Announcing: Samsara Audio

Yes, the world desperately needed another podcast, didn't it?

In light of the recent chaos on Twitter involving the release of Substack's new Notes feature, I chose to accelerate my timeline for expanding Samsara Diagnostics into the realm of audio, specifically YouTube and Spotify. I'm also grateful for a friend's encouragement to move past my indecision by simply recording what came to me naturally (thank you, Micah).

Yesterday, I released episode 1 of Samsara Audio at YouTube and on Anchor.fm. In episode one, I provide a high level overview of how everything I've been posting for the past couple months fits together, at least in my mind (you might have different ideas). I take the question "what sort of problem is a human?" as a guiding theme, and the philosophical problem presented by the existence of self-destructive behaviors provides us with an entrance into our investigation.

I don't want to over-commit when it comes to audio, because recording and producing audio episodes takes more time and effort than writing does (although it's certainly fun), but since YouTube and Spotify collectively reach about 3 billion monthly active users, that type of opportunity makes the investment tantalizing. This is more an experiment than anything else, and I expect it will take some time before any sort of schedule or routine appears.

What to expect, if anything? I do have a few guests lined up, but mainly the podcast episodes will be me talking about an idea, a thinker, or a problem of philosophical interest. My aim is to keep these in the 15-30 minute range, for the sake of listenability. I also suspect I will post shorter content, like 5-15 minutes more frequently on the YouTube channel, but we'll see about that. My primary goal in posting audio will be to drive folks back to this newsletter for them to subscribe

In the meantime, please like and subscribe at YouTube, and follow Samsara Audio over at Spotify. I'm working on syndicating out from Anchor.fm to other podcasting platforms, but that takes time.

Keep an eye out for this Friday's piece from Samsara Diagnostics where I draw a contrast between what I call "pull theories" of desire and "push theories" of desire. You can find me discussing those concepts in the latest episode of Samsara Audio as well, so check that out if you're interested in a preview of what's to come.

Thanks for reading and listening!