What I’m Listening To
JRE #1628 w/ Eric Weinstein (3hr:17min)
JRE #1631 w/ Brian Greene (2hr:42min)
Becoming Less: Waste Statistics (46min)
JRE #1635 w/ Jack Carr (2hr:55min)
As the weather gets warmer and the runs get longer out come the long form pods.
Let’s get into it!
Eric is someone I have listened to a few times before and was excited to listen to again. He has been on JRE previously and he hosts a podcast called “The Portal”. He seems like a highly intellectual guy with a keen interest in the areas of math, physics, and economics. He is usually good for a very interesting discussion but this episode was different. Eric wanted to use Joe’s platform to talk through some very personal stories and made for some awkward moments. Along with that he wanted to unveil his “Theory of Geometric Unity”, which if I understand correctly is meant to be a theory of everything, which would be a pretty big deal in the world of physics. If accurate…
Eric also muses about the grad student “work force” in academia and how he believes the United States arbitrarily lowered their wages to attract a cheaper foreign workforce which is inevitably leading to information theft back to countries like China.
Although that portion was interesting and is much more similar to the types of incites that Eric normally brings, this particular conversation was tough to listen to. Eric tried to explain some concepts in Lehman’s terms which Joe could not wrap his head around. To be honest, neither could I. They then got in a discussion of subjective versus objective which went on for way too long. It was 3hrs of running that got me through this pod but it isn’t one I’d recommend unless the physics draws you in.
Eric presents some visualizations on : https://pullthatupjamie.com/ which is a pretty funny troll.
Eric’s own podcast, The Portal, which he hasn’t updated since December, is quite good in its own right. My favourite pod from that series was Episode 19: w/ Bret Weinstein, his brother a evolutionary biologist. It was a mind blowing discussion around the field of evolutionary biology and worth a listen even if you have no immediate interest in the content.
Episode 25 is also a very interesting listen where Eric discusses his own personal interaction with Jeffrey Epstein after he was invited to Epstein’s NY home.
Both of these pods are much better than his most recent JRE appearance.
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Things didn’t switch gears much with Brian Greene who is a physicist intimately connected with quantum mechanics. These long form discussions where I don’t know much about the topic remain favourites to listen to while running. If you know something about quantum mechanics or even if you don’t Brian does a great job of speaking to it in a way that is comprehendible to everyone. This quality is what has made him a successful author. They get deep into what the theory means for space, reality, and computing and how the new super computers could be revolutionary in processing speeds.
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Becoming Less is a brand new pod that came to my attention from a friend. It is definitely dissimilar to a lot of the content I listen to but it is local, produced by a friend, and ultimately provided a lot of great info. Waste statistics is one of their more recent episodes and I figured I would dive into the world of conservation, environmentalism, and recycling with this pod.
They immediately drop the hammer.
Canada is #1 in the world for waste/capita.
Sounds wild but apparently it’s true. With all of our space to make giant garbage pits we have never felt the squeeze that other developed nations have had to figure out where to put everything. We just make another hole.
They continue on to breakdown some more statistics and generally talk about waste and recycling as it relates to Edmonton more specifically.
It ended up being really informative and I came away realizing I do a lot of wish-cycling. This is basically assuming something can be recycled and thinking you’re doing a good thing when it’s definitely just garbage.
It sounds like they provide a lot of practical day-to-day changes you can make to limit waste and work to decrease your personal foot print.
I think they have a lot of great content and it would be sweet if it could be tied into the stuff kids are learning in elementary/junior high so that they can start to engage in these changes before they get like me and just assume everything is recyclable.
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I feel like I went weeks without listening to a JRE pod and all of a sudden the review is riddled with them. Partly because his most recent guests are all people that I’ve previously listened to and really enjoyed.
Jack Carr is a former Navy Seal turned author of a series of fictional novels staring a Navy Seal (loosely based on himself) - James Reece. I bought and read the first book in his thriller series, The Terminal List, and it was a very good novel. I’m just about ready for some new books and his second one will certainly be on the list.
The big news of why Jack is back on the pod though revolves around his first novel being turned into an amazon series staring Chris Pratt as the protagonist.
I can’t wait!
They talk about the books and end up getting into Jack’s relatively quick success in the world of writing. They dive into his thoughts and processes around being a first time novelist assessing what needed to happen to get to where he is now in just a few short years.
Make sure you’ve put in the work so that when that door gets cracked, you’re prepared to kick it in.
Thanks for reading!
