Beautiful Illusions
37 episodes - English - Latest episode: 15 days ago - ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsJeff & Darron ponder the intersection of reality, consciousness, and culture. These conversations comprise an ongoing attempt to construct meaning by exploring art and science, developing understanding of the context underpinning our current moment in time, and imagining possible futures for human civilization. No expertise here, just two guys who enjoy learning, thinking, and talking about big ideas, deep questions, and the “beautiful illusion” that is the subjective human experience. *New episodes released every one to two months on Sunday mornings*
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Episodes
EP 32 - We Read So We Can Talk
April 14, 2024 04:00 - 1 hour - 50.6 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:26 - See “Something Went Terribly Wrong With Online Ads” (The Atlantic, 2024) and “Uber’s Ad Network Continues To Grow” (Marketing Brew, 2023) 4:00 - Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom 4:15 - See “The Western Canon” Wikipedia entry 12:10 - See “Shakespeare Contra Nietzsche” (Marginalia, 2016) 16:41 - Listen to Bea...
EP 31 - Life, Art, & Experience: A Conversation
January 14, 2024 14:42 - 47 minutes - 38 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:30 - Listen to “Now And Then” by The Beatles (YouTube) 3:24 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 22 - What is Life? from March 2022 6:44 - Bruce Springsteen at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, September 3, 2023 10:57 - boygenius at Westville Music Bowl in New Haven, September 28, 2023 11:05 - boygenius is Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus,...
EP 30 - What Does It Mean To Be A Man?
November 26, 2023 05:00 - 53 minutes - 42.6 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 5:40 - See the toxic masculinity Wikipedia entry 6:04 - Listen to the August 7, 2023 episode of The Gray Area podcast, “The New Crisis of Masculinity,” and the May 12, 2023 of The Bulwark podcast, “Richard Reeves: The Trouble with Boys and Men” 6:05 - Read “Men are lost. Here’s a map out of the wilderness.” (Washington Post, 2023) and “In...
EP 29 - Vacation Part 2: It's A Process
October 08, 2023 09:00 - 52 minutes - 42.1 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 4:12 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 26 - Vacation: The Pedantics & Semantics from November 2022 8:40 - Sometimes vacations are the opposite of fun, for more see this definitely NSFW clip from National Lampoon’s Vacation 15:39 - Avatar Flight of Passage is a 3D thrill ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom 18:20 - The Beach Club Resort ...
EP 28 - Alcohol: To Drink, Or Not To Drink?
July 30, 2023 04:00 - 39 minutes - 31.8 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:30 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 10 - Craft Beer Culture: A Personal History from January 2021 3:07 - Listen to Sean Carroll’s Mindscape Episode 160 - Edward Slingerland on Confucianism, Daoism, and Wu Wei from 2021 3:13 - Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization, by Edward Slingerland 3:18 - Read “T...
EP 27 - A Gluten-Free Beautiful Illusion
February 26, 2023 06:00 - 41 minutes - 33 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:05 - See “What is Celiac Disease?” and “What is Gluten?” (Celiac Disease Foundation) 9:24 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 16 - Partisan Pizza from July 2021 17:45 - See “Confirmation Bias And the Power of Disconfirming Evidence” (Farnam Street Blog) 21:42 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 21 - The Myth of the Desert Islan...
EP 26 - Vacation: The Pedantics & Semantics
January 01, 2023 05:00 - 33 minutes - 15.5 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:50 - The “Hunting House” is in Clarendon, VT 7:10 - See “Are Burgers and Hot Dog Sandwiches?” (The Daily Meal, 2021) 7:40 - See “It Was Shoes On, No Boarding Pass Or ID. But Airport Security Forever Changed On 9/11” (NPR, 2021) 10:23 - Walt Disney World 10:45 - See “The dream Disney World vacation is too expensive for the average Amer...
EP 25 - Living the Dream
November 06, 2022 19:41 - 34 minutes - 28 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 7:28 - See “Negativity Bias” (The Decision Lab) and the abstract of “Not all emotions are created equal: The negativity bias in social-emotional development” (Psychological Bulletin, 2008) 8:52 - See “Teacher Salary Benchmarks” (National Education Association), “Ranking all 50 states on highest teacher pay shows the pinch of inflation” (Di...
