The Caffeine Stream

Today look back over Disney's "Hercules" and discuss what makes a good adaptation vs a bad one. Leave a rating and review, it really helps others to find the podcast. Find more Caffeine and Philosophy content online:  https://caffeineandphilosophy.com/ On Instagram: /caffeineandphilosophy All my books can be found on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/stores/C.B.-Robertson/author/B01N4W1M7Z In Defens...

Originally published in the Journal of Solar Culture (Vol 1) Read by the author.

Today give a brief explanation of  Solar Idealism , a religious framework created by Jack Donovan in his book  Fire in the Dark . Leave a rating and review, it really helps others to find the podcast. Find more Caffeine and Philosophy content online:  https://caffeineandphilosophy.com/ On Instagram: /caffeineandphilosophy All my books can be found on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/stores/C.B.-Rob...

Today I am rejoined by Sierra in an anecdotal exploration of relationships, and the various ways in which relationships sometimes don't work out the way we hope. The discussion is an introduction to an idea of "philosophizing with the body," which will likely be an object of exploration further down the road. The emphasis today is on the importance of  physicality and experience -- of "being there...

We're back! Today I'm joined by Adam Magers, Iraqi War Veteran and Psychotherapist to discuss his book "Odysseus and the Oar." You can follow Adam Magers on Instagram at instagram.com/odysseusandtheoar/ or on his website thebattlewithin.org. Get his book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Odysseus-Oar-Healing-Military-Service/dp/1963803051/ Leave a rating and review, it really helps others to find...

Today I decided on a whim to bring up some classical source text I think more people should be aware of and mindful of on the subject of weapons, gun-control (and knife-control, for you dangerous Brits), and disarmament more generally. It is often assumed that our position today is fundamentally different, due to differences in technology and arguments that were foreign even 100 years ago, before...

Today I'm joined by Coach Josh Wood of Strong for Life to explore some of the psychology behind health and fitness. Does good health preceed confidence and a healthy mind? Or is it the other way around? What exactly is the relationship between physicality and problem solving? Is it something you just have or don't, or are physicality and confidence things you can build up over time? And are there...

Why  are there so many Holocaust museums scattered around the world? Today I'm joined by Daniel Clancy -- aka 03OG -- to discuss political power, the difference between "power" and "influence," and the strange role of Israel in our political landscape. Starting from what got us both into the military as teenagers, we wind up in the domain of political philosophy more broadly, from Plato and Nietzs...

Today I'm joined by Sierra to discuss the extraordinary explosion of autism diagnoses, and the social mechanisms by which autism  appears to have been increasing... but might not be. Is it Marxism? Pharmaceutical financial interests? Chinese subversive influence through TikTok? Perhaps a little bit of all? And perhaps more importantly, how are people persuaded that they might have autism when they...

I have RETVRNED! Today we dive into  flat earth theory ... beginning with an appreciation for the value of the debate, which is often dismissed as annoying or irrelevant. Looking at one argument for flat earth and one argument against flat earth, we go over  how such a debate might at least start. We also go over some of the history of the flat earth movement, which is less philosophical though st...

Today I'm joined by Kyle Brickell from Sol Anahata who joins me on an informal, exploratory dive into grail myth. What  is the grail? Is it a cup? A stone? A woman? A cave? By what mechanism does it bestow immortality? Bouncing back and forth between Julius Evola, Christianity, and Homer, we don't exactly resolve any mysteries, but manage to come up with a few intersting ideas. Follow Kyle's work...

Today we turn biographical and attempt to answer a common question from Instagram: how did you become the way you are? From philosophy courses and walks with friends to religion and the military, we dig through my life to try to find clues and ideas to help others who aspire to philosophize... as well as ask (but perhaps not answer) the question: "is it desirable to  become a philosopher?" Leave a...

Today I'm joined by Dylan Bain, who guides us through the wild and sometimes counterintuitive world of systems, from education and standardized tests to business and economic infrastructure. We look at the epistemological strengths and limitations of systems-based thinking, as well as the value in a systems-based understanding of the world in terms of understanding it and in terms of changing your...

