Decoding The Gurus

Unedited Interview with Daniël Lakens and Smriti Mehta

Hey everyone,

We are busy editing the new episode for release but did manage to find time to record a new in-depth and rather academic focused episode on Open Science, Academic Heterodoxy, Contrarians, and Academic Reforms.

Hopefully some of you will find this interesting despite the somewhat indulgent academic chat.

Daniël and Smriti have their own podcast 'Nullius in Verba' which is about science and research and is highly recommended. As is Daniël's free MOOC on improvi...

Shedding Light on the DarkHorse: A Mini Review

Hey everyone,

The content here is likely to be familiar to you if you listened to the last bonus episode but as you might notice we are experimenting with formatting.

Andy Day - the host of the Beyond Synth podcast - listens to the show and had some ideas about improving the visual content. You can see the outcome of his effort attached.

We are both extremely impressed with what Andy did (it is obviously a lot of work) but would love to get your feedback on what you think. 2023-10-08 23:12:05 +0000 UTC View Post

Sushi Restaurants vs. Forest Bathing: The Conclusion

Warning! This is just Matt and I having fun. If you are someone who prefers your information downloads efficient and on topic... this is not for you.

However, if you are someone who cares who was right? Me or Matt. 

The Gods delivered a natural experiment to find out.

Enjoy!

A 'Speed' Decoding of Recent DarkHorse Content

We are experimenting with some video recording stuff and so produced this 'short' analysis of recent content from Bret and Heather's anti-vaccine podcast - the DarkHorse.

We will release the video version later but here is a lightly edited audio version.

Content taken from: DarkHorse #193 The Reactionary Clap Trap (Bret Weinstein & Heather Heying DarkHorse Livestream) 

Enjoy!

Triggernometry Episode released

New episode is out.

We are with the Triggernomety boys... and we are sorry for that but hopefully you can see why!

Comments, Feedback, Complaints... all welcome!

Upcoming Decoding

Next episode is recorded and in the editing bay. We decided to cover the episode of Triggernonetry linked above.

The reason for this was not a desire to spend more time listening to Konstantin or feeling that we needed to really get to grips with Francis’ philosophy, but because they very openly speak about the dynamics at play in the gurusphere.

You’ve got frank talk about attention being converted into money, how viral culture war content leads to opportunities and interest...

Conspirituality Interview Episode (Early Release)

A mostly edited version of the forthcoming release this week.

We have a discussion with the Conspirituality guys about well... Conspirituality, their approach, whether they still like yoga, etc.

Also, enjoy a brief return to the horrific realm of Scott Adams...

Julia Ebner Interview on Extremist Groups & Networks

Partially edited interview with author and researcher Julia Ebner on extremist groups, their social dynamics, and connections with gurus.

Enjoy! 

Source Material for next Decoding Academia

This is going to be something of a Decoding Academia / Decoding Guru crossover as we will be playing clips and discussing features of the presentation, etc. However, the topic of conversation between Attia and Huberman is a 'journal club' discussing two papers and giving advice on "how to read scientific papers". 

In many respects, this is a bit like a bizarro orld (better produced) decoding academia with two people who have academic expertise but rather different approaches and pe...

Julia Ebner Interview (Mostly Unedited)

Please enjoy an advance release of an interview we recently conducted with the researcher and author, Julia Ebner. Julia's work has focused on exploring the dynamics of far-right and other extremist networks. Julia is a wealth of information and do not let the knowledge she has published with Chris put you off listening!

We've edited out some technical difficulties but otherwise all the verbal tics and long-winded questions are there unedited. Audio version to follow after some process...

September Update

Hey everyone,

Thought it was a good time to give a run down on what we have planned for our next episodes and a little farther afield.

First, in the editing bay we have:

1. Interview with the Conspirituality guys with an intro segment covering our old favourite Scott Adam’s recent appearance on TRIGGERnometry.

2. Interview with Julia Ebner on extremist communities, online dynamics, and the connections with or distinctions from the Guru set.

Then clipped and lik...

EUROPEAN EDITION September Live Hang Out

Due to repeated requests we have decided to schedule a live hang out at a time that is reasonable for European folk. It will be at the absolute limit of Matt's sobriety on Friday 7pm in Australia, which is Friday morning throughout Europe.

If you want to check the exact time, click on the link and the wonders of crowdcast will adjust to your local timezone.

Afraid the event is limited to Galaxy Brain Gurus tier but just imagine all those high level insights we hold back from the o...

Huberman Episode (Early Release)

We aren't quite finished with the edit on this one but thought you guys might appreciate an early release with a few extra background noises and 10% extra waffle.

If you notice anything terrible about the audio it would be very helpful to let us know so we can fix prior to release on the main feed.

Otherwise, here are some relevant links that are mentioned on the episode:

• Surfing the Disc...
  2023-09-03 21:13:23 +0000 UTC View Post

Source Material for Upcoming Huberman Decoding

We have recorded an episode on Andrew Huberman. It is in the editing bay and will likely be finished this weekend.

It was intended as a moderate sized decoding of a short piece of content but it ended up basically a full length episode (2hrs+) so if you want to be prepared to play along take a look at this.

Matt and I have a heated debate about whether going to a sushi restaurant or hanging out in a forest is better for your mental health so see if you can imagine how we get there...

Updated Gurometer Visualisation

Some of you likely saw this on Twitter but thought other sensible people might have missed.

The brackets is the year of content we examined (focusing on most recent and related to decoding).

The error bars indicate difference between Matt and my score. Basically I am always scoring people slightly higher.

Remember this is based on the Gurometer so it is simply the total they scored on the 10 Gurometer items converted to a percentage. It is not a measure of how much attenti...

August Live Hang Out

Hey everyone,

For Galaxy Brain Gurus the monthly hang out is upcoming this week!

Want to harangue us over the Chomsky episode or high five us for our balanced efforts?!

Now's your chance. Hopefully giving some of you enough notice to attend.

It's on Wednesday morning 10am JST time which is evening time on Tuesday in the US and an ungodly hour in the UK.

If you can't make it but are a kindly Galaxy Brain note you can access the replay anytime. Also just click the...

Konstantin and Pearl: Guilt by (Toxic) Association

A mini bonus decoding episode that might be a little too indulgent for the main feed but we thought you guys would appreciate it.

If you do not know who Pearl Davis is, good for you. She is essentially a rising star in the anti-feminist, manosphere space. Think Andrew Tate but female and with a goofy giggle.

She thrives on controversy but got in some hot water for hosting the anti-semitic, far right Nick Fuentes and 'yes and'-ing his holocaust denial and racism.

This was sho...

Gurometer: Noam Chomsky (Audio)

You waited patiently for the episode now experience the joys of a fairly straightforward Gurometer.

How does Chomsky fair? Well, I think the episode makes it clear but remember this is a machine for detecting SECULAR GURUS and Chomsky is not exactly in that vein so y'know...

Let us know what you think!

Gurometer: Noam Chomsky (Video)

You waited patiently for the episode now experience the joys of a fairly straightforward Gurometer.

How does Chomsky fair? Well, I think the episode makes it clear but remember this is a machine for detecting SECULAR GURUS and Chomsky is not exactly in that vein so y'know...

Let us know what you think!

(Slightly) Early Release of Chomsky Episode

This will likely come out later today on the main feed but we still have some more things to do. Just in case we get sidetracked and end up delayed I thought you guys would appreciate having early access so enjoy.

Feedback as always welcome!

Also, if you find any weird audio...

Gurometer Visualisations

For those not on Twitter a very enterprising listener (https://twitter.com/researchremora) made this nice visualisation of our Gurometer scores... up to 2022. 

