Season Two: Life, Upgraded

Life in society is a complex web of humanity, widely-varying cultures, clashing ideas and values, individual drives, ego, conventional wisdoms and conflicting rules. There is no guide book or universally agreed-upon set of rules about how to live and be happy; but a life unchained and upgraded is a wise, if difficult, path.

Here you will find ten new cautionary tales (Season Two of the Evolve Faster Podcast) to help you explore the contract you’ve unwittingly signed with society; then it’s up to you to decide if it’s time to tear it up and rewrite it.


EF39 (S2-E0): LIFE, UPGRADED: Welcome to Season Two of the Evolve Faster Podcast

EF39 (S2-E0): LIFE, UPGRADED: Welcome to Season Two of the Evolve Faster Podcast

PLAY | DOWNLOAD Welcome to Life, Upgraded. On 1/21/2020, ten new cautionary tales of speculative fiction begin to drop every other week. The goal of Season Two of the Evolve Faster Podcast is to help you explore the contracts you’ve unwittingly signed with society and its layers of cultural institutions. Then it will be up to you to decide if it’s time to tear up and rewrite any of them. More...
Dehumanized: The Search for Self in the Devil’s Looking Glass

EF40 (S2-E1): Dehumanized: The Search for Self in the Devil’s Looking Glass

PLAY | DOWNLOAD Finding your place in society can feel like being forced to replicate the movements of others in a mirror. Does our technology buy us freedom from conforming, or dehumanize us? And do individuals really need society and culture anyway? More...
EF41 (S2-E2): Transhuman Fallibility: The Existential Risk of a Superhuman Future

(EF41) S2-E2: Transhuman Fallibility: The Existential Risk of a Superhuman Future

PLAY | DOWNLOAD Technology is like a powerful drug that can either improve you or make you miserable and dependent. Is it our evolutionary fate that we will become superhuman? Or is the codebase of human nature inherently too fallible for the story of transhumanism to end well? More...
Civil Individualism: Loneliness Atop Mount Empowerment

(EF42) S2-E3: Civil Individualism: Loneliness Atop Mount Empowerment

PLAY | DOWNLOAD Going against society has the empowering feeling of standing alone on the top of a mountain. But is it even possible to climb to such heights without falling into the lonely pit of self-delusion? And what does it really mean to be an individual? More...
Evil Urges: The Fiery Duality of Human Nature

EF43 (S2-E4): Evil Urges: The Fiery Duality of Human Nature

PLAY | DOWNLOAD The urges of human nature are like fire: they can cook your food or burn your house down. Is evil perceived consistently across people, or should the situation, culture, and individual psychology have a say in its characterization? And does this help define what is evil? More...
Reality Unchained: Smashing the Icons of Social Delusion

EF44 (S2-E5): Reality Unchained: Smashing the Icons of Social Delusion

PLAY | DOWNLOAD Society and culture can be shackles locking us in a mental prison cell. Iconoclastic thinking is a sure way to break the chains and reveal the truth, but it is risky. Does this make ‘why this stuff and not some other stuff’ the most dangerous question you can ask? More...
Weaving Society’s Web: Purpose in a Future Without Work

EF45 (S2-E5): Weaving Society’s Web: Purpose in a Future Without Work

PLAY | DOWNLOAD Cocooned in webs of lies about happiness and freedom, many people overwork, chained to careers they despise. Would a society without work function and also make people happier? Or would it fail because work is one of the most meaningful human pursuits? More...
Empathetic Distortion: Rigging the Scales of Justice

EF46 (S2-E7): Empathetic Distortion: Rigging the Scales of Justice

PLAY | DOWNLOAD Like a rigged scale of justice, life in society and within cultures is inherently unfair. But what if there were ways to live true to yourself while also being compassionate to everyone? And is a just world even possible? More...
Infinite Regress: Drawing Back The Veil of Perception

EF47 (S2-E8): Infinite Regress: Drawing Back The Veil of Perception

PLAY | DOWNLOAD Investigating human limitations beyond the veil of perception is as disconcerting as looking at an image repeating into itself in an infinite regress. What would it mean to have a complete grasp of the entire picture? And would that define for us what is reality? More...
Checkmate: A Child’s Guide to the Good Life

EF48 (S2-E9): Checkmate: A Child’s Guide to the Good Life

PLAY | DOWNLOAD Experiencing life through the eyes of a child is to see the world with an intensity and excitement to learn long since lost in most adults. Do the secrets to life fulfillment exist in this simple mindset shift? And would this help define what is a good life? More...
The Domino Effect: The Momentum of an Unstoppable Future

EF49 (S2-E10): The Domino Effect: The Momentum of an Unstoppable Future

PLAY | DOWNLOAD Humanity’s relationship to the future is like falling dominoes, where the momentum of the present surges forward to create what’s next. But since our actions enact this cause-effect chain, does this mean the future is knowable? Or do humans not even matter in this cosmic cycle? More...
  • Season One: The journey begins as we embark on 11 episodes on big questions relating to MIND. What is the truth? Can we trust reason? Why do we have emotions? Does happiness define the good? What is identity? What is creativity?

