My Brain’s Foreskin & Bladerunner

Immerse yourself in the unique cosmos of "The Broski Report with Brittany Broski," where the effervescent host indulges in a constellation of topics as diverse as the stars. In "Let Me Talk To The Aliens," Brittany Broski, in her Los Angeles studio, orchestrates a symphony of conversations that range from touching personal tales to musical tributes, philosophical musings, and imaginative flights of fancy. Listeners are invited into a space that's just as much a community hub as a podcast, where shared experiences and engaging discussions converge to form the bedrock of Brittany's world.

With her vibrant personality as the guide, Brittany not only reflects on the inspirations behind her content creation, like "The Twilight Zone," but also passionately shares her musical predilections, showcasing an eclectic taste that spans from the indie vibes of Mumford & Sons to the fiery beats of Bad Bunny. Beyond the melody, her intellectual curiosity shines through as she bravely treads on topics such as cosmic horror, the impact of Lovecraftian themes in modern media, and the profound questions tied to immortality and human existence. True to form, Brittany maintains a delicate balance, juggling serious topics with her hallmark humor and lighthearted asides, ensuring that her audience leaves both educated and entertained.

In Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari uses concepts from biology, history, and economics to tell the story of us, Homo sapiens. We start 2.5 million years ago, when Sapiens make their historical entrance, and end in the future, when the creation of an artificially created superhuman race may mark the end of the Sapiens species. Along the way, we learn how our ability to create imagined realities led to our dominance over other species. We watch as the Agricultural Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, imperialism, capitalism, and the Industrial Revolution change our species in lasting, and not always positive, ways.

Ultimately, we’re left with one question: As we design our future, who do we want to become? Asking the right questions may be more important than finding the right answers. Read this summary to explore our history as a species—in doing so, you’ll see today’s world in an entirely new way.

What can you learn from 5,000 years of history? Are we in truly novel times, or do we face the same problems that the Romans and Egyptians faced 2,000 years ago?

Will & Ariel Durant, Pulitzer Prize winning historians, are famed for writing The Story of Civilization, a massive 9766-page, 11-volume treatise of the entirety of Western history. They compiled the most important recurring patterns in this book. Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater, considers this one of his 3 must-read books.

Learn how human nature hasn’t changed over thousands of years, how societies cycle between inequality and redistribution like a heartbeat, and why eventually all civilizations fall.

In The Silk Roads, historian Peter Frankopan identifies Central and Western Asia as the crossroads of human civilization, the birthplace of the world’s major religions, the battleground where the great empires of history rose and fell, and the garden from which today’s global economy first sprouted. He argues that understanding the East is crucial to our understanding of the world—particularly for Westerners who have lost this global perspective.

In ancient times, trade routes known as the Silk Roads first brought European merchants to the luxury markets of the East, enabling the flow of both material goods and ideas from East to West. According to Frankopan, the Silk Roads have always been history’s crucial connection point, spreading not just luxury goods like silk and spices, but also technology, religion, languages, cultures, ideologies, and even conflicts and diseases. In this guide, we explore Frankopan’s history of the Silk Roads, while also incorporating insights and feedback from other scholars to supplement his analysis.

In Lex Fridman's podcast, he welcomes guest Yuval Noah Harari for a deep dive into the comparison and contrast between human nature and artificial intelligence (AI). Examining the interdependence and harmony of intelligence and consciousness in humans, Harari contemplates whether such elements could be refashioned within artificial beings. Additionally, he reflects on the ethical considerations of AI and its potential to influence human emotions, advocating for stringent regulations to ensure transparency.

Harari also discusses the uniqueness of human cooperation in comparison to other species which he ascribes to shared beliefs rather than individual skills. He highlights the role of collective narratives in fostering unity and instigating change in the global social landscape. Lastly, Harari shares his personal journey of self-acceptance amid societal norms and religious narratives and deconstructs the universal fear of death. This enlightening discussion underscores the importance of evolving narratives and societal cooperation mechanisms for human progression.

For millennia, humans struggled with three serious problems—famine, plagues, and war—which led to the deaths of millions of people and to the rise and fall of global empires. People coped with these problems and answered life's questions with religion. However, in the modern era, we no longer rely on prayer—we’ve mostly overcome these three problems through the development of technology and medical knowledge.

In Homo Deus, Yuval Noah Harari, a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, envisions a future in which technology replaces humanist ideals and liberal government. Dissecting the concepts of religion, immortality, and technology, Harari argues that the world of the future may be run by advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence, not human beings.