Excerpt from the poem "The Black Maria" by Aracelis Girmay

Announcing a new project for the show in which I’ll be working through the Iliad with a focus on its themes of anger and justice.

How has the modern practice of scientific forecasting taken over the ancient role of priests and other experts who interpreted signs and provided warnings? I start off talking about the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, which was clearly foreseen by many experts who offered urgent warnings to policymakers. I then look at the theme of “knowledge or beliefs about the future” in a selection of stories in the Hebrew Bible, arguing that these stories are often about taking advice from the right authorities. I conclude with the argument that people who consider themselves religious or spiritual today are responsible for following the advice of scientific experts such as climate scientists and for being the most enthusiastic about supporting their recommendations.

I’m joined by Antony Cummins, author of many books on medieval Japanese ninja and samurai warriors. We talk about who the samurai were and what their relationship was with the art of ninjutsu. I ask many questions about ninja magic — the kinds of esoteric practices they did that gave them a reputation for having supernatural powers. We also talk about Antony’s recent project of reviving the Natori-Ryu samurai school of war, with the blessings of the Natori family in Japan.

Struck by the beauty and frailty of the body of Joaquin Phoenix in his recent performance as The Joker, in this episode I meditate on intersections I noticed with some thoughts about the body of Donald Trump inspired by the grotesque statues of him naked that appeared in public a few years ago. I mull over how Trump surrounded himself with symbols of wealth and power, cultivating an image that seems more important to him than the reality of who he is. Both the body of the Joker and the body of the President are manifestations of the archetype of the monster, the “bad guy,” and I explore the relationship between looking good and being good.

Trust is a critical issue in the practice of intelligence. In this episode I start off discussing three situations where this is explicit: in the contexts of security clearance, asset recruitment, and intelligence liaison. In the second half of the episode I change gears and offer a meditative reflection on metaphorical affinities between the intelligence community and the “Illuminati” or enlightened beings. In the concluding segment I return to the issue of trust and its role in enlightenment and its presence in so-called Illuminati symbolism.

Searching for the hidden God. Alex reads three texts — the Book of Jonah, the Book of Job, and the Book of Esther — to show how subtle themes run through biblical texts and address some of humans’ deepest questions while often appearing on the surface to offer very little beyond pious platitudes. Where is God when children suffer, when genocides happen, when bad people are rewarded for being predators and honest people lose out because they’re following the rules? How can there even be a good God when this world is so corrupt and full of pain and injustice?

Corey Dansereau, a doctoral student in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford, returns to talk with me from a philosophical perspective about “mind control” and what it means to control or be under control. We also talk a bit about conspiracy theories of the “deep state” — a secret, shadowy group allegedly controlling the world outside public view and outside democratic accountability. We zero in on the idea of an “esoteric deep state” — a shadow government that may or may not be incarnated in human bodies, a spiritual governing body that could overlap with the visible human government.

In this episode I’m joined by Mark Stout, a former intelligence officer with the CIA and State Department who is now a historian of intelligence and Director of programs in Global Security and Intelligence at Johns Hopkins University. Mark talks about US intelligence in World War I, which he’s currently finishing a book about. Our conversation also touches on the beginnings of the security clearance process, domestic surveillance of Prussian/German-American citizens during the war, and early attitudes among US State Department officials that intelligence activity was ungentlemanly and unbecoming of diplomats. Mark’s overview of US intelligence in WWI provides an interesting introduction to an understudied subject.

Gregg Jones, CEO of Strategic Applications, LLC and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University, joins me to talk about the practice of crisis management — preparing for what Gregg likes to call the Bad Day. We talk about the Will to Fight and possible ways to increase confidence in one's ability to survive. I'm especially interested in emotions like anxiety and panic, and the feeling of being overwhelmed by destructive force, and am curious if there are ways to prepare for those emotions and minimize their negative effects. How a combination of planning and preparation can make a difference in successfully surviving the Bad Day.