The Metagame #5 - Alex Ebert | Death Rituals, Status Anxiety and Being Cool
Alex Ebert is a Golden Globe-winning singer-songwriter and composer. He is best known for being the lead singer and songwriter for the bands Ima Robot and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. He is also a philosopher, exploring ideas around death, self-hood, creativity, media, status anxiety and coolness.
Topics include:
* Alex’s creative process (i.e. meeting the daemon)
* Why memes have made everyone into philosophers
* That time when Alex got too meta for Bono and Robert Redford
* The perils of success and how it tempts you to be formulaic
* Status anxiety and the philosophy of cool
* Why “selling out” stopped being a thing around the year 2000
* Death initiations and managing death anxiety
* Why you need a gang with a shared mission
* Why society is perfectly primed for virtue to become cool
* How wokeness acts as a shield for capitalism
* The benefits of having a stoic conversation partner
* Alex’s anxiety-inducing ritual before going on stage
Resources:
* The dancing man at Sasquatch Festival
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