The Hope Axis by Anna Gát

The brilliant Kat Rosenfield joins me for a conversation about millennial women, victimhood narratives, the enduring appeal of rich husbands, why we're bad at aging gracefully, and much more. Hope you enjoy!You can read the transcript of our conversation here.Important Links:Kat’s X ProfileKat’s SubstackKat’s column for The Free PressKat’s WebsiteShownotes:(0:00:00) Guest Introduction (0:02:16) The seductive appeal of victimhood narratives for Millennial women (0:06:01) Our current choice paralysis (0:09:47) "Survivor" as personal brand: t...

The inimitable Sari Azout, founder of the new digital gardening platform Sublime, joins me for a wide-ranging discussion about ideas, digital minimalism, humane tech and building the future with care. Hope you enjoy!You can read the transcript of this conversation here.Important Links:Sublime’s SubstackSari on SublimeSari on XSari on LinkedInShow Notes:(0:01:17) The Philosophy of Ideas(0:04:42) Avoiding Brain Hijacking and Deepening Your Intentions(0:11:58) Making People Care(0:16:45) Observing Digital Shabbat(0:24:22) Succession as th...

The very great Erik Hoel joins me for a conversation on AI, free will, emergence, creativity, neuroscience, consciousness and much more. Hope you enjoy!For the full transcript of our conversation, click here.Important Links:The Intrinsic PerspectiveErik on Twitter/XShow Notes:(0:00:00) Guest Introduction(0:05:12) Innovative Structures in Fiction(0:09:43) Gender Dynamics in Publishing(0:13:19) Erik Hoel's Origin Story(0:20:11) An Unorthodox Literary Trajectory(0:30:34) Consciousness and Information Theory(0:35:45) Science At the Edges<...

Santiago Ramos of Wisdom of Crowds joins me to talk about hope in apocalyptic times. AI, public philosophy, journalism, the aesthetics of urgent honesty, the value of disagreement, dialectics leading one to religion, whether crowds really are wise... ENJOY!For the full transcript of our conversation, click here.Important Links:Wisdom of CrowdsAuthor Page at Plough MagazineAuthor Page at CommonwealSantiago’s Twitter/XShow Notes:(00:00) Intro(00:23) Guest Introduction(03:57) What gives Santiago Hope(06:44) What Does Human Flourishing Me...

The very great Agnes Callard joins me to talk about her excellent new book Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life.Just two Hungarian girls discussing love and ethics, truth and ignorance, paradoxes and beliefs—and Kant, Aristotle, Mill, Nussbaum, William James—and of course Socrates. Hope you enjoy!For the full transcript of our conversation, ⁠click here⁠.Important Links:Agnes's UChicago ProfileAgnes's XShow Notes:(0:00:00) Guest introduction (0:02:52) Why do some people ask load-bearing questions?(0:08:20) You can...

Author, builder and friend — Rohit Krishan joins me in a wide ranging conversation about Indian and American culture. We discuss the Get Shit Done mentality of Indian entrepreneurs, predictions for the Indian diaspora, Rohit’s experiences with LLMs, and the surprising ways his children use AI.For the full transcript of our conversation, click here.Important Links:Rohit’s Substack: Strange Loop CanonX / TwitterShow Notes:00:00 Guest introduction 02:36 How Are India and America Similar? 09:06 Live Players vs. Dead Players 10:34 How American Policy Experiments Echo 1...

The brilliant and always candid Haya Odeh - co-founder and design lead of Replit - and I talked about her company (and her husband and co-founder Amjad Masad), entrepreneurship, and hope — immigration, motherhood, resilience, being your best self, and the great power of not having a plan B.https://x.com/HayaOdehhttps://x.com/Replit

Max Meyer, founder and editor of Arena Magazine, and I sat down to talk about the Army and DOGE, Alex Karp and farming, Love Letters to America and Tocqueville, trust and publishing, fake news and social revolutions, academia and cities...And also the value of travelling around the US, the value of books, the value of people having a say in how their country is run.And establishing the first magazine on Mars!https://arenamag.com/https://x.com/mualphaxi

#satire #newsletters #DOGE #elonmusk #politics #liberalism #trolls #feminismThis was our 21st episode, and I celebrated its coming of drinking age by inviting my scandal hero mutual Richard Hanania. We talked about the art of satire (and a little trolling). Writing independently and without filter. Why Neoliberalism was, according to Richard, right. Why Liberals must make a comeback. Why women’s intuition should be taken seriously. Why romance is a pillar of social order. Why men and women - and generations, political sides - need to talk to each other. The social value of Classical Liberalism. Why Conservatism, according to Ri...

