News & Politics
**ReConsider**

A podcast to examine your life, because the unexamined life is not worth living.

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Latest Episodes:

[2.8] You Are Food for The Machine Aug 24, 2026

Show notes

The Matrix looks more and more like the perfect allegory for the modern age. States, corporations, social systems, and even ideas have a mind of their own, and they are hungry. By participating blindly and uncritically in these systems, we feed them, and they take over more and more of our lives.

Sources:

• Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (1976)

• Earth.org / Environment+Energy Leader fast-fashion waste roundups (2025–26)

• Reed Hastings, Netflix earnings call / Summit LA17 remarks (2017)

• Tristan Harris, Senate testimony (2017)

• Dale & Krueger, NBER working paper (1999) / QJE (2002); follow-up NBER (2011) / Journal of Human Resources (2014)

• ProPublica & *The Chronicle of Higher Education*, “The Newest College Admissions Ploy: Paying to Make Your Teen a 'Peer-Reviewed' Author,” May 2023.

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[2.7] A Primate Contemplates Superintelligence Aug 17, 2026

Show notes

Over time, we have been able to cognize in totally novel ways. We have been able to teach these novel cognitions to our fellow humans. We can teach some of them to other great apes. We can teach dogs some language and concepts. We can't teach anything to rats.

Today, your favorite podcasting primate contemplates what superintelligent AI could look like or mean. How can we relate to something that is 2x, 5x, 100x smarter than we are? How will it relate to us?

SOURCES:

Leslie, Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It (2014)
Terrace, Nim Chimpsky research (Columbia, 1970s)
McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary (2009)
Jaspers, The Origin and Goal of History (1949)
Luria, Cognitive Development: Its Cultural and Social Foundations (Harvard University Press, 1976)
Flynn & Weiss (2007)
McGinn, "Can We Solve the Mind-Body Problem?", Mind 98 (1989)
Nagel, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" (1974)
Good, "Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine," Advances in Computers vol. 6 (1965)
Vinge, "The Coming Technological Singularity" (1993)
Bostrom, Superintelligence (2014)
Urban, "The AI Revolution" (Wait But Why, 2015)
Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep (1992)

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[2.6] The One Wisdom Aug 10, 2026

Show notes

[AUDIO FIXED!]

Today we explore wisdom. Not the "don't put tomatoes in a fruit salad" kind. Serious business wisdom.

It turns out, the wise tend to converge on understanding the world in a similar way.

In the 20th century, philosophical titans saw this convergence. They look back to the original seers of wisdom and see in them parallels that run so deep, that upon deep contemplation of these philosophies, they found a "highest common factor," including among:

Epicteus, Marcus Aurelius, and the Stoics
Plato, and various Neoplatonists such as Plotinus
Spinoza, Schopenhauer
Possibly Hegel, Wittgenstein, though they are famously difficult to interpret
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Lao Tzu, who authored the Tao Te Ching
ALso Chuang Tzu and Lieh Tzu
Jewish philosophers such as Philo of Alexandria
Sufi mystics of Islam, most famously Jalal al-Din Rumi
Jesus of Nazareth
St. Paul
Meister Eckhart, the mystic Christian
St. Jon of the Cross
Hinduism:
The Sages of the Upanishads
Adi Shankara’s The Crest-Jewel of Wisdom
The Bhagavad Gita
The Buddha
Particularly Zen masters who followed
Various Sutras
The Bardo Thodol

It is the Perennial Philosophy. I call it the One Wisdom. Huxley called it the “Highest Common Factor” of universal truth.

SOURCES

Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus. 1942.

Huxley, Aldous. The Perennial Philosophy. Harper & Row, 1945.

John of the Cross, St. Dark Night of the Soul (La noche oscura del alma).

Jung, C. G. Letters, Volume 1: 1906–1950. Princeton University Press.

Kahan, Dan. Identity-protective cognition research (cross-referenced, this project).

Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (Liuzu Tan Jing).

Polanyi, Michael. Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. University of Chicago Press, 1958.

Polanyi, Michael. The Tacit Dimension. Doubleday, 1966.

Tolle, Eckhart. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. Dutton, 2005.

Tao Te Ching (Laozi).

Watts, Alan. Become What You Are. Shambhala, 1995 (essays, 1930s–1950s).

Watts, Alan. The Wisdom of Insecurity. Pantheon, 1951.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. 1921.

Wright, Robert. Why Buddhism Is True. Simon & Schuster, 2017.

Xiangyan Zhixian — traditional Chan/Zen biographical account (Tang dynasty, c. 820–898).

Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu), "On the Equality of Things" ("Discussion on Making All Things Equal").

Bible. Job 42:5–6; Luke 15:11–32 (KJV).

Bhagavad Gita, 2.47.

Ovid. Metamorphoses.

McGilchrist, Iain. The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. Yale University Press, 2009.

Miles Kington. Quoted in The Independent (UK), Mar 28, 2003.

Joseph Campbell. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Pantheon, 1949 — "Freedom to Live," Stage 17.

Eckhart Tolle. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. New World Library, 1997

Ramana Maharshi, quoted in Ram Dass, "Dying Is Absolutely Safe"

Alan Watts, Become Who You Are.

Sam Harris, Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion.

Dalai Lama & Paul Ekman, Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion. Times Books, 2008

Emmet Fox, The Sermon on the Mount

Ernest Kurtz & Katherine Ketcham, The Spirituality of Imperfection. Bantam

Byron Katie, Loving What Is. Harmony, 2002.

Diana Chapman & Jim Dethmer (with Kaley Klemp), The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership. 2014.

Epictetus, Discourses / Enchiridion.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.

Plato, Republic

Plotinus, The Enneads.

Spinoza, Ethics

Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation.

Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit.

Jiddu Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known

Philo of Alexandria, On the Creation of the World.

1 Corinthians 1:20, 1:25, 3:19 — "the wisdom of the world is foolishness"

John 14:6 — "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

Galatians 2:20 or 2 Corinthians 5:17 -- "in Christ"

ERRATA:

Heller, not Huxley, wrote Catch-22.
Pauline, not Jesus, says "The wisdom of the world will be foolish..."

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[2.5] The End of Education Aug 03, 2026

Show notes

We explore the state of education just before the rise of AI, compare it to today, and extrapolate into the future.

