Arthur Brooks

He really is.

He's a soulful guy.

I really have

He'd be a great believer apart from the lack of belief.

But that's the point because his soulfulness would seem, might seem on the outside to contradict his uber rationality as an atheist, but it doesn't because these things coexist.

These things can reside next to each other and because Sam's brain has two hemispheres to it, so does mine, so does all of ours.

No, I don't.

And transcendence is important because it, once again, it contradicts mother nature's tyranny.

So Mother Nature wants you in the psychodrama of your utter stultifying crispness from moment to moment to moment.

My job, my flights are late.

My podcast guest might be good.

I got to prepare for that thing.

And my stomach is rumbling.

I forgot to eat lunch.

And oh, yeah, the payment didn't come in for that thing.

It's so boring.

But Mother Nature wants you to be the star of that psychodrama all day long in your head.

That's what William James called a me-self, the me-self.

It's looking at yourself and thinking about yourself all day long.

And you need that for self-reference to make your way in the world.