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June 9, 2024

Support Liberalism and Secularism for the 21st Century

Support Liberalism and Secularism for the 21st Century

Blair is sharing information about conferences on liberalism and secularism, books by catholic conservatives, and spot-on joke regarding the upcoming presidential election in the United States America. Martin is talking about the European elections, and is mentioning a podcast discussing deepfakes, distrust, and democracy. You will get informed about our download statistics and listener behavior. The call-to-action is a guide on how to support our work with the podcast.

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Show notes with links to articles, blog posts, products and services:


Episode 85 (17 minutes) was recorded at 1730 Central European Time, on June 8, 2024, with Ringr app. Martin did the editing and post-production with the podcast maker, Alitu. The transcript is generated by Alitu.

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Transcript
Blair:

Here we are again, ladies and gentlemen.



Blair:

Today it's just Martin and I in the secular Foxhole podcast number 85.



Blair:

How about that? 85.



Martin:

Yeah, that's a good number.



Blair:

Four years.



Blair:

I think we're in four years.



Martin:

Good.



Blair:

Congratulations to us.



Martin:

Yes, it is.



Martin:

Clap. Clap. Yeah.



Martin:

And we'll talk about that also, how they could, the listeners and co hosts, as you are



Martin:

and I am, and the guests and returning guests and others could support our work and we could



Martin:

support them in a trade.



Blair:

That's right.



Martin:

And value for value.



Martin:

So we'll come, come to that.



Martin:

But you have some news sandwich segment that, again, inspired by Amy Picoff.



Blair:

Yeah. Well, I do have some few things to talk about.



Blair:

Let's see.



Blair:

The first thing I want to mention is I



Blair:

subscribe to an email called notes from the middle ground by a gentleman named Damon



Blair:

Linker.



Blair:

Linker and his latest.



Martin:

And what's the meaning of middle ground?



Blair:

It's not the extreme left or the extreme right, I think, but it's not.



Martin:

The middle of the road that we know about that.



Blair:

Hopefully not.



Blair:

Yeah, hopefully.



Blair:

I think he's more, he's certainly in the liberal tradition, meaning the original



Blair:

classical sense.



Blair:

Yeah.



Blair:

Yes.



Blair:

Right.



Blair:

I believe that's true.



Blair:

But his latest, he, he talks about his, his



Blair:

teacher, this gentleman, name is Mark.



Blair:

I'm gonna call Lila l ill a mark.



Blair:

Lila.



Blair:

And he also has a, he has an article in the



Blair:

New York Review of Books, but it's available in PDF form on Mister Lila's website.



Blair:

But anyway, it's called the Tower and the sewer.



Blair:

And this is about.



Blair:

Let's read what Damon says about it.



Blair:

It's a wide ranging review covering several recent books by Patrick Deneen, Sohrab Amari



Blair:

and Adrian Vermeule.



Blair:

I think that's how you pronounce a gentleman's



Blair:

name.



Blair:

The essay is a tour de force that places these



Blair:

writers in broad historical context, situates them in contemporary, in the contemporary



Blair:

american right, and combines generosity toward the psychological and spiritual struggles that



Blair:

animate their thinking with nuanced is that word, and occasionally severe criticism of it.



Blair:

Now, these gentlemen are all anti liberal, anti enlightenment people.



Blair:

So they're no friends to America.



Blair:

So that I do want to, I will provide the



Blair:

Martin with the link to the PDF in the notes after the show.



Blair:

But that's something I want to alert our listeners to because I think it's well worth



Blair:

reading.



Blair:

And then here we are.



Blair:

And then I do subscribe to something else called the unpopulous, which Robert Tracinski.



Martin:

Yeah.



Blair:

Yeah. He often plugs on his in his writing and also his YouTube videos.



Blair:

But they have the people that behind the unpopulous have a institute for the Study of



Blair:

modern authoritarianism, and they are having their first conference in, of all places,



Blair:

Washington, DC, next month, next month, July 11 and 12th.



Blair:

So that's something we should plug, I think, and they want to, their topic for that



Blair:

conference is liberalism in the 21st century.



Blair:

And again, I will provide the links to both



Blair:

the website and I guess to the conference for that in our notes.



Blair:

And let's see what else.



Blair:

There was something else.



Martin:

Oh, you had to joke also because these two things sounds like a good.



Blair:

Yes, that's right.



Blair:

So here's, here's the, here's the good and



Blair:

this is the bad and it's the joke.



Martin:

Yeah.



Blair:

And people around the world should pity the american people because their choice for



Blair:

president is someone who's facing a sentence and someone who can't complete a sentence.



Blair:

So that is indeed a very sad situation.



Martin:

Yeah. Where did you see that one? That joke, actually, who read that?



Martin:

I want to give credits to that.



Blair:

We should, it was, it was a Greg Gutfeld on Fox.



Martin:

Yeah. Okay. That's also, that's also a good one.



Martin:

It's coming from Fox News.



Martin:

That's, that's interesting.



Blair:

Yeah, that's true.



