Fresh Lens Podcast
We read books and discuss ideas that help us see the world differently. Hosted by Trish and Hirad, who met at a Vancouver-based book club, focused on reading on topics of evolution and human behaviour. Music for this podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com.
Episodes
24 episodes
Democracy: The God That Failed (Part 1)
We open this episode with a discussion of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump and the state of civility in the current climate.We use this to frame our discussion of Hans Herman Hoppe's book, "Democracy: The Go...
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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1:15:43
Pirate Enlightenment
In this episode we discuss David Graeber's final book - Pirate Enlightenment. This was a very short book that promises to teach us about the political organization of the pirates who ended up settling on Madagascar after a lifetime of raiding v...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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20:26
The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
In this episode, Trish & Hirad discuss Marc Andreesen's techno-optimist manifesto, advancements in AI, accelerationism vs decelerationism, the concept of the right-wing progressive, and the historical follies of progressivism.Links ...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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1:02:48
The Dawn of Everything - Part 3
In this final instalment on The Dawn of Everything, we discuss the 3 forms of domination characteristic of the modern state, anarchism, non-western democracies, civilizations that have reversed course, and all kinds of other goodies.
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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1:29:41
The Dawn of Everything - Part 2
This is part 2 of our coverage of The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity.In this episode, we're still laying the foundations to answer the question of why it is that we're stuck in a single political paradigm. We discuss how ...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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52:10
The Dawn of Everything - Part 1
In this episode, we kick off our discussion of The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow.We liked Bullshit Jobs so much that we decided to keep going with the Graeber titles. This book examines...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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39:46
#MahsaAmini
In this mini-episode, we talk about the recent events in Hirad's home country of Iran. Hirad shares some recollections about life there, and we use the recent events as a perspective on western issues.This episode is a bit different fro...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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23:22
Conversation with Joomi Kim
Today, Hirad is speaking with Joomi Kim, biologist, researcher, and writer of an excellent Substack.Topics include: how Joomi ended up researching COVID vaccine safety, the parallels between the Iraq war propaganda and today's informati...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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43:10
Bullshit Jobs - Part 2
Continuing from the previous episode, we discuss the latter half of David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs. We discuss why such jobs exist and what we might do to remedy the situation.
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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56:10
Bullshit Jobs - Part 1
In this episode, we discuss Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber. Graeber was an anthropologist. In 2013, he wrote an article talking about the phenomena of bullshit jobs - jobs that were unnecessary and pernicious. The article touched the nerve, and...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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50:38
The World for Sale
We're used to going to stores to buy anything we want at highly affordable prices. But where does our stuff really come from? To answer this, Trish & Hirad have been trying to learn about the world of commodities trading. To help th...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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26:21
Science Fictions
In our modern world, science is pegged as our guide to understanding what is true. But while the scientific method is the best way we have found to make sense of the world, scientists and scientific institutions have enormous shortcomings that ...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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1:26:37
State of the Pandemic with Dr. Shirin Kalyan
On this very special episode of Fresh Lens, we speak Dr. Shirin Kalyan of the University of British Columbia’s Department of Medicine. Dr. Kalyan is an expert in immunology and immunotherapy. In this episode, we discuss the COVID19 ...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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1:36:30
Discussion with Jonathan Rauch
This episode is a treat!In our last two book episodes, we covered Kindly Inquisitors and The Constitution of Knowledge, both by Jonathan Rauch. We are delighted to have Jonathan on the show today to talk about both books and some points...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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1:00:10
Mini-sode 2: Facebook
The tech company everyone loves to hate has been in the news again. In this episode, we discuss the question of monopoly power as it applies to Facebook and whether its social harms outweigh its benefits.
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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28:15
Episode 8 - The Constitution of Knowledge
In the previous full-length episode, we read Kindly Inquisitors by Jonathan Rauch. We liked that book so much that we decided to read his latest that covers much the same topics but updated to apply to today's issues. But could Rauch e...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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1:37:39
Mini-sode 1 - Epistemic Crisis
Who are the gatekeepers of information and truth, and do we even need them? In this short mini episode, we riff on the ideas in Jonathan Rauch's new book The Constitution of Knowledge and our current, collective lack of trust in instituti...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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15:51
Episode 7 - Kindly Inquisitors
Trish and Hirad discuss a 28-year-old book on liberalism and its detractors. After a brief history of what liberalism is and how it developed, we talk about why and how it was under attack in the 90s and how the attacks have changed over the ye...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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1:30:05
Episode 6 – The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind
Why are some people liberal and others conservative? What makes us land on the political positions that we hold?In this episode, we discuss The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind by Jason Weeden and Robert Kurzban, who are trying to ge...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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1:31:02
Episode 5 - Nature, Nurture, and Twin Studies
In this episode, we explore the nature versus nurture debate with the help of behavioural genetics. In human development, what matters more - the environment or our genome? Join us for a deep dive into the fascinating research of twins and adop...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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1:10:53
Episode 4 – Who We Are & How We Got Here
In this episode, we discuss David Reich's book, Who We Are & How We Got Here. Starting with an overview of DNA sequencing technology and how it helps paint a picture of our past, we review what we know about ancient humans: Where did we evo...
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1:11:44
Episode 3 – The Handicap Principle
Predator and prey, parent and offspring, mates and rivals in courtship – animal communication is ubiquitous. The Handicap Principle provides a fascinating explanation of how organisms with divergent evolutionary needs develop means of reliable ...
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1:08:00