube video, definitely NSFW)
• 38:35 - Can we overcome our cognitive biases? See “Your Lying Mind: The Cognitive Biases Tricking Your Brain” (The Atlantic, 2018) and this 2015 interview with Daniel Kahneman (The Guardian)
• 44:01 - Freaks and Geeks (TV Show)

This episode was recorded in November 2020

The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti

Visit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode

Selected References:

• 2:00 - See the Ten Year Reading Plan from The Great Conversation Reading Group
• 3:07 - A Game of Thrones Novel & HBO TV Series 
• 4:34 - Bo Knows Bo, No Direction Home, On The Road
• 5:58 - See “Skim reading is the new normal. The effect on society is profound.”
• 7:55 - See The Republic by Plato, Ethics by Aristotle, and Politics by Aristotle
• 8:41 - See System I & System II and Thinking Fast & Slow
• 11:26 - Dunning-Kruger Effect
• 12:23 - BI Episode 05 - “It’s Alive!” 
• 14:02 - See  “Aristotle The Philosopher Who Knew It All”
• 17:33 - See “Philosophers Justifying Slavery” from BBC Ethics Guide
• 20:02 - See The Declaration of Independence - “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”
• 21:40 - “Don’t criticize what you can’t understand” from the The Times They Are A-Changin’ by Bob Dylan
• 22:05 - See “The Work Required To Have An Opinion” from the Farnam Street Blog
• 22:44 - Yo-Yo Ma's rendition of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, Prélude (YouTube video)
• 25:00 - See Aristotle - Happiness and Political Association
• 25:55 - Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• 27:57 - See Phainomena and the Endoxic Method
• 29:15 - See The History of Political Science
• 32:15 - See Thrasymachus and justice as the “advantage of the stronger”
• 33:21 - BI Episode 03 - “The Examined Life”
• 37:29 - Nature vs Nurture
• 39:17 - BI Episode 4 - “Too Cultured”
• 39:42 - Plato divides his just society into three classes: the producers, the auxiliaries, and the guardians, which he then analogizes to the tripartite soul which comprises the appetite, the spirit, and the reason. For more see Key Terms: Auxiliaries, Guardians, Producers  and Key Terms: Tripartite Soul, Appetite, Spirit, Reason
• 43:49 - See “Freud: Id, Ego, and Superego” at Simply Psychology
• 44:28 - See Jonathan Haidt: The Contributions of a Moral Psychologist and The Happiness Hypothesis

This episode was recorded in January 2020

The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti

Visit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode

Selected References:

