Liberty's Highlights

Liberty

Investing & business, science & technology, and the arts. www.libertyrpf.com

  1. NOV 21

    White Mirror: 31 Stories, a $1,000 Puzzle, and Sci-Fi to Reboot Your Childlike Wonder 🦾🪞📖🦋

    You love reading. You’re always looking for great things to read? 📖 📚 Me too! *high five* 🙏 Today, I’m talking with my friends Tinkered Thinking and Dylan O’Sullivan about ‘White Mirror’, a book written by the former, edited by the latter, and published by OSV’s Infinite Books (full disclosure: I was involved in the publication of this book, but we wanted to publish it because it’s great, we don’t think it’s great because we published it. The order matters!). It’s a wide-ranging conversation aimed at those who HAVEN’T yet read the book, so don’t worry. We go down all kinds of rabbit holes 🐇 and tangents, including: * From a tweet to 31 stories, the wild origin of White Mirror * The intersection of technology & human experience * Reclaiming childlike imagination and a sense of wonder as an antidote to pessimism * Simulation theory, meditation, and the nature of reality * Literary architecture and chiastic structures * Predictions in the book that are coming true, and startup ideas hidden in the stories * The craft of writing fiction vs. non-fiction * Status games, adulthood, and missing rituals and rites of passage * Writing science fiction as someone who doesn’t read much scifi * …and much more 🏆 Giveaway: 5 Signed Copies of White Mirror! 🪞📚✍️ Thanks to Tinkered’s generosity, I’m giving away five signed copies of White Mirror. If you want to participate, the instructions are simple: * If you’re a paid supporter and are interested, send me an email to let me know you’d like one (you can just reply to any of the newsletter emails or this podcast email). Send this before December 1, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST. That’s it. * On December 3, 2025, I’ll draw names out of a hat, or buy one of those bingo machines with the balls bouncing around, or use randomizing software, whatever, and pick 5 winners. When you win, I’ll email you to ask for shipping details. * If you’re NOT yet a paid supporter, but would like to become one before December 1, no problem, you can participate. Hit the subscribe button, and then drop me an email that mentions you’re interested in the signed book (I’ll also send you a link to the private Discord and to Zoom Q&As I do with supporters). There aren’t that many of you, and not all will enter, so if you do put your name in the hat 🎟️ 🎩 your odds of getting a signed book are very good. But you don’t have to wait for that to buy it. And if you win, just keep the signed copy and give the regular one to someone else. 🎁 🛒 Best Place to Buy the Book 👇 You can buy White Mirror on Amazon, but the real pro move is to get it from Infinite Books because, for the same price, you get the deluxe paperback of the book + the audiobook + the ebook (DRM-free). The book is a beautiful artifact, we spent a ton of time obsessing over the details. 🔍 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.libertyrpf.com/subscribe

    1h 28m
  2. 09/27/2024

    The Cost of Glory with Alex Petkas: Timeless Lessons from Ancient Greece and Rome 🏛️🏺📜 🏹⚔️🦅⚖️

    I’m excited to share with you one of my favorite podcasts that I’ve recorded! 🎧🥇 I hope you enjoy it and will ➡️ subscribe to ‘Cost of Glory’ ⬅️ (listen on: Spotify or Apple Podcast) and follow Alex’s explorations of the greatest stories from Roman and Greek antiquity. It’s like a time machine for the mind, and might inspire you to read some of the great books we recommend near the end of the podcast! In this episode, Alex and I discuss why the Romans and Greeks of Antiquity were 𝕤𝕠 𝕒𝕨𝕖𝕤𝕠𝕞𝕖 and his journey following in Plutarch’s footsteps — telling stories of real heroes and learning from their lives. Except Alex does it with a podcast instead of with a reed pen (I had to look up what they used to write in antiquity…) There’s a lot to love about this one. One of my favorite parts is when we do a lightning-round through a bunch of big names from the era, and Alex gives a highlight on each. We discuss people like Alexander the Great, Sulla, Hannibal, Scipio, Julius Caesar, Pompey, Cato the Elder and Cato the Younger, Xenophon, etc. It gave me a lot of context about names I recognized but didn’t know much about — I feel better equipped to dig deeper! I hope it’ll do the same for you. Enjoy! 💚 🥃 👇 Other Great Links For You * Cost of Glory Substack 📩📫 * Cost of Glory Free eBook on Oratory 📙🗣️ * Alex’s Guide on How to Read All of Plutarch's Lives 📖📚 * Alex’s Interview w/ Nat Friedman on the Mysteries of the Scrolls 📜🤖 * Follow Alex on Twitter/X 🐦 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.libertyrpf.com/subscribe

    1h 39m
  3. 01/29/2024

    Sicario by Denis Villeneuve: Going Deep with Ed William and Dylan O'Sullivan 🎥 🎬 🎞️ 🍿

    Here’s something a little different. A fun — but dark! — one. I’m a big fan of Denis Villeneuve, and I was due for a re-watch of ‘Sicario’ (2015, written by Taylor Sheridan). It was the perfect opportunity to nerd out about the film, so I recruited my OSV colleagues Ed William (🇬🇧) and Dylan O’Sullivan (🇮🇪) for that task. (You should follow them on Twitter, and while you’re at it, sign up for the OSV Substack so you don’t miss the cool stuff we’ve got coming.) The things you love are always better when you can share them with others and this is exactly what we do here. We go over every aspect of the film, from the writing, the acting, the cinematography, the music, the metaphors, and scene-by-scene analysis. But mostly, we have fun and I hope that you do too! If you’ve never seen the film, watch it before listening, as the podcast is one giant 🚨SPOILER🚨 — and if you’ve seen it but haven’t rewatched it, I hope we can convince you to do so and that you’ll notice a bunch of new cool details this time around. 🎧 Listen on Spotify If you prefer to listen on Spotify, here’s the feed: * Liberty’s Highlights podcast feed on Spotify 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts Here’s the podcast feed on Apple Podcasts: * Liberty’s Highlights podcast on Apple 📺 More Film & TV Podcasts 🎥 * 🎧 The Last of Us: Going Deep on HBO's Amazing Show with Matt Reustle and Tinkered Thinking 🍄 * 🎧 'Severance' Season 1: Going Deep with Mostly Borrowed Ideas (MBI) * 🎧 David Senra on Deadwood (also: founders, entrepreneurs, civilization, Henry Singleton, Walt Disney, David Ogilvy, etc) 💚 🥃 Enjoyed this? Want more? 👇 You can become a paid supporter to get 1-2x additional editions/week + access to the private Discord + support the recording of more podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.libertyrpf.com/subscribe

    54 min

Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Investing & business, science & technology, and the arts. www.libertyrpf.com

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