Jesse Michels is an investor at Thiel Capital and the creator and host of 'American Alchemy', a Youtube channel dedicated to highlighting the most heretical thinkers and ideas of our time. He joins the show to discuss the transmission theory of consciousness, whether mushrooms are aliens, the reawakening of the Boomers and MUCH more! Important Links:

Show Notes:

The modern-day Robert Anton Wilson
Why Jesse started American Alchemy
The transmission theory of consciousness
Why mushrooms may have catalysed human civilisation
Paradigm shifts and heretical thinking
Are mushrooms aliens?
Nixon, psychedelics & brainwashing
The reawakening of the Boomers
AGI, qualia & quantum physics
AI, learned helplessness & Twitter
The power of curiosity
Reality is a compressed version of something much larger.
MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date; by Samuel Arbesman
The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size; by Tor Norretranders
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid; by Douglas Hofstadter
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
The Immortality Key : The Secret History of the Religion with No Name; by Brian C. Muraresku
The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science; by Robert Anton Wilson
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence; by Michael Pollan
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties; by Tom O'Neill
Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream; by David McGowan
Prometheus Rising; by Robert Anton Wilson
Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You & Your World; by Robert Anton Wilson
The Cosmic Trigger trilogy; by Robert Anton Wilson
Communion: A True Story; by Whitley Strieber