PODCAST · society
let's THiNK about it
by Ryder Richards
A cultural detective's journey into philosophy, art, sociology, and psychology with Ryder Richards. (Formerly known as "The Will to DIY")
Episodes
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Pacifism as Pathology
In the latest episode of Let Us Think About It, host Ryder Richards tackles the provocative and polarizing work of Ward Churchill, Pacifism as Pathology. Published in 1986 and later expanded, this essay challenges the sanctity of nonviolent activism, arguing that it not only fails to dismantle...
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Rorty’s Ironists vs. Metaphysicians: Navigating Private Doubts and Public Hopes
In Step 87 of LetUsThinkAboutIt, host Ryder Richards dives into Part II of Richard Rorty’s Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989), exploring the clash between ironists and metaphysicians. Fresh off recording Step 86, Ryder unpacks Rorty’s seductive vision of the liberal ironist—a figure who...
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Rorty’s Cruelty, Solidarity, and Liberal Hope
In "Step 88: Rorty’s Solidarity," the concluding episode of our three-part series on Richard Rorty’s Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989), host Ryder Richards explores Part III, Chapters 7–9, where Rorty tackles cruelty and solidarity. Rorty argues that solidarity isn’t a universal human...
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Rorty's Contingency : Tools, Selves, and Communities
In the first of a three-part series on Richard Rorty’s Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989), Let Us Think About It delves into the concept of contingency. Host Ryder Richards guides listeners through Rorty’s radical argument that language, selfhood, and liberal communities are not grounded…
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The semantic drift of "good"
Ryder Richards discusses the evolution and degradation of the concept of "good" in moral language, referencing Nietzsche, Shell, and McIntyre. Nietzsche argues that "good" originated as a term for nobility but was inverted by the oppressed into a virtue of meekness. Shell suggests that modern...
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Language Failure: How Words Shape Our Reality
Language Failure: How Words Shape Our Reality A Long-Form Summary of the Podcast Opening Hook: The Illusion of Reality Imagine walking through downtown San Francisco. On your phone, you see pristine streets and a bustling city. But when you look up, the reality is starkly different—crumbling...
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{AI}ice's Odyssey in DALL-E Land
In this lecture, Ryder Richards, an artist currently based in Fort Worth, explored the intersection of art and artificial intelligence (AI), specifically focusing on a project that reimagines Salvador Dali's "Alice in Wonderland." Richards delved into public fears and misconceptions about AI,...
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Art and AI
Essay, Deck and Transcript can be found at https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-82-art-and-ai/ The Future of Art and AI: Promises and Perils Artificial intelligence (AI) has exploded onto the cultural scene, raising pressing questions about the role of technology in art and society. Artist and...
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Kant and the rise of subjective relativism
https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-81-kant-and-the-rise-of-subjective-realism/ Reality, belief, and the apocalypse. 0:00 Ryder Richards discusses the demotion of reality in favor of subjectivity, exploring the tension between science and religion, and the consequences of refusing to…
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Transcendent Escapism
In this episode of Let's Think About It, host Ryder Richards examines the relationship between truth, reality, and abstraction. He proposes reality filters profound ideologies like religion and science, which rely on belief, from superficial falsehoods like marketing propaganda that obscure...
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Skipping Reality
Ryder Richards builds on thinkers like Kant, Rorty, and Baudrillard in this podcast to argue that reality can filter problematic abstractions. He proposes reality as a net separating transcendental truths and superficial advertising. Without reality's grounding, these abstractions reinforce each...
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The Parallax View
https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-78-the-parallax-view/ Ryder discusses the concept of Slavoj Zizek's "The Parallax View" in three parts. Part 1: Ryder defines the parallax view as the convergence of seemingly parallel perspectives. He draws a connection to optical illusions of perspective…
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Perspective Framing
Welcome to the problematic realm of perspective framing. Ryder Richards will be your dubious guide through this profound exploration of self-awareness and understanding. Central to our journey is the parallax view, a powerful method of finding our place in the world by establishing reference…
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Concrete Universal (trash and art)
🗑️ Garbage represents the concrete universal of waste. 🎨 Picasso's art exemplifies the concrete universal through different periods and works. 🌌 Failures and contradictions can lead to transcendence. 🎭 Art expresses both expression and concealment simultaneously. 🔀 Concrete universalism...
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holy to holy s***
Christianity operates through a lack: we cannot know God, so a “gap” must be filled between God and Humans. Christ is God splitting from 1 into 2, allowing us to identify and get closer to the mystery of God, but in so doing, Christ was subjected to the filth of this world. (Zizek) The reversal…
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Symbolic Victory
0:00 The contradictory injunction of double binds. • The contradictory injunction in double binds. • The binary trap in cyberpunk. 2:15 The death drive of determinism. • The death drive of determinism. • How to transcend the binary. 4:44 How the capitalist system capitalizes on our stress. • The...
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Camouflage (sex and trust)
0:01 Why camouflage is like a rhizome. The complexity of camouflage and abstraction. Why camouflage is a better survival strategy. 2:44 The servant as master. How to become low like water and remain powerful. Master as servant - martyr. 5:16 The boss who tries to also be your best friend. The...
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Camouflage (and Art)
Introduction - Recap of previous episodes on the mimetic desire. - Rene Girard's model of scapegoating. 2:33 How do we prevent mimetic desire? - One way to solve mimetic desire and scapegoating. - The dispute plan to prevent future luxury. 4:42 What do you do after the revolution? - Government...
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The Costume & Inscribed Violence
0:00 How violence is provoked by fantasy. 2:31 The balcony and the revolution. 5:14 How far does mimetic desire go? 6:54 Most things happen twice: the story, then reality 9:41 Post-terrorist architecture. 12:40 Turning the desire into a blueprint (simulation to be de-simulated) 14:37 Recognize…
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Scapegoating & Sacrifice
Reversing inner pressure outward requires a scapegoat to sacrifice in order to stabilize society. By discovering the hidden models driving it reveals our motivations, but more importantly, Rene Girard‘s theory accounts for civilizations' cybernetic energies and release valves. Paired with Georges...
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Mimetic Desire
https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-69-memetic-desire/ 0:00 Intro 1:22 What is mimetic rivalry? memtic desire. 2:48 Mimicry as an internal set of neurosis. 5:05 What we want is the attention and control that someone else wanted first. 7:14 If somebody else wants something, our survival depends...
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Malign Velocities (Accelerationism)
0:00 Introduction to this episode. 1:53 In 1879 there was a horrible train wreck: the promise and cost of technology 4:27 A cautionary tale about the influence of the machine on communism. 6:53 What is the frame of Capitalism? (Marxism into desire) 12:17 The problem with capitalism is not just…
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Accelerationism & Futurism
0:00 Intro _ the Gods of Technology (Deus ex Machina) 3:56 Part 1: some context _ the capitalist trap, double binds, and looking for an escape, reality vs. abstraction 11:27 Part 2: the futurists_ from industrialization to deregulation to cyberspace, 1909 manifesto, praise machines and war, but...
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Cybernetics & Capitalism
Full episode in writing as well as video at: https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-66-cybernetics--capitalism/ 0:00 Intro 1:56 Part 1: cybernetics _ machines, feedback, and cascades 6:22 Part 2: one-dimension of capital _ Marcuse, consumerism’s false needs, subjecting justice to capitalism 9:55...
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The Path of Opposition (Failure as Transcendence)
PART 1: the path for the 2 to become 1 the 2 is 1, linked through exclusion in the last season of “peaky blinders” Tommy Shelby is a socialist forced into plotting with the fascists… In one scene he says people think of opposing sides as two end-points as if they are on separate tracks. But Tommy...
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Artificial Negativity & Repressive Tolerance
https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-64-artificial-negativity--repressive-tolerance Part 1: Hegel, antithesis and sublation, the spiral, and the ground. Part 2: Paul Piccone & Telos Piccone was the editor of Telos, a journal. After being disenchanted by the "exhaustion of the left" he drifted...
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The One-Dimensional Man
https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-63-the-one-dimensional-man Part 1: Captialism absorbs everything: even your rebellion against it becomes a published book, which feeds capitalism, and generates pro-capitalists books. In a dynamic system, each tactic has a counter, and this generates...
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The Double Bind
https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-62-the-double-bind/ PART 1 Ryder discusses Alan Watt's interpretation of the "tough-minded" and "tender-hearted" as "prickles and goos" that need each other, yet are confused by each other and lash out. Of course, like Alice in Wonderland, we can refuse to...
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Escape from Freedom (pt 2)
Why would anyone want to escape from Freedom? Psychologically freedom is a tremendous burden, especially in a competitive society commoditizing your individuality. Erich Fromm in “Escape from Freedom” maps out three means to escape the anxiety, isolation, and doubt of the Modern Age…
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Escape from Freedom (pt 1)
Why would anyone want to escape from Freedom? Well, in a complex system, any move will produce countermanding forces, and humans are slow-evolving creatures, and by merely shouting “you are free” we encounter some problems: 1) now what? and 2) it doesn’t line up with the reality of working every...
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Gambling, the Death Drive, & Libertarian Neutrality
Gambling has grown, as has gambling addiction. With technology improvements driven by behavioral science, gambling is more addictive than ever. While it may be your choice to gamble, the cards are stacked against you, and more gambling addicts commit suicide than any other addiction group.…
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Identity and Violence
Our identity is multifaceted, but people love the simplicity and tend to reduce people to a singular trait, which objectifies them. This reduction leads to violence, in part because it allows an "us vs them" narrative. Amartya Sen points out the ramifications in his book "Identity and Violence".…
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Design facilitates Agency
Step 57: Design facilitates Agency Part 1: The Mouskedoer Crawford tells this story about watching the Mickey Mouse channel, and on the show they have these segments where, say, 4 objects are in a grid, and a river shows up on the screen. Do you use the bridge, the ladder, the hammer, or the…
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Integrating Embodied Perception
Intro Today we continue considering “the world inside of our head” as quite narrow versus “the world of your body”, pulling heavily from Matthew Crawford, but also Iris Murdoch and Iain McGilchrist. We are going to look a bit at the mind/body split that became the “my self is the voices in my…
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Cultural Jigs
Part 1: Jggy wit it I personally do a lot of woodworking, making cabinets or entertainment centers, I'm currently trying to build a window. I have tools that help me, such as a table saw is great, but sometimes there is a finicky cut in a difficult spot and you need a handsaw. The hand saw has a...
