Friends, When I started Against Everyone With Conner Habib, there were a few guests I wanted to have on more than just about anyone.

Happy to say, now, on episode 300, one of those central figures to my imagination has arrived for the conversation.

GRANT MORRISON doesn't need much introduction. He's* a rebel artist, spiritual visionary, comic book writer, magician, novelist, and nonfiction writer.

The first time I ever heard of Grant Morrison was here, over twenty years ago. in a talk he gave. And then I met him shortly after (I tell you the story in the intro to the episode). His work, and just his being, has been a guidepost for me since I encountered his work.

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GRANT'S WEBSITE

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A note on Grant's pronouns: I talked with him after the episode about his preferred pronouns, and he said that the "they/them" pronouns were often used by other people when identifying him, but that he found himself using he/him just as much because both gender expressions seemed to limit what he felt his identity was.

Friends,

After writing my previous episode, AEWCH 298, where I laid out my thoughts on how to reflect on A.I. to get to beyond the basic, boring conversation, I read ADAM BECKER's excellent book, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity .

I immediately invited him on the show, and I wish I would've read it before. Even though there is plenty of overlap, Adam's vantage point offer a full vision of tech culture, and reveals just how deeply anti-science is is.

That impact comes from the fact that Adam is great writer but also an astrophysicist, and author of the excellent popular book on quantum physics, What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics.

We talk about how we got here in science and technology, why technology has been conflated with science, how conspiracy and science intersect, and what physics has to do with all of this.

Of course the conclusion is that A.I. is not super smart, not supported by smart people, that the fantasies of tech billionaires are bonkers, and that the singularity is not near because it's not even a thing.

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Friends,
One reason I started this show eight years ago was to have big talk instead of small talk, to get us past surface conversations and into thinking more deeply. I hate small talk is because it’s so algorithmic or pre-programmed. It's limited by its connection to the past and expectations. I don’t want to have conversations that could be produced by just anyone in any context with predictable results.

I wanted something more living, surprising, vitalizing; conversations that nourished pushing my thoughts and feelings and actions forward.

So the mission of this show has always been, in a way, to address to algorithm.

The conversations on AI in the public sphere have been so dead and dead-ended even when they’re well-meaning. My big problem is not that people aren't saying brilliant things about A.I. -- I'm not sure I'm up for that task either -- just that everyone is saying the same stupid things over and over. There are phony debates held with unearned urgency, wild projections based on investment fantasies, and anxieties produced by deliberate mystifying hype.

On this episode, I go over 11 thoughts I have on AI to get to where we need to go for a better base level conversation. My hope is this clears out some debris and helps us to start thinking about in new directions.

In other words, this is more about the discussion about AI than AI itself - . I don’t have a “side” on AI - but I want to talk beyond some of the most repeated points

I hope this offers a fruitful new starting place.

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Friends,

Welcome to this massive double-length episode on religion in our time with Diana Young-Peak.

You may not know Diana, or if you do, it may be from exactly 200 (!) episodes ago on AEWCH 97: DIANA YOUNG-PEAK or THE GREATEST STRIPPER OCCULT PRIESTESS YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF. That episode was recorded BEFORE I had a podcast - back in 2011, when I was part of her small esoteric church, the Church of the Living Christ Order of Melchizedek.

That episode is at the end of this one - it gives all the context and background. If you want to listen to it first, you can jump ahead to about 2 hours in.

But you can also listen to our latest conversation first. It's both a spiritual assessment of where we are in the world now, and also an assessment of the growing presence of religion and spirituality in people's lives.

Two growing presences that are destined to meet: the presence of mutual aid community building, and the presence of RELIGION. I've never, in my lifetime, seen more interest in spirituality and its most accessible & durable pathway, religion, as I do now. And I've also never seen this many people coming together in new groups of belonging, with the aim of making safe and loving community and making the word a better place,

In my understanding, this is a convergent evolution that is destined for intersection. In eight years doing the podcast, I've noticed time and time again that activists, organizers, anarchists, leftists, and more want to talk about their religious and spiritual thoughts. And I've also gotten the sense that we have crossed into a territory where it is newly allowed.

My observation on this is that it's because new people have been allowed into organizing spaces and communities, and it's not just leftist atheists or white christians. Religious and national plurality has given rise to new assemblages and new belongings that call for new spiritual ways of seeing.

In some ways this is nothing new: spiritual movements, particularly small spiritual movements, are mutual aid movements. They provide space for conversations about how to consider reality, the self, the other, and the all. That necessitates action, and coherence. Feminist movements have roots in 19th and 20th Century spiritualism and magic. There were anti-slavery magic movements. The White Rose, inspired by anthroposophy, resisted the Nazis. But more than that, there's the many many groups living right next door to you and me and everyone holding small meetings. organizing for the sake of a sense of a greater good and full connection to the real.

Diana's group - passed to her from her mentor and founder of the group, Grace Hooper Pettipher - is one of these groups. Meeting together, when I was an active participant, in a small hotel room in San Francisco (now they mostly meet online), there was community building, connection, growth, and attenuation to freedom. I don't attend these days, for the most part, but I have great respect for what Diana and the group do with the religious impulse. And I hope this new conversation will inspire you to think towards or even begin your own path with community-based religion and spiritual practice.

I hope you enjoy this double-length episode.

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Lory Widmer Hess is the author of When Fragments Make a Whole, as well as a caregiver and spiritual direction facilitator in Switzerland. Her book chronicles her healing journey with the gospels - through various illness, medical procedures, and emotional and soul challenges - from an esoteric viewpoint.

Support AEWCH on patreon: patreon.com/connerhabib

Lory's website: https://enterenchanted.com/

Lory's book: When Fragments Become A Whole

Friends,
Against Everyone with Conner Habib is eight years old today! Not many media projects last for eight years or make it up to nearly 300 episodes at this point.

To celebrate, I talk here about conversation; what it means to all of us.

After all, if I asked you if conversation had changed your life, you’d probably say yes.

A conversation that set you down a career path, or a new place to move to. An argument that went haywire and ended your relationship. A flirtation that led to the great love of your life.

But we forget, too, that other people’s conversations change our lives. What does it mean to do a podcast, and how has the landscaping of podcasts degraded, fallen apart, as well as grown, in the past eight years? What have I noticed?

As a bonus, I've attached my very first episode at the end. It's clumsy, personal, filled with insecurity and uncertainty.

Please support the show - all eight years and 295 (free!) episodes of it - on patreon.

Patreon.com/connerhabib

Episode Description

I'm joined by author, teacher, and theorist, Douglas Rushkoff. He’s one of the most important intellectuals of our time, some people call him a futurist, but he's always a step ahead of the future.

The is the part 2 of the conversation we had on Doug’s podcast, TEAM HUMAN called "LIVE UP TO YOUR FOOL POTENTIAL". But of course, it also stands on its own and you don't have to listen to them in order.

This show is supported through listeners. No ads!

Please do support it via Patreon: patreon.com/connerhabib

Conner's Website: connerhabib.com

Conner's Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/againsteveryonewithconnerhabib

And please also consider supporting Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman

Douglas's website.

I talk with co-hosts of the Light in Every Thing podcast, Rev. Jonah Evans & Rev. Patrick Kennedy about meeting the world not as a "problem" to be solved, but as a realm already overcome by spiritual love.