• 5:53 - See “This is why you get worked up about politics, according to science” (CNN, 2017)
• 7:58 - Difficult Conversations by by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen
• 11:04 - “According to Peter Ditto, a psychology professor and researcher who studies motivated reasoning and what he refers to as “hot cognition” - the interface between passion and reason,“People think that they think like scientists, But really they think like lawyers. Scientists don't care what the answer is: they look at the data and draw a conclusion, Lawyers know the conclusion they want to reach, then they harness a bunch of facts to support that conclusion.” And this is how we construct our political facts, whether we realize we’re doing it or not.” - For more on this, confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and other cognitive biases see “When It Comes to Politics You’re Not As Rational As You Think” (University of California News, 2016) and “Cognitive Biases Cheat Sheet” from writer Buster Benson, author of Why Are We Yelling? The Art of Productive Disagreement
• 14:42 - See “This Article Won’t Change Your Mind” (The Atlantic, 2019) or “Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds” (James Clear)
• 15:25 - See “Why Won’t They Listen?” (New York Times, 2012) and Jonathan Haidt interview with Tamler Sommers 
• 17:49 - See “The Psychology Behind Why Politics Can Get So Heated — and How to Show Up Differently” (Healthline)
• 18:29 - “Due to this overlapping of identities, political identity is now sometimes referred to as a mega identity. According to political psychologist and author Liliana Mason, people have a huge number of different group identities, any of which might seem the most salient at any given time. In general, the identity at the top of your mind at any given moment most likely will be the identity facing the most pressing threat. But over the past few decades, the parties have become increasingly aligned with other social identities including race, religion, and rural or urban location. And when these links start connecting our parties and other parts of our social identities, then all of this gets drawn into that one particular political competition. once these mega-identities get formed, we start to think of out-group partisans as quite different from us — not just in terms of their political views, but also racially, religiously, and with any number of overlapping categories. We feel ever more socially distant from these out-group members, which makes it easier to dehumanize them, to think about them with less generosity.” - See “As the Rhetoric Escalates: Talking with Liliana Mason” an interview with Lilliana Mason, political psychologist and author of Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity
• 22:40 - The exact lyric is “Scotty liked all of the books that I recommended even if he didn't I wouldn't be offended........” in the song “Tire Swing” by Kimya Dawson, which appears on the Juno movie soundtrack
• 20:54 - Social Identity Theory
• 23:52 - “For people who pay attention to such things, New Haven is widely regarded as a pizza mecca, and is home to a few locations, most notably Pepe’s and Sally’s, that frequently appear on best pizza lists. Locals not only identify as being defenders of New Haven pizza, or more appropriately “apizza,” against other cities such as New York and Chicago, but also within New Haven everyone has a particular place that they argue is the best. For what it’s worth, and although I’ve certainly softened in my stance, I still happen to be a Pepe’s partisan, and won’t really argue unless you try to tell me that Modern is better.” For more on the New Haven pizza scene see Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana, and “The Definitive Guide to New Haven Pizza” (Eater, 2014)
• 25:08 - See Negative Partisanship, “Negative Partisanship Explains Everything” (Politico, 2017), “How Hatred Came to Dominate American Politics” (FiveThirtyEight, 2020), and “The rise of negative partisanship and the nationalization of U.S. elections in the 21st century” (Electoral Studies, 2016)
• 28:55 - See Dehumanization, “What Is Dehumanization Anyway?” (Psychology Today, 2018), “The 5 Steps of Dehumanization” (Psychology Today, 2018) and “Dehumanizing Always Starts With Language” (Brene Brown, 2018)
• 30:48 - See “The Age of “Mega-Identity” Politics” (The Ezra Klein Show) - an interview with Lilliana Mason
• 30:52 - Minimal Group Paradigm
• 30:57 - See “Robbers Cave Experiment” (Simply Psychology) and “Revisiting Robbers Cave: The easy spontaneity of intergroup conflict” (Scientific American, 2012)
• 43:08 - “Six of One - Obamacare vs. The Affordable Care Act” (2013  video clip from Jimmy Kimmel Live)
• 44:00 - See “Party Over Policy: The Dominating Impact of Group Influence on Political Beliefs” by Jeffrey Cohen (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2003)
• 51:48 - “Don’t put too many onions in the sauce” (video clip from Goodfellas)
• 55:52 - See “Teresa Bejan on Free Speech, Civility, and Toleration” (Episode 116 of the Mindscape Podcast) - an interview with Teresa Bejan, political scientist and author of Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration
• 56:45 - See “Managing Conversations When You Disagree Politically” (American Psychological Association)

This episode was recorded in October 2020

The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti

Visit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode

Selected References:

• 2:15 - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Wikipedia entry on Frankenstein)
• 2:25 - Google image search for Frankenstein (and for Herman Munster)
• 4:20 - The movie The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) was the sequel to Frankenstein (1931), and featured Boris Karloff in the now iconic depiction of Frankenstein’s  Monster 
• 6:04 - See “Frankenstein Reflects the Hopes and Fears of Every Scientific Era” (The Atlantic, 2017) or  “The Horror Story that Haunts Science” (Science, 2018)
• 6:19 - See “How Franken- Lurched It’s Way Into Our Lexicon” (Slate, 2017) and “The Way We Live Now: 8-13-00: On Language; Franken-” (New York Times, 2000) - According to late journalist William Safire, writing in his “On Language” column for the New York Times, the first noted use of the prefix Franken- was in 1992 by Boston College English professor Paul Lewis, who, in a letter to the New York Times commenting on an op-ed piece regarding bioengineered crops, ''If they want to sell us Frankenfood, perhaps it's time to gather the villagers, light some torches and head to the castle.'' Since then the prefix- has caught on and become shorthand for human efforts to interfere with nature, especially where genetic modification is concerned, and it is almost always used in a pejorative sense.
• 7:52 - See the famous “It’s Alive” scene from the 1931 version of Frankenstein
• 19:43 - See “AI Has Arrived, And That Really Worries The World’s Brightest Minds” (Wired, 2015) or “An Open Letter: Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial Artificial Intelligence” or “Benefits & Risks of Artificial Intelligence” from the Future of Life Institute
• 25:17 - Cultural memes - “In this broad sense, a meme can be thought of as an idea which often carries symbolic meaning, that becomes a fad and spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas that can be transmitted from one mind to another through various means, and seem to, for better or for worse, evolve over time. The word meme itself was originally coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene.”
• 40:25 - See “Our fiction addiction: Why humans need stories” (BBC, 2018)
• 43:29 - See “The Arctic” section of the Mary Shelley Wiki and “Literature’s Arctic Obsession” (The New Yorker, 2017) 
• 57:38 - See “Hollywood's Portrayals of Science and Scientists Are Ridiculous” (Scientific American, 2019), “The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science” (Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2006), or “What the public thinks it knows about science” (National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2003)
• 1:00:32 - Quote from The Big Picture by Sean Carroll: “The pressing, human questions we have about our lives depend directly on our attitudes toward the universe at a deeper level. For many people, those attitudes are adopted rather informally from the surrounding culture, rather than arising out of rigorous personal reflection. Each new generation of people doesn’t invent the rules of living from scratch; we inherit ideas and values that have evolved over vast stretches of time. At the moment, the dominant image of the world remains one in which human life is cosmically special and significant, something more than mere matter in motion. We need to do better at reconciling how we talk about life’s meaning with what we know about the scientific image of our universe.”

