Aporia Podcast

Garett Jones is Associate Professor of Economics and BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University.  His first book, published in 2015 by Stanford University Press, is entitled Hive Mind: How Your Nation's IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own, and was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal. His second book, also with Stanford, published in 2020, is entitled 10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less, and was reviewed in The Economist. Garett's most controversial opinion: https://www.ideassleepfuriously.com/p/garett-jones-most-controversial-opinion

Razib Khan is a master of decoding ancient DNA to tell fascinating stories about our history and heritage. Timestamps:  2:39: Three mindblowing facts from ancient DNA research  6:10 Will it be possible to know the average IQ of classical Athens?  8:35 How much signal do we lose if the population is representative?   10:15 Is there really more genetic diversity within Africa?  15:02 Is gene-culture co-evolution a kind of bottleneck or sieve?  18:45 Fighting between hunter-gatherers and farmers  24:15 Psychopaths as a development of mass society & the need for security  27:20 Dysgenics and the cyclical theory of civilizations  40:40 Modalities of innovation  44:15 The timeline for genetic engineering, speciation, and runaway selection 56:10 People are masturbating  57:00 Is immortality on the cards?  1:05:00 Is this the last century of technological civilization?  1:08:20 Changing aesthetic standards, the need for wisdom, and werewolves  1:15:43 When will we be able to talk about group differences freely?  1:16:52 Will conservatives inherit the Earth?

Richard is President of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, whose Substack output you can find here. He also has his own Substack. His academic interests include nuclear policy, American grand strategy, political psychology, the politics of the Middle East, and international law. In today’s podcast we do a deep dive into his most interesting articles. You can find him on Twitter here. Timestamps:   2:31 Richard’s background and journey through academia 6:07 Is academia really that bad?  9:15 Is international relations a lost cause?  12:55 Why women’s tears win  16:20 Do conservatives like foreign policy because they get to be macho?  18:50 Should most women leave the academy and have children?  22:50 Should most people walk away from the academy?  28:25 Why is understanding civil rights important for fighting wokeism?  32:00 Is wokeness inevitably downstream from civil rights law?  41:40 Blank slatism and left-wing conformism  46:00 The importance of compartmentalising beliefs  47:03 Richard’s psychological theory of the culture wars  52:25 Why does Richard have any faith in democracy?  54:25 How much is wokeism orchestrated?  1:02:30 Is democracy the only weapon the right have left?  1:09:30 Why does everything move left?  1:11:40 Why does Richard think wokeness isn’t a religion?

Last week, we hosted the first ISF livestream with Bo Winegard and Jonathan Anomaly. It was a fantastic conversation loosely based around the topic on what enquiries into human nature can tell us about political philosophy. 

Prof Eric Kaufmann is a Canadian professor of politics at Birkbeck, University of London. He’s the author of several books including Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities, and Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century. Today, we’re speaking with Eric about his two reports for the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology:  Born This Way? The Rise of LGBT as a Social and Political Identity  Diverse and Divided: A Political Demography of American Elite Students Important links:  Substack: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Ideas_Sleep Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ideas_Sleep

Leandra Ramm is an American singer and actress known for opera and musical theatre. She is an offspring of the Repository for Germinal Choice (otherwise known as "The Genius Sperm Bank").    My own story: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com/p/on-discovering-that-i-was-sperm-donor#details  My links:   Substack: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Ideas_Sleep  Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ideas_Sleep  Timestamps:   0:00 Intro  2:26 How I heard about Leandra’s story  3:57 Leandra’s origin story  7:57 Finding the genius sperm bank and the process  11:55 Leandra’s half-siblings' origins  13:55 Family dynamics  18:55 Leandra’s school experience with a high IQ  22:15 How Leandra’s intelligence helped her  28:40 Leandra’s siblings’ stories  33:15 How did Leandra find her biological dad and half-siblings?  38:00 Leandra’s thoughts on genetics   39:55 Leandra’s dad’s life  41:40 Leandra’s thoughts on genetic engineering  44:35 The importance of biodiversity   46:35 Would Leandra support a genius sperm bank today?  48:15 The lack of regulation   50:03 Why Robert Graham started the project  50:45 The dangers of no regulation  52:40 What else did Leandra find out about the sperm bank?  54:30 Gratitude for modern science and new-found family

