Chapter 83: Douglas Rushkoff on divisive duality and designer deaths

“Our technologies, markets and cultural institutions, once forces for human connection and expression, now isolate and repress us. It is time to remake society together, not as individual players, but as the team we actually are: Team Human.”

That little paragraph is printed right on the cover of the latest book by Douglas Rushkoff.

Do you know Douglas Rushkoff?

He’s a vivid, big-thinking author behind books like Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, Present Shock, Program or Be Programmed, Screenagers, Playing the Future, Media Virus, and many others.

Seth Godin calls him acerbic. I’ll call him provocative. Douglas is not afraid of anything! His writing is confident and he’s got the research and logic ready behind every point.

No wonder he’s been named one of the world’s most influential thought leaders. Douglas hosts the popular Team Human podcast, writes for The Guardian, and is the documentarian behind Generation Like and Merchants of Cool. He’s also responsible for coining many popular phrases including “viral media” and “social currency.”

Douglas Rushkoff is a big thinker! A different thinker. And we love getting different thinkers on this show.

From Chapter 4 with Sarah Ramsey, my favorite bookseller, to Chapter 36 with Elder Cox and Elder Corona, two teenage Mormon missionaries, to Chapter 61 with Temple Grandin, one of the world’s first autism activists, we’re having a blast bouncing around brain spaces.

We are going to talk about Bitcoin, reality tunnels, what the internet really is, the benefits of slack, rebuilding societal trust, the source code for magic, Timothy Leary and designer deaths, facts versus reality, mycelium and trees, Bardo orgies, the purpose of play, and, of course, the incredible Douglas Rushkoff’s three (or maybe four!) most formative books.

Let’s flip the page into Chapter 83 now …

What You'll Learn:

• What is a media theorist?

• How is Team Human doing?

• What is the true environmental cost of Bitcoin?

• Why is slack so important?

• How can we rebuild trust where it is lost?

• How do we free ourselves from societal pressures?

• Is there such a thing as an original thought?

• How does intergenerational living benefit society?

• Why should we never retire?

• What is Chapel Perilous?

• What is a reality tunnel?

• How do you surf reality?

• How does tradition keep us sane?

• How should we think about death?

• What is the difference between death and dying?

• What is the Tibetan bardo? 

• What kind of games should we strive to play in life?

• What is the purpose of play?

• What was the original vision for the internet?

• What is the true meaning of the Sabbath in today’s world?

• Why is Torah magical?

You can find show notes and more inform