EP 24 - Slaughterhouse Five: A Look Through the Cognitive Lens
July 03, 2022 08:00 - 1 hour - 70.8 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:00 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 15 - The Mind of Gatsby: A Look Through the Cognitive Lens from June 2021 2:16 - Watch Carol Tavris and Elliot Aaronson describe “The Pyramid of Choice” and how it leads to justification of actions, leading to further action and self justification, which is an idea they present in their book Mis...
EP 23 - The Church of Music
May 01, 2022 16:45 - 1 hour - 29.5 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:07 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 22 - What is Life? from March 2022 (but recorded in January 2022) 3:48 - Listen to Luciano Pavarotti sing Ave Maria (YouTube) 7:39 - The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt 7:54 - The Secret of Our Success by Joseph Heinrich 8:03 - This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel Levitin 12:15 - Listen to...
EP 22 - What is Life?
March 06, 2022 09:00 - 56 minutes - 51.6 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:20 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 21 - The Myth of the Desert Island Self from January 2022 4:30 - Listen to the excellent Strong Songs podcast which is created, recorded, and produced by Kirk Hamilton, the specific episode referenced here is from November 2021 and is a deep dive into the classic concert film Stop Making Sense b...
EP 21 - The Myth of the Desert Island Self
January 02, 2022 10:00 - 1 hour - 68.4 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:47 - Jeff’s 5 old desert island “favorite” books: Visions of Gerard by Jack Kerouac, Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Immortality by Milan Kundera, and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 3:29 - Darron’s 5 favorite movies: The Big Lebowski, Goodfellas, The Shawshank Redemption, The Empire Strik...
EP 20 - Reflections on a Year of Beautiful Illusions
November 07, 2021 19:58 - 1 hour - 64.6 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:43 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 10 - Craft Beer Culture: A Personal History from January 2021 5:10 - Athletic Brewing Company 6:43 - Listen the Beautiful Illusions Episode 19 - How We Learn Like A Scout: Critically Thinking About Critical Thinking from October 2020, which is centered around a discussion of two books: The Scou...
EP 19 - How We Learn Like A Scout: Critically Thinking About Critical Thinking
October 03, 2021 09:00 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:15 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 18 - Making Progress Better from September 2021 8:36 - AP English Language and Composition (College Board) 12:23 - The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't by Julia Galef 12:26 - How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine...for Now by Stanislas Dehaene...
EP 18 - Making Progress Better
September 05, 2021 09:00 - 1 hour - 59.8 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:12 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 17 - BI Book Club 1: The Reality Bubble from July 2021, where we discuss Ziya Tong’s 2019 book The Reality Bubble 4:07 - Published in 1739, book 3 of philosopher David Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature, “Of Morals”, articulates what has come to be known as the “is-ought problem” which arises when ...
EP 17 - BI Book Club 1: THE REALITY BUBBLE
August 01, 2021 10:15 - 1 hour - 63.3 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:23 - Listen to Mindscape Episode 133: Ziya Tong on Realities We Don’t See for an overview and discussion of ideas Tong presents in her 2019 book The Reality Bubble 4:36 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 04 - Too Cultured from October 2020 6:10 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 01 - Why It’s Pointless to Start a Podcast In a ...
EP 16 - Partisan Pizza
July 04, 2021 09:00 - 1 hour - 65.7 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:12 - The “Big Mac” pizza is one of of many “Gourmet Pizzas” served at Illiano’s Pizza & Italian Cuisine in Middletown, CT 3:45 - See “The Definitive Guide to New Haven Pizza”, the “New Haven-style pizza” Wikipedia entry, and the website for Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana 4:05 - I’m currently using Andrew Janigan’s updated version for ...
EP 15 - The Mind of Gatsby: A Look Through the Cognitive Lens
June 06, 2021 09:00 - 1 hour - 68.1 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:00 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 12 - “A New Enlightenment: The Age of Cognitivism” from March 2021 2:09 - See Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett and Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aaronson 2:30 - See t...
