In today's episode, The devil's New Opiate, Taj explores the role that entertainment often plays in modern life and contrasts it with the role of story telling in societies during times of old. Taj illustrates men's fundamentally frugal needs as juxtaposed against an often covetous nature t hrough the lenses of French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau and Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. He examines how even the most meaningful stories, when consumed for their own diversionary sake, in excess or binged, can rob the individual of authorship of one's own truths, real life heroics and great adventures. Why do individual is given to hedonistic pursuits still resonate vicariously on with screen heroics and hard-work? How can the neatly episodic format of TV series narratives and linear structures of video games, skew the individual's perception of reality and expectation as to the yields of his or her own efforts? As we traverse through time space and realities from comic book heroes and ancient prophets to entertainers in Tokugawa, Japan