I am sure most of you already noticed but the long promised Mick & Eric episode is out. Remember you did this with your voting choice!
We have decided to head to Chomsky next for a bit of a change of pace.
Feedback on the episode as always is welcomed below!
2023-07-14 20:29:01 +0000 UTC View Post
The episode with Mick West and Eric Weinstein has just been released so here is the Gurometer episode. We knew Mick would not score highly but we need baseline comparisons! Also we decided to start entering the subjects of past mini decodings since we know their content well enough.
First to go in is Konstantin Kisin of Triggernometry. Next up Sam Harris and Jonathan Pageau.
Enjoy the episode and the Gurometer!
Audio version to follow.
2023-07-14 14:01:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi guys,
I had the pleasure of being invited to give a talk at the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University in Tokyo. The talk was filmed and I believe will be released in a week or two so I'll post a link when it comes out.
In the meantime, I just wanted to give a little bit of a report on the experience. It's probably the first time I've presented on the topic of secular gurus and conspiracy communities in an academic setting. Overall, I would say it went ver...
2023-07-13 01:14:08 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone,
Just a quick update.
We are hoping to release the Eric & Mick Weinstein episode this weekend probably on Sunday. Some more editing and a little bit of recording to do but we are optimistic.
THEN we will have the next Decoding Academia episode at the start of the week on Monday/Tuesday.
We will do a Gurometer update for Eric & maybe take the opportunity to do some maintenance on our categories and plans for the Gurometer.
Depending on how our...
2023-07-08 07:41:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi everyone,
We will record the next Decoding Academia early next week and attached is the article "Understanding and combatting misinformation across 16 countries on six continents" (Arechar et al., 2023) which was just published in Nature.
Even if you are not in the Revolutionary Genius tier or above and thus don't have access to the Decoding Academia episodes, I think it's just a good paper to read!
For those curious, we also cover the recent controversy surrounding Yoel ...
2023-07-01 04:34:10 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone,
This episode will be released on the main feed soon but thought you might like an advance preview.
It concerns Shermer's appearance on Triggernometry in which he gave advice about how to spot a TRUE conspiracy. The topic was right up our alley and full of such bad advice that we felt obliged to respond.
Feedback welcome! Including any reports of audio issues.
2023-06-21 06:08:17 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone,
Some bonus content.
Matt and I discuss our thoughts relating to how often the gurus paths seem to overlap and what drives this week. Just this week you have crossovers between Jordan Peterson & James Lindsay, Jonathan Pageau & Jordan Hall, Lex Fridman & Matthew McConaughey, and RFK Jnr & Joe Rogan.
Some of these are ideological bedfellows but others are a bit more surprising. In any case, we thought we'd share with you guys some of our ideas abo...
2023-06-16 09:08:24 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone,
Some bonus content.
Matt and I discuss our thoughts relating to how often the gurus paths seem to overlap and what drives this week. Just this week you have crossovers between Jordan Peterson & James Lindsay, Jonathan Pageau & Jordan Hall, Lex Fridman & Matthew McConaughey, and RFK Jnr & Joe Rogan.
Some of these are ideological bedfellows but others are a bit more surprising. In any case, we thought we'd share with you guys some of our ideas abo...
2023-06-16 08:46:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone,
Some of you may remember the conversation Matt and I had a month or so ago with John Vervaeke at the Stoa. This is something of a followup with another person active in the religious sensemaking ecosystem.
Paul Vanderklay is a sensemaking inclined pastor with a YouTube channel. The other person present is Andrea from the Andrea With The Bangs channel. Andrea is someone who developed an interest in Jordan Peterson but then came to value some of the critical commentary...
2023-06-16 02:40:07 +0000 UTC View Post
For those of you unaware there was a landslide victory in the next decoding poll for a return to the Weinstein bros and UFOs.
However, we released during preparation that it is simply too much Weinstein to do both brothers in one go, so...
First up is Eric.
Here is the interview we will be looking at, which also featured recent guest Mick West.
Bret will have a separate episode potentially with a certain Wizard-y guest decoder.
We will break up the We...
2023-06-15 13:24:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone,
The June Livestream/Hangout is coming.
If you are a Galaxy Brain Guru tier and the stars align join us next week for a wee chat.
We will have released the Mick West episode by then and should be knee-deep in Eric on UFOs.
Joy...
For specific times click on the link above. It is 9.30 AM JST time on Tuesday 20th June, which is the evening of June 19th for American folk.
See some of you then!
2023-06-15 13:18:54 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone,
I (Chris) was a guest on Aaron Rabinowitz's podcast to talk about some research I was involved with that you may or may not be interested in.
Thought I would share here in any case. It's kinda Guru related... about research into linguistic markers in extremist content and terrorist manifestos.
You can find a link to Aaron's show here: https://...
2023-06-15 03:18:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe audio version of the Gurometer for ol' Eliezer.
Enjoy!
2023-06-10 06:32:25 +0000 UTC View Post
We trap Eliezer in our very own special box and force him to operate at 100 times beneath his capacities so we can fit him into the Gurometer.
How does he fare? Join us to find out!
Audio version to follow.
2023-06-10 06:16:13 +0000 UTC View Post
It is out! This one took quite a while to edit as you might imagine. It is still very long but you should be used to that by now.
