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Books podcasts were talking about in December 2020
During December 2020 on the Lex Fridman Podcast, host Lex Fridman and guest Diana Walsh Pasulka discussed a wide range of philosophical, religious, and scientific works. The conversation prominently featured Pasulka's book American Cosmic, as well as her earlier work Heaven Can Wait. Throughout the episode, the speakers examined various influential texts that connect belief, technology, and human consciousness. Pasulka recommended Hannah Arendt's monumental work The Life of the Mind and Jeffrey J. Kripal's Authors of the Impossible as a significant influence. The dialogue also touched upon historical and critical texts, including Immanuel Kant's The Critique of Practical Reason, Martin Heidegger's essay on the question of art, Friedrich Nietzsche's The Genealogy of Morals in the context of Foucault's framework, and Ronald Hendel's writing on the Book of Genesis as it relates to modern cinema like The Matrix. The unifying theme across these discussions centered on the intersection of religion, philosophy, human thought, and extraordinary beliefs, examining how structured intellectual frameworks and mythologies shape our understanding of reality, technology, and existence across different eras and scholarly disciplines.
Lex Fridman Podcast
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American Cosmic
Discussed“the following is a conversation with diana walsh basulka a professor of philosophy and religion at uncw and author of american cosmic ufos religion and technology”
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The Critique of Practical Reason
Discussed“so emmanuel kant is one of the he was uh basically in the 1750s he wrote critiques of reason and things like that”
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On the Essence of Language and the Question of Art
Discussed“so another um philosopher that philosophers actually don't like at all but religious studies people do is martin heidegger so martin heidegger has some great essays one is called what is a work of art”
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Heaven Can Wait
Discussed“They have a book on purgatory that came before your uh american cosmic”
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The Book of Genesis
Discussed“He uses a religious reference even he says you could think of the matrix of the movie as a new as the new um book of genesis for our new world”
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The Genealogy of Morals
Discussed“foucault this um other philosopher french philosopher actually takes up this idea and creates his own framework called genealogy from it so the genealogy of morals”
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The Life of the Mind
Discussed“she has another book called the life of the mind which is gigantic and i don't think anybody will read it but frankly it's one of the best books i've ever read”
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Authors of the Impossible
Discussed“but he's um his i think his best book or the one that impacted me the most is called authors of the impossible”
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Mutants & Mystics
Discussed“uh there's a great one he's written called mutants and mystics where he talks about the comic strips”
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The Holy Vedas
Discussed“they spoke the vedas which were the sacred traditions of india they wanted off”
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Calculating God
Discussed“You really need to be calculating god by sawyer It's a you'll read it in a night It's a very easy read But it's assuming you're that kind of reader But it's a it's a good story And it's kind of about this but not in a way that it appears And i uh really enjoyed the thought experiment um”
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Roadside Picnic
Discussed“the second one i would probably pick the science fiction by the stragoski brothers uh you know it's up there with you know isaac asimov and you know ray bradbury uh and you know company uh the straguski brothers kind of appealed more to me i think more it made more of an impression on me uh growing up um”
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Hard to Be a God
Discussed“uh hard to be a god uh uh beetle in an ant hill uh monday starts on saturday like it's it's not just science fiction it's also like has very interesting you know interpersonal and societal questions and some of the language is just completely hilarious that's the one that's right oh interesting monday starts on saturday so i need”
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Full Collected Works, T. 10. 2
Discussed“uh hard to be a god uh uh beetle in an ant hill uh monday starts on saturday like it's it's not just science fiction it's also like has very interesting you know interpersonal and societal questions and some of the language is just completely hilarious that's the one that's right oh interesting monday starts on saturday so i need”
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Monday Starts on Saturday
Discussed“uh hard to be a god uh uh beetle in an ant hill uh monday starts on saturday like it's it's not just science fiction it's also like has very interesting you know interpersonal and societal questions and some of the language is just completely hilarious that's the one that's right oh interesting monday starts on saturday so i need”
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Reinforcement Learning
Discussed“i mean that's really surprising to me when i first read that and then enriched rich sutton's book on the matter”
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The Alignment Problem
Discussed“currently i'm i'm reading uh the alignment problem actually by brian christian so i don't know if you've seen this out there yet”
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Stuart's Fancy Drinks and How to Mix Them
Discussed“I think I think stewart's book did a remarkably good job like a just a celebratory good job at describing ai technology and sort of how it works”
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Exhalation
Discussed“So one sci-fi book to recommend is exhalations by ted chang a bunch of short stories”
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Self-reliance
Discussed“i would say like probably the thing i read is in one of emerson's essays that i read at a you know point in my life where i needed that type of thing and i read self-reliance and you know he's got a ton of good essays but i thought self-reliance was probably the most impactful to me”
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Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Discussed“there's also a book called uh jonathan livingston seagull by richard uh richard bach i think and um it's kind of along the same lines it's about this seagull who you know wants to break conformity and learn to fly and do all these other great things”
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Lunar Park
Discussed“uh the book which i was lucky enough to read before the movie ever even came out which is just a a pleasure of mine was a american psycho just from a writing standpoint”
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The Communist Manifesto
Discussed“the communist manifesto is truly frightening if you read it in in like modern context it's worth reading”
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
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Michael K. Lindell, [u.] Marjorie R. Greene: Evacuation planning in emergency management
Discussed“cause like i'm i'm i've read michael lindell's book You've read his book um he wrote the he's the my pillow guy Right and he has a moment where he finally gets the fluffing right in the pillow and he just ca i mean he loses He's just it's a great moment right Did you have that moment where you're”
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The One Minute Manager
Discussed“then i learned how to be a boss man and then i read a couple of books on one minute manager and leadership and the one manager and i learned that yeah i had to lead by example that people do what i do not what i say”
The Realignment
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The wise men: Six friends and the world they made
Discussed“He was smart enough to understand this is the guy I have to talk to, and not only did he talk to him during the day, but Walter Isaacson described in The Wise Men how at the end of every day, Truman would make his staff get in the car and drive over to Vandenberg’s townhouse and brief him on”
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Up All Night
Discussed“So we are here to talk about your book, Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News. But a good place to start would be your thoughts on the future.”
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Ray & Joan
Discussed“Look, I wrote a book before this book about the creation of McDonald's. Well, it wasn't really about the creation of McDonald's, but it wound up being a lot about the creation of McDonald's.”
