The Chris Endrey Podcast

The back half of 2026 has seen protests and riots across a large number of European countries. The causes and participants have many overlapping faces, though they aren't all uniform.

What is inspiring so many people to take to the streets - often with significant violence? And why now?

Thanks to the prodding of my patrons, I'm wading in with some thoughts by zooming back from the specifics and looking to the trends. Hopefully, with a bit of an examination, we can all have some idea of what to expect next.

Spoiler alert - I doubt we've heard the last of this stuff.

0:00 Intro: Europe's riots and the Patreon vote1:06 Why single-cause explanations fall short2:32 A tour of the unrest: France, Serbia, Albania, Poland5:40 Russia, the CIA and foreign influence: how much do they explain?7:47 The bigger picture: US relative decline and a contested world11:38 EU overreach and weak, divided states12:45 Economic strain as the main driver15:11 History's lessons: the French Revolution, the Arab Spring, Sri Lanka17:59 Europe's energy shock: Russian gas, oil and rising costs20:23 How grievances spark: Serbia, France and the mushroom analogy21:48 State overreach and bad-faith power plays24:35 Where this could go next27:35 Outro and Patreon info

Hi friends! After a little break to adjust my lovely daughter into childcare, I am revisiting some of the predictions I made across the course of the show.

War, AI, societal collapse, and other such relaxing topics to ease you into your daily commute.

Good to be here.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction and Personal Updates

01:45 Victory Lap: Predictions and Assessments

02:36 The Complexity of Predicting the Future

04:15 Geopolitical Predictions: Europe's Future

05:36 The Ukraine Conflict: A Dual Loss

09:25 The Iran Conflict: A Prolonged Struggle

14:07 Reflections on Science and AI Predictions

16:54 The Rise of Trillionaires and AI's Impact

21:29 Conclusion and Future Considerations

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Thanks everyone but especially patrons!

Join up to support the show at patreon.com/endrey

Follow on instagram @chrisendreypodcast

Take care now.

A number of metrics clearly show that we're in a world that feels lonelier, which has come with all sorts of costs.

In this patron-requested episode, I share some of own perspective on the loneliness pandemic and how to make friends as an adult.

CHAPTERS

0:00 — Introduction: Why Making Friends as an Adult Is Challenging

1:54 — Why Loneliness Matters

8:31 — The Surface Area of Connection

17:09 — Finding Friends Through Shared Pursuits

21:23 — One More Question

24:32 — Why Modern Life Makes Connection Hard

26:25 — Put More of Yourself Into the World

27:03 — Closing Thoughts on Friendship

29:18 — Patron Shout-Outs

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Support the show at patreon.com/endrey

Follow on instagram @chrisendreypodcast

There's been a fair bit of gambling discourse around lately and it's really stood out how much of the conversation is framed by a world that no longer exists.

Here I'm hoping to move beyond “gambling is good/bad” and instead ask: how much responsibility should fall on individuals when modern tech products are maximally designed to exploit human weakness at scale?

It's an important conversation to get right, because these products and industries are only growing in capability, and this is just one of many fronts where we appear to be sleepwalking into a world that we need to better understand.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction to gambling culture and societal relevance

03:01 Gambling as a social question

06:25 From betting shops to gambling apps

09:40 Data, profiling and vulnerability

11:56 Prediction markets and the attention economy

14:00 Individual choice and collective responsibility

17:34 What gambling harm looks like firsthand

20:32 A more mature framework for regulation

24:43 Beyond gambling: technology and addiction

26:46 Closing reflections

For a number of reasons, lately I've been curious about how much we are constantly losing and how much thought we give to that great seeping of everything through the hourglass.

I don't think of myself as particularly sentimental, but I am continuously drawn to the idea of how we carry our most important ideas/skills/knowledge/stories through the years against the impossible odds of deep time.

In this episode, I skirt across some of the major losses we have incurred as a meditative exploration of what those losses might mean for us all and how we might be a little more conscious in how we use our values and resources to shed the things that mean little and retain those that might truly help us all for the future.

From ancient jokes and dead languages to seeds, oral traditions, and deep-time preservation projects, asking what we can realistically save and what will inevitably slip away. It’s a wide episode about cultural memory, human limits, and the beauty in trying anyway.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction: The Hidden History Beneath Our Feet

03:21 Framing the Question

05:47 The Limits of Historical Memory

08:47 Language as Cultural Memory

12:48 Lost Culture: Music, Jokes, and Ritual

15:05 What Markets and Modern Life Leave Behind

18:24 The Loss of Skills and Cultural Standards

23:40 Lessons We Fail to Keep

27:52 Building Archives for the Future

33:06 Making Peace with What We Lose

Support the show at patreon.com/endrey

Follow on IG @chrisendreypodcast

In this episode, Chris explores the complex nature of intelligence, its limitations, and the importance of humility and systemic checks in decision making.

He discusses how even the smartest individuals can be profoundly wrong and why diverse perspectives are crucial for navigating an uncertain future.