Sources

Tyler Jagt, "My Students Can't Read," Chronicle of Higher Education, 2026.
NAEP Long-Term Trend Assessment
Pew Research, "Reading for fun has become less common," 2021.
James S. Coleman et al., Equality of Educational Opportunity ("The Coleman Report"), US Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1966
Kathryn Borman & Monique Dowling, Teachers College Record, 2010.
Dan Goldhaber, "The Mystery of Good Teaching," Education Next, 2002 Steven Rivkin, Eric Hanushek & John Kain, teacher-effects study, Econometrica, 2005.
Xitao Fan & Michael Chen, parental-involvement meta-analysis, Educational Psychology Review, 2001
World Bank, "Vietnam's Human Capital: Education Success and Future Challenges," 2020 (PISA science outperformance on low per-pupil spend).
OECD, "Does Money Buy Strong Performance in PISA?", PISA in Focus No. 13, 2012 (no score/spending relationship above ~$35k cumulative per-student spend).
NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 236.55 (US per-pupil spending, $6,873 → $17,495 real dollars, 1970-71 to 2020-21)
Boston Globe, 2001 coverage of Harvard grading ("laughing stock of the Ivy League"; 91% of seniors graduating with honors).
Harvard Crimson, Oct. 5, 2023 (~79-80% of 2020-21 grades in the A range)
Anemona Hartocollis, "Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say," New York Times, Oct. 6, 2025.
Gallup, confidence-in-higher-education tracking, July 2023 and July 2024 releases (57% in 2015 → 36% in 2023/24; Republican confidence ~56%→~19-20%, Democratic decline much smaller)
Pew Research, Aug. 2019 (share saying colleges have a negative effect on the country, 26%→38%, 2012-2019, driven almost entirely by Republicans/leaners)
Challenge Success (Stanford, Denise Pope), Fall 2018 survey
Mark Galloway, cheating in advantaged-community schools, Ethics & Behavior, 2012
Stacy Dale & Alan Krueger, "Estimating the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College," NBER WP 7322, Aug. 1999; Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2002. Follow-up: NBER WP 17159, Jun. 2011; Journal of Human Resources, 2014.
ProPublica & The Chronicle of Higher Education, "The Newest College Admissions Ploy: Paying to Make Your Teen a 'Peer-Reviewed' Author," May 2023.
Nataliya Kosmyna et al., "Your Brain on ChatGPT," MIT Media Lab, arXiv:2506.08872, 2025.
Hao-Ping (Hank) Lee et al., "The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking," CHI 2025, peer-reviewed, n=319.
Turnitin AI-detection data, 2023-2026 (>80% AI-written flags: ~3% early 2023 → ~15% early 2026).
Inside Higher Ed / Generation Lab Student Voice survey, Aug. 2025
Rose Horowitch, "The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books," The Atlantic, Oct. 2024.
"Hilarius Bookbinder," "The Average College Student Is Illiterate," Persuasion, Mar. 2025.
Tyler Jagt, "My Students Can't Read," Chronicle of Higher Education, 2026.
NAEP 2024 12th-grade reading assessment, released Sept. 2025 (lowest since assessment began).
Erik Brynjolfsson, Bharat Chandar & Ruyu Chen (Stanford Digital Economy Lab), "Canaries in the Coal Mine?," Nov. 2025, ADP payroll data
Indeed Hiring Lab, entry-level software postings
2U, coding-bootcamp partnership shutdown, Dec. 2024.
Southern New Hampshire University, bootcamp closure, 2023, citing AI adoption.
World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report, 2023 & 2025
McKinsey Global Institute, "Skill Shift," 2018
Stefan Bauschard, "Education is a Wicked Problem in AI"
Brian Miller, "Farewell, Peak Literacy, We Hardly Knew You," Front Porch Republic, Nov. 2023.
James Marriott, The New Dark Ages: The Death of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society

ERRATA:

Obviously Daniel Kahneman wrote _Thinking Fast and Slow_, not Malcom Gladwell
I said that in 2024 the GOP did not have a platform; it was in fact 2020

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[2.4] You Sit Upon a Throne of Lies Jul 27, 2026

Show notes

It's amazing how useful illusion is for surviving in a cave, and staggering how destructive it is to our lives. The Buddha saw this 2500 years ago. Modern science sees it more clearly than ever.

In this episode I did not even get into the Fundamental Attribution Error or the vast suite of cognitive biases and logical fallacies to which we are prone.

But we are not doomed to live like this!

SOURCES

Yes, I read these!

Brickman, Coates & Janoff-Bulman (1978), J. Personality & Social Psychology 36.

Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness (2006)

Gazzaniga & LeDoux, The Integrated Mind (1978).

Kurzban, Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind (2010)

Wright, Why Buddhism Is True (2017)

Fadiman & Gruber, Your Symphony of Selves (2020)

Hunt, Marx, Lipson & Young (2018), J. Social & Clinical Psychology 37.

Allcott, Braghieri, Eichmeyer & Gentzkow (2020), American Economic Review 110(3).

Scitovsky, The Joyless Economy (1976).

Wrigley & Schofield, The Population History of England 1541–1871 (1981)

Killingsworth & Gilbert (2010), Science 330.

Kasser, The High Price of Materialism (2002).

Einstein–Born correspondence (1926); Bohr–Einstein debate.

McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary (2009); McGilchrist Substack, Apr 2026 (Kastner 2024 paper).