Simon Webb is an historian, writer, and host of the popular YouTube show, History Debunked. He has written about slavery, World War I, and even fairies. Check out his channel and books. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:27: What historical event should we all know about and why? 4:50 Why does Simon think democracy isn't fit for purpose? 7:35 The ironies of Brexit and immigration 10:04 Does learning history really change you? 11:13 Homeschooling's power 17:55 Is there potential for a post-Woke politics anytime soon? 19:25 Simon's meta-ethical view & religion 21:15 What is Simon's most controversial belief? 29:03 Guilt by association & social media 30:27 Why we should talk about group differences 32:00 Why would people want to change the status quo? 38:30 The primal fear of discussing group differences 41:00 Schooling in historical context and making changes 44:00 Will homeschooling become more popular? 45:15 Is immigration still a concern for the British public? 49:38 Should young people leave? 50:49 Historical inaccuracies in film and TV 56:13 Simon's favourite books 56:52 No regrets 57:12 What does it mean to be truly educated?

Today I'm speaking with the Australian writer and retired lawyer, Helen Dale. Helen is best known for writing The Hand that Signed the Paper, a novel about a Ukrainian family who collaborated with the Nazis in The Holocaust. The book was published in in 1994 and won the Miles Franklin Award, Australia's top literary prize. Helen became the award's youngest winner. However, controversy ensued after it became known that Helen had been trolling the diversity obsessed literary establishment by claiming to be Ukrainian and basing the book on interviews with her relatives (she'd published under the pseudonym “Helen Demidenko”). Today, however, I'm speaking with Helen about something much more personal: growing up gifted. Helen has, in her own words, a “freakishly high” IQ. As someone very interested in giftedness, I thought I could pose some of the most asked questions on Quora to Helen about living life with an IQ at the 99.9th percentile. The conversation is wide-ranging, so you might like to make use of the timestamps in the YouTube video. I’ve also pasted them below. Links to Helen’s work: Helen has authored three works of fiction. She writes for Law & Liberty (you can find the full archive of her articles here). And make sure to subscribe to Helen’s Substack here. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 4:05 Helen discusses her early infamy 14:30 The right to write & elite overproduction 16:08 How “The System” works & going into law 18:00 How Helen and I met & the big brains of headline writers 19:45 Helen’s “lived experience” with a high IQ 22:35 The intricacies of Latin & Greek 25:10 On being challenged intellectually in law 27:45 Professionals are often smarter than academics 32:58 Helen’s thoughts on education policy and her own schooling 37:15 The value of school discipline & the Michaela School 43:13 What is school for? 53:54 American ignorance & social class 58:48 The duty of the gifted 1:01:05 On Taleb’s critique of IQ 1:07:30 Helen’s obsession with law 1:11:32 Who’s the smartest person Helen has met? 1:13:28 Why piloting is so “g loaded” 1:16:50 How maths students are ranked at Cambridge 1:18:19 Preemies and left-handers 1:19:50 Is it lonely at the right-hand tail? 1:22:20 Organising the Jewish lobby in Australia & being right-wing 1:26:18 Australia’s gift to the world 1:31:30 The law & embryo selection 1:38:20 Authoritarian states creating super athletes & soldiers 1:39:02 Helen talks about her speculative fiction books 1:41:20 Competing with other countries 1:44:14 The biggest legal challenges for new genetic technology 1:50:42 What does it mean to be truly educated?

Noah Carl is a British sociologist and independent researcher. He currently writes for a number of outlets, but his most consistent output can be found on Substack (link below). Apologies in advance if this conversation isn't up to the usual standard, Noah actually messaged me out of the blue asking if I wanted to do a podcast, so I only had an hour or two to put some questions together. We only had an hour, but I think there’s a lot in here. Some of the spicier topics we touch on include: dysgenics, global IQ differences, and whether the West should "recolonise" parts of Africa. Noah's Substack: https://noahcarl.substack.com/ My links:   Substack: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Ideas_Sleep  Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ideas_Sleep

This week I’m speaking with Parker Settecase, a philosopher and host of the Parker’s Pensées podcast, which you can find here:  https://www.youtube.com/c/ParkersPens... I really enjoy Parker’s show. He interviews fascinating philosophers and theologians and gets deep into the weeds with them. Parker is also a Christian, so I thought it’d be interesting to chat about how his views have evolved. We also discuss the problem of evil, free will, and whether my rationalism is self-defeating. Enjoy!  You can you can find Parker on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/trendsettercase  My links:   Substack: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Ideas_Sleep Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ideas_Sleep