The great Kyla Scanlon, economics creator and author of the book 'In This Economy?' (and host of some great Interintellect salons and series) and I talked about polarisation and economic stressors, the 3 types of GenZ, and housing, hope, fertility, DOGE, social fragmentation, bad vibes, the White House — and more!Links:https://kylascanlon.com/https://kyla.substack.com/https://www.tiktok.com/@kylascan

Writer, literary critic, and the man behind the great The Common Reader (https://www.commonreader.co.uk) blog, Henry Oliver joined me to gossip about literature and then dive in and build our own Western Canon. Enjoy!We talked about good literature and bad literature, Tolstoy and Shakespeare, Woolf, Bloom… Romanticism, quests, Goethe, Tolkien... And most importantly we built a from-scratch Western Canon for visiting aliens...Henry's Canon:1) The King James Bible2) The Odyssey3) The Aeneid4) Dante's Inferno5) Petrarch's Canzoniere6) Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur7) The Canterbury Tales8) Tartuffe9) A Winter's Tale10) The Pilgrim's Progress11) Montaigne's Essays 12) The Gargantua-Pantagruel series13) Gu...

Investor and writer Jim O'Shaughnessy came on The Hope Axis and shared his Theory of Life. We talked about…probably everything? The 80s on Wall Street, reputation and norms, patterns and emotions, financial markets and family, Shakespeare sonnets and journaling, Cold War and conformism, Girard and Jung, reality and instincts, 911 and altruism, the Internet and belief systems, books and obsessions, innovation and investment, culture and hope. And so much more…https://x.com/jposhaughnessyhttps://www.osv.llc/https://www.infiniteloopspodcast.com/https://www.infinitebooks.com/

The one and only Zena Hitz — Tutor at St. John's College and author of one of my favourite books 'Lost in Thought — joined me to talk about Plato and Christ, contemplation and service, wisdom and being lost, morality and dignity, end goals and anxieties — Agnes Callard and Irina Dumitrescu — Aquinas and Hildegard of Bingen, and happiness!Links:https://www.zenahitz.net/https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691178714/lost-in-thought

Medieval scholar Irina Dumitrescu and I talk about the medieval mindset, faith, doubt, sex, and suicide. And also Margery Kempe and fame, heretics and wives, Strauss and Glück, Girard and Hamlet, pilgrims, saints, madness, vegetarianism, secrets, the Inquisition, and much more. Oh and Monty Python, of course! Irina: https://www.the-tls.co.uk/authors/irina-dumitrescu https://x.com/irinibus https://irinadumitrescu.com/about-me/

Writer, podcaster, and activist Sarah Haider joined me to discuss New Atheism, neo-religion, spiritual journeys, Cultural Islam. We reminisced about the Four Horsemen era and explored vibe shifts, trads, fanatics, immigration, woke taboos, the lack of constructive dialogue. Can democracy function without religion? What do people do with their big feelings like love, hate, or fear in the age of secularism? Why do so many people return to faith these days — are their motivations valid? Follow Sarah: https://newsletter.sarahhaider.com/ Follow Anna: https://x.com/TheAnnaGat Follow The Hope Axis: https://x.com/thehopeaxis

Writer and community builder Paul Millerd joined me to discuss his two excellent self-published books The Pathless Path and Good Work, as well as: Scenes and tribes. The Intellectual Renaissance were living through. John Stuart Mill, Sartre, Havel. The end of the corporate default. Language, community, virtue. SF vs Austin, GenZ vs Millennials. Cold emailing and rejection. The implosions of the social and the parasocial. Starting a publishing house. And much more... https://pmillerd.com/

Co-founder and CEO of the GenZ media company Eternal, Reggie James joined me to talk about how technology could better serve people's spiritual - even religious - needs. We talked about his viral blogposts, his obsession with Marshall McLuhan, and why writing is the ultimate form of design.

The brilliant anonymous blogger Cartoons Hate Her joined me to explore dating and attraction, marriage and work, raising children and being in the media -- and cleared up a lot of misunderstandings around seduction, trads, fame, monogamy, domination and disappointments. https://www.cartoonshateher.com/

Novelist and essayist A. Natasha Joukovksy joined me to talk about status and attraction, mimesis and uniformity, Girard and Austen, Batuman and Kierkegaard, Tolstoy and main character energy, Natasha's first novel and her new one in the making, the positive side of the imitation game, and how individuals can live freely from it all.

Podcaster star Dwarkesh Patel on how his eponymous podcast started, how his niche interests empower him, what he learned about scene-building and getting one's "lucky break", and how he succeeded at landing Mark Zuckerberg, Tony Blair, or Tyler Cowen as interviewees.