This episode was recorded in January 2020

The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti

Visit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode

Selected References:

• 2:00 - Context with Brad Harris podcast episode “The Two Cultures, by C.P. Snow” from November, 2018
• 2:06 - “The Two Cultures” by C.P. Snow
• 3:16 - “What is Science?”
• 3:34 - History of Science
• 4:45 - Snow gave the Rede Lecture at the University of Cambridge in 1959 - “The Rede Lecture”, named for Sir Robert Rede, an English judge who provided an annual stipend to Cambridge University for lectures in logic, moral philosophy, and the humanities, is a tradition that dates back to the 16th century. In 1858 it became a single annual lecture with one appointee per year, a tradition that continues to this day, with the most recent lecture, “Reasons for Hope,” being given by famous primatologist Jane Goodall in 2019”
• 14:50 - See the “manifest image” and the “scientific image” as proposed by the philosopher Wilfrid Sellars in his work Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man, which is erroneously referred to here as the “manifest reality” and the “scientific reality”
• 21:45 - Humans want narrative and story, see “The Neurology of Narrative” or “The art of storytelling: Researchers explore why we relate to characters” 
• 24:20 - Ode to a Flower, spoken monologue from Richard Feynman (video, highly recommended)
• 28:29 - Is your blue different from my blue? See “Is Your Red The Same as My Red?” (video from Vsauce) or “Your Color Red Really Could Be My Blue” from Live Science
• 29:56 - According to “Sweet Music to Your Nerves” from Physics, “A recent mathematical model suggests that the key may be the rhythmically consistent firing of neurons in response to a harmonious pair of frequencies.” 
• 34:35 - “Hit Charade: Meet the bald Norwegians and other unknowns who actually create the songs that top the charts.” published by The Atlantic in October 2015
• 38:05 - Quote from The Big Picture by Sean Carroll: “The pressing, human questions we have about our lives depend directly on our attitudes toward the universe at a deeper level. For many people, those attitudes are adopted rather informally from the surrounding culture, rather than arising out of rigorous personal reflection. Each new generation of people doesn’t invent the rules of living from scratch; we inherit ideas and values that have evolved over vast stretches of time. At the moment, the dominant image of the world remains one in which human life is cosmically special and significant, something more than mere matter in motion. We need to do better at reconciling how we talk about life’s meaning with what we know about the scientific image of our universe.”

This episode was recorded in January 2020

The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti

Visit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode

Selected References:

• The Art of Manliness Podcast episode #430 “Why You Need to Join the Great Conversation About the Great Books”
• Ten Year Great Books Reading Plan
• “Apology” and “Crito” by Plato
• The Art of Manliness Podcast episode #587 “How to Get More Pleasure and Fulfillment From Your Reading”
• “The unexamined life is not worth living” 
• “I know that I know nothing”
• “Of 2 Minds: How Fast and Slow Thinking Shape Perception and Choice” from Scientific American, excerpted from Thinking Fast and Slow  by Daniel Kahneman

This episode was recorded in September 2020

The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti

Visit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode

Selected References:

