Salvador Podcast

Jeremy Shearmur is a philosopher and scholar of political thought. A former assistant to Karl Popper, he taught at the London School of Economics and the Australian National University. His work explores liberalism, the philosophy of science, and the fragility of intellectual institutions.We talk about Popper’s legacy, the limits of liberal democracy, challenges to expertise, and what it takes to maintain an open society. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Support my work here and follow me on Twitter hereTimestamps 00:00 – Intro03:19 – The philosophy of science and critique of historicism06:38 – Why open societies are hard to maintain09:57 – Popper’s evolution from Marxism to critical rationalism13:16 – Policy-making by trial and error16:35 – Rights, democracy, and the danger of rigidity19:54 – Why real-world liberalism often fails23:13 – The information ecosystem and online discourse26:32 – Platform incentives and democratic decline29:51 – Can we preserve tradition without dogma?33:10 – Class dynamics and meaning loss36:29 – Gender, disruption, and role confusion39:48 – The nature of philosophical minds43:07 – Pluralism, decency, and disagreement46:26 – Authority, expertise, and the anti-elitist turn49:45 – The danger of bureaucratic ossification53:04 – Popper, Rawls, and liberal morality today56:23 – How secular societies might reinvent purpose59:42 – Final reflections on open inquiry and social repair Get full access to From the Lotus World at www.fromthelotus.world/subscribe

David D. Friedman is an economist, legal scholar, and author of The Machinery of Freedom, a foundational book in anarcho-capitalist thought. Son of Milton Friedman, he has written widely on legal systems, decentralized order, and political philosophy.We talk about how societies can function without a state, how history informs libertarian models, and how theory meets practice in real-world alternatives to government. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Support my work here and follow me on Twitter hereTimestamps 00:00 – Intro02:48 – Enforcing law without government05:36 – Parkinson’s Law and institutional critique08:24 – Real-world examples of anarchic projects11:12 – Estonia, e-residency, and economic leverage14:00 – Private schools and the state’s declining necessity16:48 – Two fronts for decentralizing education19:36 – Iceland and China: decentralized historical models22:24 – Trust systems and behavior on platforms like eBay25:12 – Rationality, family influence, and agreement28:01 – The economist and the hungry bear story30:49 – Speech norms and informal censorship33:37 – Social labels, reputation, and polarization36:25 – Government boundaries and philosophical grounding39:13 – Historical fiction and building imagined systems42:01 – Being raised by two economists44:49 – AI as a transformative, uncertain technology47:37 – Why foundational questions matter50:25 – Thinking practically about building a freer society Get full access to From the Lotus World at www.fromthelotus.world/subscribe

Avi Kahan is a writer and thinker exploring the relationship between science, metaphysics, and religious thought. His work touches on Judaism, psychology, and the philosophical foundations of belief.We talk about the metaphysics of God, the psychological architecture of religion, how science can take on religious roles, and why faith persists in the modern world. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Support my work here and follow me on Twitter hereTimestamps 00:00 – Intro02:48 – God as a mental model and personal conviction05:36 – Upbringing, exposure, and identity shaping08:25 – Jewish history, struggle, and cultural continuity11:13 – Jesus and the Inquisition story14:01 – Leadership, law, and religious structure16:50 – Religion and the suppression of doubt19:38 – Greek gods and metaphysical abstractions22:26 – Prayer, science, and embodied rituals25:15 – Freud, Jung, and metaphysical psychology28:03 – Can science itself become a religion?30:52 – Scientific awe and religious feeling33:40 – Why religion won’t die36:28 – Religious cohesion across major traditions39:17 – Community, healing, and harm through religion42:05 – Optimism and human progress44:53 – Connection, communication, and modern unity47:42 – Moral convergence and global values50:30 – Aristotle, Antiochus, and metaphysical struggle Get full access to From the Lotus World at www.fromthelotus.world/subscribe

