Ordinary Astronauts

By Dan Shipper and Nathan Baschez

Two friends explore tech, product building, and the psychology of work. Hosted by Dan Shipper and Nathan Baschez, co-founders of Every, a writers collective that feeds the minds and hearts of the peop... more

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FAQs about Ordinary Astronauts:

How many episodes does Ordinary Astronauts have?

The podcast currently has 16 episodes available.

Ordinary Astronauts episodes:

October 16, 2022 Introducing Lex!
We made a word processor with intelligence baked in, to help you write faster.
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1h 3min
October 09, 2022 Interview: Brad DeLong, author of Slouching Towards Utopia
This week we've got something special!
Loyal listeners may recall an episode we recorded a few weeks ago where we discussed Nathan's review of a new bestselling book called Slouching Towards Utopia. If you liked that, you're in luck, because this week we talk to the author himself, Brad DeLong!!
This was a super wide-ranging conversation, which should be fascinating to anyone interested in economic history, progress, and technology. Enjoy!
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1h 20min
October 02, 2022 Productivity is Emotion Regulation
Dan's idea is becoming a meme!
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1h 5min
September 25, 2022 Interview: Dr. Emily Anhalt on the psychology of entrepreneurship
Dr. Emily Anhalt joins the show to discuss how bringing more awareness to your own psychology can make a huge difference in the company you build—and to your life.
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1h 2min
September 18, 2022 Figma! Wow
Figma got bought for $20 billion! Why? And what's next? Also: how to find your next "thing" by finding the right people, and a philosophical discussion about what businesses really are.
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1h 17min
September 11, 2022 Is Apple Stuck?
Plus: why focus is a lie, and a discussion of a good new book called Slouching Towards Utopia.
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1h 13min
September 04, 2022 Are AI image generators ethical?
Plus: how AI will actually evolve vs. our expectations, and why productivity systems often make our problems worse.
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1h 23min
August 31, 2022Interview: Michael Mignano on the end of social media and the rise of “recommendation media”
This week we’ve got an interview that blew my mind, a truly mind-expanding conversation with Michael Mignano. Mike co-founded Anchor in 2015 and grew it into the world’s largest podcast hosting platform, it was acquired by Spotify in 2019 and he went on to become Head of Talk at Spotify. Recently he left and has been angel investing and is on a tear writing fantastic essays about the future of content distribution technology.
In this conversation we cover:
Why recommendation media—entertaining content from strangers—is replacing social media—content from friends and family.
What strategic motivations platforms like Meta have for making this shift
How it affects creators
Where traditional “social media” type content for friends and family is moving
What could happen when AI content generation keeps getting better
What role there is in this for Snapchat and Twitter, who are both struggling
This episode goes quite deep on the topic and I learned a ton from it. We’re going to have to have Mike back on the show once some time has passed to check in on these trends and see how it’s going!
To go deeper on these topics, read Mike’s essay published in Every on the End of Social Media: https://every.to/p/the-end-of-social-media?sid=9593
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1h 9min
August 28, 2022 Controversy! How hard should we work?
Dan and Nathan discuss the fraught question of how hard it is ok to work, follow up on the crying CEO discussion which was written about in the New York Times, and contemplate why people often keep trying to do things that don’t work for them (and what to do instead).
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1h 12min
August 21, 2022The New Clubhouse
Three topics this week:
The new Clubhouse. It's been a couple years since Clubhouse came out and attracted astronomical hype (which Nathan was a part of) and since then things seem to have died down a bit. But Clubhouse is releasing a new version of the app that seems pretty interesting. Dan and Nathan talk about why we and many others stopped using Clubhouse, what the new version is (Nathan got to use it), and whether we think it'll work.
Arguing to Think. Dan noticed he doesn't know what he thinks unless someone is arguing with him. At first he didn't like that about himself, but now he's learned to harness it. We discuss how to deal with argumentative vs exploratory styles of conversation, and how to develop a strong point of view (which is often rewarded by the universe) without getting blinded by it.
Conquering Fear / OCD with Exposure Therapy. Dan talks about his experience with OCD and how exposure therapy helped him. All of our lives are shaped by subtle fears that are not always easy to see, but we can find them by paying attention to clues (what do we say "no" to a lot? what do we judge?) and often the best way to make progress is by overcoming them.
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1h 12min

FAQs about Ordinary Astronauts:

How many episodes does Ordinary Astronauts have?

The podcast currently has 16 episodes available.