He apologises in advance if the artwork has you expecting a criticism of Einstein, who doesn't even rate a mention this week.

takeaways

• Intelligence is a fluid, imperfect concept that varies across and within individuals.
• Even highly intelligent people can be profoundly wrong, especially outside their domain of expertise.
• Authority bias leads us to trust perceived experts more than we should, especially in complex or unknown realms.
• Humility and systemic checks are essential in decision-making to avoid catastrophic errors.
• The importance of diverse perspectives and cautious trust in expertise to navigate uncertain futures.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Introduction & The Murky Concept of Intelligence

02:40 - Reorienting Our Deference to "Smart People"

03:55 - Episode 50 Milestones & Patreon Reflection

06:15 - Humans, Animals, and the Ladder of Relative Intelligence

09:30 - The Unknown and the Limitations of Human Perception

10:55 - Authority Bias and the Traps of Domain Specificity

13:00 - The Modern Public Intellectual & Incentivizing the Rant

16:00 - Sifting Through Expert Opinions vs. Truth

17:10 - Historical Hubris: Robert McNamara & The Failure of Metrics

21:15 - Frontier Risks: The Collective Need for Diverse Thinking

24:30 - The Cosmological Scale of Dumb Ideas: Elon Musk & Space Satellites

28:40 - Flawed Timelines and Reorienting Our Values Hierarchy

30:15 - Closing Thoughts: Appropriately Metering Authority

What do we do when we don't have to do anything?

It's not impossible that almost all of the work that we do will be automated in the coming decade.

Despite this not being news to any of us, I don't get the impression that we're having the conversations about what that will mean with the regularity or even seriousness that such an upheaval deserves.

It's worth all of us to give some reflection to, otherwise we default to letting certain unappealing tech overlords frame our present and future even more than they already do.

Chapters

00:00 The Rapid Evolution of AI

03:45 The Risks and Responsibilities of AI Development

07:27 The Role of Non-Experts in AI Discourse

10:18 The Pope's Perspective on AI and Power

12:17 Imagining a Future with AI

17:06 Reconstructing Meaning in a Post-AI World

25:14 Thanks Patrons!

Support the show: patreon.com/endrey

Follow on instagram: @chrisendreypodcast

A poll of patrons for this week's episode had two clear winners: 'We are getting dumber' and 'Try something new as an adult club'. Let's get briefly concerned about the first before shattering it in our own lives and kick this club off!

Whether it's a dream of writing and recording a song or an unused lathe gathering dust in your shed - I needed to remind myself how rewarding it can be to undertake new adventures as an adult and hope to start a community of like-minded people who are keen to work to test how great life can be.

High agency behaviour for all!

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to New Ideas and Themes

02:05 Exploring the Decline of Skills and Knowledge

05:27 The Impact of Technology on Intelligence

10:06 Encouragement to Start Something New

17:12 Invitation to Join the Club

19:28 Thanks Patrons!

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Support the show: patreon.com/endrey

Instagram: @chrisendreypodcast

For the first time ever, successive polls in Australia place One Nation as the nation's top political party and Pauline Hanson as people's preferred Prime Minister.

For a country that has been characteristically dominated by two parties for many decades, this is surely big news.

So, what's driving it? What does it reveal? Where is it all likely to go from here?

This episode explores these questions by discussing the broader cultural and economic shifts that are driving a dissatisfaction that - while hard to predict in form - is bound to play out one way or another.

Strap in!

Chapters

00:00 The Disconnect of Politics and Real Issues

02:22 The Rise of One Nation and Pauline Hansen

05:56 Societal Changes and Political Implications

11:24 The Role of Migration in Political Sentiment

16:10 Analysing One Nation's Policies and Public Appeal

29:08 Thanks Patrons!

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Follow on ig: @chrisendreypodcast

Become a supporter: patreon.com/endrey

Life isn't easy. Except when it is.

I was recently surprised to be asked what advice I'd give myself at 22 and didn't have a quick answer on hand. I guess that makes sense, because it's not simple.

I kept turning back to the question through the week and torrenting ideas in my mind. Goodness - there's so much I wish I knew! I could have replaced all the problems of my adulthood with new, unknowable problems!

So, here's a first round journey through some of my reflections. I hope you find them even a fraction as useful as I know they would have been for me.

Chapters

00:00 A Sticky Question

02:17 Advice to My 22-Year-Old Self

02:49 Embracing Uncertainty and Openness

07:00 The Importance of Self-Discovery

09:17 Understanding Opportunity Cost

10:05 The Malleability of Identity

12:53 Navigating Relationships and Vulnerability

19:09 The Dynamics of Romantic Relationships

19:34 The Importance of Intimate Relationships

21:16 Navigating Changes in Romantic Connections

22:50 Understanding Attraction and Personal Growth

24:02 Reflections on Youth and Parenthood

24:51 Thanks Patrons!

Support the show at patreon.com/endrey

Follow on instagram @chrisendreypodcast

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