Wishful-Thinking Holiday Edition Part 1: A Dialogue with Augusten Burroughs: A Witch or Not A Witch
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- čas přidán 8. 06. 2024
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A message from Lawrence:
I want to be upfront. I love Augusten Burroughs. I fell in love with him when I first read Running with Scissors, and every time I have picked up anything he has written, I have that warm feeling knowing I will delight in the scrumptious experience that is associated with reading his work.
Shortly after creating the Origins Podcast in 2019, I discovered that Augusten was going to have a new book coming out, and I contacted him to ask if he might come by the studio and do a podcast if his book tour passed nearby. To my great happiness, he said he would love to come by and would send me a prepublication copy of the book so I might prepare.
So it was that I received Toil and Trouble: A Memoire, and discovered to my surprise that it was a memoir describing his, and his mother’s experiences as witches. I read the book carefully and tried to decide what to do. The dilemma was somewhat similar to that I faced when I wrote The Physics of Star Trek. I didn’t want to write a book that would simply say “This won’t work” over and over again. Similarly, I didn’t want to offer blanket denials of Augusten’s claims. Instead, I decided I would try and use the opportunity to discuss science and skepticism and apply those ideas to various examples in the book.
After we finished the podcast, we weren’t sure when the right time to release it would be. I didn’t want to cast any negative shadows on the book during its initial release, and I wanted to time it appropriately after we had amassed a catalog of podcasts with scientists and artists that would give some perspective on the discussion we had.
When we thought about a holiday edition podcast the dialogue with Augusten came to mind. I confess I had forgotten the details and was a little worried. I needn’t have worried, however. I had forgotten how much fun it was, and how much fun any conversation with Augusten can be. Moreover, he comes at almost all ideas and experiences with the characteristics of a scientist. He is realistic, skeptical, and willing to be wrong. It is so refreshing.
We began the podcast by once again discussing his dysfunctional childhood, which he covers so beautifully in a number of his books. It is a fascinating dive into issues of mental illness, and victimhood, the latter of which he happily demonstrates is in the eye of the beholder. But the purpose of this discussion is to put in context the discovery, when he was a young boy, that he was a witch. A discovery revealed by his mother, who told him that he came from a long of witches after he has an experience that he would describe as a sort of remote sensing, associated with an accident his grandmother had. From there we discuss more modern examples.
I truly enjoyed listening to Augusten again in the podcast, which presents, in my mind, a good example of how to have a difficult but respectful conversation, and how science and skepticism can and should be applied to wishful thinking-something that Augusten would certainly agree with. As Richard Feynman once said, after all: The easiest person to fool is yourself. Throughout, Augusten is charming and enjoyable, and listening to him describe his own experiences is alone worth the listen.
I hope you enjoy this part 1 of our Holiday Podcast. Part 2 will be released after Xmas, and is a special holiday edition of Science Matters, where I discuss wishful thinking associated with a scientific development that dominated much of the media earlier this month. I hope you enjoy both, complementary discussions. - Věda a technologie
I met him when he spoke at Orono Maine, he has so much grace!
I am always so excited to listen to these podcasts as I always learn so much! Thank you😊
This one gave Lawrence a bit of a challenge.
Keep watching you will start to relax.
I think this was a very good learning experience for many of us, I am probably going to say that I found it to be the best origin episode I have ever watched.
Whatching this made question my own thinking regarding the people who believe in such things.
This was a very humanizing in many ways , thank you for making them.
Hope you had a wonderful Xmas, Lawrence. Thanks for a great episode here.
Great episode!
Magnificent, best yet!
I met this man, he has beautiful Soul! That belongs to God!!!
i listen to this during Mass today. Merry Christmas Lawrence.
LOL, 'Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence' (1983).
Merry Christmas 🎅 🎄
Through all the random change that sprinkled, a few gold coins came my way.👍🏻
Thank you for giving me books to aspire to read. It's interesting. From all sides. It was very interesting to hear the stories too. Made me remember a couple of my own. I always say I'm a skeptic and don't buy into so much out there that's supposedly "paranormal" or even scientific theory that hasn't been proven cause I don't think I have the spatial ability to imagine it. But, as to this topic, there have been two occasions that something happened to me that in the moment gave me pause and have through the years tried to find an explanation for but can't. They are things that involved others that I have never mentioned to them or anyone else because I don't want to have to get into a conversation that will lead down a rabbit hole because most people around me are not skeptics and I can imagine where they'd take it. But, to this day, when I begin to think about possibilities, those two things always come to mind. One happens to involve perception at a distance (about 500 miles away) and the other is almost the opposite. I can't explain it to myself and I'm not going to try to explain it here cause I can't and don't want to.
