Johnathan Bi
Johnathan Bi episodes converted into bullet points.
Episodes
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Your Bible Mistranslated this Line, Here’s the Real Meaning | Rice Professor Jeff Kripal
An interview with Jeff Kripal on mysticism, sexuality, and the homoerotic structure of orthodox religion.
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“Don’t Care What Others Think” Is Terrible Advice | UT Philosopher Thomas Pangle
An interview with Thomas Pangle, Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin and one of the foremost commentators on the American founding...
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Why He Left Christianity For Hinduism | Rice Professor Jeff Kripal
An interview with Jeff Kripal.
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Why Men Must Live Dangerously | Nietzsche's Last Man Explained
Thoughts on Nietzsche’s Gay Science 283: why you should live dangerously.
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Uncovering the CIA's Secret Weapon: Psychic Spies
An interview with Jeff Kripal on Stargate and remote viewing.
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Only Violence Can Defend Freedom | Machiavelli Explained
A lecture on Machiavelli’s the Prince and the Discourses on Livy.
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The Secret Religion of Nietzsche | On Mysticism
An interview with Jeff Kripal on Nietzsche and mysticism
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The Ticking Timebomb Threatening Superpowers | $50B Founder James Liang
An interview with James Liang, founder of https://trip.com. You can get his new book Innovationism here: https://amzn.to/3MGCWI2
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He Studied Every Religion’s Miracles, His Conclusion Will Shock You
An interview with Princeton’s Dale Allison
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We Have Arrived At The Final Philosophy, It is...
Interview with Axel Honneth on recognition theory.
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You Need More Danger In Your Life | Machiavelli Explained
A lecture on Machiavelli’s the Prince and the Discourses on Livy.
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The Devastating Wrong Turn in Early Christianity | Princeton Historian Explains
An interview with Dale Allison on New Testament Scholarship
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The Incredible Results of AI Learning | Alpha School
Subscribe to our newsletter if you want content updates, invitations to events, and to support my work: https://cosmosinst.typeform.com/johnathanbi
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How To Be a Thinker & a Doer At The Same Time
An interview with Jim O’Shaughnessy.
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I Visit My Ancestral Home in China For the First Time
On my recent trip to China, I discovered a letter addressed to me, from 1884…
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Nietzsche on How Place Affects Ideas
Apply to the ralston program here: https://ralston.ac/apply
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This is How I Fell in Love with Machiavelli | Q&A
This is the Q&A section for my lecture on Machiavelli’s ethics: https://youtu.be/zPKMDxVBZ8A
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Power Will Cost You Everything, It’s Worth It
A lecture on Machiavelli’s the Prince and the Discourses on Livy.
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Capital is Cheap, This is The Last Source of Scarcity
An interview with USV's Albert Wenger.
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Globalism is an Elitist Ideology | Princeton’s Maurizio Viroli
An interview with Maurizio Viroli on patriotism.
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Why Ugly People Turn Evil | Frankenstein Explained
Subscribe to my newsletter if you want content updates, invitations to events, and to support my work: https://www.johnathanbi.com
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The Forgotten 11th Commandment | Princeton’s Maurizio Viroli on Machiavelli's God
An interview with Maurizio Viroli on Machiavelli’s God.
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Philosophy as Food: My Favorite Machiavellian Idea
A walking tour of Machiavelli's place of exile.
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Nietzsche Went on This Hike Every Day | Zarathustra Explained
Hiking the trail in Èze that inspired Nietzsche's Zarathustra.
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Rebel Oxford Philosopher Declares War on Universities
An interview with Michael Gibson on innovation and stagnation.
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How to Defend Liberty | Joe Lonsdale’s Political Philosophy
Subscribe to our newsletter if you want content updates, invitations to events, and to support my work: https://cosmosinst.typeform.com/johnathanbi
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Why This American Capitalist Loves Marx | $16 Billion Guidewire Founder, Marcus Ryu
Interview with Marcus Ryu, founder of Guidewire.
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Same Interview, 8 Years Later
Interview with Francis Pedraza, founder of invisible.
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Capitalism’s Best Kept Secret: Follow the Fun | Colin Moran, Oxford History
An interview on faith, investing, and the humanities with Colin Moran of Abdiel Capital.
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The Real Risk of AI No One is Talking About | Brendan McCord
Subscribe to our newsletter if you want content updates, invitations to events, and to support my work: https://cosmosinst.typeform.com/johnathanbi
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Everybody Gets This Wrong in Modern Dating | Plato’s Symposium Explained
A lecture on Plato's Symposium.
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This is the Terrible Cost of Doing Philosophy
A tour through Machiavelli's Florence and place of exile.