EP 14 - Talkin' Baseball Stories & Beautiful Illusions
May 02, 2021 09:49 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:19 - The Yankees beat the Indians 1-0 in Game 3 of the 2017 American League Division Series, see “2017 American League Division Series (ALDS) Game 3, Indians at Yankees” (Baseball Reference) and 2017 ALDS Game 3 Highlights 3:25 - Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees Box Score, August 2, 2019 3:34 - Yankee Stadium 3:36 - We always park at...
EP 13 - What We Talk About When We Talk About Politics Part 2: Just the Facts
April 04, 2021 09:30 - 1 hour - 77 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:10 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 06 - “What We Talk About When We Talk About Politics” 3:07 - See “U.S. Media Polarization and the 2020 Election: A Nation Divided” (Pew Research Center, 2020) 3:45 - See “American News Pathways Project,” “How Americans Navigated the News in 2020: A Tumultuous Year in Review,” and “Misinformatio...
EP 12 - A New Enlightenment: The Age of Cognitivism
March 07, 2021 10:00 - 1 hour - 58.6 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:07 - See “Literary Periods, Movements, and History” (The Literature Network) 5:10 - See “What is Enlightenment?” by Immanuel Kant - “Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of...
EP 11 - Darwin & The Dude: Darron's Journey to Poetic Naturalism
February 07, 2021 10:30 - 1 hour - 68.7 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:41 - The Darwin Fish 2:59 - “...you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone” (BobDylan.com) from “The Times They Are A-Changin’” (YouTube video) 3:18 - See “What is Darwin’s Theory of Evolution” (LiveScience, 2018) and “Darwin and His Theory of Evolution” (Pew Research Center) 7:23 - Charles Darwin 10:33 - See “Darwin on a G...
EP 10 - Craft Beer Culture: A Personal History
January 03, 2021 13:17 - 1 hour - 57.1 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:05 - Treehouse Brewing Company 2:30 - The Brewers Association trade group, which represents the majority of American Brewing companies, defines an American craft brewer as a small, independent brewer with an annual production of 6 million barrels or less, which represents roughly 3% of annual American beer production. Although the vast m...
EP 09 - Lying About Santa: Naughty or Nice?
December 20, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 56.4 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode *A note about the audio in this episode - due to COVID this conversation was recorded in a large garage on a brisk 40 degree November Sunday, so there’s a bit of natural reverb, along with the buzz of propane heaters and leaf blowers audible in the background. Like so many things over the past 9 months, it’s not optimal, but we make the best of a challenging sit...
EP 08 - System 2, Superman, & Simulacra: Jeff's Amateur Philosophy
December 06, 2020 11:00 - 48 minutes - 22.5 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:03 - Existentialism entry from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) and Existentialism: Crash Course Philosophy #16 (YouTube video) 2:20 - Atheism (IEP) 6:07 - The Quran, The Book of Mormon, The Bhagavad Gita, Buddhism, Daoism 10:41 - The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow 14:46 - Subliminal: ...
EP 07 - Boxing Aristotle
November 22, 2020 11:00 - 52 minutes - 24.2 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:00 - See the Ten Year Reading Plan from The Great Conversation Reading Group 3:07 - A Game of Thrones Novel & HBO TV Series 4:34 - Bo Knows Bo, No Direction Home, On The Road 5:58 - See “Skim reading is the new normal. The effect on society is profound.” 7:55 - See The Republic by Plato, Ethics by Aristotle, and Politics by Aristotle...
EP 06 - What We Talk About When We Talk About Politics
November 08, 2020 17:17 - 1 hour - 28 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 5:53 - See “This is why you get worked up about politics, according to science” (CNN, 2017) 7:58 - Difficult Conversations by by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen 11:04 - “According to Peter Ditto, a psychology professor and researcher who studies motivated reasoning and what he refers to as “hot cognition” - the interface between ...
EP 05 - It's Alive!