Mercier & Sperber, "Why Do Humans Reason?" (2011), Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Haidt, The Righteous Mind (2012)

Trivers, The Folly of Fools (2011)

Kahan, "Ideology, Motivated Reasoning, and Cognitive Reflection" (2012)

Dunbar, Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language (1996); Dunbar, Duncan & Marriott (1997).

Hardin & Higgins (1996); Higgins & Rholes (1978); Echterhoff, Higgins & Levine (2009), Perspectives on Psychological Science

Kopietz et al. (2010), Social Cognition

Festinger, When Prophecy Fails (1956).

Plato, Apology 38a5–6; Republic Book VII (514a–520a)

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[2.3] Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Jul 20, 2026

Show notes

As AI's capability grows, what once-human tasks will it be able to do, by when? What will those displaced humans do? We look to the automation revolutions of the past to see what the historical pattern has been, and explore in what ways AI is different that could change the pattern.

The pattern will change. The implications are immense.

Sources

Brynjolfsson & McAfee, "Will Humans Go the Way of Horses?", Foreign Affairs (2015): https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/will-humans-go-way-horses

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Software Developers (SOC 15-1252): https://www.bls.gov/oes/2021/may/oes151252.htm · https://www.bls.gov/oes/2022/may/oes151252.htm · https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes151252.htm · Occupational Outlook Handbook: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm ·

Katja Grace et al., "Thousands of AI Authors on the Future of AI": https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.02843 · https://aiimpacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Thousands_of_AI_authors_on_the_future_of_AI.pdf

Metaculus: "first general AI system" https://www.metaculus.com/questions/5121/ ·

"An AI Job Apocalypse?", Goldman Sachs Research, June 25, 2026: https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/top-of-mind/an-ai-job-apocalypse (

Tyna Eloundou, Sam Manning, Pamela Mishkin, Daniel Rock, "GPTs are GPTs," Science 384 (2024): https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj0998 ·

Stanford Digital Economy Lab, "Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of AI" (Nov 2025): https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/app/uploads/2025/11/CanariesintheCoalMine_Nov25.pdf

Maxim Massenkoff & Peter McCrory, "Labor Market Impacts of AI: A New Measure and Early Evidence," Anthropic (Mar 5, 2026): https://www.anthropic.com/research/labor-market-impacts

ERRATA:

Tom Brady did NOT win a ring after retirement; he had all 7 before he retired
I said Camus said there is "one true psychological problem;" he said "one true *philosophical* problem"

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[2.2] Obliviscere Mori Jul 13, 2026

Show notes

How much of your life -- and everyone's -- is a compulsive, futile effort to deny your own death? What happens when you see what's really happening?

Sources

Leontief’s horse. Wassily Leontief, 1983, National Academy of Engineering symposium

Humans and Horses. Brynjolfsson & McAfee, “Will Humans Go the Way of Horses?”, Foreign Affairs (2015): https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/will-humans-go-way-horses

Software developer pay. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Software Developers (SOC 15-1252): https://www.bls.gov/oes/2021/may/oes151252.htm · https://www.bls.gov/oes/2022/may/oes151252.htm · https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes151252.htm ·

Occupational Outlook Handbook: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm

Total-comp figure: Levels.fyi (2026).

AI timelines (experts). Katja Grace et al., “Thousands of AI Authors on the Future of AI” (2023 survey, 2,778 researchers): https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.02843 · https://aiimpacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Thousands_of_AI_authors_on_the_future_of_AI.pdf

Goldman Sachs. “An AI Job Apocalypse?”, Goldman Sachs Research, June 25, 2026: https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/top-of-mind/an-ai-job-apocalypse (Goldman’s own view is that the disruption is temporary.)