In regards the Chomsky episode... we were due to finish things off on Friday but Prof. Browne was unexpectedly ill so we will be releasing early next week.

Sorry for the delay, been a bit of a hectic time. We should have more regular releases a...

Lecture: The Rise of secular gurus in an Age of conspiracy theories (Audio)

Hey everyone,

We are aiming to have Chomsky out this Friday, God willing!

But in the meantime, some of you might enjoy this academic lecture I (Chris) gave last month at Temple University at The Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies titled: The Rise of secular gurus in an Age of conspiracy theories. I was kindly invited by Benoît Hardy-Chartrand who you will hear from at the start and end.

This was the abstract:
"We are living in a golden era of digital gurus from YouT...

Chris' lecture on Secular Gurus at Temple University (Video)

Hey everyone,

We are aiming to have Chomsky out this Friday, God willing!

But in the meantime, some of you might enjoy this academic lecture I gave last month at Temple University at The Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies titled: The Rise of secular gurus in an Age of conspiracy theories. I was kindly invited by Benoît Hardy-Chartrand who you will hear from at the start and end.

This was the abstract:
"We are living in a golden era of digital gurus from YouTube infl...

Galaxy Brain 'July' Live Hang Out

Hello again,

Our July hangout is coming in a day late but hopefully not a dollar short.

If you are a Galaxy Brain Guru and can join us on Weds evening/Thurs morning (depending on the part of the world you reside) then we hope we will see you!

If you click the link above it will tell you the time in your location and you can reserve a spot if desired or watch the record if the event is over. In JST it is Thursday morning at 9.30 am.

If you are not at the Galaxy Brain ti...

General Update

Hey everyone,

Thought it would be good to give a general update on our plans for the next few weeks.

We are going to be pretty busy with content and while some things might get pushed around all of the following is coming relatively soon.

So for Decodings, we have:

1. Chomsky
2. Matthew McConaughey's weird Self-Help cult
3. Bret Weinstein & Neil Oliver on UFOs
4. Sam Harris*
5. Andrew Huberman

Also floating in our mental space are Curtis Yarvin, ...

Next Decoding Academia: More on Conspiratorial Ideation

A heads up for the next Decoding Academia we are digging further into the topic of Conspiratorial Ideation and what it is associated with based on a recent meta-analysis (see attached).

If you want to play along please read the paper, although it is a meta-analysis so probably not the most gripping reading.

The title is "The Conspiratorial Mind: A Meta-Analytic Review of Motivational and Personological Correlates" by Shauna M. Bowes, Thomas H. Costello, and Arber Tasimi.

Sho...

What is a Secular Guru (Audio)

There is a lot of confusion around 'gurus', what we mean by the word, and why we talk about 'secular' gurus.

We also suspect many have never listened to our previous episode on the Gurometer(!) so here we go back over things to try and clarify our approach and the definitions we use.

This episode will go out on the main feed after editing so any feedback is appreciated!

What is a Secular Guru?

There is a lot of confusion around 'gurus', what we mean by the word, and why we talk about 'secular' gurus.

We also suspect many have never listened to our previous episode on the Gurometer(!) so here we go back over things to try and clarify our approach and the definitions we use.

This episode will got out on the main feed after editing so any feedback is appreciated!

Apologies for the mismatched audio levels, I have fixed it in the audio version .

Next Decoding: Chomsky... suggestions for sources?

Hi everyone,

The next main decoding will be Noam Chomsky as we fancy a change and have a desire to cover some more left-wing gurus.

We want to cover Chomsky and want some relatively recent content. We are considering possible sources (like the one above). There is also a relatively recent episode with Lex Fridman.

But do you guys have any other suggestions?

Ideally, it would be long-form and not him talking about a niche topic he does not usually address.

Any rec...

Gurometer: Mick West (Audio)

Does exactly what it says on the tin!

Mick West goes in, along with Konstantin Kisin.

One scores very lowly, try to see if you can guess which one!