• Bob Dylan lyrics by song title
• No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan by Robert Shelton
• “I Want You” from Dylan and The Grateful Dead’s 7/4/87 show in Foxboro, MA - not the exact version on the album (in terms of Dylan’s enunciation it’s actually better), but you get the idea.
• “I Want You” from Bob Dylan’s 1966 masterpiece Blonde on Blonde
• “Hurricane” and “One More Cup Of Coffee” off the 1976 album Desire
• “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts” from the 1975 album Blood On The Tracks
• “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” from the 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home
• “The Man In Me” from the 1970 album New Morning, and famously used in the Coen brother’s extraordinary cult classic movie  “The Big Lebowski”
• Bruce Springsteen, the 1975 Rolling Stone article “New Dylan From Jersey? It Might As Well Be Springsteen”, “The Members of ‘The Next Bob Dylan’ Club” and “Who Is The Next Bob Dylan?: 10 Songwriters Once Voted Most Likely” 
• Bob Dylan at The Palace Theatre on April 14, 1996 reviewed here in the Hartford Courant
• Time Out Of Mind won 3 Grammy’s at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, Best Contemporary Folk Album, and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for the song “Cold Irons Bound” - perhaps most memorably Dylan’s performance of “Love Sick” at the show was crashed by a spastically contorting and shirtless Michael Portnoy who infamously had the words “Soy Bomb” painted across his chest - Dylan and the band kept going like the true pros that they are without missing a beat or seeming to acknowledge the intrusion in any way. Also notably “Time Out of Mind” beat out Radiohead’s masterpiece “OK Computer” for Album of the Year.
• Rick Danko (late, of The Band) joins Bob Dylan for “This Wheel’s On Fire” and then again during the encore for “I Shall Be Released” 
• “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” original version from the 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
• The Gibson J-45 Sunburst acoustic guitar - Dylan played the J-45 as his primary acoustic throughout the late 90’s and early 2000’s - it can be seen and heard prominently on this video of “My Back Pages”
• Is Dylan the greatest songwriter? Try “Rolling Stone Readers Pick the Top 10 Songwriters of All Time” or “The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time” (heavily biased towards rock era, but it’s Rolling Stone, so that’s somewhat expected), or try a list from Dave’s Music Database that aggregates 36 other lists, an article/poll from BBC news, an opinion piece from a philosophy professor, or maybe the fact that Dylan won a Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”
• Newport concert review (with setlist) from Berkshire Links website, and “Dylan at Newport, 2002” from the blog singer-songwriter/Dylanologist Peter Stone Brown (originally posted on Bobdylan.com), Dylan notably wore a wig and fake beard for the occasion (pic with wig, beard, and J-45)
• Dylan sang “Only A Pawn In Their Game” and “When the Ship Comes In” (with Joan Baez) as part of a musical program that included Mahalia Jackson, Marian Anderson, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary, Odetta, and The Freedom Singers, before Martin Luther King gave his famous speech 
• “Bob Dylan’s Influence On The Beatles” from The Flip Side Beatles Blog, and “How Bob Dylan Influenced The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who“ from Far Out Magazine
• “How Bob Dylan Changed the 60’s, and American Culture”
• “Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and the Rock of the Sixties” 
• “Is this cave painting humanity’s oldest story?”
• “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman, or read this excerpt in Scientific American
• Another Side of Bob Dylan released in 1964
• Bob Dylan performing “Maggie’s Farm” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, and just because it’s cool here is an awestruck Jason Isbell playing the 1964 Fender Strat that Dylan played at the Newport performance, and here is a bunch of others including Courtney Barnett with the same  guitar
• For more on the “Electric Dylan Controversy” see “The Night Bob Dylan Went Electric,” “Dylan goes electric at The Newport Folk Festival,” “July 25, 1965: Dylan Goes Electric at The Newport Folk Festival,” and “Revisit Bob Dylan’s electric performance at Newport Folk Festival 50 years later” -
• Here’s a good example of an antagonistic interview from the famous Dylan documentary “Don’t Look Back”
• “How Robert Zimmerman Became Bob Dylan”
• “My Back Pages” album recording and lyrics
• The album Bringing It All Back Home was released on March 22, 1965 a few months before the Newport Folk Festival in July of that same year
• “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” album recording
• “It Ain’t Me Babe” album recording
• “Simulacra and Simulations” excerpt from Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings 
• 1965’s Highway 61 Revisited and the 1966 masterpiece Blonde on Blonde, along with Bringing It All Back Home are widely considered the peak of Dylan’s 60’s output
• Check out the classic video for “Subterranean Homesick Blues”
• The 2005 documentary “No Direction Home” by Martin Scorsese
• “Shelter from the Storm” album version 

This episode was recorded in February 2020

The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti