A New Sort of Monopoly

1. The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World (Volume 2) by: Iain McGilchrist

2. The World Behind the World: Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science by: Erik Hoel

3. Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by: Beth Macy

4. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin 

5. Younger Next Year, 2nd Edition: Live Strong, Fit, Sexy, and Smart - Until You're 80 and Beyond by: Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge M.D.

6. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by: Mason Currey

7. Meditations on First Philosophy by: Rene Descartes

8. Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans by: Plutarch

9. Neuromancer by: William Gibson

10. Aftermath: Expeditionary Force, Book 16 by: Craig Alanson

1. The Creative Act: A Way of Being by: Rick Rubin

2. The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by: Leonard Mlodinow

3. Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year compiled by: Allie Esiri

4. The Monster of Florence by: Douglas Preston

5. Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age by: Dale C. Allison Jr.

6. As a Driven Leaf by: Milton Steinberg

My report from Natal Con 2023. Including reflections on Tommy Boy, seatbelts, and the proliferation of polycrises.

1. Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by: Robert Wright

2. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by: Matthew Desmond

3. Scarcity Brain: Fix Your Craving Mindset and Rewire Your Habits to Thrive with Enough by: Michael Easter

4. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by: Robert Pirsig

5. Finite and Infinite Games by: James Carse

6. Fever Pitch by: Nick Hornby

7. Sun and Steel by: Yukio Mishima

8. Coraline by: Neil Gaiman 

9. The Gods Never Left Us by: Erich von Däniken

10. Mere Christianity by: C. S. Lewis

Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/egregores-group-minds-and-white-magic 

Is there such a thing as a group mind? If so how does it affect the thriving and surviving of groups? What do such group minds look like from a historical perspective? What about a modern perspective?

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/11/the-overemphasis-on-love-and-tolerance/ 

Love is very important for Christians, but has there been too much emphasis placed on it? And has this emphasis warped it into something else? To put it more simply is perfect Christian love the same as unlimited tolerance? This post argues that it's not, and that in fact if you're looking for the ultimate Christian principle it might be "repentance".

1. The Origins of Woke: Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics by: Richard Hanania

2. How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement by: Fredrik deBoer

3. The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World (Volume 1) by: Iain McGilchrist

4. The Alter Ego Effect: Defeat the Enemy, Unlock Your Heroic Self, and Start Kicking Ass by: Todd Herman

5. The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by: Jonathan Rosen

6. To Hell and Back by: Audie Murphy

7. The Ministry for the Future by: Kim Stanley Robinson

8. The Mysteries by: Bill Watterson

9. A Desert of Vast Eternities (Pilgrim's Path Book 2) by: Vic Davis

10. The New Copernicans: Millennials and the Survival of the Church by: David John Seel Jr. 

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/10/the-worst-book-ive-ever-read/ 

John Seel Jr.'s book, The New Copernicans, is the worst book I have ever read. He puts forth a dubious premise. In support of which he provides no data to back it up, nor any anecdotes which illustrate it actually occurring. To the extent there is anything backing it up, it's provided by extensive misrepresentation of other books.

Transcript: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatchesendofworld/2023/10/worthy-of-our-sufferings/ 

Dostoevsky wrote, "There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings." What does that mean? I think he meant that whatever suffering we’re experiencing it’s suffering God felt we were capable of handling. We need to prove worthy of that trust. This has always been hard to do, and now that we have numerous ways of mitigating suffering, it's not only hard, but confusing.

Transcript: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/can-we-eliminate-struggle-2023 

Humanity has struggled and suffered for so long that we might be unable to survive without them. We dream of such elimination through technology, but will that dream turn into a nightmare?