The Unintended Consequences of "Knowledge is Power"

Effective Altruism (EA) is the guiding ethical approach in much of the tech world and especially among A.I. gurus and the ostensibly independent body that is overseeing the A.I. companies. In this episode, the Pugs discuss what EA is and the problems with it, most importantly, its superficial concept of the Good and its efforts to quantify everything. If you want to know what our A.I. overlords think they’re doing and why we shouldn’t go along with it, tune in to this week’s show.

In this episode, we welcome Tara Thieke on the show to talk about her two-part article on the rising popularity of witchcraft. The conversation touches on why witchcraft is growing, witchcraft as the female parallel to transhumanism, its connection to critical theory, Lindsey Clancy, the collapse of secularism, and the church’s failure to recognize the cultural drift toward the occult. We finish with how to respond to witches who are our neighbors. Join us for an illuminating discussion of a dark subject in our culture today.

The Pugs respond to a book review by Robert Bellah of Harold Bloom’s, The American Religion, from all the way back in 1992. Bloom contended that beneath the surface of an ostensible Christianity lurked an American version of Gnosticism. Bloom rejoiced, many people at the time objected, but has Bloom been proven right 30 years later? Tune in and find out what the Pugs have to say.

In this episode, the Pugs welcome back Dr. Natalie Atwell to discuss her new book, Humanity Under Siege. After more than twenty years as a licensed clinical mental health therapist, Dr. Atwell noticed that the cases were becoming stranger. This led her on a quest to figure out why, and she concluded that there was a spiritual dimension that counseling had largely ignored. She then worked on diagnostic tools that could determine whether “other influences” were causing mental health problems in patients. This book is the result. The Pugs have an engaging conversation with her about her work and a range of related topics surrounding the spiritual dimensions of mental health therapy.

This week’s podcast looks at the important book by Tobias Rose-Stockwell: Outrage Machine: how tech amplifies discontent, disrupts democracy, and what we can do about it. The pugs engaged the book, recognizing that the author is correct to note how social media and contemporary technology serve as environments of spiritual and moral formation. But what is being formed is something that actually makes worse the passions, such as an anger, rather than fosters virtue. This is where classic Christian moral psychology and spiritual formation become key ingredients in a proper solution to the vice producing machine. The pugs also engage the question of how a concern for solidarity first prior to any concern for democracy is key to a Christian spiritual formation.