Hacking State

I sit down with Thomas S. Mullaney — professor of modern Chinese history and the history of technology at Stanford, Guggenheim Fellow, and director of Stanford’s Program in Science, Technology & Society — to discuss his new book, How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information (W. W. Norton). It’s his eighth book and first with a trade press, following The Chinese Typewriter and The Chinese Co...

I sit down with Aidan Beshoff, a qualified hypnotist, certified practitioner of clinical hypnotherapy, past life regression, QHHT, and ceremonial magick, and the founder of Higher Self Hypnosis. For the past five years, Aidan has helped others overcome deep subconscious patterns through an unconventional path that bridges ancient wisdom and modern science. Our conversation begins with Aidan’s own...

I sit down with Rambo Van Halen to discuss his new book, Hollywood Samizdat , released through Passage Press, which serves as a personal account of his experiences in the film industry. What was initially intended as a farewell letter to the film industry turned into a more profound reflection—a kind of obituary for a once-thriving sector that he believes is no longer what it used to be. Rambo can...

I sit down with Matt Parlmer, founder of GenFab, to discuss the re-industrialization of America. Matt came to manufacturing through software engineering, watching supply chains buckle during COVID and realizing how little the country actually makes anymore. His response was to build a new kind of factory—one that replicates itself while maintaining capital efficiency, avoiding the trap of heavy eq...

Aneil Mallavarapu is a biochemist, award winning computer scientist, and Managing Partner at Humain Ventures; investing in early stage life science and health tech startups. We talk about his pioneering work in systems biology at Harvard that led to the creation of Little b, a programming language for modeling biological systems with modularity and abstraction, the phenomenology of consciousness,...

Kyle Housley is a writer and co-host of a new podcast, Horizons Review , with longtime friend of the show, Cody Moser, exploring neglected intellectual texts and thinkers. We discuss the pathologization of normal relationship dynamics through misused psychological terminology, and extensively examine Second Amendment jurisprudence, particularly Kyle's disagreement with the Heller case on original...

If you’re subscribed to Hacking State you may recall that you were promised not just Poli-Phil and Cog-Sci, but also Compute, and boy do I have some compute for you. About 3 weeks ago I got the insatiable bug to build out an MCP server for the Congress.gov API. This small, civic-minded project unwittingly became the catalyst for rebooting my startup, and re-grounding myself in a craft and a callin...

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Charles Herman, a philosopher and senior research fellow at the American Institute for Philosophical and Cultural Thought. We explore a distinction that Charles has been developing, which revolves around the concepts of honor versus dignity cultures. Drawing insights from his Substack post titled “ A Short Survey of Honor and Dignity ,” we look...

In this episode, I sit down with Uberboyo, a prominent YouTuber and Nietzschean thinker, to explore the complex relationship between Christianity and Nietzscheanism. Our conversation begins by examining what it means to be "Nietzschean" - not as an ideology, but as a methodology for approaching morality and understanding psychological patterns in society. We discuss how moral systems evolve with c...

I sit down with Patrick Casey — political commentator, writer, and creator of Restoring Order — for a deep-dive on the state of right-wing politics in America. We explore the rise of the dissident right, Trump’s 2024 comeback, paleoconservatism, the influence of online political movements, and the challenges of building lasting alliances on the right. Topics include: the impact of tech elites on i...

In this episode of Hacking State I discuss "Techno-Nationalism for Building Western Civilization 4.0" with Arcadius Strauss. We examine the un-sustainability of our current societal structures influenced by technology, globalization, and cultural shifts. Strauss presents 3 competing visions for the future—"Matrix West," "Space West," and "Neo-Traditional West"—each reflecting potential paths for c...

Alex Petkas is host of Cost of Glory podcast. He holds a PhD in Classics from Princeton, and teaches on persuasion, heroes, and Plutarch’s "Parallel Lives." We talk about the value of Plutarch’s “Parallel Lives”, the contemporary thirst for heroes and grand narratives, Platonism vs. Stoicism, Archeofuturist aesthetics, why futurism is ripe for our cultural moment, his Rostra group and training men...

I am joined by Raw Egg Nationalist, creator and publisher of Man’s World Magazine , co-founder of Kindred Harvest , and author of " The Eggs Benedict Option ". We discuss the relationship between individual health and the political system, his upcoming book with Passage Press, “The Last Men,” the consequences of declining testosterone levels and sperm counts, the harmful effects of environmental x...

Alex Priou is Associate Professor of Political Philosophy and Interim Dean of the Center for Intellectual Foundations at University of Austin, as well as co-host of The New Thinkery podcast. We discuss the place of the Great Books in education, a justification of political philosophy in terms of the good life, his review of Palantir's Alex Karp's and Nicholas Zamiska's book, “The Technological Rep...

ARX-Han is a novelist and publisher of the Decentralized Fiction Substack. He joins me to discuss cultural accelerationism, shame and masculinity, nihilism and the crisis of agency, and AI & fears of human obsolescence. Follow ARX-Han on X: https://x.com/ARX_Han Substack: https://www.decentralizedfiction.com/ His novel, INCEL: https://www.amazon.com/INCEL-Novel-ARX-Han/dp/B0CJLCZVCG/ If you enjoye...

Edward Luttwak is a legendary military historian and grand strategist, known for his books “Coup d’Etat: A Practical Handbook,” “Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace,” and “The Rise of China vs. The Logic of Strategy.” We discuss: * How Russia and Ukraine is an 18th century war * Why Israel-Hezbollah war is the real modern war * Europe’s demographics of death * Why “the fertility crisis is a vital...

Daniel Hess is the writer behind More Births , ideas for reversing the collapse in global fertility. MoreBirths is a data-driven resource dedicated to helping humanity to understand and ultimately solve the low birthrate crisis that has taken hold across the world. We discuss: - Factors contributing to the fertility crisis - Why Israel is an exception among developed nations in fertility - The pow...

Jonathan Scharf is a NanoEngineering PhD energy consultant specializing in renewable energy. They discuss the future of the grid: nuclear, AI, and renewables. They also cover Jonathan's eclectic background, his transition from academia to industry, and the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in tackling energy challenges. The conversation delves into the current state of nuclear energy adop...

In this conversation, Alex Murshak speaks with Daniel Schwarzhoff Jr., co-founder of the See meditation app, about the importance of emotional regulation in today's political climate. They discuss the unique approach of the app, which focuses on non-contemplative meditation, and how it aims to help individuals build resilience against stress. The conversation delves into the nature of stress, the...

The always enlightening Thom Ivy joins me to discuss pheromones, bioenergetics and Peating, state management, hypnosis, and propaganda. Thom on X: https://x.com/thom_ivy_1 If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes. Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe Listen on: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak Apple: Spotify: RSS: https://fee...

Cody Moser is a PhD candidate in Cognitive Science at the University of California, Merced studying collective intelligence, system collapse, complex systems, and networks. We cover the challenge of integrating humanity into science, the collapse of public spaces, consequences of social institutions moving online, how network structures optimize innovation, how AI reveals the anti-human incentives...

Nathan Worcester covers national politics and energy for The Epoch Times. We talk about - Views from the 2024 Presidential Campaign trail - Prospects for American Re-Industrialization - Nuclear deregulation and the future of American energy - DOGE Nathan on X: https://x.com/nnworcester My AI For Government Affairs Startup https://lawgiver.ai If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on...

Logan Allen is the CEO of Zorp, an applied research company building NockChain and the Nockstack. We discuss how NockChain combines proof-of-work with zero-knowledge proofs, creating incentives for proof generation at scale. The conversation covers how zero-knowledge proofs enable state compression for large computations and Zorp's approach to building secure infrastructure for network tribes. We...

Director & Producer Jessica Solce joins me to discuss Forging A Country , her latest film documenting Nayib Bukele's 2024 re-election in El Salvador. We cover why Western liberalism's playbook is insufficient for El Salvador's problems, her approach to documentaries with ideological implications, reflections on her opus, Death Athletic, film and propaganda, streaming platform politics, filming ove...

Eric Kaufmann is a professor of politics and Director of the Centre for Heterodox Social Science at the University of Buckingham. He is also Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. We talk about his new book "The Third Awokening" and cover: how quasi-religious left-wing liberalism bears more responsibility for Wokeness than “radical neo-Marxist” Theory, the weaponization humanistic psychotherap...