Salvador Podcast

Richard Y. Chappell is a moral philosopher and Associate Professor at the University of Miami. He works on effective altruism, utilitarianism, moral realism, digital minds, and the ethics of the far future. He co-authored An Introduction to Utilitarianism and writes at the blog Good Thoughts, follow Richard on Twitter

We talk about doing good effectively, moral truth, AI consciousness, and why compassion needs reason. Topics and ideas are outlined in the timestamps below.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support my work here and follow me on Twitter here

Timestamps

0:00 – Intro

0:24 – What is effective altruism?

4:08 – Longtermism & future risks

9:34 – Beneficentrism vs utilitarianism

14:56 – Donating 10%

17:16 – Emotions vs reason

19:09 – Writing with MacAskill

20:28 – What is moral realism?

24:35 – Liberalism vs relativism

25:12 – Why normativity matters

26:30 – Reason vs evolution

28:50 – Conscious AI

30:28 – Who counts morally?

33:55 – Mechanistic minds?

34:52 – Books that shaped him

35:24 – Defining personhood

37:30 – Should philosophers reach people?

40:43 – Status quo bias

43:07 – The meaning of life

Eric Kaufmann is a political scientist and professor at the University of Buckingham. He writes on culture, demography, identity, and liberalism. He’s the author of Whiteshift, The Rise and Fall of Anglo-America, and Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution, follow Eric on Twitter

We talk about identity politics, liberalism vs authoritarianism, population decline, post-liberal ideology, and how Western societies might navigate demographic and cultural change. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support my work here and follow me on Twitter here

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

02:41 – Why demographic change is politically explosive

05:21 – The taboo around discussing majority group decline

08:02 – Why liberal universalism isn’t enough anymore

10:43 – From classical liberalism to post-liberal society

13:24 – The rise of sacralized race and gender categories

16:05 – How the left became institutional

18:46 – Are we in a cultural revolution?

21:27 – The role of elite overproduction

24:08 – Demographic realism vs cultural idealism

26:49 – Immigration and identity management

29:30 – What population decline means for the West

32:11 – The emotional core of cultural anxiety

34:52 – When neutrality becomes a threat to belonging

37:33 – Liberalism, nationalism, and assimilation

40:14 – Why Western countries may resist open borders

42:55 – The future of political polarization

45:36 – Institutional reform vs counter-revolution

48:17 – Final thoughts on hope, fear, and pluralism

Paul Turke is a physician and evolutionary biologist. He’s a pioneer in evolutionary medicine and has written widely on parenting, cooperation, and how evolutionary theory reshapes how we think about human health and behavior, follow Paul on Twitter

We talk about how modern lifestyles diverge from ancestral ones, how kin networks shaped child development, why evolution still matters in medicine, and what it means to parent well in a mismatched world. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support my work here and follow me on Twitter here

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

02:37 – Working with Randy Nesse and framing sickness evolutionarily

05:15 – How childrearing worked in ancestral environments

07:53 – The hidden role of kin in development

10:31 – What modern families are missing

13:09 – Antibiotic resistance and selection pressure

15:47 – Mismatch theory and chronic disease

18:25 – Are modern immune systems overreacting?

21:03 – Exposure, allergens, and immune calibration

23:41 – Evolutionary roots of emotion

26:18 – Emotions as adaptations for coordination

28:56 – Phones, feedback loops, and behavioral hijacking

31:20 – The smoke detector principle and anxiety

34:12 – Adolescence and the modern identity crisis

36:50 – Monitoring, tech, and tribal perception

39:28 – Genetics, ethics, and the future of parenting

42:06 – Why aging exists from an evolutionary view

44:44 – What med school misses about human nature

47:22 – Final thoughts on bringing evolution into healthcare

Jac O’Keeffe is a spiritual teacher, author, and founder of the Association for Spiritual Integrity. She guides students on the path beyond ego, and speaks openly about awakening, trauma, power dynamics, and the mystery of consciousness.

