Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Your Body Is Not a Protocol. It's a Practice | Toby Shorin
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Your Body Is Not a Protocol. It's a Practice | Toby Shorin
Cultural theorist and essayist Toby Shorin joins Amanda Cassatt to explore one of the most urgent questions of the AI era: What happens to the human body and human meaning when thinking itself becomes commodified?
Drawing on his essay “Body Futurism,” Toby argues that we’re witnessing a massive embodied turn in culture, from peptides and biohacking to looks-maxing and sports investment. But the real question isn’t just why people are obsessing over their bodies; it’s whether that obsession represents liberation or a new form of algorithmic hijacking.
In this episode, they discuss:
- Bryan Johnson’s “don’t die” philosophy and why it’s rooted in fear, not vision
- The difference between a protocol and a practice, and its political consequences
- Who actually benefits from the loneliness epidemic narrative
- What the “AI mind virus” looks like from inside the Bay Area
- Why poetry might be the only genuine escape from the optimization loop
If you’re interested in the intersection of AI, culture, embodiment, and meaning, this conversation is not to be missed.
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
2:44 Why everyone is obsessed with their body right now
7:08 The philosophy behind biohacking and morphological freedom
10:42 Why "don't die" is actually a fear-based philosophy
13:27 What AI really threatens it's not your job
14:50 AI mastered chess. Chess adoption only grew.
18:05 Why PE firms are buying sports teams
20:41 Body as asset vs. body as practice
26:24 What is a narrative subsidy?
28:44 Who actually benefits from the loneliness epidemic
29:20 We forgot how to do the dance
31:52 Did Andrew Huberman invent seeing light in the morning?
32:44 How insurance culture took over everyday life
36:45 Two ways out of the optimization loop
38:00 The poetic way of seeing
40:29 Toby reads a poem he wrote this morning
42:09 The William Carlos Williams connection
Stay Connected
Subscribe to Endgame ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast
Amanda on X: https://x.com/amandacassatt
Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq
Links to Follow:
Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg
Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440
Follow Toby Shorin
https://www.instagram.com/tobyshorin/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobyshorin
View all episodes
By SerotoninCultural theorist and essayist Toby Shorin joins Amanda Cassatt to explore one of the most urgent questions of the AI era: What happens to the human body and human meaning when thinking itself becomes commodified?
Drawing on his essay “Body Futurism,” Toby argues that we’re witnessing a massive embodied turn in culture, from peptides and biohacking to looks-maxing and sports investment. But the real question isn’t just why people are obsessing over their bodies; it’s whether that obsession represents liberation or a new form of algorithmic hijacking.
In this episode, they discuss:
- Bryan Johnson’s “don’t die” philosophy and why it’s rooted in fear, not vision
- The difference between a protocol and a practice, and its political consequences
- Who actually benefits from the loneliness epidemic narrative
- What the “AI mind virus” looks like from inside the Bay Area
- Why poetry might be the only genuine escape from the optimization loop
If you’re interested in the intersection of AI, culture, embodiment, and meaning, this conversation is not to be missed.
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
2:44 Why everyone is obsessed with their body right now
7:08 The philosophy behind biohacking and morphological freedom
10:42 Why "don't die" is actually a fear-based philosophy
13:27 What AI really threatens it's not your job
14:50 AI mastered chess. Chess adoption only grew.
18:05 Why PE firms are buying sports teams
20:41 Body as asset vs. body as practice
26:24 What is a narrative subsidy?
28:44 Who actually benefits from the loneliness epidemic
29:20 We forgot how to do the dance
31:52 Did Andrew Huberman invent seeing light in the morning?
32:44 How insurance culture took over everyday life
36:45 Two ways out of the optimization loop
38:00 The poetic way of seeing
40:29 Toby reads a poem he wrote this morning
42:09 The William Carlos Williams connection
Stay Connected
Subscribe to Endgame ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast
Amanda on X: https://x.com/amandacassatt
Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq
Links to Follow:
Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg
Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440
Follow Toby Shorin
https://www.instagram.com/tobyshorin/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobyshorin