Mixed Mental Arts

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Ep58 - Dan Robinson Sep 05, 2013

Show notes

Daniel N. Robinson is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown University and a Fellow of the Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University. According to Bryan, he's also probably the smartest man alive. Beginning his career in the biological sciences, Professor Robinson transitioned into studying everything from law to philosophy to the classics. In this episode, Professor Robinson, Bryan and Hunter discuss everything from the most brilliant but least known of the Founding Fathers to what today's architecture reveals about the religion and philosophy of our times. Professor Robinson is the author of, well, a lot of books on a whole variety of topics. Take a look at the list below and you'll understand why Bryan isn't joking when he says that Professor Robinson is probably the smartest man alive. Also, in today's episode, Professor Robinson quotes from Homer...in Ancient Greek. So, yeah, he's really, really smart. If you've ever wanted to have the chance to study at Oxford...this is your chance.

Ep57 - Larry Flynt Aug 29, 2013

Show notes

Larry Flynt is America's most controversial and perhaps most effective living defender of the First Amendment. However, by his own admission, Larry Flynt did not set out to defend the Bill of Rights. He set out to have some fun and make some money. By the time he hit thirty, he had turned an $1,800 loan from his mom into a chain of eight strip clubs and founded the Hustler newsletter to promote his clubs. A couple of years later, that newsletter would become a full-fledged national magazine and Larry Flynt would become a millionaire. As Hustler grew, Flynt published more and more graphic pictures and more and more outrageous articles and satirical pieces all of which added up to Mr. Flynt spending a lot of time in court on obscenity charges. As he defended himself, he found himself having to defend the First Amendment. Unwilling to allow the courts to settle the matter, an assassin with a high-powered rifle attempted to take Mr. Flynt's life shooting him in the spine and paralyzing him below the waist. This would only intensify his efforts at defending the First Amendment leading to his landmark case Hustler Magazine v Falwell which would go all the way to the Supreme Court ultimately vindicating the right to parody public figures.In this interview, taped in Mr. Flynt's office overlooking Los Angeles, he shares his thoughts on the First Amendment, the true benefits of wealth and the state of politics today all with his characteristic straightforwardness and humor.Mr. Flynt is the author of many books including An Unseemly Man, Sex, Lies and Politics and One Nation Under Sex. Under Sex.

Ep56 - Matt Ridley Aug 22, 2013

Show notes

Listening to the news or hyperlinking our way through blog posts, it might seem like the end is nigh. Whether the coming crisis is environmental, economic or some intoxicating mix of the two, the message is always basically the same: humanity is about to screw everything up…forever! As Matt Ridley reveals in his 2010 prize-winning, bestseller The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves this eternal pessimism has more to do with human psychology than it does with the facts of the situation. Throughout history, there have always been professional harbingers of doom. In the old days, doomsdayers predicted man's greed and lust would bring about divine retribution. These days, we're treated to the idea that we might bring about our own destruction because of our relentless pursuit of wealth. In our desire for more food, bigger cars and a more comfortable lifestyle, we will use up all the oil, overheat the planet, pollute the oceans and wipe out all the polar bears. Notice any similarities? Man gratifies his desires…and is punished.While the apocalyptic scenarios on the nightly news might feel plausible, the facts say something very different: the future has never looked more promising. More and more people are being lifted out of poverty. The environment is improving. And all of this is due to the very technologies we're supposed to fear: pesticides, fertilizers, fracking and genetic engineering. Pessimism may feel reasonable, but optimism is what's rational. The Rational Optimist is a tour de force that not only restores your faith in the future, its overview of man's relentless ability to solve problems makes you proud to be human. Perhaps that's why Michael Callen references it all the time.In this episode, Matt, Bryan and Hunter discuss everything from why organic farming is bad for the environment to how the 2008 financial crisis refined Matt's view on the proper role of government in the economy. (Note: Matt Ridley was Chairman of Northern Rock, one of Britain's largest banks at the time.)Before writing The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley got a doctorate in Zoology from Oxford and wrote five books on biology: The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation, Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters, Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, & What Makes Us Human and Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code. In case you're wondering, these were all bestsellers and also won lots of prizes.

Ep55 - Bob Harris Aug 15, 2013

Show notes

Imagine a bank that operates in 67 countries around the world, has one employee, has made thousands of loans with an average value of $25 a pop and is committed to never making a profit but believes it can help eradicate poverty through capitalism. You just imagined The International Bank of Bob. And Bob Harris thinks what he's done is so easy and so rewarding that it won't be long before you decide to set up The International Bank of "Your Name Here".While jet setting around the world as a writer for Forbes Traveller, Bob Harris found himself wondering when luxury moves from being fun to just being a waste of money. Is it when the hotel you're staying in offers a $7438 "cocktail" that is really just a shot of whiskey in a golden take-out cup? Or is it when you charge a small fortune for a cup of coffee because it has been pooped out of the ass of a rare Indonesian cat which you claim releases the subtle flavors of the beans? (It's called Kopi Luwak.) Or maybe it's when you spend billions of dollars building islands in the shape of a world map which then get washed away? Bob wasn't sure when luxury became stupidity but he was definitely sure there was a point where it did and so, in his own small way, he decided to find a way to take half his salary and put it towards eliminating poverty. Frequently disappointed by the results of charity, he was looking for something different. And that's how he found his way to micro finance and Kiva.org.Micro finance began in 1976 when Muhammad Yunus was visiting one of the poorest parts of his home country, Bangladesh. While there, Yunus was struck by the inability of the poor to get competitive loans for their entrepreneurial projects. Because banks would not lend to them, the poorest people were forced to go to loan sharks who charged back-breaking interest rates. The result was a cycle of poverty that was difficult to escape. And that's when Yunus decided that breaking the solution to poverty might not be charity; it might be banking. By giving out small loans to the country's poorest citizens, Grameen Bank, which Yunus founded, has helped drastically improve the lives of millions by empowering the poor to help themselves. With micro finance institutions in over 100 developing countries, it's no wonder that Yunus and the Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.So awesome is the power of micro finance to break the cycle of poverty that in 2004, Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley set out to find a way to make it easier for people in the developed world to participate in these programs: the result was Kiva.org. Kiva.org allows you to log on and see people all over the developing world who are applying for loans and contribute to them. You can log on and see a photo of Martin who runs a convenience store and wants a loan of a few hundred dollars to buy a machine to process electronic payments or Rosalina in Honduras who wants a $1500 loan to buy fertilizer for her coffee crop. You can track the individual's loan history, their repayment rate and see how far they are to repaying their current loan. In short, Kiva is a far cry from the mega charities, we have become familiar with because it allows us to see on a personal and individual level how we are making a difference one individual at a time. Best of all, Kiva loans have a repayment rate of 99%, meaning that the same money can be reinvested again and again into helping new groups of people all over the world. As Bob made more and more loans, he developed a desire to meet the people he had sponsored and so he set out to visit bicycle repairmen in Morocco, the guy in Sarajevo who built a sports bar and a woman in Rwanda who in a year and a half used a series of micro finance loans to build a business that moved her and her children from living on a mat to having a proper house.The result is a deeply personal and very funny book that sets out to chronicle the stories of micro finance, but ends up leaving the reader with a sense of the universality of human intelligence, work ethic and a desire to provide a better life for our kids. In this episode of the show, Bob, Bryan and Hunter discuss the power of micro finance and the ability of tiny choices to radically change the lives of thousands. It's really moving and heartfelt…in a way that sometimes made us feel awkward...and that's why the conversation occasionally deviated into talking about strippers Bryan has micro financed and the fact that Bob won Jeopardy a bunch of times then wrote an awesome book about it called The Prisoner of Trebekistan. Bob Harris is the author of four books: The International Bank of Bob: Connecting our Worlds one $25 Loan at a Time, Prisoner of Trebekistan, Who Hates Whom, a pocket guide to global conflict; Beyond Caprica, a mock travel guide to the 12 colonies of the Caprica/Battlestar Galactica universe.If you'd like to try micro finance, Kiva is offering people the chance to invest $25 of a rich dude's money and see what the experience is like. If you're interested visit www.kiva.org/bankofbob. You can read more about Bob Harris at bobharris.com.

Ep54 - Richard Miles Aug 08, 2013

Show notes

For over 120 years and across three separate wars, Rome and Carthage battled for control of the Mediterranean in a no-holds barred conflict that would see Hannibal march his elephants across the Alps, terrorize the Italian mainland for fifteen years but ultimately be utterly defeated. When the Romans defeated Carthage, they not only sold its people into slavery but also razed it to the ground until the city, the civilization and its written records were wiped from history. To this day, many of us are still captivated by Hannibal's famous march and awed by the idea that the Romans not only destroyed the city but salted the earth so that nothing living could ever survive there again. Why does this civilization that has left no great monuments, no great books and no great institutions still capture our imagination?Richard Miles is the senior lecturer in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney and the author of Carthage Must Be Destroyed. In this episode of the show, he says that the power of Carthage in the modern Western mind is that it taps into our deepest insecurity: the fear that Western civilization will fail. The British Empire lived in constant fear that its days were numbered and, since the founding of the United States, Americans have worried that collapse might be imminent. We remember Carthage precisely because it represents our own deepest fears: that everything we have built might amount to nothing.Besides Carthage's symbolic power, Richard, Bryan and Hunter discuss war elephants, Alexander the Great and the very different (and much more brutal) nature of ancient warfare. Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization is available in print, eBook and audiobook.

Ep53 - Jonathan Haidt Aug 01, 2013

Show notes

As a professor at the University of Virginia, Jonathan Haidt uses the scientific method to study human morality…which leads to asking people some pretty screwed up questions. Would it be wrong if a man bought a chicken from the store for dinner, had sex with it and then ate it? A brother and sister are on holiday together and they decide it would be fun to have sex. The sister is already on the pill, but the brother decides to use a condom just to be safe. They enjoy it, but they decide to just do it this one time and keep it as a secret between them. The secret brings them closer. You may or may not have a problem with having sex with your dinner, but you probably have a big problem with a brother and sister having sex. The question is why? Most people's first reaction is to say that close relatives shouldn't have children because of the high risk of genetic abnormalities, but with the sister on the pill and the brother using a condom is that really a risk. But wouldn't it destroy their relationship? Well, in this situation, sharing a secret of their one-time fling brought them closer together. What hypotheticals like these reveal is that we feel that things are wrong first and then we struggle with reasons to justify those feelings. Are we rational creatures or are we primarily emotional creatures searching for reasons to justify what we feel? In his first book, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, Jon Haidt manages to draw ten great ideas from the world's ancient religions and analyzes them through the lens of modern scientific research. Haidt does so much more than simply examine the practical benefits of ancient teachings from the perspective of neurology and psychology; he also reflects on the nature of religion itself. Is the propensity for religious experience born into us? If so, what function does it serve? While The Happiness Hypothesis compellingly answers these questions, it is Haidt's second book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion he delves much more deeply into the consequences of modern research for a society. Religion, like politics, serves to draw us out of ourselves and bind us into a group that is larger than ourselves, but it also gives us the feeling that our view of the world is the truth whole and entire. By creating understanding of the universal tendency towards being blinded by our emotions, Haidt is on a mission to foster a dialogue between political and religious groups that operates from a place of humility and a genuine desire to understand the other person's perspective. On the show, Bryan, Jonathan and Hunter discuss everything from why Washington is broken to why 1% of men give the rest of us a bad name to tribes in Papua New Guinea that believe a little homosexuality is essential for becoming a man. It's an hour-long journey through the weird and wonderful world of human nature that will leave you with time-tested and science-tested wisdom for how you can be happier and more fulfilled. Jonathan Haidt can be followed on twitter at @JonHaidt. For more on his work check out The Happiness Hypothesis, The Righteous Mind and the following websites: www.RighteousMind.com www.YourMorals.com

Ep52 - Ken Chase Jul 25, 2013

Show notes

Dr. Ken Chase is the author of Firearms: A Global History to 1700, which legendary historian William McNeill described as "a great achievement." In Firearms, Ken does much more than summarize how firearms develops; he asks why China was the first to develop gunpowder but failed to turn that early lead into an effective gun. Popular explanations tend to focus on culture and race, but Ken has delved deep into the records of the time and in an engaging narrative reveals that not developing the modern gun was a rational response when you realize the Chinese were fighting the Mongols. Unlike modern firearms, early firearms were slow, heavy, lacked range and were ineffective…especially against fast moving Mongol horsemen. That's because a cannon required not only the horses to carry it, but the horses to carry the food to feed the horses that carried the cannon. Then, of course, more horses were needed to carry food for those horses meaning that all in all 200 horses were required to provide support for a single cannon. Given the incredible speed and range of Mongol warriors, these early firearms were more of a liability than an asset which is precisely why the Chinese never made them a priority. A very different situation existed in Europe. Settled agricultural civilizations fought settled agricultural civilizations. Without the ability to run away and their heavy reliance on stone walls, cities were an ideal target for attack by cannon. Very quickly the cannon became a mainstay of European warfare and the road to transforming the firearm into the essential weapon had been embarked upon.Bryan, Hunter and Ken discuss firearms, history, the challenges of supplying an army and a lot about the mind-blowing military prowess of the Mongols. Mongol impressiveness is a topic that Ken feels very comfortable talking about as he is currently working on a multi-volume edition history of the Mongols that will require him learning to read in several new languages. Given that Ken has kids and his day job is as a high-end corporate lawyer in Hong Kong, it's no wonder that he expects his next book to take a decade to write. Look for it in 2024! In the meantime, you can enjoy hearing about all sorts of awesome Mongol eating habits and military domination.

Ep51 - James Rollins Jul 18, 2013

Show notes

While working as a vet and running a practice with fifteen employees, James began writing again. Beginning with short stories, he built his confidence and his skills until eventually he felt ready to tackle a full novel. As a huge fan of spelunking--or caving--it was natural that his Freshman effort should take place in a cave. Using the beats of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park as a template, he created a story set deep in the bowels of the earth called Subterranean. After 50 rejections, he finally found an agent. James' response was to start writing in an entirely different genre: fantasy. Nowadays, James Czajkowski maintains two entirely separate but highly-successful literary careers, writing thrillers under the name James Rollins and fantasy novels under the name James Clemens. He is still a vet as a "hobby."James is best known for his Sigma Force series of novels, page turners which incorporate history, science and action. The latest in the series Eye of God sees the Sigma Force team racing around the world to prevent dark-matter induced catastrophe from destroying the world. Bryan, James and Hunter discuss James' latest novel, the unpredictably predictable reason why James returned to writing, creativity, favorite authors and how James is able to write two novels a year.Eye of God is available from bookstores everywhere and is also available as an audiobook. Eye of God is currently on The New York Times Bestseller list.

Ep50 - Mark Kurlansky Jul 11, 2013

Show notes

When Mark Kurlansky wrote Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, he was not only publishing a New York Times Bestseller but also creating a whole new type of book. Since then books focused on everything from coffee to bananas to the color purple have tried to capture Kurlansky's ability to narrow in on one aspect of history and show us that contained within that seemingly tiny story we can see the entire world. Bryan and Hunter discuss Kurlansky classics such as Salt, The Big Oyster, 1968 and The Basque History of the World before moving onto Kurlansky's 25th book…that's right…his 25th book which is released today, July 11th. Ready For a Brand New Beat takes a detailed look at Marvin Gaye's 1964 classic song Dancing in the Street and shows how the Motown classic, while striving to stay apolitical couldn't help becoming the anthem of America's changing political consciousness. The show ends with a discussion of what Dancing in the Street has to teach us about politics and protest today and whether Occupy Wall Street fell apart because the movement lacked an anthem that could hold it together.

Ep49 - Lara Setrakian Jul 04, 2013

Show notes

As a reporter for ABC and Bloomberg Television, Lara Setrakian crisscrossed the Middle East reporting live as the Arab Spring spread throughout the region. Her first-hand experience of what was happening in the region left her increasingly frustrated with the rift between what was actually occurring and what the American people were hearing. Breaking away from a burgeoning career in TV news, Lara took a cue from the digitally-savvy young Arabs who were transforming the region and set out to use the power of the internet to create a revolution in the way news is provided.Since December 2012, Lara has runSyriaDeeply.org, a site devoted exclusively to in-depth coverage of the Syria conflict. With interactive tools such as timelines, a defection tracker and diagrams that map out the relationships between the key players, Syria Deeply empowers visitors with the tools and the stories to move beyond mere awareness of the conflict to a deep and genuine understanding. With other single-issue news sites in the works--ranging from Myanmar Deeply to Autism Deeply--Lara and her team are poised to give important issues the depth of coverage that each of them deserves.Lara joins Bryan and Hunter on the podcast to talk about why she felt she had to start Syria Deeply, the conflict that is going on there, why it matters to the US and why the US needs to articulate a clear foreign policy. Lara Setrakian can be followed on twitter at @Lara.

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