The Happiness of a Country

If you thought Jonah turned into an excited fanboy when he interviewed Mike Duncan, just wait until you hear today’s Remnant, in which acclaimed psychologist Dr. Paul Bloom joins the program for the first time to discuss man’s search for meaning. Human beings are strange creatures: We often deliberately seek out things that cause us pain or discomfort, like horror movies and spicy foods. What is the cause of this “benign masochism,” and what does it really mean to be happy? Additionally, how should human nature be defined? Could video games and virtual reality destroy the world as we know it? And how can Jonah tie all of this in with neoconservatism?

Show Notes:

-The Sweet Spot, Dr. Bloom’s new book

-Jonah: “Democracy in the Tobacconist’s”

-Dr. Bloom’s Google Scholar archive

-Conservatives are more easily disgusted than liberals

-Arthur Brooks on earned success

-Dr. Bloom: “Being in Time”

-“Benign masochism”

-Jonah: “Fear and Loathing in the Time of COVID”

-Political Bloods and Crips

-Back to the past

-Ezra Klein interviews Noam Chomsky

-The experience machine

-“We actually compete with sleep”

-Dr. Bloom: “Is God an Accident?”

-Just Babies

-Against Empathy

-How You Say It, by Katherine Kinzler

-The Remnant with Mike Duncan

-A Time to Build, by Yuval Levin

-Orwell’s review of Mein Kampf

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