David Boles
Human Meme
The Human Meme podcast examines what separates human consciousness from mere biological existence. Each episode investigates the inherited behaviors, cultural transmissions, and cognitive patterns that replicate across generations, shaping how we think, grieve, speak, and remember. David Boles, a New York City writer, publisher, and teacher, hosts these conversations as mindfulness with teeth: no production music, no easy comfort, only the direct inquiry into what makes us recognizably human. Since 2016, the podcast has asked why we weep emotional tears, how language emerged from gesture, and...
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Episodes
Five Second Rule, Rules! 18.11.2021 11:48
The laws of the playground begin in the classroom. Oh, sure, it's safe to eat something you dropped on the ground. Of course a wad of swallowed chewing gum stays in your stomach for seven years! Yes, these are the violating totems of childhood that still haunt us as adults today.
Rewarding Obnoxiousness 11.11.2021 10:30
If we aim to do good, we must be repulsed by the bad. In the television series -- Squid Game -- greed is offset by death and debt is perpetuated by wealth. What can we learn from the deviousness of the human spirit when it comes to breaking a better world?
Life on a Wire 04.11.2021 8:16
We live stranded apart, together. We balance our lives on a wire. A wire that can cut us, burn us, and tip us into the pitfall abyss; and yet, we still survive, and we find a human balance to the ethical questions of our lives.
Stop Deconstructing! 28.10.2021 8:56
Let's put things together instead of pulling them apart! Don't present pieces and expect others to make a whole from the bits. Lead the idea. Make the thought whole. You can instill imagination in others by presenting cohesive dreams.
Simple Not Simpler 21.10.2021 10:42
We think we know what we know. Some believe Albert Einstein said -- scientific things must be made simple, not simpler -- but did he really say that? The truth of the point matters and the reality is often lost in translation.
On Becoming Too Resilient 14.10.2021 14:18
We are taught to go with the flow when we should really resist the rust. When we normalize bad behavior, and make it the new norm, we condone the bad mingling with the good at our own dire risk to human stability as a society. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the cruelty of those who choose to control us instead of getting along with us.
Unspoken and Unborn 07.10.2021 11:41
Arguments cannot be won from the womb. That fact won't stop some from invoking the wisdom and the faith of the foetus in situ. We must not fall for the ruse that the one who has yet to take its first independent breath has dominion over us or can reform the agenda of truth without first standing alone to be heard against the defense of spite and reformation.
Recording Unreality 30.09.2021 18:37
Not all recorded events are equal or believable. We now live in a society that makes us witting performers for the camera. If we, the observers, begin to ask -- "Who recorded this, and why was it recorded?" -- we will start to understand how our tactile emotions are being manipulated for advertising profit.
Rules of Love 23.09.2021 13:27
Do we love to forgive or forget? In this final episode arc about our three Rules of the Human Condition, we examine the riddle of love. If we are required to love someone, must we also like them? We are labeled by definition, and we suffer in consternation -- all in the guise of the immutable emotion we can never really own or offer.
Rules of Attraction 16.09.2021 9:26
Attraction repels and conjugates; we must know the difference. If we are to understand what binds us, we need to recognize the needs, and the desires of attraction, even if unrequited, but expressed. This is Part II in our Rules of the Human Condition series.
Rules of Affection 09.09.2021 9:57
Affection is often misplaced, but not misunderstood. In the first part of a three part series on the human condition, we dig into the memes of affection, and how we react to expressions of fondness that bind us while also separating us.
Anxiety Aesthetic 02.09.2021 9:42
Our lives are ruled by anxiousness; our dreams are filled with exhalations. The anxious among us seek an aesthetic release from fear and want comfort in understanding, but the world is set against those who are uncertain, and without design, and so selfishness begins to creep up as the replaceable equivalency of a society edged by fear.
Promise of a Lifetime 26.08.2021 8:11
We want everything to last forever. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees in life, or promises in love. We bet our money against the odds of the lifetime guarantee, and when time, and luck, run out, we are upset to learn the promise was broken before it was even made.
Deconstructed Expectation 19.08.2021 11:53
To create a great society, we must first deconstruct our interactions. To achieve greatness, we must leave behind something meaningful. We sacrifice for the greater good. We leave behind the better bad. Together, we defeat a shared, looming, death.
Everything is Forever 12.08.2021 11:16
The paper world burned; the digital world is transferable. Our privacy has mutated into reams of information that can be used against us by our entertainment outlets, and our governments. Where is the one safe space left open to us? Today, we discover the answer to that question.
Virtue Signalling Advertising 05.08.2021 11:59
Body shaming makes its TV advertising debut in the guise of a false celebration. There's a fine line between being Woke, Virtue Signalling, and making fun of people all in order to sell us soap and body lotion. We are valued only by what we buy because that's the real Average American Dream.
Law and Order Recluse 29.07.2021 9:37
We find comfort in the punishing familiar. When society boils, we turn to the well-known, and the predictable. The police television drama, the cop follow-along, the scripted emergency rescue, have all placed the honor of justice over the badge of valor; and yet, the bad intentions are still among us. The American West was won, with the gun, and we are still searching for the setting sun.
How to Cover "Wish You Were Here" 22.07.2021 11:58
Covering a famous song is an uneasy task for the unanticipated. For example, Pink Floyd's haunting song "Wish You Were Here" is not a soft lullaby, but a confrontational lament. Too many amateur performers choose the wrong method for the retelling; here's how to fix that problem.
Everything Points to Itself 15.07.2021 10:13
From circles, to spirals, to straight lines; we remain our own worst enemy. The self prefers introspection over outer innovation. It is safer, and warmer, to remain self-reverent instead of exponentially helping others exploit their cold talents for human conclusion, and community consciousness.
From Bobby Fischer to AlphaZero 08.07.2021 19:11
Chess can be beautiful in its expansive logic. Bobby Fischer taught us that chess could be played, and won, beyond the board; and AlphaZero shows us that chess imagined by a computer can be even more creative in process than the previous human mind.
Design Theory vs. Experienced Living 01.07.2021 12:52
Architects should be required to live in their own designs. Too often the theory of implementation becomes more important than the actual pleasurable living experience in a designed space. It is not enough to create beauty without also adding functionality to a protected space.
No Advocacy Advocates 24.06.2021 7:59
To be an advocate, you must care about the end. Too often, the False Advocate is not in the world for the goodness of it, but merely for the temporary, self-staking glory that reeks from publicity, and social media. We need to find a way, together, to press back against unserious idols who live to trick us, and fake results!
The Moral Society 17.06.2021 11:38
The immoral outnumber us, yet they claim to be the majority. We cannot be corrupted by the "second chancers" and by those who do not wish us to be better human animals. We must always work together, to form a better society, where character, and deeds, matter.
Things Fall Apart 10.06.2021 11:23
When things come undone, we search to blame. It isn't enough for us to accept a failure. No, for closure, we need just one reason for the fall, but only one reason. Neil Young taught us that, sometimes, there are a thousand reasons for a fall and that fact alone needs to be the answer.
Performative Grief 03.06.2021 12:25
We cannot be left alone to learn community rituals. We become one, together, by sharing information, and by teaching expectation; and if time is not spent on bringing young minds into the human rituals of society, we become, and then remain, broken and alone as a people.
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