October 25, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 28.8 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:15 - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Wikipedia entry on Frankenstein) 2:25 - Google image search for Frankenstein (and for Herman Munster) 4:20 - The movie The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) was the sequel to Frankenstein (1931), and featured Boris Karloff in the now iconic depiction of Frankenstein’s Monster 6:04 - See “Frankenstein Ref...
EP 04 - Too Cultured
October 11, 2020 10:00 - 45 minutes - 20.9 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 2:00 - Context with Brad Harris podcast episode “The Two Cultures, by C.P. Snow” from November, 2018 2:06 - “The Two Cultures” by C.P. Snow 3:16 - “What is Science?” 3:34 - History of Science 4:45 - Snow gave the Rede Lecture at the University of Cambridge in 1959 - “The Rede Lecture”, named for Sir Robert Rede, an English judge who pro...
The Examined Life
September 26, 2020 11:52 - 52 minutes - 24.1 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: The Art of Manliness Podcast episode #430 “Why You Need to Join the Great Conversation About the Great Books” Ten Year Great Books Reading Plan “Apology” and “Crito” by Plato The Art of Manliness Podcast episode #587 “How to Get More Pleasure and Fulfillment From Your Reading” “The unexamined life is not worth living” “I know...
EP 03 - The Examined Life
September 26, 2020 11:52 - 52 minutes - 24.1 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: The Art of Manliness Podcast episode #430 “Why You Need to Join the Great Conversation About the Great Books” Ten Year Great Books Reading Plan “Apology” and “Crito” by Plato The Art of Manliness Podcast episode #587 “How to Get More Pleasure and Fulfillment From Your Reading” “The unexamined life is not worth living” “I know that I k...
EP 02 - Our Back Pages
September 26, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 28.4 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: Bob Dylan lyrics by song title No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan by Robert Shelton “I Want You” from Dylan and The Grateful Dead’s 7/4/87 show in Foxboro, MA - not the exact version on the album (in terms of Dylan’s enunciation it’s actually better), but you get the idea. “I Want You” from Bob Dylan’s 1966 masterpiece Bl...
Our Back Pages
September 26, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 28.4 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: Bob Dylan lyrics by song title No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan by Robert Shelton “I Want You” from Dylan and The Grateful Dead’s 7/4/87 show in Foxboro, MA - not the exact version on the album (in terms of Dylan’s enunciation it’s actually better), but you get the idea. “I Want You” from Bob Dylan’s 1966 maste...
Why It's Pointless to Start a Podcast in a Pandemic
September 26, 2020 10:30 - 55 minutes - 25.6 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: “No one can opt out of this pandemic. And that will change us forever.” by Alissa Wilkinson published by Vox on April 13, 2020: “The Pre-pandemic Universe Was the Fiction” by Charles Yu published by The Atlantic on April 15, 2020 This episode was recorded in August 2020
EP 01 - Why It's Pointless to Start a Podcast in a Pandemic
September 26, 2020 10:30 - 55 minutes - 25.6 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: “No one can opt out of this pandemic. And that will change us forever.” by Alissa Wilkinson published by Vox on April 13, 2020: “The Pre-pandemic Universe Was the Fiction” by Charles Yu published by The Atlantic on April 15, 2020 This episode was recorded in August 2020 The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti ...
Introducing Beautiful Illusions
September 26, 2020 10:04 - 10 minutes - 4.67 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 1:46 - Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the Overman (Superman, or Ubermensch) as presented in the prologue of Thus Spake Zarathustra: “I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN. Man is something that is to be surpassed. What have ye done to surpass man? All beings hitherto have created something beyond themselves: and ye want to be the ebb of that ...
EP 00 - Introducing Beautiful Illusions
September 26, 2020 10:04 - 10 minutes - 4.67 MBVisit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episode Selected References: 1:46 - Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the Overman (Superman, or Ubermensch) as presented in the prologue of Thus Spake Zarathustra: “I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN. Man is something that is to be surpassed. What have ye done to surpass man? All beings hitherto have created something beyond themselves: and ye want to be the ebb of that great tid...