Episode 38: Death — with Lionel Shriver

The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast

National Review

News, Politics, Music, Arts, Books, Music History

5 • 1000 Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2023

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On episode 38, Charles talks to the novelist Lionel Shriver about immortality, the topic of her recent cover story at National Review. What are the personal and societal implications of immortality? What drives her to write about that topic? Does Lionel want to live forever herself? What would be her biggest fear if she could attain eternal life? Is she more bored than she was 15 years ago? What does she feel when she thinks about the size of the universe? Is Charles wrong to find it sad that, at some point soon, all his memories will be completely and permanently obliterated? Is there any point in living for a long time if you spend all your time extending your life and not much time living it?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to episode
0:14.2	of the Luther Ray Abel podcast.
0:19.2	Since I last did a show, I've been floating around the ether, haunting any
0:23.4	fortunate or unfortunate Zol who hasn't decreased the power to zirconium anti-gravity containers.
0:30.4	You know about those. But haunting is actually not all it's cracked up to be. Certainly it's
0:35.1	fun to elicit terror and people who haven't been eaten by
0:37.9	strange whaling creatures. But, you know, after the first few screams and yelps, you realize that
0:43.9	eternity is a long time and then you're going to need to fill it with more than spooky
0:48.0	whistling and the odd jump scare. So anyway, my guest today is...
0:53.7	Luther, what are you doing?
0:56.7	I'm doing my podcast. You mean you're doing my podcast?
1:02.0	Well, possession is nine-tenths of the law, and your podcast is now possessed. By me.
1:07.6	Luther, if you don't leave immediately, I shall go and get the vacuum.
1:12.7	But I've always wanted my own podcast.
1:14.6	I dare say you have, but you can't have this one.
1:17.3	This one is mine.
1:18.5	Now, run along, or whatever it is that you do.
1:22.5	Sorry about that.
1:24.5	Welcome to episode, what was it? Yes, episode 38 of the Charles C.W. Cook
1:32.5	podcast. This week, we will... I'm still here.
1:36.5	Ah.
1:41.4	Well, my sponsor today is CEI's Free the Economy podcast.
	...

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