Fresh Lens Podcast

Hirad Motamed & Patricia Veinott

We read books and discuss ideas that help us see the world differently. Hosted by Trish and Hirad, who met at a Vancouver-based book club, focused on reading on topics of evolution and human behaviour. Music for this podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com.

  1. 12/30/2024

    Democracy: The God That Failed (Part 2)

    In this episode, we wrap up our discussion of Hans Herman Hoppe's Democracy: The God that Failed. In this episode, Hirad and Trish clash about the ways in which democratic systems have failed their original promises, the anarcho-capitalist view of the future, and how feasible such a world really is.

    1h 43m

  2. 08/02/2024

    Democracy: The God That Failed (Part 1)

    We open this episode with a discussion of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump and the state of civility in the current climate. We use this to frame our discussion of Hans Herman Hoppe's book, "Democracy: The God that Failed". In this episode, we discuss's Hoppe's ideas on the drivers of progress, comparison of monarchy and democracy, and why, according to Hoppe, the latter is guaranteed to fail.

    1h 16m

  3. 05/03/2024

    Pirate Enlightenment

    In this episode we discuss David Graeber's final book - Pirate Enlightenment. This was a very short book that promises to teach us about the political organization of the pirates who ended up settling on Madagascar after a lifetime of raiding vessels in the Indian Ocean. Make sure you stay tuned to the end for a sneak peek of what's coming up next on Fresh Lens.

    20 min

  4. 02/15/2024

    The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

    In this episode, Trish & Hirad discuss Marc Andreesen's techno-optimist manifesto, advancements in AI, accelerationism vs decelerationism, the concept of the right-wing progressive, and the historical follies of progressivism. Links to the articles discussed: - The Techno-Optimist Manifesto - The Rise of the Right Wing Progressive - Yudkowski's call to shut down AI in Time Magazine

    1h 3m

  5. 11/23/2023

    The Dawn of Everything - Part 3

    In this final instalment on The Dawn of Everything, we discuss the 3 forms of domination characteristic of the modern state, anarchism, non-western democracies, civilizations that have reversed course, and all kinds of other goodies.

    1h 30m

  6. 02/24/2023

    The Dawn of Everything - Part 2

    This is part 2 of our coverage of The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. In this episode, we're still laying the foundations to answer the question of why it is that we're stuck in a single political paradigm. We discuss how cultures diverge, why the agricultural revolution wasn't much of a revolution, and how pre-agricultural societies actually lived (spoiler: in all sorts of ways).

    52 min

  7. 10/13/2022

    The Dawn of Everything - Part 1

    In this episode, we kick off our discussion of The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow. We liked B******t Jobs so much that we decided to keep going with the Graeber titles. This book examines the ways in which humans have organized themselves since the beginning. In this first part, we talk about the fallacious but popular narratives that have saturated our thinking about the history of humanity and the origins of inequality.

    40 min

  8. 10/01/2022

    #MahsaAmini

    In this mini-episode, we talk about the recent events in Hirad's home country of Iran. Hirad shares some recollections about life there, and we use the recent events as a perspective on western issues. This episode is a bit different from the usual Fresh Lens content. We feel it's incumbent upon us to keep the conversation about these events alive, since that is all we can do.

    23 min
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About

We read books and discuss ideas that help us see the world differently. Hosted by Trish and Hirad, who met at a Vancouver-based book club, focused on reading on topics of evolution and human behaviour. Music for this podcast is courtesy of purple-planet.com.

Information

  • Creator
    Hirad Motamed & Patricia Veinott
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2024
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Fresh Lens Podcast
  • Show Website
    Fresh Lens Podcast