Here begins Book 3. "To: aaron.teller@gmail.com, telleraar@countenance.com, a.smithte@stanford.edu, aleph_samech_tet@stevensite.net, _LOS_@hotmail.com, A_IS_FOR_ADAM@myfreeemails.tk… From: root@[58.175.48.72] Talk to me, Aaron. I don’t know where you are, Aaron. Aaron, are you there?" This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-41-go-love-without-the-help-of-any-thing-on-earth/ Epi...
Mar 22, 2020•9 min•Season 3Ep. 64
End of Book 2! "In a large and complicated system there might be various things that are pleasing in His eyes. — kingjamesprogramming.tumblr.com Evening, May 13, 2017 Las Vegas Holy Scripture only mentions vampires once, but once is enough. The context is Isiaiah 34. God is doing His usual thing where He talks about all of the horrible curses that will befall someone who pissed Him off – in this case the Edomites. He starts with standard fare; everyone will die, the stink of their carcasses shal...
Mar 16, 2020•14 min•Season 2Ep. 63
"Tiferet’s position down the center between Keter and Yesod indicates to many Kabbalists that it is somewhat of a “converting” Sephirot between form (Yesod) and force (Keter). In other words, all crossing over the middle path via Tiferet results in a reversed polarity. – Reb Wiki" "A man. A plan. A canal. Panama." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-39-fearful-symmetry/ Epi...
Mar 08, 2020•35 min•Season 2Ep. 62
"Hershel of Ostropol came to an inn and asked for a warm meal. The innkeeper demanded he pay in advance, and when Hershel had no money, he told him to get out. Hershel raised himself up to his full height, looked the innkeeper in the eye menacingly, and said “Give me my meal, or I will do what my father did? You hear me? I will DO WHAT MY FATHER DID!” The terrified innkeeper served the traveller a nice warm meal. After dinner, when Hershel was calmer, he ventured to ask exactly what Hershel’s fa...
Mar 01, 2020•29 min•Season 2Ep. 61
"“Sinner” in Biblical Hebrew is “aval”, no doubt kabbalistically connected to our English word “evil”. The gematria value of “aval” is 106. Bishop Ussher, the Biblical chronologist who fixed Creation at 4004 BC, tells us that 106 years passed between Noah’s flood and the Tower of Babel. This is unsurprising; the decision to build a tower to Heaven out of vanity is a sinful act; thus instances of 106, the number of sinners, will appear around it. Jane and I were eating breakfast in the Top Of The...
Feb 24, 2020•23 min•Season 2Ep. 60
"April 22, 2017, San Jose. A piece of onion flew past my head. This was a common occurrence when I argued with Erica while she was trying to cook. Today we were arguing about the lyrics of American Pie. She thought it was about rock n’ roll. I thought it was about Christian soteriology’s claim to supersede the Jewish conception of divine law." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/in...
Feb 16, 2020•17 min•Season 2Ep. 59
"Fill the god-shaped hole in your soul with molten metal, then shatter your soul, leaving only a metal god — Gap Of Gods" This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-36-my-fathers-business/ Episode 58 Duration: 24:50 Please back my Patreon, so I can keep producing episodes weekly. You'll get access to the Patreon feed in which you hear episodes early! https://www.patreon.com/unsong...
Feb 16, 2020•25 min•Season 2Ep. 58
"Somehow the Comet King had become an adult. He had skipped puberty, telling Father Ellis that it sounded like too much trouble. One day he was a child; the next, his voice dropped, white hair grew on his chest, and he declared he would be having children. All the children. His logic was simple. His heavenly descent gave him special powers. Intelligence, wisdom, physical strength, spiritual mastery. He, in turn, would pass these on to his children. The more children, the more supernaturally-gift...
Feb 04, 2020•12 min•Season 2Ep. 57
"He said, Go and utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which were not defiled with women; for they are not very good for implementing high-performance floating-point calculations or calculations that intensively manipulate bit vectors. — kingjamesprogramming.tumblr.com October 31, 1991 Madrid It was the second day of the Madrid Conference on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In the interests...
Jan 27, 2020•26 min•Season 2Ep. 56
"Bizarre surrealist painter Salvador Dali once said: “I do not do drugs. I am drugs.” He was being silly. He wasn’t drugs. He was Salvador Dali. The men rowing out on little boats heavy with building supplies for Not A Metaphor? They were drugs." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-33-the-doors-of-perception/ Episode 55 Duration: 24:54 Please back my Patreon, so I can keep ...
Jan 20, 2020•25 min•Season 2Ep. 55
"Sohu stretched, splayed out further. “Knock knock,” she said. “OH. THIS AGAIN.” “Knock knock.” “WHO’S….THERE?” “So.” “SO WHO?” “Sohu’s at the door, better let her in.” “HA! HA! HA!” Uriel’s laughter boomed, shook the clouds, shook the ocean, drowned out the everpresent thunder of the surrounding storm. It was a fiery golden laugh, like pyrotechnics, like solar flares. “I AM ONLY LAUGHING TO BE POLITE,” he finally said. “I DON’T ACTUALLY GET IT.”" This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arno...
Jan 14, 2020•15 min•Season 2Ep. 54
One of my Patreon backers pointed out that a couple of weeks ago, I accidentally skipped chapter 30 and posted chapter 31 early. That's why last week I deleted 31 and posted 30, so they'd be in the correct order. I'm re-posting 31 now, and 32 tomorrow to catch up. "Together, we can build a better America, colonize it, and use the old one for raw materials and target practice. — Steven Kaas January 30, 1981 Camp David, Maryland The song goes: Who can retell The things that befell Us so long ago? ...
Jan 12, 2020•23 min•Season 2Ep. 53
"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the Wall Drug signs began to appear." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-30-over-the-dark-deserts/ Episode 52 Duration: 20:57
Jan 06, 2020•21 min•Season 2Ep. 52
"Sitting in his car, Father Ellis contemplated the Exodus." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-29-he-who-respects-the-infants-faith/ Episode 51 Duration: 34:30 Please back my Patreon, so I can go back to producing episodes weekly. The Patreon is currently bringing in enough to post 3 episodes per month. https://www.patreon.com/unsongaudiobook...
Dec 02, 2019•35 min•Season 2Ep. 50
"Flanked by two guards, Mayor Ed Koch walked into the room. It seemed out of place in the middle of New York City. Poorly lit, musty, packed with books of diffent ages and provenances. The furniture was all wooden, and either antique or made by someone with a dim view of aesthetic innovations after about 1800." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/interlude-%D7%9C-new-york-city/ Epi...
Nov 18, 2019•25 min•Season 2Ep. 49
"Over the centuries she had fallen in love with the place. A narrow plain, sunny three hundred days a year, blooming with poppies, watered by little rivers snaking out of arroyos in the nearby mountains. She had built her altar on one of the hills. The Aztecs knew her domain, and they called it Temictitlanoc, “place of the dream goddess”. Sometimes lost war bands would wander to its sunny hills, lie down beside the crashing waves, and see strange visions." This is a serialized story narrated by ...
Oct 27, 2019•12 min•Season 2Ep. 48
"Belowdecks was the crew quarters. Ana didn’t expect her own room and didn’t get it. Her berth had four beds: one for her, three others for James, Lin, and Tomas. Her bed was technically Amoxiel’s, but the angel didn’t sleep. As far as they could tell, he just sort of sat on the deck all night, staring wistfully at the stars." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: https://unsongbook.com/chapter-27-the-sta...
Oct 20, 2019•33 min•Season 2Ep. 47
"Imagine there’s no Heaven. It’s easy if you try. So easy that millions of people throughout history did it entirely by accident. They went to church, they read their Bibles, they knelt prostrate in prayer, and then they went home and lived a life of sin regardless." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/interlude-%D7%9B-the-outer-gate/ Episode 46 Duration: 17:35 Please back my Patre...
Oct 13, 2019•18 min•Season 2Ep. 46
""TELL ME ABOUT THE WORD WATER". Sohu sat on her cloud, snacking on manna with ketchup on top. He had been doing this increasingly often over the past few weeks, asking her to tell him about a word, never satisfied with the amount of meaning she was able to wring from it." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-26-for-not-one-sparrow-can-suffer-and-the-whole-universe-not-suffe...
Oct 07, 2019•18 min•Season 2Ep. 45
Content warning from the narrator. In section 2 of this episode, I will sometimes omit direct quotations which would need to be voiced. In other places, I will insert descriptions of what characters said, as a substitute for actually performing the characters. As some of you know if you have read the book, this chapter has a content warning. When I began recording the UNSONG audiobook, I did not realize what I was in for, because the author had not yet released the chapter I am about to read to ...
