From psychedelics to cyberculture, hippie communes to commercial startups, and the Whole Earth Catalog to the Long Now Foundation, Stewart Brand has not only been a part of many movements—he was there at the start. Now 83, he says he doesn’t understand why older people let their curiosity fade, when in many ways it’s the best time to set off on new intellectual pursuits.
Tyler and Stewart discuss what drives his curiosity, including the ways in which he’s a product of the Cold War, how he became a Darwinian decentralist, the effects of pre-industrial America on his thought, the subcultural convergences between hippies and younger American Indians, why he doesn’t think humans will be going to the stars, his two-minded approach to unexplained phenomena, how L.L. Bean inspired the Whole Earth Catalog, why Silicon Valley entrepreneurs don’t seem interested in the visual arts, why L.A. could not have been the home of hippie culture and digital innovation, what libertarians don’t understand about government, why we should bring back woolly mammoths, why he’s now focused on maintenance and institutions, and more.
Check out Ideas of India
Subscribe to Ideas of India on your favorite podcast app.
Visit our website
Email: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Instagram
Follow Tyler on Twitter
Follow Stewart on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://go.mercatus.org/l/278272/2017-09-19/g4ms
Yasheng Huang on the Development of the Chinese State
Brad DeLong on Intellectual and Technical Progress
Glenn Loury on the Cover Story and the Real Story
Paul Salopek on Walking the World
Rick Rubin on Listening, Taste, and the Act of Noticing
Katherine Rundell on the Art of Words
Conversations with Tyler 2022 Retrospective
John Adams on Composing and Creative Freedom
Jeremy Grantham on Investing in Green Tech
Ken Burns on the Complications of History
Mary Gaitskill on Subjects That Are Vexing Everybody
Reza Aslan on Martyrdom, Islam, and Revolution
Walter Russell Mead on the Past and Future of American Foreign Policy
Byron Auguste On Rewiring the U.S. Labor Market
Vaughn Smith on Life as a Hyperpolyglot
Shruti Rajagopalan talks to Daniel Gross and Tyler about Identifying and Predicting Talent
Cynthia L. Haven on René Girard, Czeslaw Milosz, and Joseph Brodsky
William MacAskill on Effective Altruism, Moral Progress, and Cultural Innovation
Leopoldo López on Activism Under Autocratic Regimes
Matthew Ball on the Metaverse and Gaming
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Navigating Life After 40
Teaching Learning Leading K-12
Regenerative Skills
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast