Luke Smith: The Return to Normalcy

Justin Murphy invited me to California for a weekend to do that interview that we've been meaning to do since 4 years ago! We talk about why I left academia, epistemological anarchism, Orthodoxy Christianity, the Enlightenment and lots of questions about lifestyles for people who are contemplating being future ex-"bugmen" and ex-academics. The full interview on Justin's channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxozmaGISOI Justin Murphy's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JustinMurphy His newsletter: https://www.otherlife.co/ 00:00:00 Intro 00:05:30 Leaving Academia and the Donald Trump Inquisition 00:15:26 Academics struggle with being useless. 00:19:27 Epistemological Anarchism and Peer Review 00:25:08 Thankful for Bad Things and Starting YouTube 00:28:30 The Ideal Life in Zhuangzi's Village 00:31:02 "Independent" Lifestyle and Return to Normalcy 00:33:07 Pray for Bad Things to Happen? 00:37:37 Product Consoomption and My Biggest Meta-Regret 00:40:40 On "Influencers" 00:42:12 Becomi