Blair:

Yes, it is.



Blair:

So that's, that's the bad.



Blair:

And now the, the ringer for the sandwich, the



Blair:

top of the sandwich.



Blair:

This is another kind of a funny little thing.



Blair:

And I can't find the link.



Blair:

I have, I have to search for it.



Blair:

But here in America, we have what's called the Bible Belt, which is mostly southern part of



Blair:

the United States.



Martin:

Did it also reach where I was?



Blair:

I mean, there's, you know how you also is that there's certainly, it's not nearly



Blair:

severe in the midwest as it.



Martin:

Is more deep down south.



Blair:

Yeah, I think that's true.



Blair:

Honestly.



Blair:

And there is what I've called the buckle of the Bible Belt, which is little Rock,



Blair:

Arkansas.



Martin:

From Bill Clinton country.



Blair:

Yes, that's, yes, sadly, from Bill Clinton country.



Blair:

However, the secular student alliance is having their annual conference in Little Rock,



Blair:

Arkansas.



Blair:

So go figure.



Martin:

Yeah. That's a good battleground, right?



Blair:

I guess it must be.



Blair:

It might be.



Blair:

But I have to find that where I saw that.



Blair:

So, and then I'll put that in the show notes



Blair:

as well.



Blair:

But that's my new sandwich for this episode.



Martin:

Yeah. And I'm talking about news that I haven't listened to yet, but it's about the



Martin:

podcast in Swedish called the Security Council, and they were talking about



Martin:

deepfakes, distrust and democracy and about the artificial intelligence election year and



Martin:

so on.



Martin:

So that's something we could talk about



Martin:

tomorrow.



Martin:

It's European Union elections.



Martin:

I voted so called against European Union, okay, but I'm for free trade and so on.



Martin:

But now we are stuck in European Union.



Martin:

We haven't exited yet as Britain.



Martin:

But then you could then vote for somebody that could, a representative, a party that could



Martin:

stop the worst and maybe do something good there.



Martin:

And that's a new party that's not represented in the government or in the Riksta, as you say



Martin:

in Swedish.



Martin:

And that's called Mied Borg samling.



Martin:

And that's like Citizens alliance, you could say, or something like that.



Martin:

And it's a non socialist party because many of the non socialist parties, like the moderates,



Martin:

so called the conservatives, and even the liberal that are more social liberal, have



Martin:

problem issue whatever on their guidelines and the spectrum where they are.



Martin:

And we know that there's no left or right scale.



Martin:

In a way.



Martin:

Tracinski have talked about that also and



Martin:

others.



Martin:

But anyway, so it's interesting if I'm



Martin:

thinking of voting that and when I want to vote on a certain individual, if I could find.



Martin:

So that's for tomorrow.



Martin:

And then you said about the joke where in the



Martin:

autumn it's following that.



Martin:

And so we'll come back to that more and then



Martin:

definitely have Robert Traczynski and others returning and talking.



Martin:

So that's something about.



Martin:

And then.



Martin:

Yeah.



Martin:

What is a deepfake, for example, we could talk



Martin:

about and distrust for democracy could in a way be a good thing if it's not populist and a



Martin:

solution for the future is like a constitutional republic and really



Martin:

understands.



Martin:

I remember, wasn't it Tracinski that had that



Martin:

called something with the republic it's worth to save or something like that?



Blair:

Oh, yes.



Martin:

In paper form.



Martin:

Yeah.



Blair:

That I don't remember, but I know that Benjamin Franklin.



Martin:

Yeah.



Blair:

At the time of the signing, he answered someone's query, a republic if you can keep



Blair:

it.



Blair:

Of course, it hasn't been that for more than a



Blair:

century.



Blair:

Because of, you know, democracy.



Martin:

Yep.



Blair:

Which is the last in the last breath before tyranny unless you turn it around,



Blair:

which anyhow.



Martin:

Yeah. So that's something to come back to also.



Martin:

And then we could, if you're open to listen to some stats.



Blair:

Yes, please.



Martin:

So that's from our podcast host provider.



Martin:

I call it like a sound hotel.



Martin:

And that's an audio and that's captivate and



Martin:

there it's the listener behavior and the last 28 days is unique listeners, 129 and 148



Martin:

downloads.



Martin:

So some individuals have listened more than



Martin:

once, and then you could see its statistics and you could see trends a bit because we



Martin:

haven't done some latest episode is like two weeks ago, and that will have now download for



Martin:

70 downloads with Brian Stevenson.



Martin:

So that's great.



Martin:

So I don't look so much in it, and you shouldn't be, how to say, paralyzed by it.



Martin:

But it's interesting to see the trend so around.



Martin:

In general, in the long trend, we have like 198 downloads average every 28 days, like a



Martin:

month.



Martin:

So seven per day.



Martin:

Of course, in the long run, we want to have 77 hundred, 7000, et cetera, et cetera.



Martin:

And we see the potential of that.



Martin:

But we will not rush it as the band.



Blair:

No, I love Rush.



