EP 22 - What is Life?

Visit 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 20224:30 - 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 by Talking Heads5:00 - Watch the video of “Once in a Lifetime” from Stop Making Sense (1984), read the lyrics, and see the original music video from 19806:55 - See the “Hot Vax Summer” entry on Slangit - The Slang Dictionary9:05 - See The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) by Maria Popova10:00 - Alan Lightman, Einstein’s Dreams, Probable Impossibilities, and “Probable Impossibilities: Physicist Alan Lightman on Beginnings, Endings, and What Makes Life Worth Living” (The Marginalian)16:26 - This idea may have come from Carl Sagan or Alan Watts (or someone else)16:48 - Listen to Mindscape Episode 38: Alan Lightman on Transcendence, Science, and a Naturalist’s Sense of Meaning from March 2019, at the time his most book was Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine20:01 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 11 - Darwin & The Dude: Darron's Journey to Poetic Naturalism from February 202123:03 - See “Ice This Morning Led to Dangerous Driving Conditions, School Delays” (NBC CT) and “Freezing rain causes school delays, closures, and crashes” (Fox 61)25:44 - See “Three ways to be more rational this year” by Steven Pinker (BBC, 2022)27:32 - Listen to “Live Like You Were Dying” (YouTube) by Tim McGraw and read the lyrics (Genius)30:48 - Listen to Carl Sagan’s famous “Pale Blue Dot” remarks and see “A Pale Blue Dot” (The Planetary Society)35:27 - Watch the “Coin Toss” scene from the  2007 movie No Country for Old Men (IMDB)38:17 - See “How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives: Annie Dillard on Choosing Presence Over Productivity” (The Marginalian)36:09 - The play Our Town by Thornton Wilder47:08 - Read Jeff’s essay “On Reading Nonfiction (and Writing)” on the Beautiful Illusions website50:51 - See “Joan Didion's 'lost' commencement address, revealed” for a complete transcript of Didion’s 1975 commencement address at the University of California, Riverside

This episode was recorded in January 2022

The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti