Meditations with Zohar

Talmud scholar Daniel Boyarin joins Zohar to discuss the pursuit of truth in the Talmud, debates about knowledge and hatred, the relationship between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, teaching Talmud in academia, backhanded compliments in Jewish life, the portrayal of heaven as a courtroom, and the relationship between mysticism and rationality.

Trae Stephens, investor and entrepreneur, discusses the ethics of scaling, the role of venture capital, and the importance of personal connections. They explore the dialectic of love and judgment, the challenges of commodification in different industries, and the impact of celebrities on society. The podcast also delves into decisive moments and life-shaping, biblical psychological profiles, and the idea of God as an investor.

In this podcast, Zohar and Rohit Krishnan discuss topics like creativity and AI, exploring the anatomy of creativity and its relationship with generalism and talent. They also reflect on mythological characters and career paths, as well as the impact of AI on art and science. They explore the role of sabbaticals and patronage in facilitating creativity and personal growth, discussing the rarity of patronage and the importance of taking breaks. Overall, this podcast covers a wide range of interesting topics related to creativity and its connection to different aspects of life.

This week Zohar is joined by public intellectual Seth Kaplan to discuss his new book Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time. Kaplan takes his analysis of Fragile States and applies the same lens to American neighborhoods. Zohar and Seth talk about what makes for good neighborhoods, why culture can't be reduced to economic or political analysis, the role of religion in community, and whether loneliness and failing neighborhoods are a driver of radicalism.

David Bashevkin, Rabbi, author of Synagogue, and founder of 18Forty, talks about the meaning of community, the integration of intellect and emotion in religious ideas, the search for meaning in Hasidism, the role of community in shaping and preserving traditions, the significance of transmission in Judaism, the importance of real conversation and questioning values, the role of continuity and family in Judaism, and the case for inconvenience in preserving values and relationships.

Eric Linus Kaplan, TV writer and podcast host, joins Zohar to discuss whether God has a body, the value of Heidegger's thought, the meaning of sophistry, and the feeling of the 'whoosh'. They also explore the connection between actions and philosophy and the tension between impact and truth.

This week, Zohar is joined by Rabbi Ari Lamm, host of The Good Faith Effort podcast, to talk about the theology of human independence, self-deception, the philosophy of language, what makes interpretation faithful or deviant, the rabbinic concept of the bat kol (divine echo), and what it means to be a rabbi.

This week, Zohar is joined by return guest Tara Isabella Burton to discuss her most recent book, Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians. They discuss renaissance humanism, the theological origins of postmodernity, irony, commitment, transhumanism, Oscar Wilde, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Edison, and Grimes.

This week, Zohar is joined by Geoffrey West, theoretical physicist, Distinguished Professor and Past President of the Santa Fe Institute, and author of Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies, to talk about whether universities are more like cities or companies, what makes human consciousness unique, love as a guiding force, Heidegger, longevity, interdisciplinarity, and why generative AI is all too human.

This week, Zohar is joined by scientist turned journalist turned public intellectual, David Epstein, to discuss his book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, who should generalize when, how to date and parent as a generalist, the merits of Merlin figures, whether extending human life will change the way we think about life stages and education, why so many artists and athletes are incapable of explaining their own achievements, and more.