On this episode, Kris and I talk 4th of July recap, beer break, necessity of responsibility, and an imaginative challenge involving Elvis impersonators and an all-sign-language theater troupe.

This episode will only be up for one month, because it expresses a very important tool that will change the way we talk about what we talk about on this show. So we’re trying to put a bit of a time limit on it.

Kris delivers a real tour de force on this one.

NOTES:

Call it Courage by Armstrong Sperry

Thunder Country by Armstrong Sperry

The Rain Forest by Armstrong Sperry

On this episode, Kris and I talk Roe v. Wade, gun control, big government vs. small, mutual aid societies, plumb bob 9/11, dogs with explosive diarrhea, non sequiturs, and a dream poem.

Notes:

Leonora Carrington

Carlos Mérida

Baker Hotel

T.R.M. Howard

Pootie Tang

Or, The Puppeteer Adjudicators

Kris and I talk de-normalization, adding color to the wardrobe, and mitigating OCD. We then address our two “derangement syndromes,” ie the cultural debates that trigger us: COVID-19 and wokeness in academia. How do we inoculate ourselves against this allergic reaction to beliefs that we find distasteful? How do we just get on with the process of living?

Should values follow from skills? 

Notes:

Jonas Salk

Heather Mac Donald

John McWhorter

Wilfred Reilly

Indonesian shadow puppets

The Museum of Jurassic Technology

On this episode, Kris and I recap the strange incident of the "lost" episode. Last week, we had a real banger recorded...but something had other plans.

We go on to discuss this essay by The Convivial Society, "We are Not Living in a Simulation, We are Living in the Past." Is it accurate to say that the transparent, false nature of the internet is a function of it being a large archive? Can you be in the present while constantly reinterpreting the past? What does that even look like?

I am tasked with inventing a new holiday, and Kris recounts a dream about lies.

Kris helps David out of a depressive funk by talking about letters (the kind you see on a page), letters (the kind you get in the mail), and notebooks (a place to put letters of both kinds).

Alternate title: Turn Your Mirrors to the Wall in the House of the New Dead

How do we reconcile our beliefs with stark reality? Why does this keep happening? On this episode, Kris and I discuss the sacredness of hobbies, young men gone wrong, incel gamers, car culture, private grieving, the pornography of the feed, and how art can act as a cure for the mind-melting wide-eyed Clockwork Orange-style hypnosis.

Finite and Infinite Games

Tristram Shandy

The Idiot

We talk about the concept of wantok, the ability to hold two thoughts at once, engaging with ideas that you don't agree with, Christopher Hitchens, Jordan Peterson Derangement Syndrome, drug trips as ways to grapple with reality, cinema's unique ability to communicate psychedelic experience, and the necessity of love and hate in creating a public figure.

The Trip

Head

The Northman

Wolfman Jack

On this episode, Kris and I talk about the recent Roe v. Wade controversy. It leads to a reinvigorating idea about the ability to hold two thoughts at the same time. What ways can we look to indigenous thought styles to maintain (in)coherence?

On this episode, Kris and I ponder the various types of clothing people wear, constant messaging, and developing a Sherlock Holmes-style observational ability.

On this episode, Kris and I discuss new directions for the show, the difference between integration and imposition, and Kris relates a dream where an action figure is stuck in his chest.