In Episode 299 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Jon Askonas a professor of politics at the Catholic University of America where he works on the connections between the republican tradition, technology, and national security. Jon is the author of a new series of essays for the New Atlantis titled “Reality: A Postmortem,” where he looks at the forces that have conspired to break consensus reality, and what it means for humanity and the world. The last few years in many Western countries have been characterized by a growing sense of bewilderment, anger, and distrust. Distrust in mainstream institutions, in each other, and in ourselves—in our own capacity to apprehend reality and come to consensus about the nature of the world around us. Jon and Demetri spend the first hour of their conversation discussing the sources of this fragmentation, the disembodied self, and the ways in which the modern age shares more in common with the enchanted world of the middle ages than it does the secular age that has defined consensus reality in the Western world for most of the last 500 years. In the second hour, which is available to premium subscribers, they look at the pervasive effect of social media on the news business, the problem of truth and how to find it in this world of fractured realities, and what can be done to fix the problem. You can subscribe to our premium content and gain access to our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you want to join in on the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces genius community, which includes Q&A calls with guests, access to special research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners, you can also do that on our subscriber page. If you still have questions, feel free to email info@hiddenforces.io, and Demetri or someone else from our team will get right back to you. If you enjoyed listening to today’s episode of Hidden Forces you can help support the show by doing the following: Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | CastBox | RSS Feed Write us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Subscribe to our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe & Support the Podcast at https://hiddenforces.io Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 02/27/2023