In this special episode, we return to the forboding Dragon's Den of the Peterson-verse and enjoy a rather punchy conversation between Jordan Peterson and Richard Dawkins, facilitated by Alex O'Connor.

As always, the discussion is dense with abstract symbolic interpretations, evasive answers to direct questions about biblical events, and highly speculative claims. So Matt and Chris don their best decoding armour, steel their resolve, and prepare to face down endless waves of indulgent analogies and the constant conflation of mythological and scientific truths.

Important insights from Matt on American public toilets, shower technology, and stories of Chris' previous life as a coal-shovelling street urchin are also included.

Links

• Dawkins vs Peterson: Memes & Archetypes | Alex O’Connor Moderates | EP 491
• The Times: We Who Wrestle with God by Jordan Peterson review — rambling, hectoring and mad
• The Guardian: We Who Wrestle With God by Jordan Peterson review – a culture warrior out of his depth

Still in the land of the free and restocked with important new insights from his US travels, Matt is confronted with the Gurusphere's predictably depressing reaction to the election. And what's that we hear in the distance... is it a honking car?

Supplementary Material 18

00:00 Matt's American Ethnography

10:59 Eric Weinstein is waiting for the call

14:32 Huberman, Krauss, and MAGA Sycophancy

18:39 Boghossian and other would-be Intellectual Clerics of the MAGA regime

22:52 Sam Harris criticises Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, and MAGA

32:05 The Fifth Column, The Free Press and World Weary Both Sides-ing

53:19 Election Reflections: Macro and Micro Causes

01:04:40 Longer Term Trends

01:10:08 Sarah Haider and the Hip Vibe of the New Right

01:24:00 Richard Dawkins Dual Nature

01:31:08 A Plea to Sean Carroll and our Listeners

01:33:06 An important note on Bouldering

The full episode is available for Patreon subscribers (1hr 36 mins).

Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus

Links

• Eric's phone is not ringing
• Huberman making his pitch
• Krauss being a sycophant to Elon
• Boghossian's lack of interest in protests in Hungary
• Sam Harris Making Sense 391: The Reckoning
• A Special Place in Hell: Adios Amigos: The Special Place Finale
• That graph mentioned about the loss of support for incumbent regimes
• Dawkins being a fool on Twitter
• The Fifth Column: #234 - Come On and Zoom! (Wagnerian Opera Edition)

In this highly non-topical episode, Matt and Chris dive into the entertainingly gruff world of Sabine Hossenfelder, the German theoretical physicist and popular YouTube science communicator. Known as a joyful science curmudgeon, Sabine excels at making complex science accessible to a wide audience. Yet, there's another side to her content: one that's increasingly steeped in the YouTube algorithm’s culture-war-fueled clickbait, complete with prolific both-sidesing and even hints of her own brand of science-denialist rhetoric.

We can already imagine Sabine’s response: tone policing from establishment scolds who are trying to silence a fearless truth-teller for exposing academia’s dark underbelly. Perhaps that’s all it is—maybe Matt and Chris are aligned with BIG PHYSICS, out to quash any dissent about supersymmetry, string theory, or the academic publishing machine.

Or… maybe it’s something else. Maybe Sabine has pivoted to pander to the (so-hot-right-now) anti-establishment YouTube crowd, declaring that modern science has achieved nothing of value in 50 years and claiming that scientists (especially climate scientists) are too scared to challenge ideological dogmas for fear of jeopardizing their careers or funding.

It’s certainly one of those things.

Whatever the case, join Matt and Chris as they tackle this perplexing case of rhetorical indeterminacy, unpack YouTube audience dynamics, and delve into Sabine's unexpected alignments with Eric Weinstein and her 'sharp' critiques of Tucker Carlson.

Links

• Sabine Hossenfelder: The crisis in physics is real: Science is failing
• Sabine Hossenfelder: Fossil Fuels Don’t Come From Fossils? Tucker Carlson Fact Check
• Sabine Hossenfelder: My dream died, and now I'm here
• Sabine Hossenfelder: Theories of Everything [Music Video]
• Professor Dave Explains: The Problem With Sabine Hossenfelder
• Professor Dave Explains: No, Sabine, Science is Not Failing