These days podcasts are driving me crazy. Why? Because there are way too many that I want to watch than is physically possible (even at 2X speed). So like passing on an infection, I will pass on to you LRC readers podcast content worthwhile to investigate.
First consider Robert Breedlove, whose moniker is “Freedom Maximalist and Bitcoin Philosopher.” He is a serious student of Austrian economics. He had an excellent conversation with Mike Hill, a video game, cinematic designer, that is described in the show notes quoted below:
Mike Hill joins me for a multi-episode exploration of the masterful book “Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals” written by best-selling author Robert Pirsig. This book may be one of the most undervalued ever written, as it proposes an alternative interpretation of reality that Pirsig calls “The Metaphysics of Quality” (MOQ). According to MOQ, reality is not made up of substance, but rather it is composed of distinct patterns of value. In a Copernican-like revolution of perspective, MOQ sheds new light on age-old debates such as moral relativism, the nature of subject-object duality, good vs. evil, science vs. religion, the importance of freedom, and the primacy of action.
The conversation covers much more than Pïrsig and Lila, explicitly stating the relationships with Human Action by Ludwig von Mises and Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson. The first of 5 episodes is here.
Breedlove also has a long conversation (7 episodes) with Eric Weinstein where Austrian economics and bitcoin are discussed at great length. Breedlove does a credible job of herding Weinstein’s intellect into a coherent form that does include real enlightening insights. But Eric’s incoherent and pedantic tangents obscure these insights. For example, in a discussion of the gold standard Weinstein brought up the configuration of quarks in a proton.
One last point about Breedlove. My French wife doesn’t always appreciate my podcast choices. Many times I have heard, “Not Ron Paul again!” But when she happened to pass my screen with the image of Breedlove she couldn’t help but to ask “who is that good looking man?” Remember, she is French. As much as I might admire a Murry Rothbard, Hans Hoppe, or Walter Block, even I thought, it is not bad to have someone with the movie star looks like Breedlove purporting the insights and truths of Austrian economics.
I learned about the Breedlove-Hill conversation from the internet Queen of Quality, Sevilla King, at her Quality Existence Youtube channel. She has explored Pirsig’s philosophy in detail through examination of Lila and previously Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I have mentioned Sevilla’s channel in these previous posts, Peterson’s Progeny . . . For Me, The Best 5 Minutes on the Internet, Panic Reading and The Only Safe Sex.
Another Youtube channel I closely follow is The Meaning Code by Karen Wong. I have previously mentioned Karen’s channel in Rabbit Holes and Physicists and I want to buy bitcoin, but ….. Karen invited Sevilla and me to discuss the Breedlove-Hill conversation, where Karen took the point of view of Peterson, Sevilla of Pirsig, and myself of Mises. I will mention just one part of the conversation. Karen asked me near the end of the discussion about our current predicament summarized as, “Do you see late stage capitalism?” I had posed a similar question in this post, An Important Social/Political/Economic Question of Our Time: Is it inherent in the nature of free market capitalism for the most wealthy individuals and/or corporations to capture government power? Furthermore, in the following post, My Answer is ‘Yes,’ But Keep Capitalism, where I concluded, “it is inherent in the nature of free market capitalism for the most wealthy individuals and/or corporations to capture government power. Thus, I advocate capitalism, but populated by virtuous people, cultivated in a matrix of virtuous communities that are jealous of their rights to obtain and maintain a free society.” The conversation is here (The screen shot shows Karen’s screen share of the three books from the Breedlove-Hill conversation.).
