In this episode Jerry and Stably discussed Leap of Faith by Michael J. Mazarr. Mazarr, a RAND Corporation scholar, draws on every available memoir, declassified document, and interviews with senior administration officials to dissect how the United States stumbled into the Iraq War. His central argument is that there was never really a decision — the invasion happened through a process of drift, assumption, and institutional momentum, with no memo ever formally ordering it. Jerry and Stably walked through Mazarr's typology of the principals — Bush and Wolfowitz as values-driven, Cheney and Rumsfeld as power-oriented unilateralists, and Powell and Rice as multilateralists — and how their clashing psychologies at every turn undermined coherent planning. They discussed how the easy initial victory in Afghanistan gave the administration a dangerously false sense of what a small-footprint war could accomplish, Saddam's catastrophic misreading of American intentions, and the near-total absence of any post-invasion plan. The conversation turned to the eerie parallels with the current situation in Iran, and whether the lessons Mazarr draws — about American missionary zeal and intuitive, values-driven foreign policy judgment — are simply baked in.

In this episode Jerry and Stably discussed Andrey Mir’s The Digital Reversal, which explores the concept of reversal, arguing that media, when pushed to extremes, reverse their cultural effects due to accelerating technological change. They discussed debated the book's support for technological determinism, which posits that the trajectory of AI and technology is unstoppable and will lead to an inevitable loss of human agency. This surrender of agency is driven by the relentless pursuit of optimization—exemplified by AI making coaching decisions in sports and the shift from structured knowledge to a searchable "goo"—suggesting that most people will voluntarily "plug in" to fully automated, performant systems, with only a few non-maximizing groups remaining.

In this episode Jerry and Stablydiscussed Susan Sontag’s On Photography, with both finding the book overly long, baroque, and pedantic, though both agreed that Sontag's observations were interesting when extracted from the dense, "show-offy" prose. Jerry and Stably critiqued Sontag’s positions on photography as a predatory act, its role in tourism and status, and its potential for desensitization, with Jerry challenging Sontag's political framing and insistence on classifying art. The discussion included Stably suggesting Sontag's critique was politically motivated, while Jerry prioritized free speech regarding photography in public.

In this episode, Jerry and Stably discussed Arthur Schopenhauer's On the Suffering of the World. Jerry praised the book as a great introduction to Schopenhauer's philosophy and its insights, particularly the concept of life as a balance between suffering and boredom, while Stan found the text repetitive and at times impenetrable, disagreeing with the author’s premise. They also explored Schopenhauer’s core ideas, including the "Will" as an eternal, irrational force and the philosopher’s suggested solution of denying the Will through asceticism or art, and they further debated the ethics of procreation and the necessity of preserving consciousness. Stan then selected "On Photography" by Susan Sontag as the next reading material for discussion.

In this episode, Jerry and Stably discussed Stefan Borg's book, The Return of the Common Good: The Post-Liberal Project Left and Right, with Stably finding it enjoyable but wanting more and Jerry viewing it as a concise outline confirming prior beliefs, while both criticized its dense, academic style. A major talking point was the assertion that post-liberals offer a "fantastic critique" of liberalism's self-undermining nature but are "incredibly light on prescription," with participants exploring alternative post-liberal approaches like Michael Lind’s and the intellectual genealogy rooted in "radical orthodoxy." The conversation covered various facets of the post-liberal critique, including its US and UK contexts, its distinction from National Conservatism (NatCon), its theoretical core identifying liberalism as an ideology rooted in fear and violence, and its analysis of liberalism's internal contradictions, which erode social trust and necessitate state enforcement of radical individual freedom, alongside a critique of post-liberal feminism.

In this episode, Jerry and Stably discuss Philip Roth's The Human Stain, focusing on the character Coleman Silk, a disgraced college professor whose downfall began after a misconstrued comment with a big secret. They analyzed the book's themes of radical individualism, societal judgment, and the complexities of Silk's relationships.

In this episode, Jerry and Stably discuss Bryan Burrough's book, Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence, focusing on the complexity, motivations, and incompetence of 1970s radical groups like the Weather Underground, BLA, SLA, and FALN.

In this episode, Jerry and Stably discuss Hanno Sauer's book, "The Invention of Good and Evil: A World History of Morality." The discussion highlighted the book's exploration of cooperation in early hominid evolution, the emergence of punishment, the impact of agriculture and "big gods," and the influence of the Catholic Church on Western individualism.