Today
Legendary Producer Rick Rubin on Creativity as a Way of Being
Rick Rubin: How to Access Your Creativity
Algorithms Don’t Feel. Data Doesn’t Suffer.
Comedian and Human Antenna Louis C.K.
Michael Malice: Why You Should Take the White Pill
The Basement
Legendary Producer Rick Rubin on Creativity as a Way of Being
Rich Roll Podcast
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:56 Interview Start
00:05:13 Rick's New Book - The Creative Act
00:10:53 On RunDMC / Aerosmith Crossover
00:14:49 How Rick started his career with The Beastie Boys
00:21:55 Rick on the work of creativity & defining success in music
00:29:38 On an artist's relationship to the audience
00:34:10 Rick on the job of a producer - "What do you exactly do?"
00:40:57 On Rick's Mystical Experience & Depression
00:50:07 Rick on "The Muse" or "The Source" and being open and present
00:56:26 On Movements in Art & Everyone Being Creative
01:01:58 Solving problems, AI & Humility
01:11:20 Putting these ideas into practice in music
01:21:39 Ending with an exercise
Rick Rubin: How to Access Your Creativity
Huberman Lab Podcast
00:00:00 Rick Rubin
00:08:23 Creativity & Ideas, Cloud Analogy
00:12:26 Language & Creativity; Kids
00:17:36 Feelings & Creative Ideas
00:22:01 Rules, Choice & Art; Personal Taste & Other’s Opinions
00:30:20 Changing Perspective & Creativity
00:35:04 Scientific Knowledge; Opinions & Art
00:41:27 Finishing Projects; The Source & Nature
00:47:40 Perception Filters, Contrast & Novelty
00:58:42 Music & Identity, Evolving Tastes
01:04:14 Focus, Disengaging & Subconscious; Anxiety
01:13:22 Collaboration, Art & Rigorous Work
01:18:26 Process & “Cloud”; Perception & Storytelling
01:29:13 Limited Resolution, Considering the Inverse
01:35:38 Wrestling, Energy & Reality; Dopamine
01:49:43 Wrestling, Style & Performance
01:52:40 Resetting Energy & Nature; Nostalgia
02:01:56 Sleep, Waking Up & Sunlight, Capturing Ideas
02:08:16 Creative Work Phases; Structure & Deadlines
02:15:32 Self-Doubt & Performance
02:19:13 Predictability & Surprise, Authenticity
02:25:02 Past Experiences, Other’s Opinions
02:29:42 Public Opinion & Science: Light, Acupuncture & Nutrition
02:39:44 “Look for Clues”, Belief Effects
02:46:25 Attention, Emotion & Art
02:48:07 Mantra Meditation, Awareness Meditation
Algorithms Don’t Feel. Data Doesn’t Suffer.
Songs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer. ChatGPT has no inner being, it has been nowhere, it has endured nothing, it has not had the audacity to reach beyond its limitations, and hence it doesn’t have the capacity for a shared transcendent experience, as it has no limitations from which to transcend. ChatGPT’s melancholy role is that it is destined to imitate and can never have an authentic human experience, no matter how devalued and inconsequential the human experience may in time become.
Nick Cave, The Red Hand Files
Comedian and Human Antenna Louis C.K.
This Past Weekend with Theo Von
Michael Malice: Why You Should Take the White Pill
Modern Wisdom Podcast
00:00 Intro
02:13 Do the Public Know Anything About the Cold War?
07:20 Michael’s Message of Hope
12:35 Why is Cynicism So Prevalent in Society?
19:02 Why Ayn Rand’s Speech Is Important
24:39 The Inability to Foresee Consequences of Communism
32:12 Political Philosophy at the Start of the 20th Century
39:53 Fundamental Philosophy of the Soviet Union
52:40 Marxism’s Goal of Global Communism
1:00:57 The Most Brutal Aspects of the Soviet Union
1:08:46 Who Was Walter Duranty?
1:13:07 Soviet Tactics to Arrest Innocent People
1:22:03 Soviet Methods of Torture
1:33:10 The Importance of the Berlin Wall
1:40:42 Reasons for Hope
1:53:09 Our Present Fight Against Evil
2:02:47 Michael’s Experience of Writing the Book
The Basement
I’m relegating these culture war–related pieces down here to this little space at the bottom. Not because they’re not, in my view, good or important reads. Just because I’m feeling increasingly like it would be better to relegate all things culture war to the bottom of our thoughts from time to time. It seems unwise to remove them entirely. They have their place. I’m just downgrading that place for the time being, moving it from a house at the top of a hill to a box in a basement apartment.
Who Is Included by “Inclusive” Language?
Social justice and John le Carré
Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring
Why the Right Is Losing the Young
And what the woke actually get right.
Andrew Sullivan, The Weekly DishThe fallout of 'defund the police' is still unfolding. Just ask Brian Lande.
Leighton Woodhouse, The Free Press
The two Rick Rubin podcasts I’ve shared have a total running time of about 4.5 hours. That’s a lot of time. But as with everything I share, I only do so after reading or watching/listening through to the end myself and deciding that it was worth it. I can’t make that decision for you, of course. But just know that I wouldn’t recommend spending 4.5 hours doing something that I’ve not also spent 4.5 hours doing.
I’ve been sharing Nick Cave to death, I know. But his comments on ChatGPT’s “songwriting” followed Rick Rubin’s thoughts on creativity too perfectly to pass up.
I’m always impressed by C.K.’s conversational curiosity, empathy, and insights. With every podcast I’ve heard him on, he seems very much attuned to an energy that forms and moves throughout the discussion. Whether or not this is the same antenna he uses in forming his stand-up, I’m not sure. But in conversation, it’s as though he senses a shift in wind and leans into. I don’t usually sense it myself. I only pick up on it via watching him do it. But then I experience it, too, and it always makes me think about conversations in a different way. A better way. As it relates to this one in particular, it doesn’t hurt that Theo Von is a funny and lovable singularity all his own.
This is a super interesting conversation that is at once grim and hopeful. I’m not sure that it could be any other way, though—i.e., hopeful without also being in some sense grim, and vice versa. The two things exist in close relation to one another. They’re not opposites like light and dark. But still, for one to survive, so must the other.