What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?
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I like to read and listen to reasonably smart people with whom I disagree on an issue.
With respect to Israel, Sam Harris ain't the guy to listen to. He's taken the position that Islam=BAD, thus Israel=GOOD. Nuance, critical thinking=BAD.
Students protesting Israel's actions = clearly delusional, misinformed, and antisemitic.
"Gee, Sam - have you explored any of the videos or written evidence by the International Criminal Court, Amnesty International, etc. documenting IDF atrocities? You know, things that those ill-informed students watch?
SH - "don't need to... Here's Douglas Murray who saw Gaza - at the invitation of the IDF. Have you been gone to Gaza? - Best, of all, he agrees with everything I want to believe. And he's not Jewish - so therefore, he's independent and credible."
And this from the guy who claims he values truth. I have little doubt that if the IDF were to gas all of the inhabitants of Gaza, Harris would argue that it brought peace to the Middle East - and ultimately saved lives.
He used to say that he didn't want to invite pro-MAGA people on because they would invent facts. Well, why not invite one of the noted Israeli scholars who argue that Israel has been pursuing a land grab for decades - and uses pretenses to achieve its goals - Norman Finkelstein has studied this for over 30 years. He's pretty up on the facts. There are numerous other Israeli scholars who could argue point as well.
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More post-mortem on Murray's appearance on Rogan, from some relatively serious thinkers:
Link to video
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Aporia has a podcast, I think it may be subscriber only. I subscribe through their substack. https://www.aporiamagazine.com/
It's lots of third-rail genetic intelligence stuff, be warned. One of the guys in the above video is an ex-professor who got fired for talking about that stuff.
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Youtube is a podcast app if you pay for a youtube subscription, and the podcast is a video podcast available there. You can shut off your screen and the audio will still play. Youtube reserves that functionality for subscribers. Also add-free, which is a necessity for me.
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Zohran Mamdani is behind only Cuomo in the NYC mayoral race. He’s a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and, oddly enough, was interviewed on Bloomberg’s (the company not the man) Odd Lots podcast.
It’s strange because Odd Lots is a professional markets podcast with a largely professional markets audience.
All of this guy’s policies suck, from adding more Halal food carts to his re-branded Defund the Police (he talks about creating a sister organization of social service types) to government run grocery stores to sell subsidized produce.
Having said all that he is good at engaging the audience and can handle unfriendly interviewers pretty well, not unlike Mayor Pete in that regard.
While he doesn’t seem like he could win he could be a spoiler - if he loses the Dem primary (as expected) he could still get on the ballot as DSA and create a four way race between him, Cuomo, Adams, and whomever the GOP runs.
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Good reddit thread regarding Sam. This guy unsubscribed at about the same time I did, with about the same reasoning.
Education is extremely important.
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Just a day after listening to Zohran Mamdani on Odd Lots, Andrew Cuomo was on Bari Weiss' podcast. He has well rehearsed and plausible answers for the Covid/nursing home scandal and was pretty good on his feet with distancing himself from the more lefty views.
When I first heard he was running for Mayor I figured it was his last job, as it would take him out to his mid 70s. Now I suspect he wants the mayoral job as a platform for a presidential run in 2028.
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Good reddit thread regarding Sam. This guy unsubscribed at about the same time I did, with about the same reasoning.
@Horace said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:
Good reddit thread regarding Sam. This guy unsubscribed at about the same time I did, with about the same reasoning.
I liked this response. It's something I've been thinking about lately. The economy of subscriptions to individual public commentators. Their price is often the same as a subscription to a top-tier commentary magazine or service.
For $60 a year you can get a subscription to The Atlantic, which publishes new content everyday, some by Pulitzer Prize winners. Sam asking $150 a year is ridiculous in comparison
Patreon tends to be saner, where creators request subscriptions on the order of $1 or $3 per month. But the substack crowd tends to start at $10/month or more.
As for Sam, his pursuit of money is too obvious, compared to his professed higher motivations. I still recall how he was charging separately for his Substack writings and for his podcast. When he consolidated everything at a higher price, he attributed that to an oversight. What you can know about Sam is that he is compelled to maximize his revenue, and he is ashamed of admitting that, and will never admit that.