Martin:

But the new podcast app, in the latest 28 days, the fountain had 10% of that



Martin:

listening and downloads, you could say.



Martin:

So somebody out there is using a new podcast,



Martin:

modern podcast app.



Martin:

And a newly favorite of mine is Truefans Dot



Martin:

FM.



Martin:

And we will continue with this work.



Martin:

And then also the founder and originator of that, Sam Sati, will ask if you could come to



Martin:

the show and talk about the specific thing in the podcasting industry and how to arrange



Martin:

conference and political correctness and other things that could happen out there and the



Martin:

positive news, what he's doing, really doing great work with this.



Martin:

Truefans FM, the onboarding for guests, for co hosts, for listeners will be so smooth.



Martin:

And also you could have this value for value that you get something and you decide yourself



Martin:

how much you want to send as a transaction.



Martin:

So this is really interesting.



Martin:

So we'll cover that in the future.



Blair:

Yeah.



Martin:

And great.



Martin:

Again, great.



Martin:

That fountain is a popular app and there are more out there, and we will include that in



Martin:

the show notes.



Martin:

So the stats here, the latest period is United



Martin:

States, of course, is in the top.



Martin:

And then Canada.



Martin:

And these total are like around 50% of the listeners so far.



Martin:

And then Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Finland, Australia, Sweden, for some reason,



Martin:

Malaysia and Spain.



Martin:

That's the top ten.



Martin:

I didn't check how many countries we are in total, but we are getting closer and closer



Martin:

to, you know, how many countries there are out there.



Martin:

We are getting better.



Blair:

Well, that's great.



Blair:

That is great.



Blair:

I want to mention, I know you got to run.



Blair:

Is it true, fans?



Martin:

Truefans FM? Yes.



Blair:

Go ahead and talk about that if you like.



Martin:

Yeah, as I did, it's a great application, and it's a so called progress web



Martin:

app, so it could work.



Martin:

You don't have to download an app.



Martin:

It will work when you create an account, a free account, it will work on your smartphone



Martin:

also.



Martin:

And I see this positive gamification of it



Martin:

when you use it.



Martin:

You will get Satoshis.



Martin:

You could do all kind of things.



Martin:

And in the future we have like one guest that



Martin:

I'm thinking about, Warren Fahey and others and of course James Valiant.



Martin:

And in the future will be able to have like audiobooks there.



Martin:

You will be able to have courses, you could have conferences, all kind of things, and



Martin:

music artists.



Martin:

You could apply this value for value model on



Martin:

this also.



Martin:

So this would be really interesting in the



Martin:

future to follow this.



Martin:

Stay tuned and keep in touch regarding that.



Blair:

Well, that's all I had today, Martin.



Blair:

So I know, again, I know you got to run.



Martin:

Yeah, that's okay.



Martin:

And as the last thing then, and I thank you,



Martin:

Robert Beagley, as a guest, whatever, several times.



Martin:

Thanks for your email.



Martin:

And this is one thing with having a podcast,



Martin:

the relation you build and grow and so on.



Blair:

Yeah, true.



Martin:

And thanks to Robert, we had a guest that talked about this new educational, you



Martin:

could say site and college and school.



Blair:

Right, Marcia.



Martin:

And also we got support thanks to that podcast interview and conversation.



Martin:

And we appreciate that very much to get the support.



Martin:

And then you could go to the link that we have on Captivate, that's in the podcast player.



Martin:

And we include that in the show notes also.



Martin:

And I asked here on Twitter, because I saw on



Martin:

the podcastindex.org that they say like this, I will do a quote here, help us out.



Martin:

None of these is free.



Martin:

If you get any value from this project or if



Martin:

you just believe in it and want to help us with hosting fees and paying the bills, a



Martin:

donation of any amount would be great.



Martin:

And I would say the same for us.



Martin:

So, and then I tweeted here or posted, as you say now, on x to something called Conshax.



Martin:

And that's also a service that you could look at when you after some time get like from



Martin:

different streams and different podcast apps and whatnot, the donation, then of course, you



Martin:

want to thank the donors, but then you have to keep it in, you know, some kind of



Martin:

instrumental panel or dashboard or something like that.



Martin:

And contracts is that, and you could create a similar page like this capture page support



Martin:

page on contracts.



Martin:

And there they could, you could set a certain



Martin:

amount in satoshis, like, do you want to give us a cup of tea or a coffee or whatever your



Martin:

favorite beverage or a beer or your deciding amount.



Martin:

So you could have pre, how to say pre populated.



Blair:

Predetermined choices.



Martin:

Predetermined. Yeah. So it's very simple to do it, but I will wait for their



Martin:

response there.



Martin:

Okay.



Martin:

Thanks, Blair.



Martin:

It was nice to talk to you soon again.



Martin:

And we have guests in the pipeline and new things coming up and.



Martin:

Yeah, we will talk soon again.



Blair:

That sounds great, Martin.



Blair:

Thank you.



Martin:

Yeah, thanks for now and talk to you soon again.



Martin:

Bye for now.