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#108: Humanism and the conversation of the ages (feat. Sarah Bakewell)
The latest book from the author of At The Existentialist Café surveys seven hundred years of humanist thought.
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Cody Kommers
29:44

October 2023

In the Land of Happiness
Bhutan has its own national theory of happiness. How cool is that?
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Cody Kommers
1
The Man Behind the Machine
A review of Benjamín Labatut's historical novel of ideas, The Maniac.
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Cody Kommers
2
What if science moved faster, not slower?
A lot of researchers think the academic system requires them to work too quickly. Maybe they have it backwards.
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Cody Kommers
6
Wait! I think Michael Lewis is right.
An author should be judged on whether they deliver on their promise. Contrary to what everyone else claims, Lewis did what he said he would.
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Cody Kommers
42
Great, AI can write essays. Can we stop asking students to do useless writing assignments?
We were never that good at teaching the fundamentals of writing to begin with. This is an opportunity to rethink them.
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Cody Kommers
Is culture the key to AI's next big breakthrough?
The field of artificial intelligence has often used what we know about human intelligence as a template for designing its systems. But for the most…
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Cody Kommers
3

April 2023

#107: How a really good travel writer approaches her experiences abroad—and at home (feat. Erika Fatland)
Comfort, discomfort, curiosity, and surprise: Erika Fatland goes through them all in her effort to understand other people and where they live.
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Cody Kommers
1:00:52
1
The biggest recent improvement I've made for an increased sense of meaning
Better sleep.
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Cody Kommers
2
#106: Rituals matter more than you think (feat. Dimitris Xygalatas)
A recent book by cognitive anthropologist Dimitris Xygalatas shows how rituals are a crucial part of a meaningful life—even for us moderns.
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Cody Kommers
54:24
2
Yes, we're all storytellers. But not good ones.
Let's face it: your life story could use a little spicing up.
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Cody Kommers
2
Meaning is not an unmitigated good
It's the things we love most which can also most hurt us.
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Cody Kommers
3
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