Episodes
Tuesday Apr 02, 2024
#128 - Data Overload, Our Storytelling Paradox, The Everyman Tyrant
Tuesday Apr 02, 2024
Tuesday Apr 02, 2024
I'm back after a 7-month tour of Africa, Gaza, and the Orient. That might be a lie. Click to find out for sure! NOTE: The show notes were AI generated by my podcast host. I left them intact for the chuckles! The "chapters" are also courtesy of AI. Rely on them at your own risk! Enjoy and thanks for listening!
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"In this exhilarating episode of "Escaping the Cave," host Todd navigates through the world of social media anarchy and its repercussions on society. Explore the delicate balance between the government and tech behemoths, focusing on the spread of disinformation and propaganda and pondering the skewed attention on right-wing content. This episode is a deep dive into our evolving digital landscape and its profound effects on individual and communal psyche.
Amid discussions about World War I, Tristan Harris, Jonathan Haidt, and their work, Todd embarks on an examination of information manipulation. He questions the viability of shaping enlightened communities where leadership decisions are anchored on rationality. This engaging episode offers piercing revelations about our collective self-perception as rational beings, presenting the unsettling reality of humans as storytellers instead.
Todd invites you to dive into the "informational sewage" and stimulate your curiosity with riveting discourses on human tendency towards manipulation, propaganda in our everyday interactions, and their roles in shaping world perception. The exploration doesn’t end here. It probes further into the polarity of skepticism and gullibility embedded in our biases, shaping our receptivity to information.
This episode challenges us to confront our personal misconceptions, triggering introspections on personal identity and ideology. It sheds light on consequential socio-political topics like extremism and social religions, revealing how our ideologies shape the world around us. The host emphasizes our primordial nature as storytellers and discusses the narratives that influence our perceptions and social dynamics.
Unmask the human condition at its core and delve into an enlightening journey exploring our collective subconscious. This honest and straightforward episode introduces listeners to propaganda's intricate workings, intricate human perception, and self-deception. A riveting discussion awaits listeners who are eager to challenge their biases and confront the narratives they absorb.
Prepare for a soul-stirring narrative wrapped in discussions around self-conscious fears and societal norms. The episode probes into topics like evolutionary biology, psychology, propaganda, tribalism, and the pursuit of truth. It brings to light struggles with self-awareness, our inherent tribal instincts, and our collective movement towards a more scientific mindset. Tune in for an in-depth exploration of our reality, the compelling narratives we weave, and the need to understand our existence. Stay curious and explore the unknown with Todd!"
This...is the brave new AI world. Ha!
Wednesday Aug 09, 2023
#123 - Inappropriate Honesty, Truth Riders, That Which Must Remain Unsaid
Wednesday Aug 09, 2023
Wednesday Aug 09, 2023
In the continuation of the last episode, Todd re-explores his oft-ignored Path to Empathy, the DIKW pyramid, and data Overload before exploring religion's real purpose and offering our pompous atheist friends the back of his rhetorical hand. From that joyful and uplifting summit, he moves on to question how woke parents can sacrifice their own children to a foreign ideological god.
Also:
Introducing The Desert of the Why!
We know what legislative riders are. What about "truth" riders?
The one thing in news, information, and tech that must remain unspoken.
Why climate change hysterics are misguided and a waste of time.
How the stupid cliques we form as kids flare up like herpes for the rest of our lives.
Todd's new Gatekeeper disconnect.
Chasing Che.
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Monday Aug 07, 2023
#122 - Intellectual Tribalism & Gladiators in the Virtual Coliseum
Monday Aug 07, 2023
Monday Aug 07, 2023
After a brief introduction to metacognition, Todd delves back into how people are born as storytellers, not rational truth seekers, and how the storytelling ape probably evolved out of a need for simple explanation and meaning. Also, why are experts in detecting the "enemy's" bullish*t but so bad at sniffing out our own team's? After reflecting on the Facebook Wars, have we become organic pieces of agitation propaganda ourselves? Worse, can innate tribalism be exploited by agitprop-fueled hatred? Last question: gee, ya think?
