Sam Berkson is a poet and blogger. Sam is a really passionate and active writer, performer, and organizer (of culture and politics) in London. We recorded this podcast in Sam’s flat in Tottenham at 3am on a Friday night. Sam's recent book, Settled Wanderers, is out now with Influx Press. You can find more of Sam's work on his website and you can hit him up at @AngrySamPoet. Notes with timestamps general patterns of the universe!!! 00:01 full automation or nah? 00:03 what’s up with Red Bull owning the whole world of extreme sports? 00:06 the crazy growth in performance in extreme sports 00:07 linguistic invariance, principles and parameters 00:14 even educated people basically don’t know shit 00:16 how natural human mental functioning is really faulty 00:18 the metaphor of the elephant and its rider 00:19:30 right-wing vs. left-wing models of human needs 00:24 the problem of aggregating from individualism to tribalism to global community  00:28 nobody does anything great out of desperation 00:44 why you have to be realistic about what thinking can do - 00:46 talking with people isn’t about solving problems but doing something meaningful 00:47 if listeners don’t like my podcasts then they're fired! 00:49