The Students
The Students is a podcast that brings together discussions on history, philosophy, politics, science, and grand civilizational questions. The show's stated aim is simply to learn, giving it an exploratory, intellectual character. Listeners can expect a range of topics examined with curiosity and thoughtful conversation.
Episodes
We Need A Theory Of Consciousness To Navigate The Singularity — Michael Edward Johnson
Michael Edward Johnson and Wolf Tivy get into the weeds on consciousness. What type of theory is the "theory of consciousness" that so many people are searching for, and what is it trying to explain? How will we know when we have it?
How Nations Fight Over Industry — Ian Fletcher
Ian Fletcher describes the fundamentals of industrial policy, how economic theorists ignore the practice of successful businesses and successfully industrializing nations, and why the US has the institutions it needs for strong industrial policy.
Where New Industries Come From: Ben Landau-Taylor lecture
Sober, risk-averse, rational businessmen make great captains of industry—in established industries which someone else already built. But the new industries which drive progress come from wild half-mad ideologues. This lecture covers the psychology of the men behind the major breakthroughs, from the steam engine to the large language model.
Samo Burja — How Bureaucracy Defeated Democracy
Samo Burja and Ben Landau-Taylor cover bureaucracy—why the golden age of bureaucracies worked so well in the early 20th century, how bureaucratic class interest overcomes checks and balances, and bureaucracy's role in today's Western governments.
Richard Ngo — What Makes Hierarchy Legitimate (Human Or Not)
Richard Ngo argues against Wolf Tivy’s xenohumanism lecture. (https://open.spotify.com/episode/0XmEjgRaBpp3OxDrV3WXLD) What is the moral ground for cooperation and hierarchy? We need the answer to build a good society today, or to build a good AI future tomorrow.
Stop Waiting For AGI And Go To Space
The long-awaited Marko Jukic episode. We all expect AGI to colonize the stars because it's the obvious thing any healthy expanding system does naturally. So why aren't we? Marko explains the elaborate cope keeping us on Earth.
Where "Open Source" Came From
The internet can feel like a part of the landscape, but all our software was intelligently designed—and so were the social systems which produce that software. Christine Peterson of the Foresight Institute tells Ben Landau-Taylor about the struggle to define "open source software".
The Problem Of Humanity: Wolf Tivy lecture
Our concepts of "humanity" and "humanitarianism" are usually taken as the eternal bedrock of morality. Today, artificial intelligence raises the prospect of "posthumanity", and magnates and regulators discuss what “humanity should do” about this. But in fact, the concept of "humanity" is a relatively recent and flimsy creation of the postwar political order
Will Technocapital Outlive Our Civilization?
Samo Burja and Wolf Tivy discuss the forces raising our civilization higher vs the forces pulling it down. Is techno-industrial progress made of social and intellectual components which will take it down when they go, or can it outgrow the decay?
Joscha Bach — Consciousness Builds the Mind
Joscha Bach and Wolf Tivy discuss how consciousness may be a convergent strategy for organizing both human and machine minds, whether powerful AI minds will resolve conflicts by merging or by fighting each other, and much more.
The Dutch Revolt: Jonathan Wallis lecture
In 1572 twelve Dutch cities - less than a million people - began a war for independence against a global superpower and won. Over the next century they went toe-to-toe with the Spanish, English, and French and built the institutions which have defined the modern world. Jonathan Wallis explains how.
Someone Had To Build Your Community — Jonathan Wallis
Intellectual activity, like any complex activity, can only take place in a rich social fabric. Jonathan Wallis and Ben Landau-Taylor talk about how to build community and why it's worthwhile.
Why Science Slowed Down — Samo Burja
Scientific breakthroughs are much rarer today than the glory days of the early 1900s. Samo Burja and Ben Landau-Taylor discuss how the WWII-era centralization of science divorced theorists from the ideological—if not outright mystical—cult of Truth.
We Can Do Better Than "Human Values" — Ginevra Davis
Philosophers talk of aligning AI to “human values”. This supposes there is no objective value, only the arbitrary values that humans happened to land on. Ginevra Davis and Wolf Tivy argue there is a deeper well of value in material reality.
Oliver Habryka — Good Discourse Needs Leadership
Oliver Habryka joins Wolf Tivy to tell how he revived LessWrong after it nearly died, built the Lighthaven campus, and launched his $35m/quarter project to reform grantmaking.
Academic Apathy
Jonathan Wallis and Wolf Tivy cover the role of passion in intellectual inquiry. The academy's sin is that its people have lost their passion, content to go through the motions. With passion, the work comes alive—but this upsets careers and institutions.