We talk about spiritual awakening, teacher-student dynamics, the traps of identity, and how integrity fits into the inner path. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support my work here and follow me on Twitter here

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

02:37 – Ego breakdowns and spontaneous mystical experiences

05:15 – Helping a spirit cross over

07:53 – Interactions with beings and inner dialogues

10:31 – Realizing her spiritual orientation

13:09 – The moment that changed everything

15:47 – Intuition, autism, and social trust

18:25 – Embodiment and energetic memory

21:03 – Why spiritual teachers sometimes behave badly

23:41 – Founding the Association for Spiritual Integrity

26:18 – Why students fear giving feedback to teachers

28:56 – When teachers project their unmet needs

31:34 – Empowering students to reclaim their authority

34:12 – Shared blind spots in the teacher-student dynamic

36:50 – Projecting and mirroring in spiritual relationships

39:28 – Becoming comfortable with full humanness

42:06 – Misunderstanding Jesus and obedience

44:44 – Doing spiritual service without funding

47:22 – Consciousness incarnating to experience separation

Jeremy Shearmur is a philosopher and scholar of political thought. A former assistant to Karl Popper, he taught at the London School of Economics and the Australian National University. His work explores liberalism, the philosophy of science, and the fragility of intellectual institutions.

We talk about Popper’s legacy, the limits of liberal democracy, challenges to expertise, and what it takes to maintain an open society. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support my work here and follow me on Twitter here

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

03:19 – The philosophy of science and critique of historicism

06:38 – Why open societies are hard to maintain

09:57 – Popper’s evolution from Marxism to critical rationalism

13:16 – Policy-making by trial and error

16:35 – Rights, democracy, and the danger of rigidity

19:54 – Why real-world liberalism often fails

23:13 – The information ecosystem and online discourse

26:32 – Platform incentives and democratic decline

29:51 – Can we preserve tradition without dogma?

33:10 – Class dynamics and meaning loss

36:29 – Gender, disruption, and role confusion

39:48 – The nature of philosophical minds

43:07 – Pluralism, decency, and disagreement

46:26 – Authority, expertise, and the anti-elitist turn

49:45 – The danger of bureaucratic ossification

53:04 – Popper, Rawls, and liberal morality today

56:23 – How secular societies might reinvent purpose

59:42 – Final reflections on open inquiry and social repair

David D. Friedman is an economist, legal scholar, and author of The Machinery of Freedom, a foundational book in anarcho-capitalist thought. Son of Milton Friedman, he has written widely on legal systems, decentralized order, and political philosophy.

We talk about how societies can function without a state, how history informs libertarian models, and how theory meets practice in real-world alternatives to government. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support my work here and follow me on Twitter here

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

02:48 – Enforcing law without government

05:36 – Parkinson’s Law and institutional critique

08:24 – Real-world examples of anarchic projects

11:12 – Estonia, e-residency, and economic leverage

14:00 – Private schools and the state’s declining necessity

16:48 – Two fronts for decentralizing education

19:36 – Iceland and China: decentralized historical models

22:24 – Trust systems and behavior on platforms like eBay

25:12 – Rationality, family influence, and agreement

28:01 – The economist and the hungry bear story

30:49 – Speech norms and informal censorship

33:37 – Social labels, reputation, and polarization

36:25 – Government boundaries and philosophical grounding

39:13 – Historical fiction and building imagined systems

42:01 – Being raised by two economists

44:49 – AI as a transformative, uncertain technology

47:37 – Why foundational questions matter

50:25 – Thinking practically about building a freer society

We dived deep into important self calibration is, the evolution of our desires, systems that flex with us, how deep communication is evolving, the importance of being clear and much more!

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Avi Kahan is a writer and thinker exploring the relationship between science, metaphysics, and religious thought. His work touches on Judaism, psychology, and the philosophical foundations of belief.