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Sunday Jul 30, 2023
#119 - Inherent Deceit & Self-Deception: Our Wonderful World of Make Believe
Sunday Jul 30, 2023
Sunday Jul 30, 2023
After another extended hiatus, Todd's back with another sparkling hour of uplifting inspiration!
(8:40) How does a person enthusiastically produce a podcast when the subject matter and outcome is completely devoid of basic hope?
(9:41) "Fix" the for-profit media complex? Good luck. "It's the people." Tiptoeing into how pre-programmed deceit and self-deception are major parts of the how and why.
(30:45) Deceit and Self-Deception. The opening salvo.
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Now on Discord.
Sunday Mar 12, 2023
#117 - Propaganda, Trust, Coronavirus, and You: 3-Years Later
Sunday Mar 12, 2023
Sunday Mar 12, 2023
After revisiting the March 2, 2020 episode recorded at the dawn of the pandemic, Todd uses 3-years of hindsight to explore ( 60:00 ) how much further trust in government and media institutions has eroded and the effects. Data overload, trust apathy, and monetized tribal agitprop leads nowhere good. Also, is a liberal democracy capable of defending itself against an illiberal insurgency without destroying itself in the process?
Rachel Botsman's Book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1541762703/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Your Undivided Attention: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast
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Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
#112 - Storytellers, Truth, and The Great War of the 21st Century
Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
Todd's back for the midterms and starts off by blasting the populist Poor Media Victim attitude, exploring whether propaganda and media literacy even matter, discussing informational warfare, and the finer points of navigating ideological drift and its extremists.
Segment 2 (23:00): the Democrats' abortion debacle, The Sham-Wow Guy vs. Fettergump, and how the '22 midterms are a sure sign Idiocracy is here.
Segment 3 (39:00): There were no blacks on the World Series rosters. So?
Segment 4 (58:20): Elon's Twitter drama, his inevitable choice between free speech absolutism and truth ministers, euphemism warnings, then returns to The 21st Century Informational War and how human self-deception is converging with technology to trigger a battle over reality itself.
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https://www.escapingthecave.com
Music by Yellow Pills! https://open.spotify.com/artist/7rDvBzvGcNPV3BYZ1n5VdZ
Tuesday Aug 23, 2022
[Reload] Iceberg Ahoy! Validation Junkies & The Chosen Ones (9/10/19)
Tuesday Aug 23, 2022
Tuesday Aug 23, 2022
From 2019:
Social validation, dopamine, and social media's Walter White; more on how people are more willing and eager than deceived when it comes to swallowing fiction and disinformation; choking on data leading to confused gullibility; honestly in a crisis; Sausage Party Hope: children demanding their happy ending. Where's the spring of genuine hope?
ALSO:
- The Battle of the 21st Century
- The iceberg bobbing off our bow
- Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube: Walter White cutting his meth supply?
- Pinker's Utopian vs. Tragic Vision
- Evolution and self-awareness
- The bi-weekly apocalypse and their "chosen ones"
- Progress's Myth and becoming organic
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Friday Aug 19, 2022
[Reload] Story: The Propaganda Paradox (5-9-20)
Friday Aug 19, 2022
Friday Aug 19, 2022
From #79, this episode dove in to storytelling, a central theme in the quest to not only understand but hopefully fight propaganda's mind hack. Also, the relationship between stories, hope, and both kinds of religion: theological & ideological. What's the major distinction and why I believe traditional religion deserves its pass...on ONE ironclad condition.
Watch YouTube for new video from July's scrapped episode! A flood of fresh audio is coming!
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Music by Yellow Pills! https://open.spotify.com/artist/7rDvBzvGcNPV3BYZ1n5VdZ