Christopher Hitchens: Rhetoric, Religion, and Ramadan
Decoding the Gurus
Christopher Kavanagh and Matthew Browne
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 15 May 2023
⏱️ 142 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our short-lived Christopher Hitchens ends in our second episode and full-length decoding of the punchy Brit.
This time we are examining one of his well-known religion-themed debates, debating the question 'Is Islam a Religion of Peace?' for The 92nd Street Y, New York with the academic and writer Tariq Ramadan. This one feels like a bit of a throwback to a post-9/11 & Iraq war world. New Atheism was still a cultural force with some punch but it had also received its own fair share of body blows since its earlier days as a plucky new contender.
Regardless of how you feel about that particular genre, we suggest you don a fedora, pour yourself a stiff drink, and be prepared for a heady mixture of substantive points, moralizing rhetoric, and witty retorts from both of these seasoned debaters.
Also covered in the episode Andrew Huberman and whether sad women's tears have unique properties, Jordan Hall teaches everyone how to play the guitar, James Lindsay discovers the Logos... and Chris tells us all about his office fridge adventures.
Links
- Hitchens and Ramadan debate at 92nd Street Y New York
- Huberman's TikTok video about women's tears and his related tweets
- James Lindsay's Twitter thread on demons and the Logos
- Reddit Thread with a link to Jordan Hall's Guitar tutorial
- Daniel Laken's free course on psychology methodology and statistical inference
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | And the Oh, Hello and |
| 0:26.3 | Welcome to the Cody the Guru's the podcast or a psychologist and an anthropologist listen to the |
| 0:31.0 | greatest minds the world has to offer and we try to understand what they're talking about. |
| 0:35.0 | I'm Matt Brown with me as Chris Kavanaugh. |
| 0:37.8 | Today we are doing a decoding. |
| 0:40.1 | It's the afternoon. |
| 0:41.0 | We've finished our daily tasks, our academic duties, and we are getting some afternoon |
| 0:46.0 | decoding done because that's the kind of guys we are. |
| 0:48.2 | Hey Chris. |
| 0:49.2 | I never have finished my academic tasks. That's a pure pipe dream. I'm just my academic task. |
| 0:52.8 | That's a pure pipe dream. |
| 0:54.1 | I'm just taking a break from that. |
| 0:56.9 | So what a world you live in that or task? |
| 0:59.8 | Inbox zero, Chris. |
| 1:00.8 | Inbox zero. |
| 1:02.0 | It's what you want to aspire to. |
| 1:03.9 | Yeah, yeah, well, one thing that set me off |
| 1:07.4 | on the wrong foot this morning, |
| 1:08.7 | and I'll keep it short, you know, keep it short. |
| 1:11.9 | I know, you know, we're a nice efficient machine. |
| 1:14.0 | Not too much banter. |
| 1:15.0 | People don't like the banter. |
... |
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