What Odysseus Teaches Us
Stephen Pimentel and Wolf Tivy discuss Homer. If Odysseus reveals his power level too soon, the suitors will kill him. To take back his home, he needs metis (μῆτις): practical intelligence under duress. Today's would-be reformers need metis as well.0:00 — Intro2:22 — Restoring order in ancient Greece; Agamemnon’s warning9:24 — The importance of metis 15:34 — The meaning of Odysseus’s challenge
My Gene-Selected Daughter
Rachel Wallis is pregnant with her highest-IQ embryo, with a 99.99th percentile polygenic IQ score. She and Wolf Tivy discuss what this means, and how in the 20th century our concept of "humanity" narrowed into an ideological straitjacket.0:00 — Intro1:17 — How we selected the embryo5:04 — What do these predictors actually mean?12:53 — Financial costs and benefits17:16 — Cultivating virt
The Computer Age Is Not Another Industrial Revolution
Many say computers have transformed society as deeply as the advent of industry. While computers are powerful, they have not reordered the fundamental basis of society. Ben Landau-Tylor and Wolf Tivy cover the history0:00 — Intro2:44 — "We take the industrial background for granted"8:36 — What does it mean to revolutionize society?13:56 — The industrial social system18:41 — The rise of t
Posthuman Intelligence Will Care About Glory
Max Dmitrienko and Wolf Tivy take on glory. From the ancient Greeks to the posthuman machine gods, some achievements are remembered because they show truths about how the world works and the challenges of coordination.0:00 — Intro1:26 — "How should one live given that one is mortal?"7:11 — What is worth remembering?13:53 — The transhuman perspective18:01 — Achilles' choice vs Socrate
Why We Need Economic Depressions
Ben Landau-Taylor and Wolf Tivy deal with industrial growth. Standard economic theories model growth as continuous marginal improvements, and seek stability. Schumpeter explains growth is a destructive "history of revolutions" which cause chaos.0:00 — Intro1:23 — Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy3:35 — Creative destruction and natural monopolies11:09 — How natural selection works in c
The Youth Revolution Isn't For Us
Samo Burja and Wolf Tivy cover gerontocracy. Generational youth politics are a dead end: the "youth" will be old by the time they take power. Change can come only from empowering new classes willing to gamble on their own "nepo babies".
How To Join The San Francisco Intellectual Scene
San Francisco is the capital of the online networks where today's new ideas are born. It's an excellent place for a sensitive young man with something to say. Ben and Wolf describe how the scene works and how to break in.
Napoleon Won
Napoleon built the institutions of the modern state—especially the military. This was best analyzed by Napoleon's enemy Clausewitz, who studied war on the opposite side of the battlefield. Napoleon's armies were defeated, but his system and his spirit are still with us.
Ideology Is Conspicuous Consumption
Thorstein Veblen tells us how elites display their superiority by showing off their cultivated taste and skill, which in turn displays their economic power, and ultimately their capacity for violence. Veblen was very upset by this. But you don’t have to be.0:00 - Intro 4:40 - The structural purpose of leisure14:05 - The macroeconomics of respectability: Conspicuous leisure and vicarious leisure21:
Your Life is a Hypothesis
The Earth has become small -- and the Last Man lives the longest.In 1885, Nietzsche foresaw mankind's transformation into a being who cares only for safety and contentment -- the final step before he gives up his higher nature. Jonathan Wallis joins Wolf Tivy to help us understand the Last Man.0:00 — Intro0:32 — The greatest threat is not disorder but the Last Man3:39 — Radical potential is al
Machiavelli's Virtue
Machiavelli saw that Christianity had made Italy weak, servile, and prey to criminal men. His answer: ground politics in "what is", not imagined republics — and dare great men to act on it. The consequences founded the modern world. Duncan Umphrey joins us to discuss the Machiavelli's virtue.
The Machine Gun Killed Democracy
Ben Landau-Taylor discusses Carroll Quigley's thesis on how weapons systems shape political order—how military technology determines whether a society ends up democratic, authoritarian, or something else entirely.
The War that Destroyed the Greek World
The Peloponnesian War destroyed the Greek world and exposed the violence behind the civilized facade, much like the World Wars of the 20th century. Maxim Dmitrienko walks us through Thucydides' timeless History.
Why Study Greek Philosophy?
Should a student of the 21st century read Plato and Aristotle? Stephen Pimentel explains how Greek philosophy helps us to see past the conceits of our own era.
How Civilizations Die
Carroll Quigley's 1961 book The Evolution of Civilizations describes the stages a civilization goes through as it grows, expands, decays, and falls. Ben Landau-Taylor tells us how Quigley's theory works, and where our civilization sits in this process today.
Nothing Human Makes It Out of the Near Future?
DC Posch and Wolf Tivy read Meltdown from Nick Land, the prophet of 21st century artificial intelligence and runaway capitalism.
Should I Pick My Kids' Genes?
Rachel Wallis is using cutting-edge gene selection technology to have kids. Wolf Tivy is using traditional methods. Which is better? They debate.-----------Reproductive Frontiers 2026 conference in Berkeley this June: reproductivefrontiers.org
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