Bonus Sample: On Death & Being Human

Cult leaders, religious fanatics, dictators, and charlatans all have one thing in common: they exploit our fear of death. Humans act out “immortality projects” in the form of religion, culture, and political ideologies as unconscious ways to override the terror we feel at our uniquely self-aware knowledge that we will one day die. Where the orthodox priest promises eternal life, the cult leader might predict an alien apocalypse, while the authoritarian strongman invokes the transcendent glory of leading a chosen nation and race. In light of a recent death in the family, Julian leans into Ernest Becker’s Pulitzer Prize winning cultural anthropology text, The Denial of Death. He also draws on poetry and the archetypal psychology of Donald Kalsched to ask the big questions. Does existential acceptance of death lead inevitably to nihilism? Is belief in God(s) and an afterlife necessary? Are poor or deeply traumatized people only left with despair in the absence of supernatural faith? Will children raised with no religion have no moral compass? A rich discussion of philosophy and psychology alongside poems, myths, fairy tales, and deeply personal story-telling, especially about how to tell his 7-year-old that grandma won’t be back for Xmas. Not to worry, though. This is, ultimately, an uplifting journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Episoder(854)

Book Club: Man In The Mirror

When the Black, 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator stepped onto the F train in Manhattan on May 1, 2023, he was ranting angrily about being hungry and thirsty, willing to kill, die, or go to jai...

26 Sep 21min

327: AOC Meets MAHA

Listen ad free Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been meeting with MAHA activists in an attempt to bring the coalition to the Democratic party. Recent reporting reveals that she’s been meeting (or trying ...

24 Sep 1h 15min

DROP: When Spiritual Teachers Abuse Their Power

Today's Drop is a crosspost of an interview Matthew Remski did with Brianna Patten of the Surviving Satchidananda Podcast. Patten asked him a bunch of really good questions about high control groups...

22 Sep 1h 1min

Bonus Sample: Swoletarians and the Left Manosphere Attack a Disability Activist

Matthew tracks the attack on disability justice activist Beatrice Adler-Bolton after a clip from her Socialism 2026 panel — "Health Fascism, Body Politics, and the Anti-State State" — was stripped of ...

21 Sep 5min

Book Club: Fed Up

Harvard paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman returns with Fed Up: What Evolution Teaches About Food, Diet, Health, and Eating Well. In the book, he tries a variety of major diets, breaking down the la...

19 Sep 35min

326: The War on Empathy

Humans are social animals. We’re not the strongest, fastest, or even best adapted to our environment. But what we excel at is our ability to work together, which means we’ve been able to adapt to ever...

17 Sep 1h 7min

Bonus Sample: What Happened to Yoga?

A recent article in The Atlantic ponders the current state of yoga. Derek weighs in based on his decades-long experiences. Show Notes What Happened to Yoga? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit m...

14 Sep 6min

Brief: The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy Theory (w/AJA Woods)

AJA Woods (The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy) joins Matthew to trace how "cultural Marxism" mutated from Nazi "cultural Bolshevism" and the British Union of Fascists' attacks on modernist art, through L...

12 Sep 42min