  • (EF1) Trailer: The Evolve Faster Podcast (Extended) Trailer

  • (EF2) Intro: Life is a Near Death Experience: Welcome to The Evolve Faster Podcast

  • (EF3) S1-E1: All Aboard the Experience Machine: Destination…Unknown (Season One, Episode One)

  • (EF4) S1-E2: The Decapitation of Reason: A Skeptic’s Guide (Season One, Episode Two)

  • (EF5) S1-E3: The Truth is Clay in the Hands of a Sculptor (Season One, Episode Three)

  • (EF6) S1-E4: Information Mainlining and the Folly of Modern Wisdom (Season One, Episode Four)

  • (EF7) S1-E5: Sleight of Mind: The Black Magic of Rhetoric (Season One, Episode Five)

  • (EF8) S1-E6: Without a Compass: All Who Sail the Seas of Identity Are Not Lost (Season One, Episode Six)

  • (EF9) S1-E7: I Feel Therefore I am: Capsized by the River Emotion (Season One, Episode Seven)

  • (EF10) S1-E8: The Road to Happiness is Inked in Suffering (Season One, Episode Eight)

  • (EF11) S1-E9: When the Lights Go Out: The Blinding Light of an Artificial Future (Season One, Episode Nine)

  • (EF12) S1-E10: Wired to Fail: Leveling Up in the Game of Life (Season One, Episode Ten)

  • (EF13) S1-E11: The Bloody Fingerprint of Creativity (Season One, Episode Eleven)

  • (EF14) BTP: Behind the Evolve Faster Podcast - The Making of a Speculative Fiction Meets Philosophical Nonfiction Podcast

  • (EF15) AMA: Ask Me Anything: About Scott Ely and Evolving a Philosophy for Life

  • (EF16) BTP: On Creative Writing, Video Games and the Future of the Evolve Faster Podcast (About Antonio Rozich)

  • (EF17) BTP-EF3: What Am I Supposed To Do Free Will and Other Everyday Problems Behind the Podcast of Episode EF3

  • (EF18) AMA-EF3: The Mystical Allure of Converting to Buddhism and Speculating about Quantum Mechanics Ask Me Anything for Episode EF3

  • (EF19) BTP-EF4: Head Transplantation and Finding Inspiration for Speculative Fiction - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF4

  • (EF20) AMA-EF4: The Declining Value of Information and Taking Risks to Determine What is the Truth Ask Me Anything of Episode EF4

  • (EF21) BTP-EF5: Should Lying be Made Illegal and the Importance of Figuring Out Why You Believe What you Believe --Behind the Podcast of Episode EF5

  • (EF22) AMA-EF5: Defeating Fake News and Critical Thinking as the Superpower the World Needs Most Ask Me Anything of Episode EF5

  • (EF23) BTP-EF6: Scaling Mount Wisdom Without Suffocating Under an Avalanche of Ego Behind The Podcast of Episode EF6

  • (EF24) AMA-EF6: Is Less Really More When it Comes to the Pursuit of Wisdom or is Ignorance Bliss - Ask Me Anything of Episode EF6

  • (EF25) BTP-EF7: The Power of Propaganda and Rhetoric to Divide Us and the Quest for a Better World - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF7

  • (EF26) AMA-EF7: The Impossibility of Honest Politicians and Protecting Our Kids from The Most Insidious Fake News Ask Me Anything for Episode EF3

  • (EF27) BTP-EF8: Who are You and is it Possible to Upgrade Your Identity as an Adult? - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF8

  • (EF28) AMA-EF8: Drugs, Consciousness Manipulation and Cheating Your Way To a Better You - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF8

  • (EF29) BTP-EF9: Waging War Between Reason and Emotions and the Importance of Leaving Things Unresolved Behind the Podcast of Episode EF9

  • (EF30) AMA-EF9: Emotional Manipulation Tribalism and Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Think Before you Feel - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF9

  • (EF31) BTP-EF10: Dharma Modifying Negative Thinking and the Never-Ending Pursuit of Happiness by Embracing Suffering - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF10

  • (EF32) AMA-EF10: Mind Control Through a Well Chosen Tattoo and the Unlikely Case of Being Happy Enough - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF3

  • (EF33) BTP-EF11: The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Creativity - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF11

  • (EF34) AMA-EF11: On Perfection, the AI Alignment Problem, and the Possibility of Quantum Leaps of Creativity - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF11

  • (EF35) BTP-EF12: Cryptocurrencies Gaming and Leveraging Failure to Help Us Define Who We Are - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF12

  • (EF36) AMA-EF12: Pyrrhic Victory and Finding the 10% of Your Mind that Defines Who You Are - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF12

  • (EF37) BTP-EF13: Where Creativity Comes From and How to Find Your Uniquely Bloody Fingerprint - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF13

  • (EF38) AMA-EF13: Flow, Creative Improvisation and Other Altered States of Consciousness Ask Me Anything for Episode EF13

  • (EF39) S2-E0: LIFE, UPGRADED: Welcome to Season Two of the Evolve Faster Podcast

  • (EF40) S2-E1: Dehumanized: The Search for Self in the Devil’s Looking Glass

  • (EF41) S2-E2: Transhuman Fallibility: The Existential Risk of a Superhuman Future

  • (EF42) S2-E3: Civil Individualism: Loneliness Atop Mount Empowerment

  • (EF43) S2-E4: Evil Urges: The Fiery Duality of Human Nature

  • (EF44) S2-E5: Reality Unchained: Smashing the Icons of Social Delusion

  • (EF45) S2-E6: Weaving Society’s Web: Purpose in a Future Without Work

  • (EF46) S2-E7: Empathetic Distortion: Rigging the Scales of Justice

  • (EF47) S2-E8: Infinite Regress: Drawing Back The Veil of Perception

  • (EF48) S2-E9: Checkmate: A Child’s Guide to the Good Life

  • (EF49) S2-E10: The Domino Effect: The Momentum of an Unstoppable Future