Delusions of Grandeur: The Podcast

Janet and Carmen take a trip down memory lane. Getting stuck in the generation you came of age in. Kurt is still everywhere. The evolution of telephones. Gen Z guinea pigs. Technological temptations. Gen X doesn’t give af. '90s icons. Internet ambivalence. The price of convenience. Expected instant reactions. Late technological adopters. Fried dopamine receptors. The slow creep of fast change. Being repulsed by your own creation. D...

Carmen and Janet expand the horizon of their minds. Are plants conscious? The Case Against Reality. Eastern Philosophy. Meditation. Shared consciousness. Living in a simulation. Panpsychism. Everything is vibrating. The double slit experiment. Higher states of consciousness. Is space-time real? Lucid dreaming. Everything is energy. The tree in the forest. Carmen’s witchiness. The subjective nature of reality. Locked-in syndrome. An...

The sudden realization of reaching middle age. When the disappointments of midlife get to you. Internal vs. external locus of control. Denial and the stages of a midlife crisis. Carmen’s multiple mini midlife crises. Janet’s love of middle age. Stopping and reflecting. People dropping off. You doing you. Making it halfway. The midlife spiritual awakening. The bummers of midlife. The importance of good lighting. Sexy insides. Aging ...

Deontological vs. consequentialist ethics. The trolley problem. Societal breakdown. Solar plexus feelings. The Machiavelli delusion. Empowered victims. Protecting well-being. Moral relativism. The Bizarro World. Rationalizing cognitive dissonance. Following your gut. Aristotle’s middle path. Missing character. Admirable qualities. The comfort of deluded little bubbles. Moral slips. Reaching for the fresh fruit in the back. Secrets.

UAPs are the new UFOs. Are we seriously alone? The Fermi Paradox. Being a believer vs. being skeptical. The way of the human brain. Little green men. Careful documentaries. Europa. Are we just the early birds? Thank god for Jupiter. All of us are miracles. Was human consciousness an accident? How embarrassing it would be if we were being watched? Life as an alien game. The Earth ant farm. We need an alien invasion. Being an alien o...

Trauma, drama and the Dalai Lama. Realizing in middle age that you had childhood trauma. What does processing trauma even mean? How do you know if you have processed trauma? Healthy vagueness. Watering down the term. Minor traumas being big traumas. The trauma spectrum. Exposure therapy. Running away from your shit. The trauma of living. Blunt force trauma. Family trauma. Toxic relationship trauma. Sometimes a slap in the face is w...

Art is the best! Is everything art? Does art have to be shared? Censorship and art. Boring art. Some favourite visual artists. The awe of the Renaissance. Dadaism. Humour and art. Bad art. Modern art. The evolution of art. Everyone is an artist. The compulsion to create. Vulnerability. Giving birth to art babies. Music as heroin. Sources of inspiration. Living for ideas. Art as a commodity. Digitized starry night. Mental illness an...

Carmen drills Janet about what it’s like having a child. Kids versus babies. Janet creeps out parents. Ew – kids. Real love. Baby atom bombs. The child drought. Having a shitty kid who hates your guts. How a wand up your vagina can make you emotional. Nobody looks after you when you’re old anyways. Tapping out when the adult diaper arrives. Teenagers are mean. All the shockers of becoming a parent. How little control you have over ...

Why is this ancient philosophy so popular today? What is in your control and what isn’t. Living in accordance with nature. The original Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Taking the reins of your brain. The art of reframing. Non-reactions. The Meditations. Expectations are the death of serenity. Memento mori. Self-help books as drugs. Stoicism as counter culture. The character drought. Personality privilege. Following the herd sometime...

Daydreaming vs. night dreaming. Why are dream descriptions so boring? Practical dreams. Personal dreams. Making use of sleeping. Wet dreams. Our brains as hard drives. Recording dreams. People popping. Whoring it up in other people’s dreams. Dreams as portals through the multiverse. Sleepwalking accountability. Flight vs. freeze. Spirit animals. Do dreams mean anything? Instadreams. Dream streaming.

(Recorded on February 22, 2023)

Janet’s strategies for overcoming anxiety. Everyone has a big thing. Ignoring your instincts. Zooming out into the solar system. Larry David’s limp shoulders. Gaslighting yourself. Being drunk and anxious. Questioning your brain. Shutting it down. Becoming an Übermensch. Public speaking. Feed the right wolf. The bedtime anxiety monster. The hormone roller coaster. Dissociating on stage. 30, 60 or 90 percent of people don’t have Bob...

ChatGPT. Suffering data. Where is Clippy now? The automation apocalypse. More human than human. Does less work equal more happiness? Do bots eat ass? Fuck humanity or fuck with humanity? Trans-animalism. A poetic way to go. The education crisis. The purpose problem. When virtual reality beats real reality. The fine line between dystopia and utopia. Human-made certification stickers. Toxic empathy. The great equalizer. Conscious A.I...

Small town goths connecting and keeping in touch. Influencing Instagram. Power to the people. Pros being cons. Becoming the news. Top shelf meme lords. Reeling from reels. Globalized creative juices. Cats owning social. Not being able to pay attention to our dwindling dopamine receptors. Blue light midnight facials. Having a toxic relationship with the algorithm. Sensory stupidity overload. More wasted time or simply an updated way...

Janet and Carmen get deep. Why do great when good enough will do? Quiet quitting and doing the bare mini. To morphine or not to morphine when dying? Acid epiphanies. The meaning of life. Nihilism. Do your duty. Fate. Free will and determinism. Janet’s theory of the universe. A.I boyfriends. Why are we attracted to certain people? Is everything just pheromones? Still crushin' on Dr. Huberman in your eighties. Are crushes fun or not ...

Freedom of speech in the age of the internet. Freedom to offend. When left becomes right. Hate speech. Censorship. Deplatforming martyrdom. Coward culture. Outrage archeologists. The freedom to listen. Identifying with your beliefs. The freedom of bad ideas. The University of Indoctrination. Wicked words. Corrupt corporations vs corrupt government. Tribal for our survival.

(Recorded on October 16, 2022)

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