Max Meyer, founder of Arena Magazine, discusses his bold decision to launch a print publication in 2024. He delves into the decline of legacy media and the chaos of social media, likening it to a steam valve for societal frustrations. The conversation touches on the wisdom of Ratatouille, the evolution of political oratory, and the optimism versus pessimism debate surrounding human progress. Meyer also shares insights on capitalism's role in innovation and the significant impact of tangible media in our increasingly digital world.
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insights INSIGHT
Legacy Media's Decline
Legacy media tech publications are struggling because talented writers are becoming technologists.
The advertising revenue model collapsed, leaving publications reliant on low-quality ads.
insights INSIGHT
Media's Race to the Bottom
The collapse of traditional media business models fueled a race to the bottom in pessimism and anger.
This is because human emotions, especially fear, are easily exploited for engagement.
question_answer ANECDOTE
COVID-19 and Media Trust
During COVID-19, institutions like the NIH reversed established knowledge, eroding public trust.
The media's uncritical reporting of these reversals further damaged their credibility.
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In this groundbreaking book, David Deutsch argues that explanations have a fundamental place in the universe and that improving them is the basic regulating principle of all successful human endeavor. The book takes readers on a journey through various fields of science, history of civilization, art, moral values, and the theory of political institutions. Deutsch explains how we form new explanations and drop bad ones, and discusses the conditions under which progress, which he argues is potentially boundless, can and cannot happen. He emphasizes the importance of good explanations, which he defines as those that are 'hard to vary' and have 'reach', and argues that these explanations are central to the Enlightenment way of thinking and to all scientific and philosophical progress.
The Population Bomb
Anne H. Ehrlich
Paul Ehrlich
Published in 1968, 'The Population Bomb' by Paul and Anne Ehrlich predicts catastrophic consequences, including mass starvation and environmental ruin, due to unchecked population growth. The book argues that immediate action is necessary to control population growth to prevent these dire outcomes. Although many of the Ehrlichs' predictions did not come to pass, the book significantly raised awareness about population and environmental issues and influenced public policy in the 1960s and 1970s. The authors emphasize the need for conscious regulation of human numbers and highlight the strain that growing populations place on the natural world[1][4][5].
The Ultimate Resource
Julian Lincoln Simon
In this book, Julian Simon argues against the notion that humanity is running out of natural resources. He contends that as resources become scarcer, their prices rise, creating incentives for people to discover more resources, ration and recycle them, and develop substitutes. Simon believes that human creativity and innovation are the ultimate resources, enabling economic growth and improving living standards despite population growth. The book also discusses historical precedents of unfounded environmental fears and includes a famous wager with Paul Ehrlich that demonstrated the decline in real prices of commodity metals over time[1][2][3].
Genius of the Beast
Howard Bloom
In this book, Howard Bloom presents a compelling argument that capitalism, despite its imperfections, is a system that allows the best and brightest to emerge. He advocates for reviving businesses by injecting them with emotion, desire, and passion. Bloom draws on his diverse experiences, from his work in popular culture to his insights into human and mass behavior, to illustrate how all life, from bacteria to human beings, is programmed to flourish under the free market system. The book is filled with personal anecdotes and historical examples, making it both captivating and thought-provoking.
My guest today is Max Meyer, the proprietor of Arena Magazine, a new quarterly publication exploring technology, capitalism and civilization.
Arena’s aim? To “make it okay to dream in public again.”
Max and I discuss why he launched a print magazine in 2024, WTF happened to legacy media, the wisdom of Ratatouille and MUCH more.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.
Infinite Loops 
