Clerestory (Bryan Kam)

This is a cross-post from my friend David Valerio's new podcast, Discern Earth. In it, we speak about what nature is.

Here's David's description:

We discuss the etymology of nature and related terms, whether there is a hard distinction between man and nature,

Clerestory by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bryan Kam⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • Writing on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • Support me at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Delia and I walked along the ⁠Parkland Walk⁠ in London with Zoom f2 recorders and lapel mics. We cover a bit about ⁠Neither/Nor⁠, as well as existentialism versus essentialism.

The biologists I couldn't think of at the end was ecologist Robert MacArthur; see ⁠r/K selection theory⁠.

Listen to Delia's podcast, ⁠Growing Up with Delia Burgess⁠.

Recorded in June 2024.

In this episode I spoke to Dr. Noah Martin, Director of the College of Modern Anxiety.

We discussed the relationship between phenomenology and existentialism, and the relationship between subjective and objective understanding in philosophy. We cover thinkers like Edmund Husserl, Donna Haraway, Sartre, and de Beauvoir.

Clerestory by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bryan Kam⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • Infrequent updates at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • All my work plus exclusive content at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

I spoke to Kit Tempest-Walters about his new book: Plotinus on Eternity and Time, which includes a translation and commentary of Ennead III.7.

We discuss the challenges of translating, philosophical perspectives on the self, consciousness, and mysticism.

We also talked about some of my perspectives from the book I'm writing, ⁠Neither/Nor⁠, including the differences in the organizing assumptions of Eastern and Western approaches to philosophy.

Clerestory by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bryan Kam⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • Infrequent updates at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • All my work plus exclusive content at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

It's been nearly a year since our ⁠last episode⁠, in which Maggie Appleton and I discussed why we write.

A year is a long time in AI; has it made much progress in how it writes? Possibly not, but it has made some progress in search.

Discussed:

At the end of 2023, I asked seven people I knew to join me in a WhatsApp group experiment. Read more ⁠here⁠.

We set up a schedule by which one of us, each Thursday, would record a (suggested) 5 minute question on a creative or existential quandary we were facing.

The other seven members had committed to responding with a (suggested) 10 minute response, meaning that one person would ask a question, and receive over an hour of perspectives.

Over two months this WhatsApp group supported each other through the trials and tribulations of the holiday period, finishing a documentary film, the meaning of intuition, seasonality, the struggle to re-engage with work, and more.

This episode of Clerestory contains an audio call with seven of the eight participants.

Clerestory by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bryan Kam⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • Infrequent updates at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • All my work plus exclusive content at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

At the end of 2023, I asked seven people I knew to join me in a WhatsApp group experiment. Read more here.

We set up a schedule by which one of us, each Thursday, would record a (suggested) 5 minute question on a creative or existential quandary we were facing.

The other seven members had committed to responding with a (suggested) 10 minute response, meaning that one person would ask a question, and receive over an hour of perspectives.

Over two months this WhatsApp group supported each other through the trials and tribulations of the holiday period, finishing a documentary film, the meaning of intuition, seasonality, the struggle to re-engage with work, and more.

This episode of Clerestory contains asynchronous voicenote reflections from seven of the eight participants on how the experience went.

Stay tuned for an article describing how to set up such a group for yourself, and another synchronous conversation from the participants.

Clerestory by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bryan Kam⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • Infrequent updates at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • All my work plus exclusive content at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Part 8 in a series of interviews on the book I'm working on, ⁠⁠Neither/Nor⁠⁠. In this episode, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Isabela Granic⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and I discuss:

Previous episodes:

Clerestory by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bryan Kam⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • Infrequent updates at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • All my work plus exclusive content at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Show notes

Part 7 in a series of interviews on the book I'm working on, ⁠Neither/Nor⁠. In this episode, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Isabela Granic⁠⁠⁠⁠ asks about three thinkers that have influenced my thinking: Julian Jaynes (1920–1997), Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910), and Zhuangzi (369–286 BC) sometimes written Zhuang Zhou or Chuang-tzǔ).

Previous episodes:

Clerestory by ⁠⁠⁠⁠Bryan Kam⁠⁠⁠⁠ • Infrequent updates at ⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠ • All my work plus exclusive content at ⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠

Show notes

How do you balance your life’s purpose, your creative impulse, or your art, with the realities of life?

Here are the final four responses I received. Thanks to Peter, Olga Yakimenko, Rainbow, and Kevin Bowers.

Clerestory by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bryan Kam⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • Infrequent updates at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • All my work plus exclusive content at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