John R. Miles

So

If we're all living in subjective simulations, what determines whether life feels meaningful or bleak?

A little bit later this afternoon, my wife and I are heading to Reggae Rise Up, one of my favorite festivals of the year.

And the reason I'm bringing this up is a number of years ago, I was at Reggae Rise Up when I needed to get a water.

And the only product that they had, which I didn't even realize was water at the time, was this crazy looking bottle that said liquid death.

I love that in this chapter, you bring up the whole liquid death phenomenon because

Like when I taste it, it doesn't taste any different from any other water.

It tastes exactly the same.

And I think that's what the blind tests have said.

But interestingly enough, it's a great example of people's beliefs in how a product like this came out of nowhere.

And as you rightly point out at the book, sold out its 150,000 initial cases in what, like eight weeks?

I wanted to talk about longevity.

Being an alternative health podcast, I have of course had a ton of people because it's a billion dollar market now, longevity.

But do you think on the other side of that, our cultural narratives are actually shortening lives?

So Nir, we talked about learned helplessness already, which is a big aspect of the third part of your book, which is on the power to do what you believe.

So I want to talk about Joseph Campbell.

When I think about the power of myth, what I really think he's talking about underneath that is the power of ritual.

And this is something that you really talk about in chapter nine on prayer, ritual, and transformation.

And what you write is regardless of what you believe, if you believe in God, if you don't,

Humans across all cultures rely on ritual during periods of uncertainty.