A little update to the logo: Feeling lucky to have had such rich conversations with these faces, and hopefully many more to come.

in defense of small talk

Ep. 23: Tamara Winter - Tacit Trust & Caring Curiosity Tamara Winter (@_TamaraWinter) is the Commissioning Editor of @stripepress, where she exercises her taste to identify the knowledge and "ideas for progress" that matter most in alignment with Stripe's mission: to increase the GDP of the internet. "Tammy" worked at the Charter Cities Institute (@CCIdotCity) and the @mercatus Center at George Mason University, which is chaired by Tyler Cowen. Tammy is obsessed with tacit knowledge and the illegible parts of the world that actually support so much of our lives, work, and societies. This includes taste, charisma, relationships, and a wide-range of load-bearing infrastructure that supports healthy and trustful societies, from small-talk and manners to hidden forces that prevent anti-social behavior and maintain safe places to live and work. We discuss this and more, including how she selects the ideas worthy of Stripe's audience, her unique career path, her refreshing take on agency, her standards for herself, reading and writing, and how she chooses how to spend her time. Above all, Tammy's incredible love of other people shines throughout the conversation. Timestamps: 2:09 - Taste, absorption, and influences 10:54 - Deploying your taste 15:49 - Ideas that matter and taking yourself seriously 22:13 - Aesthetics 24:16 - Choosing Teachers and Authors 28:15 - Charisma & delightfulness privilege 34:59 - Living a relational life 44:07 - Trust, social scaffolding, and small talk 51:01 - Erosion of social norms, low-trust environments, and load-bearing infrastructure 1:02:17 - Cultural arson and the dark sides of "you can just do things" 1:15:44 - The healthy kind of agency 1:20:45 - Tammy's N-of-1 path and who she aspires to rhyme with 1:28:38 - Red herrings of success and focusing on outcomes 1:32:22 - Assortive everything 1:37:52 - Personal and professional standards 1:43:06 - Journaling, great writing, and audience 1:57:29 - Reading & Biographies Transcript and all platforms available below.

Fun fact: you can buy Dialectic's coin and apparently make money? But also you can listen to the hand-crafted episodes where I pour my heart and soul into trying to create an audio portrait of people who inspire me. You can decide which is more worthwhile. Por que no los dos?

New ranking for @DialecticPod in the Zora Top 100 lfg

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this part of my @dialecticpod conversation with @nayafia about attention. Our attention shapes everything around us, and we can strengthen it or let it fatigue:

I'm looking for some inspiration: what podcasts or talk shows have your favorite cinematic brands? Specifically examples that have distinct visual worlds, or at least aesthetics. Examples: - @tbpn - @RickRubin's @tetranow - @JoshuaCitarella's Doomscroll - @AdamFriedland

Someday, before the end of time, maybe someone will actually finish an entire episode of Dialectic.

I can’t believe I just discovered @DialecticPod. I’ve spent 4-5 hours biking and binge listening to it this weekend.

I recently discovered @jacksondahl's podcast and I'm so happy to hear these thoughtful conversations...a new fave