Occupational exposure. Tyna Eloundou, Sam Manning, Pamela Mishkin, Daniel Rock, “GPTs are GPTs,” *Science* 384 (2024): https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj0998 · working paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130

Stanford Digital Economy Lab, “Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of AI” (Nov 2025): https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/app/uploads/2025/11/CanariesintheCoalMine_Nov25.pdf

Current labor data. Maxim Massenkoff & Peter McCrory, “Labor Market Impacts of AI: A New Measure and Early Evidence,” Anthropic (Mar 5, 2026): https://www.anthropic.com/research/labor-market-impacts

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[2.1] Exponential Growth is a SOB Jul 06, 2026

Show notes

Look over the growth if AI's capability in the past 3 years, and the past year. What is it going to look like in 3 years, and what are the implications for all of us?

Some visions of the future of AI by some researchers on the cutting edge:

https://ai-2027.com/

Dario Amodei, Machines of Loving Grace (October 2024)

Leopold Aschenbrenner, Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead (June 2024)

Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies (2025)

Nick Bostrom, Deep Utopia (2024)

The skeptics:

Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor, AI as Normal Technology (2025)

ERRATA:

Veo3 came out in May 2025 (I saw it in late 2025)
Galileo had house arrest, not prison

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[2.0] An Introduction to ReConsider 2.0 Jun 01, 2026

Show notes

A brief guide on how to get the most out of ReConsider 2.0

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Ukraine XI: Asymmetric Momentum Oct 18, 2022

Show notes

There’s something really interesting happening in Ukraine. The few and far between Russian victories seem to be making them weaker. Yes, you read that right. Russian victories are draining the life out of their soldiers, making it harder to win the battles that come next. On the other hand, Ukrainian victories have been swift, dramatic, and devastating - with each win seemingly making them stronger.

The big question is, why is it that Ukrainians gain momentum with every win, but Russia can’t seem to build on their victories? Well, it all comes down to asymmetric momentum. And there are 6 major reasons for this.

Tune in to hear what these 6 reasons are and how the recent Ukrainian victories mark a critical juncture that will determine the course of the war.

Topics Covered Include:

00:00 Introduction

02:40 What is asymmetric momentum?

04:49 Ukrain’s positional warfare

06:55 Understanding Ukraine’s offensive and defensive strategies

08:16 Russia’s unintelligent retreat

10:37 How Russian political interests are affecting their progress

14:54 The poor discipline and lack of drive in Russian forces

16:42 Is the Russian army competent enough to win this war?

18:00 How Russia’s desire for a quick war is slowing their progress

20:40 Ukrainian motivation and their willingness to die for the right reasons

24:58 The impatient side of Russians uncovered

28:30 Many Russian conscripts will die due to lack of training and morale

29:36 The psychology behind Putin’s destructive Soviet-style leadership

32:04 Ukraine is playing the patient game

34:07 Summary

35:36 Parting thoughts

Ukrainian victories on the ground have been swift, dramatic, and devastating. And each win seems to make them stronger.

Russian victories (back when they happened), seemed to be slow and grinding, and wear the Rusisans down, making them weaker.

Why is it that Russians lose momentum with each victory, but Ukrainians gain it? Why such asymmetric momentum?

I see 6 (or 7, depending) major reasons:

1. Russian Politics (“quick war”): impatience -> meat grinder, not admitting defeat, vs Ukraine’s patience
2. Russian Politics (show territorial progress): territory vs. Ukraine’s “defeat the enemy” -> meat grinder
3. Russian Politics (don’t let Ukraine show territorial progress): no retreat allowed -> break and rout
4. Morale, espirit de corps, discipline, "why are we here" vs fighting for home and life -> Ukrainians will die for the right reasons, Russians are drunk, will break and refuse to fight
5. Russian atrocities: hardens Ukrainian morale and turns them into 24/7 machines of war who get smarter and become veterans
6. Soviet vs. NATO style: NATO style allows for initiative and invests in training; Soviet style mass forces of limited training and centralized command means they are very predictable
7. Putin: total centralized control by someone who has clearly lost touch with reality