Sep 30, 2019•35 min•Season 2Ep. 44
"Coming from the edge of my consciousness, a faint voice: [Thou shalt not krill] The organizing soul within me – the kabbalists would have called it the neshamah – awoke, even as my body dozed on the hotel bed. [Thou shalt not commit idolphintry] I answered, but I knew deep down it was a second-rate attempt." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-25-lie-down-before-my-feet-o-...
Sep 22, 2019•10 min•Season 2Ep. 43
"A ray of early morning sun beat on my face. Clouds flew by me like trucks rushing down a highway, and the heavens seemed to sing. It’s weird. You spend your entire adult life searching for Names of God and hanging out with angels, and the closest you come to a spiritual experience is paddling a flying kayak thousands of feet above San Bernardino County." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unson...
Sep 15, 2019•13 min•Season 2Ep. 42
"Ladies. Gentlemen. Mr. Secretary General. We are a proud people. Like so many of the other fledgling countries represented here today, our national identity was forged in a struggle against imperialist aggression, and it was our pride that told us to continue fighting when all other counsel urged surrender. It is with that same pride that I stand before you today as the newest member of the United Nations, honored to at last be recognized as part of the world community." This is a serialized st...
Sep 12, 2019•10 min•Season 2Ep. 41
"Even though she could no longer hear it with her ears, it still rang in the back of her mind. A note, a single impossibly pure note that seemed to overpower everything else." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-23-now-descendeth-out-of-heaven-a-city/ Episode 40 Duration 13:50 Please back my Patreon, so I can keep producing episodes weekly: https://www.patreon.com/unsongaud...
Sep 09, 2019•14 min•Season 2Ep. 40
"With a look of mad determination, the big man marched to the center of the crowded bar. "I’ll say it,” he said. “The Other King is a bad man."" This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-22-whose-ears-have-heard-the-holy-word/ Episode 39 Duration: 18:0
Sep 04, 2019•18 min•Season 2Ep. 39
"It’s hard for me to imagine what it must have been like to be alive in ’69, to see the demons spill forth from the ground and the angels descend from the clouds. But – okay, personal disclosure time. When I was little, six or seven, I thought Nazis were a kind of fictional monster." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/interlude-%D7%97-war-and-peace/ Episode 38 Duration: 25:34...
Aug 30, 2019•26 min•Season 2Ep. 38
"The resemblances between San Francisco and the Biblical Jerusalem are uncanny. The highest point in Jerusalem was King Solomon’s Temple Mount; the highest point in San Francisco is the suspiciously-named Mount Davidson. To the north of the Temple was the Golden Gate, leading to the city of Tiberias; to the north of Mount Davidson is the Golden Gate Bridge, leading to the city of Tiburon." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The ...
Aug 27, 2019•22 min•Season 2Ep. 37
"And then there were two. The sky had once been full of clouds. Big clouds, little clouds, dark clouds, bright clouds. Clouds sculpted into great gleaming palaces of alabaster, clouds carved into fortresses red with the light of sunset. Clouds linked by rainbow bridges, clouds walled with icy ramparts, clouds lit by pillars of lightning, great frigates of cloud that sailed the jet stream packed with legions of angels going off to war." This is a serialized story narrated by Matt Arnold with the ...
Aug 18, 2019•24 min•Season 2Ep. 36
""The future is ziggurats," Samyazaz was telling Ut-Naparash as they walked up the Great Stair. "In a hundred years, nobody’s going to remember pyramids. Pyramids are a flash in the pan. Ziggurats are for the ages."" The original text is here: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-20-when-the-stars-threw-down-their-spears/ The three sections of this chapter are recorded as 3 individual episodes, of which this is the second. Episode 35 Duration: 18:53 Please back my Patreon, so I can keep producing episo...
Aug 12, 2019•19 min•Season 2Ep. 35
"Beyond the nimbus and stratus, in the furthest reaches of the heavens, the parliament of the angels convened in the eye of a great cyclone. The walls of the storm curved in toward the center, so that they formed tier upon tier of seating for the angelic hosts. At the very bottom and in the very center was a whirlwind that concealed the archangel Metatron, the expression of God in the created world. Seated around him were thrones for the nine other archangels. Above them in concentric circles ba...
Aug 05, 2019•17 min•Season 2Ep. 34