Is Maverick a Gryffindor? Is Iceman a Slytherin? Today I'm joined by Sierra to discuss what began as an Instagram poll about Top Gun characters for a wide ranging discussion -- ostensibly about Top Gun (1986), but varying across J.K. Rowling's personality theory disguised as a school house sorting system, personality theories more generally, Homer's Iliad , generational relationships, and more. Le...

Today I'm joined by Awen (aka Lilith) to discuss the world of Druidry, from its historical origins through to its modern practice today. We go over the social and political role of the Druids within ancient Celtic society, their views of the afterlife, human sacrifice, the path to druidry, and much more... as well as mentioning the organizations that have maintained the living tradition of druidry...

Today I'm joined by Sierra to counterbalance our discussion of feminism from before and talk about Men's Rights Activists (MRAs). We try to give a (very) brief history of the movement, as well as going over some of the things we like and dislike about their positions, especially in relationship to marriage. Leave a rating and review, it really helps others to find the podcast. Find more Caffeine a...

Today I'm joined by Josh Tyler for a wide-ranging conversation on physicality and the dangers of quantitative thinking. We take turns bashing power-lifters and philosophers and other unbalanced modes of thinking, in an attempt at something more balanced and higher quality in our experience of life. You can follow Josh Tyler's work on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/joshtylermma/ Leave a rat...

Today I'm joined by Joe Peters to discuss the business side of the health industry and how that often-neglected logistics side influences science and healthcare. Ranging over sales experiences in hospitals and personal experiences with doctors and nurses and struggling with our own challenges, we try to get down to the question of how to be healthy people in an age where the financial and insuranc...

Picking up on themes from Episode 42, I'm joined again by Ben Brower to delve deeper into the value of working with one's hands. We meander through our own experiences in the trades (while occasionally borrowing from the works of Robert Pirsig and Matthew Crawford) in an attempt to describe how making and fixing things changes how manual competence changes how we think, how we speak, even how we s...

Today we go back a few years to talk about Bo Burnham's production "Inside," a performance of himself, by himself, trapped inside during COVID lockdowns. We go over the psychology of the internet, of oversocialized leftism, of pandemic disgust associations, as well as the artistic merit of the production itself. Original essay: https://caffeineandphilosophy.com/2021/07/10/inside-bo-burnham/ Leave...

Today we look back over a few of the more recent podcasts, slightly rehashing the drag discussion and the relation between the word "drag" and the behavior being described, along with digging back up Plato and the podcast about work to explore some of the themes a little bit further... with the aid of White Claw and a woman's weigh-in. Leave a rating and review, it really helps others to find the...

Today I'm joined by Sean Bradley to explore some of the arguments against Nick Bostrom's famous Simulation Argument, as well as a wide-ranging and meandering dive into the world of Artificial Intelligence and its implications for our society, our economy, and perhaps our existence. Leave a rating and review, it really helps others to find the podcast. Find more Caffeine and Philosophy content onli...

Today we dive into the question of work -- is it for suckers, and a waste of time? A necessary evil? A path to power and status? Meaningless vanity? Worthwhile in its own right? Or something else? We dive into some of the modern thinkers and philosophers on work -- namely, Tim Ferriss, Andrew Tate, and Mike Rowe, along with a Biblical interlude to flesh out some of the different philosophies and a...

Today we dive into perhaps the most important and also misunderstood thinker in all of philosophy: Plato. Was Plato an idealist who believed we are trapped in a cave of unreality? Was he a totalitarian, advocating the "noble lie" and censorship? Or is there more going on in this (in)famous text that is somehow both the foundation of Western philosophy and also -- seemingly -- the aggregation of ev...

Today Sierra and I spend an evening on the patio with the wrong (or right) beverage, going over our disagreements about drag performances and feminism. Is drag  always an insult to women, like "black-face" with gender? Was there, at one point, a good argument for feminism? And how much concession is worthwhile in conversations with friends before it begins to become insidious? Leave a rating and r...