In any case, interested in any and all feedback.
Sorry for no advance release, we released it as soon as we finished editing.
The bonus Gurometer episode is coming out today though!
2023-06-10 04:57:28 +0000 UTC View Post
Does exactly what it says on the tin but this time with video.
We cover all things UFOs, including the recent high profile claims of US government secrets, and learn about the secret organisation contacting Sam Harris and Eric Weinstein.
Unedited!,,:
2023-06-09 06:57:57 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone,
Here is an early unedited release of an interview we just conducted with Mick West on all things UFO, UAP, and conspiracy theory.
We enjoyed it a lot, hope you do too.
Video is uploading now on!
2023-06-09 03:47:25 +0000 UTC View PostNo video this time.
We interview Dr. Jonathan Howard on the topic of covid contrarians, anti-vaxx rhetoric, and all things pandemic-y.
Jonathan is a good follow on Twitter and has an extremely topical book titled:
"We Want Them Infected: How the failed quest for herd immunity led doctors to embrace the anti-vaccine movement and blinded Americans to the threat of COVID"
You can find a lot of his writing here: 2023-06-07 03:45:43 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone,
The audio version is now ready... a bit later than intended.
A free-for-everyone decoding episode in which we look at a pre-replication crisis paper that suggests smelling sad tears makes men less sexually aroused. Bit of an odd paper but also recently promoted by Huberman. We cover some warning flags when it comes to assessing papers, why neuroimaging studies are sometimes misleading, and also get a little bogged down in a discussion of error bars (sorry!).
Ho...
2023-06-06 12:49:35 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello everyone,
I thought you guys might like to know what's been going on and when the next releases can be expected.
First, Yudkowsky's decoding is recorded AND the Gurometer episode. We are currently in editing mode as the episode is 3hrs+ presently. We will release the rough cut here early as soon as we have it ready and it will be out for everyone by Friday. Gurometer can...
2023-06-06 12:15:45 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone,
A free-for-everyone decoding episode in which we look at a pre-replication crisis paper that suggests smelling sad tears makes men less sexually aroused. Bit of an odd paper but also recently promoted by Huberman. We cover some warning flags when it comes to assessing papers, why neuroimaging studies are sometimes misleading, and also get a little bogged down in a discussion of error bars (sorry!).
Hope you enjoy it. Full decoding episode coming soon!
Audio ver...
2023-05-31 02:52:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey folks,
We are going to record a Decoding Academia tomorrow and might make this one a preview open to all as it is a little bit of a primer for a forthcoming Huberman episode.
Specifically, we are going to look at a study from 2011 that Huberman recently promoted that essentially argues that when men smell sad tears from women they are less sexually aroused.
It's a bit of a strange paper but it appeared in Science in 2011 and has some interesting components that make it a...
2023-05-29 11:17:07 +0000 UTC View PostWe have a backlog situation and we have three possible subjects for after the Yudkowsky episode, so we thought we would ask the Patrons what they would prefer to see next.
To be clear we will do all three at some point but we just want to determine the order.
If you want to make an alternative special request, add a comment but no promises!
2023-05-22 11:51:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone,
The next guru decoding which is to be recorded this week will be Eliezer Yudkowsky. For those who want to play along this is the material we will be looking at. Any interesting spots you note or thoughts let us know!
After that comes Chomsky or Matthew McConaughey.
A poll will be going up to canvas which one!
2023-05-22 11:48:01 +0000 UTC View PostHi guys,
Here is the almost final edit of the Renee DiResta episode with added intro and outro segments covering:
- Musk's Twitter CEO pick
- Eric's alternative CEO suggestions
- Evidence of Lex Fridman's pilled brain
- A review of the podcast that we can't really follow
Feedback and notifications of any identified audio issues are always welcome!
2023-05-19 11:20:09 +0000 UTC View PostLevels are fixed. Some minor edits and bing bang boom. Here is Christopher Hitchens in the Gurometer AUDIO VERSION!
Enjoy!
2023-05-19 11:17:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone,
Following up on our two parter on Hitchens we wedge him into the Gurometer to see how he weighs up.
Audio version will follow later tonight!
2023-05-17 08:15:56 +0000 UTC View Post
A bit later than usual we will be having the monthly hang out for Galaxy Brain Gurus this Friday morning (Japan/Australia time). This is Thursday evening US time and in the UK... the middle of the night. Sorry!
If you want to see the exact time translated to your timezone just click on the link above.
In any case if you are at the Galaxy Brain tier you can watch the replay whenever you like.
This is almost a full week's notice. Almost...
Hope to see some of you there!<...
2023-05-15 12:15:58 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone,
We are still doing some final passes on this but it's basically ready to go so here for your (slightly advance) enjoyment is the Hitchens episode.
Feedback welcome as always!
2023-05-15 04:49:01 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone,
(Here is the audio version)
The new episode is out today with Matt Johnson with new intro/outro segments. We have also recorded the full Hitchens decoding episode but that will take a little bit of time to edit.
In the meantime, here is an interview we just recorded today with Renee DiResta on a range of topics including...
Contemporary disinformation networks (including how they have been impacted by Elon’s Twitter), Renee's research on the 2016 elec...