BJ Campbell is the author of the Handwaving Freakoutery Substack and a systems engineer with deep experience in data analysis. His writing explores media dynamics, gun policy, polarization, and the complex incentives behind cultural panic, follow BJ on Twitter We talk about how freakouts form, how institutions lose trust, the mechanics of mass persuasion, and what we can do when truth breaks down. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Support my work here and follow me on Twitter hereTimestamps 00:00 – Intro02:29 – The origin of “freakoutery” and viral moral panic05:04 – How trust breaks and narratives take over07:31 – Role of experts and institutional decay09:58 – Why media can’t afford to be accurate12:23 – Gun violence, data misuse, and tribal conclusions14:50 – BJ’s breakdown of CDC messaging failure17:18 – Do both sides cherry-pick gun data?19:46 – Why no one really wants an honest debate22:12 – The incentive systems of media and politics24:39 – Are we already in a soft civil war?27:06 – Public health as a rhetorical weapon29:33 – How memes win and outcompete facts31:59 – Algorithms and narrative feedback loops34:26 – Chaos as performance and control36:52 – Information overload and digital stress39:19 – Epistemology and the limits of modeling41:46 – Collapse of authority and search for coherence44:13 – How to rebuild trust without central control46:40 – Models, culture, and long-term thinking49:07 – What optimism looks like under breakdown51:34 – Freakoutery, faith, and the next wave54:01 – Final thoughts on rebuilding rationality Get full access to From the Lotus World at www.fromthelotus.world/subscribe

Brian Chau is a mathematician and policy analyst who writes at fromthenew.world, where he explores rationality, epistemology, AI alignment, and civilizational trajectories. His work critiques institutional consensus and examines how elite narratives evolve — or collapse — under the weight of social pressure, follow Brian on Twitter We talk about the danger of elite overreach, the misuse of AI policy, the failures of both left and right narratives, and how to build something more coherent. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Support my work here and follow me on Twitter hereTimestamps 00:00 – Intro02:12 – Export controls, global alignment, and the US/China divide04:24 – The politics behind AI regulation and compute limits06:36 – Bipartisan handling of AI across Trump and Biden08:48 – Bridging partisan divides on technological progress11:00 – Antitrust, incumbents, and regulatory capture13:12 – Global AI competition and the Chinese model15:24 – Risk aversion, family obligations, and talent bottlenecks17:36 – Leaving AI orgs and reevaluating the mission19:48 – Perplexity AI vs DeepSeek: the Tiananmen test22:00 – Open-source LLMs and political resilience24:12 – Consent, compliance, and values in AI behavior26:24 – Group disparities and admissions philosophy28:36 – Ethical tradeoffs in policy modeling30:48 – Surveillance as a control system33:00 – Misunderstanding distant cultures and narrative bias35:12 – Bottom-up development vs Western paternalism37:24 – Economic diversity beyond Silicon Valley39:36 – Final reflections and historical insight Get full access to From the Lotus World at www.fromthelotus.world/subscribe

Michael Strong is an educational entrepreneur, author, and co-founder of several ventures focused on liberating human potential — including the Academy of Thought and Industry and The Socratic Experience. He writes about innovation in education, startup cities, and moral development, follow Michael on Twitter We talk about how schooling shapes society, what freedom means in practice, and why creating better institutional environments matters more than reforming broken ones. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Support my work here and follow me on Twitter hereTimestamps 00:00 – Intro02:51 – The moral vision behind Socratic dialogue05:42 – School as an obedience-training system08:33 – The pain and purpose of adolescent development11:24 – Why most schools kill intrinsic motivation14:15 – Reimagining schools through freedom and trust17:06 – Human capital and educational entrepreneurship19:57 – Startup cities as moral ecosystems22:48 – The importance of good rules vs lots of rules25:39 – Why real liberty includes responsibility28:30 – Institutions that align with human flourishing31:21 – Virtue ethics, Aristotle, and thriving students34:12 – How to scale good ideas without bureaucracy37:03 – The future of self-directed learning39:54 – Unschooling, discipline, and long-term outcomes42:45 – Building a moral culture without coercion45:36 – School as simulation vs engagement with reality48:27 – The spiritual dimension of creative work51:18 – Final thoughts on education, meaning, and freedom Get full access to From the Lotus World at www.fromthelotus.world/subscribe

Matthew Lysiak is an investigative journalist and author of Fiat Food: Why Inflation Destroyed our Health and how bitcoin fixes It. He explores how fiat money corrupted not only the economy but also the modern food system — creating a cascade of incentives that have harmed public health, nutrition, and autonomy, follow Matthew on Twitter We talk about the collapse of real food, the centralization of health narratives, the weaponization of science, and why metabolic freedom is at the core of human freedom. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Support my work here and follow me on Twitter hereTimestamps 00:00 – Intro01:56 – How Saifedean Ammous inspired the project03:52 – Why 1971 was the turning point for food and money05:49 – Processed food, fiat currency, and systemic incentives07:45 – Dietary shifts and personal metabolic experimentation09:42 – Raw milk, sugar addiction, and mental clarity11:38 – Why the health crisis is downstream of fiat economics13:34 – Nutrition science as government narrative15:31 – The demonization of meat and ancestral nutrition17:27 – Economic instability and engineered food dependence19:23 – Metrics, manipulation, and the CPI/nutrition parallel21:20 – Loma Linda, Adventists, and institutional food myths23:16 – Observational studies vs scientific causality25:12 – The illusion of abundance in a fiat world27:08 – Food policy and elite control mechanisms29:04 – School lunches, childhood addiction, and learning failure31:01 – Homeschooling, autonomy, and breaking out32:57 – Raising free children in a captured society34:54 – Trust collapse and skepticism as survival36:10 – Final reflections and what comes next Get full access to From the Lotus World at www.fromthelotus.world/subscribe

