We have on Alex to discuss one of his larger interests - geopolitics. We discuss what geopolitics is exactly, and explore ideas about how and why to think about geopolitics differently from other social sciences. We also highlight some parts of geopolitics we find most interesting.

Description of geopolitics from r/geopolitics: "Geopolitics is focused on the relationship between politics and territory. Through geopolitics we attempt to analyze and predict the actions and decisions of nations, or other forms of political power, by means of their geographical characteristics and location in the world. In a broader sense, geopolitics studies the general relations between countries on a global scale."

Kanye West and Elon Musk are two of the most influential creators alive. Their lines of work appear more disparate than most, yet we still find their creativities and personalities to be similar in some interesting ways.

What led to the downfall of the core Humanities class at Reed? We talk about our experience of it with our friend Alex.

We talk yet again about Trump, this time with our guest Marcus who specializes in history. We compare US foreign policy under Obama and Trump, discuss Trump's ingenious tweets and his symbiotic relationship with the media.

Political banter about America’s future.

We watched the movies Persona (1966), Mulholland Drive (2001) and Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) and identify a dilemma about identity that underlies all three films.

Yuta (philosophy major) engages in a friendly conversation with Henry about his recent undergraduate computer science thesis (at Reed College). The thesis is about programming language design. We believe that this is a fairly accessible overview of programming language theory with plenty of allusions to the more complicated details.

We discuss a few experiences we've had with protests in Portland, OR, including the most recent protest in the wake of George Floyd's murder by police (this episode was recorded on June 6, 2020). Then we consider our perspectives on the political situation. Barack Obama made a medium account.

Is it ethical to do abstract research rather than practical work? What is the moral way for researchers to do what they do? We approach these questions by responding to Philip Rogaway's paper "The Moral Character of Cryptographic work."

We again talk about disagreement, but this time from a more emotional perspective. Why and how are certain emotional reactions, such as anger and compulsion, related to disagreement?