The tyranny of vibes

Here’s my conversation with the phenomenal Hannah Kim. This one had a bit of everything: existentialism, music, the death of reading, North Korea, creativity, obsequious AI, and how Hannah found her way to philosophy.

The whole thing was a blast, but I especially recommend Hannah’s discussion of Juche, and how her grandfather’s North Korean background improbably brought him to America.

Chapters

1. Hannah’s path to philosophy (1:26)

2. Camus on the absurd (5:30)

3. Making music vs. writing philosophy (13:30)

4. The dying art of reading (30:40)

5. Who dresses better: literary theorists or philosophers? (34:25)

6. North Korea’s state ideology—Juche (48:35)*

7. Philosophy as therapy (1:03:50)

8. Daniel Muñoz for king! (1:04:27)

9. AI creativity (1:12:52)

10. Immature AIs? (1:23:07)

11. The rise of content (1:32:04)*

12. The ascent of “vibe” (1:33:00)

13. Writing as emotion-management (1:39:28)

Thank you

Hannah Kim

,

Joseph Rahi

,

Nathaniel Joseph

,

Benjamin J. Smith

(who gets a shout out), and everybody who tuned in. Stay tuned for next week’s interview with Jake Monaghan, one of my favorite political philosophers, on policing, cities, and political liberalism.

HANNAH’S PICK

• Mary Midgley, “Trying Out One’s New Sword”