Sam Kuypers is a physicist and researcher at the Conjecture Institute, working at the intersection of quantum theory, epistemology, and AI alignment. His work explores the deep structure of knowledge, the philosophy of time, and how models of understanding evolve, follow Sam on Twitter We talk about quantum information, how theories evolve, the failures of conventional education, and why clarity in epistemology matters more than ever. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Support my work here and follow me on Twitter hereTimestamps 00:00 – Intro02:25 – How science builds explanations vs just data04:51 – Why quantum theory still confuses people07:17 – Absurdity in textbook interpretations of collapse09:43 – Why time and causality remain misunderstood12:09 – Openness of the future and causality in physics14:35 – The arrow of time and symmetric equations17:01 – What realism really means in science19:27 – Quantum theory as deeply explanatory21:53 – Quantum entanglement and the problem of locality24:18 – Probability, measurement, and subjective views26:44 – Why alternate versions of reality can’t interact29:10 – Education as guessing, criticizing, and learning31:36 – Genuine knowledge vs passive absorption34:02 – ChatGPT and the future of learning36:28 – Unschooling and child-led epistemology38:54 – Reviving forgotten epistemological frameworks41:20 – Why the best theories aren’t widely accepted43:46 – Epistemological mistakes and the mission at Conjecture Get full access to From the Lotus World at www.fromthelotus.world/subscribe

Per Bylund is an economist and professor at Oklahoma State University, known for his work in Austrian economics, entrepreneurship, and spontaneous order. He’s the author of “How to Think About the Economy” and a passionate advocate for bottom-up systems and voluntary cooperation, follow Per on Twitter We talk about how markets self-organize, why central planning fails, the moral case for capitalism, and how freedom relates to meaning. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Support my work here and follow me on Twitter hereTimestamps 00:00 – Intro02:34 – What mainstream economists miss about markets05:08 – Entrepreneurship as the engine of discovery07:42 – How value is created in a decentralized system10:16 – Knowledge, action, and economic calculation12:50 – The morality of capitalism and voluntary exchange15:24 – What economic freedom actually means17:58 – Bureaucracy, coercion, and institutional blindness20:32 – Why central planning is inherently broken23:06 – Real-world failures of economic interventions25:40 – How Austrian economics explains spontaneous order28:14 – Emergence vs design in social systems30:48 – The role of uncertainty in entrepreneurial action33:22 – Profit, loss, and correcting systemic errors35:56 – Scarcity, choice, and subjective value38:30 – Why technocratic fixes always fall short41:04 – Ethics and the epistemology of free societies43:38 – What school gets wrong about economics46:12 – Final thoughts on flourishing and decentralization Get full access to From the Lotus World at www.fromthelotus.world/subscribe

Henry Holtz is a meditation teacher and engineer exploring non-duality, consciousness, and the paradoxes of awakening. His work brings together deep spiritual insight with direct, embodied experience, follow Henry on Twitter We talk about the nature of awareness, the illusion of self, the trap of seeking, and how spiritual awakening unfolds through deep honesty and surrender. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Support my work here and follow me on Twitter hereTimestamps00:00 – Intro02:50 – The shift from “I am the thinker” to “thoughts arise in me”05:40 – How meditation reveals what was always the case08:30 – Chasing spiritual states vs recognizing the present11:20 – The illusion of a future enlightenment14:10 – How self-improvement becomes another ego game17:00 – Is there ever an endpoint to the spiritual path?19:50 – Practice vs surrender and the apartment metaphor22:40 – How meditation helps in daily life and engineering25:30 – Stress, discipline, and clarity at work28:20 – The “dark night of the soul” and spiritual depression31:10 – Letting go of self-improvement and facing sadness34:00 – Stability, grounding, and small daily actions36:50 – The illusion of self and what the robber sees39:40 – The mind’s frameworks can’t contain reality42:30 – Spiritual traps: idolizing teachers and bypassing the present45:20 – Searching for awareness while looking from it48:10 – The deeper paradoxes of perception and being51:00 – What is the default mode network and its spiritual role? Get full access to From the Lotus World at www.fromthelotus.world/subscribe