We talk about the metaphysics of God, the psychological architecture of religion, how science can take on religious roles, and why faith persists in the modern world. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support my work here and follow me on Twitter here

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

02:48 – God as a mental model and personal conviction

05:36 – Upbringing, exposure, and identity shaping

08:25 – Jewish history, struggle, and cultural continuity

11:13 – Jesus and the Inquisition story

14:01 – Leadership, law, and religious structure

16:50 – Religion and the suppression of doubt

19:38 – Greek gods and metaphysical abstractions

22:26 – Prayer, science, and embodied rituals

25:15 – Freud, Jung, and metaphysical psychology

28:03 – Can science itself become a religion?

30:52 – Scientific awe and religious feeling

33:40 – Why religion won’t die

36:28 – Religious cohesion across major traditions

39:17 – Community, healing, and harm through religion

42:05 – Optimism and human progress

44:53 – Connection, communication, and modern unity

47:42 – Moral convergence and global values

50:30 – Aristotle, Antiochus, and metaphysical struggle

BJ Campbell is the author of the Handwaving Freakoutery Substack and a systems engineer with deep experience in data analysis. His writing explores media dynamics, gun policy, polarization, and the complex incentives behind cultural panic, follow BJ on Twitter

We talk about how freakouts form, how institutions lose trust, the mechanics of mass persuasion, and what we can do when truth breaks down. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support my work here and follow me on Twitter here

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

02:29 – The origin of “freakoutery” and viral moral panic

05:04 – How trust breaks and narratives take over

07:31 – Role of experts and institutional decay

09:58 – Why media can’t afford to be accurate

12:23 – Gun violence, data misuse, and tribal conclusions

14:50 – BJ’s breakdown of CDC messaging failure

17:18 – Do both sides cherry-pick gun data?

19:46 – Why no one really wants an honest debate

22:12 – The incentive systems of media and politics

24:39 – Are we already in a soft civil war?

27:06 – Public health as a rhetorical weapon

29:33 – How memes win and outcompete facts

31:59 – Algorithms and narrative feedback loops

34:26 – Chaos as performance and control

36:52 – Information overload and digital stress

39:19 – Epistemology and the limits of modeling

41:46 – Collapse of authority and search for coherence

44:13 – How to rebuild trust without central control

46:40 – Models, culture, and long-term thinking

49:07 – What optimism looks like under breakdown

51:34 – Freakoutery, faith, and the next wave

54:01 – Final thoughts on rebuilding rationality

Brian Chau is a mathematician and policy analyst who writes at fromthenew.world, where he explores rationality, epistemology, AI alignment, and civilizational trajectories. His work critiques institutional consensus and examines how elite narratives evolve — or collapse — under the weight of social pressure, follow Brian on Twitter

We talk about the danger of elite overreach, the misuse of AI policy, the failures of both left and right narratives, and how to build something more coherent. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support my work here and follow me on Twitter here

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

02:12 – Export controls, global alignment, and the US/China divide

04:24 – The politics behind AI regulation and compute limits

06:36 – Bipartisan handling of AI across Trump and Biden

08:48 – Bridging partisan divides on technological progress

11:00 – Antitrust, incumbents, and regulatory capture

13:12 – Global AI competition and the Chinese model

15:24 – Risk aversion, family obligations, and talent bottlenecks

17:36 – Leaving AI orgs and reevaluating the mission

19:48 – Perplexity AI vs DeepSeek: the Tiananmen test

22:00 – Open-source LLMs and political resilience

24:12 – Consent, compliance, and values in AI behavior

26:24 – Group disparities and admissions philosophy

28:36 – Ethical tradeoffs in policy modeling

30:48 – Surveillance as a control system

33:00 – Misunderstanding distant cultures and narrative bias

35:12 – Bottom-up development vs Western paternalism

37:24 – Economic diversity beyond Silicon Valley

39:36 – Final reflections and historical insight