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The World Beyond Your Head (pt 2)
SHOW NOTES at https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-54-the-world-beyond-your-head-pt-2/ 0:00 intro 2:11 part 1: environmental suppression 5:31 part 2: the illusion of the self 8:35 part 3: situated self & ecologies of attention 11:17 part 4: autonomy vs heteronomy 14:33 part 5: the current...
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The World Beyond Your Head (pt 1)
1: Attention as a cultural problem “Capitalism has gotten hip to the fact that for all our talk of an information economy, but we really have is an attentional economy, if the term economy applies what is scarce and therefore valuable.” Matthew Crawford Crawford goes further because if capitalist...
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Best of 2021 (book review)
Ryder consumed over 50 books and about 200 podcasts in 2021. Walking through concepts of the origins of bureaucracy and how the protestant work ethic shaped corporations and consumer behavior, he moves into healthcare related to liberty, how to solve many problems on our way to utopia, and a…
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Ambiguity (self-optimization pt. 4)
The most obvious problem with optimization is "who (or what) are you optimizing into?" First you must know yourself, then have a mission with little goals along the way allowing you to hack productivity. But if you are in a rush to gain career capital for survival or to earn freedom, your mission...
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The Hero Trendency
The Hero Story Perhaps there has always been an effort towards optimization, and it generally looks like technology. When speaking of self optimization, or overcoming , we are speaking of the hero’s journey popularized by Joseph Campbell. Campbell spoke a lot of the parallels of the external...
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Atomic Habits (optimization pt 2)
Part 1: The Aggregation of Marginal Gains Habits are really about identity change. Behaviour change is simply the means to get there (the feedback loop). What are atomic habits? They are the smallest possible habits, tiny little things that you can begin doing easily for remarkable changes....
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Self-Optimization Lure (part 1)
Series overview There is a mystical power to self optimization, to becoming better. With all the Behavioral Science, behavioral economics, psychology, neurological studies, and FMRI tech we have figured out how to make you “better.” Yet, according to movies and myth, attempts at control or better...
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Sacred Economics (pt 2)
Intro Check Step 46 for a history of how money developed from sacred origins into “a force for evil.” Part 1: Separation and Oneness This illusion is a prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for only the few people nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves…
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Sacred Economics (pt 1)
Eisenstein asks “Why is money a force for evil in the world?” When did money, once a sacred promise and gift, become a means to separate individuals from each other and nature, to create competition, extraction, and hoarding? Key takeaways from Eisenstein's book "Sacred Economics" 1: We are...
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Free Guy
https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-45-free-guy/ Part I This week, we were offered a story of an NPC, non-player character, in a video game called Free City. And what happens when Guy, played by Ryan Reynolds becomes sentient. He is triggered awake by seeing a girl. Shocker right? He becomes a...
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Step 44: Fart Art
PART I The art world is a complicated place with diverse motivations, bizarre criteria and social norms, yet it also offers profound friendships and solidarity through community. Ryder speaks of the psychology that drove him to choose art as a form of self-help therapy versus a more stable career...
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The Depression Relief Playbook, Zack Rutledge
Our conversation ranges from daily routines, gut health and probiotics, taking supplements, being in therapy, meditation practice, physical fitness as part of a daily routine that produces chemicals to help our mind-body balance, and setting up structures that don't rely on willpower. Oh, and...
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China Unraveled, Jason Szeftel
Given the recent news of Hong Kong's protests being squashed, the "China Question" looms larger. As no expert, the best way to learn is bring someone on the show who has been podcasting about the multi-facted and historical complexities involved as China pushes it's way center stage. Jason…
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Step 41: Utopia for Realists, pt 2
Rutger Bregman’s book, Utopia for Realists, maps out how Universal Basic Income was nearly real in the 70’s. Coupled with increasing automation (robot uprising) and prospects of joblessness (along with a growing confusion of what is “work” without “labor”) we should also consider the role of…
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Step 40: Utopia for Realists, Bregman (pt1)
We walk through the dreamland of Cockaigne, and our small utopic dreams. Bregman reminds us democracy was once a dream, and slavery was once unthinkably common. We nearly had UBI in the 70's, because all the data proves it works, but morality, economics, and conservatism have re-written our…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A cultural detective's journey into philosophy, art, sociology, and psychology with Ryder Richards. (Formerly known as "The Will to DIY")
HOSTED BY
Ryder Richards
CATEGORIES
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How many episodes does let's THiNK about it have?
let's THiNK about it currently has 89 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is let's THiNK about it about?
A cultural detective's journey into philosophy, art, sociology, and psychology with Ryder Richards. (Formerly known as "The Will to DIY")
How often does let's THiNK about it release new episodes?
let's THiNK about it has 89 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to let's THiNK about it on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts let's THiNK about it?
let's THiNK about it is created and hosted by Ryder Richards.
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