Team Human

Founding editor of High Frontiers, Reality Hackers, and Mondo 2000, R. U. Sirius and Douglas Rushkoff discuss Mondo 2000's cultural influence, memes, and how to create a fool proof media virus. This is a special preview of a conversation recorded in 1993.Become a contributing supporter for as little as $2 per month. You’ll instantly gain access to:

President of the National Jewish Center for Leading and Leadership, author of Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life, and seventh-generation rabbi Irwin Kula brings us through a spiritual journey in the desert — and may just show us the strength to stay there in the in-between.

On this Team Human special report, The Yes Men’s Andy Bichlbaum explains how he duped Newsmax into letting an imposter former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz discuss his regret for the Afghanistan War for 11 minutes!

Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Thought at the University of Denver Sarah Pessin helps us learn to treasure the great human in-between. The living, delightfully incomplete, and always never-quite-thereness of our collective human journey.

Author of The Web of Meaning and The Patterning Instinct, Jeremy Lent joins Douglas Rushkoff for a special Team Human Salon live from Team Human’s Discord community. Here’s a sneak preview of their conversation. Originally recorded August 6, 2021.Become a contributing supporter for as little as $2 per month. You’ll instantly gain access to:

Author and activist Naomi Klein engages with Rushkoff on media and society on the occasion of winning the Media Ecology Association’s Neil Postman award for career achievement in public intellectual activity. How is narrative in peril? Rushkoff and Klein explain how ecology can help provide a grand narrative.

Cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, lyricist for the Grateful Dead, and psychedelic hero John Perry Barlow (1947-2018) and Rushkoff discuss the the War on Drugs and the widespread fear of computers in a conversation recorded circa 1992. Here, Barlow introduces Rushkoff to the phrase “cultural immune response,” which later served as inspiration for 1995’s Media Virus. For as little as $2 per month, you’ll instantly gain access to:

Author of The Patterning Instinct and The Web of Meaning, Jeremy Lent helps us see through to the meaning that informs our science so that it can be used to embrace the paradox of our existence, rather than reducing it down to a form suitable only for exploitation.In his monologue, Rushkoff explores how well-natured attempts to improve language will almost always fall short because of the underlying structure of the language we use. “We must also accept that language is just another medium that will almost always fail to say what we truly mean.”

Here’s a sneak preview of this week’s Team Human Patreon-exclusive bonus content: Rushkoff, information artist and bio-hacker Heather Dewey-Hagborg, and visiting Assistant Professor of Practice of Interactive Media Joerg Blumtritt participate in ‘An Oral History of the Internet’. Rushkoff shares his early experience of the internet how the internet has changed over time. This project was sponsored by the NYUAD Art Gallery and the NYUAD Institute. Originally recorded June 9, 2021.

Co-Founder & Director of the Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future, Nate Hagens deconstructs some of our deeply held beliefs about climate change and offers us a few dangerous and inexpensive ways to keep our species sustainably happy. How can we learn to live with less?

Here's a preview of this week's bonus episode: Sand Talk author Tyson Yunkaporta joins Douglas Rushkoff in Team Human's High Fidelity spatial audio room for a special salon. Team Human teammates were granted a special opportunity to join live. Originally recorded on May 8, 2021. You can gain full access to this conversation by becoming a supporter today at: patreon.com/teamhuman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Comedian, composer, contemporary buddhist, and host of the Duncan Trussell Family Hour Duncan Trussell and Rushkoff travel far and wide through spirituality and synchronicity to help us discover what it means to be truly human, together. Is the hope that life — and conversations, themselves — continue after death? How can humans grapple with the Buddhist belief of truly learning to let go of “the dream”? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here's a preview of this week's Team Human bonus content: A talk Rushkoff gave about the late Robert Anton WIlson and his notion of the chapel perilous. Rushkoff shares the story of the first time he met RAW and why RAW believed a skeptic's worldview isn't safer than any other worldview. This talk includes a conversation with The Stoa's Rebecca Fox and Peter Limberg. Recorded March 2021. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writer, philosopher, and author of The Fall of Language, Alex Stern helps us distinguish who we are from what we tweet. Further, he explores how enlightenment values end up turning into their opposite — and why the word “fascism” can be a barrier to understanding culture. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here's a special preview of science fiction author Bruce Sterling's conversation with Douglas Rushkoff circa 1990. Sterling had just co-written The Difference Engine with William Gibson. This conversation was recorded in part to research for Rushkoff's Cyberia.Support now for as little as $2 per month to gain full access to this conversation and Team Human's special patrons-only Team Feed at Patreon.com/TeamHuman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feels Good Man filmmakers Arthur Jones and Giorgio Angelini show us how a great meme can go bad — and how to take it back again.Rushkoff, Angelini, and Jones explore the evolution of Matt Furie’s Pepe the Frog from stoner frog to alt-right meme. When did internet culture became real-world culture? How did a community of trolls who wanted to manipulate reality end up effecting physical space? When was the moment that fan fiction became mainstream?In his monologue, Rushkoff addresses the cycle of bad faith arguments amplified by Twitter that end up destroying real conversation — and many talented people’s credibility. “Once you cross over into the land of make-believe facts — however earnest you believe your intention is — it undermines not only your argument, but the whole social fabric. It undermines our entire collective quest as human beings to figure out what the heck is really going on here.” Rushkoff says. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here's a special preview of Reality Sandwich Co-Founder and Editorial Director of Lucid News Ken Jordan and Douglas Rushkoff's conversation from WFMU's The Media Squat. Jordan explains how cultural change works, the 2012 prophecy, and art's role in giving voice to the unspoken. Originally aired June 22, 2009.Support now for as little as $2 per month to gain full access to this conversation and Team Human's special patrons-only Team Feed at Patreon.com/TeamHuman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Musician and composer Ela Minus introduces us to her acts of rebellion and shows us how music can help us find the others against all efforts to prevent it. Minus’ new album, Acts of Rebellion is streaming everywhere now.In his monologue, Rushkoff explores how robots can help us appreciate and understand what it means to be human. "You need the next medium in order to understand the value of the medium that you’re in.” Rushkoff says. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here's a special preview of The Yes Men's conversation with Rushkoff from an episode of WFMU's The Media Squat in 2009. Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno discuss their 2009 film The Yes Men Fix The World, how they measure success, and bias against situationist-style media pranking. Originally aired August 3, 2009.Support now for as little as $2 per month to gain full access to this conversation and Team Human's special patrons-only Team Feed at Patreon.com/TeamHuman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Entrepreneur and author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life Luke Burgis shares the reasons behind Silicon Valley's obsession with the philosophies of former Stanford Professor René Girard and whether we can ever transcend the human impulse of wanting to be like someone else. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.