This was posted 9mths ago ...I'm on the 9th disc of this book when I stopped to find this and it's his 9th book. Interesting
I just finished T&T a month ago! And this podcast was very interesting!! For Christmas I got running with scissors and I'm already half way through. It's way better than the movie! So watch it till the very last if u haven't.
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas hosers. health and knowledge to all
merry christmas
i would love for A.I. to somehow be able to edit out all the mouth noises. Not just with this guest, but it always bothers me in general
Been on 20 min, wish I could get that time back, over and out
tik tok is only a click away. cheers
@@izatafactnow tik tok is so much more than knowledge 👻
Yes insight starts with facts (science) and imagine freely from there on.
Thx Lawrence...had flash thoughts of "Shutter Island" and "A Perfect Mind" ...wonder what Richard Dawkins would say imho.
Let's go!
I was with a man who had aspererperouers for 7 years he was smart had a degree, we stayed friends for 9 years he bumped the front of his head now he says all the dumb things he always wanted too!!
He says talk therapy is useless then recanters his opinion when Krauss starts to raise questions. Trauma takes a holistic approach, such as somatic therapy, CBT or another method or techniques, some talk therapy, neurofeedback, possibly CBD or other prescribed meds, exercise, cutting off abuser access etc.
Will the part 2 be on youtube as well?
@Laura thank you for letting me know!
Happy holidays to all Great Teachers. Respect to all from Aristotle , Thales, to Daniel Dennet, Krauss, Green, Tyson….and others.
7:48 Having doubt or not has nothing to do with the accuracy of a memory.
Well surely there is some relationship...
When I was in 9th grade my "guidance counselor" called my mom on her lunch break from work and told her "Our school has nothing to offer your son. He's already read our library and is bored to death. Will you sign a release form to allow him to quit? He wants to get the GED and move on." I was only 15 at the time. She agreed.
Great interview Lawrence!
I don't know if you're just tired of explaining it to people or what, but once an individual becomes convinced that "the observation affects the observed" it's clear that they don't understand.
If you could "observe" an electron, for example, you wouldn't even know you were observing it, much less the electron behaving differently.
Somewhere along the line, they heard about the "observer effect" and completely bought into the misinterpretation of it.
Perhaps they felt that further examination of the idea was unnecessary, because it's confirmed their own interpretation at that point.
I challenge anyone to observe an electron.
Could you bring Edward Witten, Nima Arkani Hamed,Abhay Ashtekar,Brian Greene on the show?
when're you gonna do another show with jd
The intro music is great.
As a suggestion that may sound bad but it si friendly: please put your face further away from the camera lense
🥰
I grew up in the same area as him and my parents it turns out even we’re friends with his brother and some of the kids from the house. I think his mother and my mother are vulnerable narcissists which are abundant in western mass where victimhood is a firm of social currency.
It created some great poets and poetry, though. (Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell, etc)
This episode sent my misophonia through the roof
It only got me during the introduction, as I thought Lawrence had a oxygen tube up his nose for breathing purposes, until I looked closer. After that I was fine
Take that ring off
Maybe have a talk with Graham Hancock too.
Graham always predicts the correct reality, you are just living the time backwards.
In the past, who knows what can happen by that time.
I for once started sending my tools such as knifes, sickle and those other things I can't make up now to Giza yearly.
They have this machine that sharpens knives etc, a pyramid.
Amazing stuff you could learn from the past by combining thousands upon thousands of several tonned stones, you can actually sharpen 12.4 grades steel.
Back then they invented amazing technology, nobody can sharpen steel with stones today.
My point is, I never know what I am on about.
But this guy is nothing like Graham, this guy does not stop trying to learn and understand the reality like him.
I gotta ask. . . Why are two people sitting across the table from each other wearing headphones?
easier to hear what you will hear.
i always confuse this guy with david sedaris for some reason
I would love to hear the two interview each other one day
It's GOD! I met him he is with God
It's God
Thanks for the episode. There are researchers on paranormal experiences, and they claim the science is solid and the data is clear. Take a look at Dean Radin or Jeffrey Kripal.
therapy works folks. ignore his rant about it.
I love this interview, but I HATE the microphones they’re using - so many mouth sounds.
What a dissaponiting exhibition. Me me me me me . I got to 17 minutes. 🙄
are you also a published novelist? or have a phd in physics?
God knows he is no witch
He is not a witch! God does not make a witch!
This guys comes across as a compulsive liar 😂
I listened to 76mins of the video and yes he's full of it. But I don't think he's a liar, he just believes it
@TheVicar You might be right. Delusional, maybe.
So anthropocentric these folks are...Holidays are over sir... The age of exuberance long gone.
Lets see you put a silly heart next to this comment Witch Don't Matter