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True Christians Embrace the Erotic | Notre Dame's David O’Connor
An interview with David O'Connor on Nietzsche, Plato, and Christ
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Why You Must Acquire Power at All Costs | Harvard’s Harvey Mansfield on Machiavelli
An interview with Harvey Mansfield on Machiavelli’s philosophical importance
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Knowledge is More Seductive Than Sex
A meditation on the nature of seduction.
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AI & The End of Education
A panel at St. John's discussing AI and the humanities with: * Brendan McCord (Cosmos) * Hollis Robbins (University of Utah) * Zena Hitz (St. John's) Moderated by Ari Schulman (New Atlantis)
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You Can Be Happy, Even If You Are Rich
My favorite line from Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. Full lecture on the Meditations here: https://youtu.be/KMwxrXNafK0
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My Name is Aristotle
Transparent vs. Non-transparent languages
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Philosophy is the Last Subject Worth Studying
How to Prepare for the AI Age
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Oxford’s AI Chair: The Singularity is Bullshit
Clip from interview with Oxford’s Michael Wooldridge on AI History. Subscribe to my newsletter if you want content updates, invitations to events, and to support my work: https://www.johnathanbi.com
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Oxford's AI Chair: LLMs are a HACK
Clip from interview with Oxford’s Michael Wooldridge on AI History. Subscribe to my newsletter if you want content updates, invitations to events, and to support my work: https://www.johnathanbi.com
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How to Live a Virtuous Life | Cornell’s Rachana Kamtekar on Plato
An interview with Rachana Kamtekar on virtue in Plato, Stoicism, and Indian Philosophy
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This Drove Me Away from Stoicism
A Systematic Critique of Stoic Philosophy building off of Nietzsche's Gay Science and Cicero's Definibus
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Why Socrates Hated Books (and why it matters for AI)
Cosmos x FIRE: Announcing 1M in grants to build truth-seeking AI, apply here: https://cosmosgrants.org/truth
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Why You Do Things You Know You Shouldn’t | Rachana Kamtekar on Plato’s Moral Psychology
Rachana Kamtekar on Plato's Moral Psychology
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One Argument to Destroy All Philosophical Positions | Tad Brennan on Ancient Skepticism
Tad Brennan on the Ancient Skepticism of Sextus Empiricus
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What Everyone Gets Wrong About Stoicism | Tad Brennan on Stoic Determinism
An interview with Tad Brennan on Stoic determinism
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Human vs. Machine Consciousness | Imperial’s Murray Shanahan
An interview with Murray Shanahan on philosophy and AI consciousness.
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The AI Use-Case No One is Talking About | Reid Hoffman
An interview with Reid Hoffman on "AI-Social"
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How to NOT be Scapegoated | René Girard's Mimetic Theory
How the scapegoat mechanism works
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How Mimetic Desire Actually Works
Advanced topics in Mimetic Theory
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Why Stoicism Doesn’t Work Without God | Tad Brennan on Stoic Ethics
An interview with Cornell's Tad Brennan on Stoic ethics & religion
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Girard's Major Blindspot | Limitations of Mimetic Theory
What Mimetic Theory covers (and doesn't cover)
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The Slave Who Was Free | Berkeley's AA Long on Epictetus
An Interview with AA Long on Epictetus
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Girard Predicted US-China Trade War, What Comes Next is Terrifying
Girard's commentary on trade wars in Battling to the End.
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Lessons from the Two World Wars | Martha Nussbaum on Britten’s War Requiem
An Interview with Martha Nussbaum
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Stoics vs. Skeptics vs. Epicureans | AA Long on Hellenistic Philosophy
Interview with AA Long on Hellenistic Philosophy
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Democracy is Anarchy | Berkeley’s GRF Ferrari on Plato's Republic
Interview with GRF Ferrari on Plato's Republic
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Don’t Believe AI Hype, This is Where it’s Actually Headed | Oxford’s Michael Wooldridge | AI History
Interview with Michael Wooldridge
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Focus on These AGI-Proof Areas | Nick Bostrom
Interview with Nick Bostrom on Deep Utopia
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AI’s New World Order: US-China, War, Job Loss | Tyler Cowen
A conversation with Tyler Cowen on how to prepare for the age of AI.
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Plato’s Warning Against Friends-with-Benefits | GRF Ferrari on the Phaedrus
An Interview with Berkeley's GRF Ferrari
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Making Sense of Christianity's Violent Past | Yale’s Carlos Eire
An interview with Carlos Eire
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How to Handle Criticism: A Philosopher's Guide
Wisdom from Marcus Aurelius & Rousseau
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Great Thinkers are NOT Great Scholars
So many of the great thinkers -- Heidegger, Nietzsche, Girard, Augustine -- were bad scholars, here's why.
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The Renaissance Method for Language Learning
Find out more about the ralston program here: https://www.ralston.ac/humanities-ma
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Think Like a Philosopher King | Stoic Wisdom from Marcus Aurelius' Meditations
A lecture on Marcus Aurelius' Meditations
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"Don't Care What Others Think" is Terrible Advice, Do This Instead
Why "Don't Care What Others Think of You" Is Terrible Advice
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I No Longer Fear AI Replacing Me, I Welcome It
How AI will change authorship & philosophy.
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The Surprising Evidence for Christian Miracles | Yale Historian Carlos Eire
An interview with Carlos Eire on the history of Christian miracles.
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The Surprising Source of Shakespeare’s Inspiration | Harvard’s Stephen Greenblatt
An interview with Stephen Greenblatt on Shakespeare's Creative Inspirations
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How Shakespeare Became Upper Class | Harvard's Stephen Greenblatt
An interview with Stephen Greenblatt on Shakespeare's social ambition.
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Shakespeare's Urgent Warning to America | The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Explained
A lecture on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
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Rational Inquiry Harms Society | Christopher Kelly on Rousseau
An interview with Christopher Kelly on Rousseau's case for censorship.
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Nietzsche: There is No Objective Right or Wrong | Brian Leiter
Interview with Brian Leiter on Nietzsche's Moral Antirealism.
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Why The Poor Support Inequality | Rousseau's Second Discourse Explained
A lecture on Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin of Inequality.
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The Surprising Politics of Roman Epicureans | Columbia's Katharina Volk
An interview with Katharina Volk on Roman Epicureanism.
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How to Combine Contemplation & Action | Katharina Volk on Cicero & Caesar
Interview with Katharina Volk on Cicero & Caesar.
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Shakespeare's Advice to People in Love | Harvard's Stephen Greenblatt
An interview with Stephen Greenblatt on Shakespeare's views on love.
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Stoicism is a Coping Mechanism | Katharina Volk on Cato
An interview with Katharina Volk on the Stoicism of Cato.
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The Surprising Reason Why Plato Hated Innovation
A lecture on the intellectual history of "Innovation."
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Nietzsche's Warnings for Modern Man | UChicago's Robert Pippin
An interview with Robert Pippin on Nietzsche, Technology, and Nihilism.
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Columbia Professor Teaches the Art of Self-Esteem | Fred Neuhouser on Rousseau
An interview with Fred Neuhouser on Rousseau's amour-propre.
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Rousseau's Urgent Warning for Modern Society | Chris Kelly
An interview with Christopher Kelly on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's case for heroes.
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How Intellectuals Poison Society | Rousseau's First Discourse Explained
An introductory lecture summarizing the key ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on the Arts and Sciences.
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Reject Free Will, Become Who You Are | Brian Leiter on Nietzsche
An interview with professor Brian Leiter on Nietzsche's critique of free will.
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Masters vs. Slaves | Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality Explained
An introductory lecture summarizing the key ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche’s On The Genealogy of Morality.
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The Great Books | Trailer
Launch trailer for my lecture and interview series: Great Books of the West
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Girard Predicts Apocalypse | Mimetic Theory
Christianity exposed the injustice of scapegoating and, in doing so, robbed us of the cathartic tools which early human societies used to contain and resolve violence. Today, the Katechon which prevents violence from overflowing is three institutions that limit and channel violence: Law, Capitali...
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The Far-Right is Satan, The Far-Left is Anti-Christ | Girard's Mimetic Theory
Rescued by Christianity, modernity is distinctly different than the violent, deceitful, and stagnant societies of yore. We are the most loving, truthful, and innovative culture ever to exist. Resting uneasily alongside this fundamental affirmation of modernity, however, is Girard’s puzzling insis...
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This Single Perspective Makes Christianity Unique | Girard’s Apologetic
For Girard, Christianity is radically different from all other religions in one crucial aspect: it takes the side of the innocent victim and, in doing so, exposes the violence and deceit of worldly order. We will explore how this intuition of innocence begins to take root in the Hebrew bible and...
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Society is Founded on a Lie | Girard’s Scapegoat Explained
Starting from lecture IV, we will move away from psychology and into Girard’s history, beginning with the very first human societies. In times of internal turmoil, these early societies would converge on an innocent victim, attribute to him all the blame, murder this scapegoat in a brutal killing...
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If You are Competing, You Already Lost | Girard’s Mimetic Rivalry Explained
In this lecture, we will finish painting the picture of Girardian psychology by understanding mimetic rivalry and negative mimesis. This picture will expose humans as fallen and certain psycho-social pathologies as inevitable: fetishization, alienation, bipolarity, masochism, oppression, and ineq...
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Introduction to Mimetic Theory | René Girard
Lecture I gives a brief overview of Girard’s life and work. It summarizes the key conclusions of mimetic theory, distilling the most crucial ideas of this 10+ hour long lectures series into a digestible 2 hours. For those who are short on time, this synopsis is sufficient to give you a taste of G...
