What is it like to be an atheist who suddenly meets God? How can poker make us think more clearly about existential risk?

These are just a few of the many fascinating topics this conversation with my good friend Cate Hall covers. Cate is probably best known for her stint as a professional poker player, however she also has worked as a top level corporate lawyer in Washington, and more recently co-founded and ran a biosecurity company that aims to mitigate the threat of biorisks to humanity, like pandemics. Her life hasn’t been all smooth sailing though; for a number of years, Cate experienced a severe mental health and drug addiction issues that nearly took her life.

I’m so grateful to Cate for this honest and frank conversation about her experiences, and for showing us how to adopt a rational, Win-Win mindset even in the face of dire adversity.
 
Chapters
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:57 - Practising Law
00:05:09 - Parasitic nature of legal system
00:16:24 - From Law to Poker
00:18:19 - Reading Body Language
00:24:41 - Highs and Lows in Poker
00:28:36 - Women in Poker
00:36:21 - Psychotic Break
00:45:58 - Meeting God
00:53:30 - Psychosis or Spirituality?
01:03:03 - Overcoming Addiction
01:08:24 - Current Beliefs
01:13:07 - Biosecurity
01:21:46 - Democratisation of Information
 
Links
♾️  Samsara
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83s%C4%81ra
♾️  Pascal Mugging
https://nickbostrom.com/papers/pascal.pdf
♾️ Gnosticism and The Demiurge
https://gnosticismexplained.org/the-gnostic-demiurge/
♾️ USAID Deep Vision Program
https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/oct-5-2021-usaid-announces-new-125-million-project-detect-unknown-viruses-pandemic-potential
♾️ Bodhisattva
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva
 
Credits:
Hosted By: Liv Boeree
Produced & Edited by: Raymond Wei
Audio Mix by: Keir Schmidt