Our Goldfish Brains

In a classic wide-ranging episode, Shadi and Damir kick things off by noticing that the Ukraine War is no longer capturing “the discourse” as it did a week ago. Does how we consume media make it difficult for us to grapple with the moment’s most important stories? And does the same phenomenon make us overrate the importance of things like wokeness?

As the conversation proceeds, and talk turns to Biden’s democracy-versus-autocracy worldview, Damir asks Shadi if he would have supported the Vietnam War, and whether he might one day end up a politician.

In the subscriber-only portion of the episode, Shadi and Damir talk about religion, legality, war, and the importance of the existence of God for the possibility of justice. Is it better to be a believer than a godless agnostic?