Here We Are

The Deterministic Choosers of Comedy™ contemplate free will.

Have we been stuck in an infinite loop since the beginning of time?  If we 

restarted the big bang would we still be here, in this very moment, 

questioning what would happen if we restarted the big bang?

What can identical twins tell us about genetic predispositions?  What 

aspects of your grandma’s prenatal environment might have influenced who you are today?

Why do humans even care so much about the idea of free will in the first 

place?  Why is the power to choose so important to us in some domains 

but other times we want to be surprised or have others choose?  Why do we paradoxically choose commitments such as love?

Join The DCC™ in our exploration of the prison of choice and be treated to some Terence McKenna and Tom Campbell impressions as well as stories of drugs, allergies, twins, and a lizard man!

The State-Dependent Boys of Comedy™ talk about the impermanence of emotions.

Emotions often prime us toward action. Sometimes they are an imperfect best guess with utility and other times they're completely random. Regardless we usually find ourselves justifying them to ourselves anyway.

Our emotions have been shaped by our past, but we also use our past as evidence for our current emotional state. This feedback loop can make a fluid state feel like it is a stable part of our identity that has always been and will always be.

Listen to The SDBC™ on Episode 14 to find out what all of this has to do with space, influences, mustaches, nightmares and virtual reality.

The Guinea Pigs of Comedy™ take a personality test!

Shane and Ramin go through the Big 5 Personality Indicator questionnaire so you can hear how we rate on various traits. Along the way, we explore why the 'Big 5' uses extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism as the umbrella terms that all other traits fall under.

We chat about why most modern personality researchers abandoned the Myers-Briggs Test long ago. We also talk about the role of both evolution and environment in shaping the diversity of human personality and why there are pros and cons to rating higher or lower on a given trait. You’ll not only get to learn a lot more about who we are, but we hope you will find it illuminating in better understanding yourself as well.

We appreciate you being high enough in openness to listen/watch and neurotically hope you find this episode agreeable! Thanks to all the extraverts who spread the word about Mind Under Matter!

Be conscientious and subscribe on YouTube or your podcast app and while you’re there please give us a Big 5-star rating!

This week The Semi-Semiliterate Boys of Comedy™ riff on some of their favorite books!

Think book clubs are boring?  Have you ever been to a book club where the ghost of Terrance McKenna makes a cameo for a good ole’ bro hang with mushrooms, kratom, DMT, crying, grunts, and The World’s Greatest Fake Dad??

New Ramin impression alert!  Find out how realistic different aspects of science fiction are from the ideas popularized by theoretical physicist and futurist Machio Kaku! We’ll finally answer some of those nagging physics questions that keep us all up at night:  Is perpetual motion possible?  What is the future of invisibility? Is it possible that there is a multiverse where Jay Leno has a garage full of classic civilizations?

This episode is the first of a monthly public series where the SSBC™ will be taking suggestions from MUMtreon.  Shout out to Alex for this months topic!  If you like supporting ad-free content while getting an entire bonus series, game nights and more, head to patreon.com/mindunderpod where you can join the community and offer suggestions for topics that interest you.

Subscribe to the show on YouTube or the podcasting app of your choice.

The Fictitious Fictional Fictions of Funny™ explore the way that imagination and storytelling have shaped human evolution.

This week Ramin reveals his latest impression as we pay tribute to author, historian, and YouTube neighbor Yuval Noah Harari.

We tend to think the objective realities such as accumulating resources and the use of tools have put humans at the top of the food chain, but those abilities aren’t exactly novel in the animal kingdom.  Perhaps what sets humans apart is our ability to communicate, organize, and cooperate around subjective realities.

No other species has built and destroyed entire civilizations over stories that are no more real or even entertaining as an average modern movie.

Objectively, what even is Mind Under Matter?  Is it the equipment we use to record?  Is it the YouTube Channel you can subscribe to?  Is it the server it is stored on?  Is it the podcast you can download on your favorite app?  Is it the internet that delivers it?  Is it Shane and/or Ramin?  Is it the editor Matt and/or producer Rhianna who are paid by your Patreon support?  Is it our website?  Is it the merch you could buy on the website?  OR is Mind Under Matter an agreed upon fiction that only exists in our collective imagination?  

Listen to an impression of someone else’s imagination to find out the true nature of reality!