October 2024 Updates

A digital postcard, of sorts, from Northern California

Long time, no see!

I decided it would be fun and proper to begin writing occasional updates for you, my closest supporters, explaining the whats, wheres and whys of my recent escapades. Perhaps it will be supremely uninteresting to you. If so, consider it an audit of my spent hours, to reassure you that I have not just been sat around twiddling my thumbs.

I have to begin with an apology: it is Sunday, a day sacred not only to a variety of religious traditions, but also to Within Reason TM, as podcast-release day. I do not have an episode for you. Well, I do, but it is somewhere in the ether of the US international postal service, en steady route to my editor, who waits for me somewhere beyond the sea.

I should have been more on top of preparing episodes in advance and filming them remotely, but have had a number of projects taking up my bandwidth and I have fallen behind. I hope you can understand, especially as I detail what I’ve been up to:

Connecticut

These past two weeks I have been travelling across the United States. In Connecticut, I sat down with Cliffe and Stuart Kneechtle, who run an extremely popular online Christian ministry, and have recently been appearing on mainstream podcasts like Logan Paul’s and George Janko’s.

I wanted to do this one properly, and so we put some effort into making it look and sound beautiful. The result was over 3 terabytes of footage, which could only be sent to my editor physically, from a small post office in Carmel, California. Sorry about the delay, but it will, I hope and trust, be well worth it.

Las Vegas

In Las Vegas, I sat down with Graham Stephan and Jack Selby for the Iced Coffee Hour Podcast. It was my first time in what I found to be an extraordinary city. Graham introduced me to baccarat, and perhaps the fastest way to lose $100. So much for his financial advice. I made about that much back later that night playing Texas Hold ‘em at the Bellagio.

That evening, Jack drove me by the Luxor, which is an Egyptian-themed hotel on the strip. Its famous pyramid shoots out a spectacular beam of light skywards at night. Jack told me that Vegas is often subject to swarms of locusts, and that when these occur, the locusts are attracted en masse to the light beam. I was quite stunned at the Biblical undertones of locust swarms descending on Egypt in, of all places, Sin City.

I then went to see Penn and Teller perform a magic show. I actually ended up on stage, happily volunteering myself to take part in a trick. As if by design, the trick was about… the Bible. It involved throwing darts at a board with all the books from Genesis to Revelation on it, then rolling dice to determine the chapter. An audience member chose the verse on a whim. As he read out the passage we had landed on, Penn And Teller unpacked an envelope that had been on stage since the beginning, and unrolled a large banner with the entire verse written out on it. Despite all my sceptical analysis, I still have no idea how they achieved it.

Los Angeles

In Los Angeles, I joined Richard Dawkins onstage at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre for the first of two shows I will be hosting with him. The next is in Oxford on the 21st of October. It was Richard’s last public appearance in LA (this being his final US tour), and I was honoured to be a part of it. The event was filmed; I am not sure what will happen with the footage, but I will try my hardest to make sure you can see it one day.

Arizona

In Arizona, I sat between that selfsame Richard Dawkins and a certain Jordan Peterson, to moderate their long-awaited showdown, on Dr. Peterson’s podcast. It is difficult to remember everything that was discussed, but for one thing I do recall Dr. Peterson’s exposition of the “biology of dragons”, to give you a taste of what’s to come.

That night, we went to dinner with the Petersons (he brought his family). It was concluded in the earlier conversation that, on intellectual matters, Richard and Dr. Peterson simply have different brains. Not just different opinions, but different ways of thinking, which make any hope of the reconciliation of their worldviews a quixotic one. At dinner, though, they seemed to get on just fine. They shook hands and we all left — I wonder if that will be the last time they ever meet.

After this, I took a few days to see America. I stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon, looked over Horseshoe Bend, descended into Antelope Canyon, and saw what was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen over Carmel Beach. On the way back from one of the Arizona tours, our driver pulled over onto a side road so that we could get out and look at the stars from the desert. I could just about see the Milky Way for the first time, and couldn’t believe my eyes. Five minutes and one scenic piss later, I was close to being dragged back into the van to drive back to Sedona.

What’s Next?

So, I hope you will excuse my inactivity over the past two weeks. I have been working on some amazing projects, but must also confess I took some time to simply enjoy beautiful things. I feel extremely grateful for both the professional and personal aspects of this trip, and only wish I had better planned content in advance to go out whilst I have been away.

The health of the YouTube channel is better than ever. It has 941,000 subscribers, and I expect to hit one million by the end of the year. We’re getting more views than ever, which is also bringing in more money to spend on more amazing things. People come up to me in public more than ever before, and all over the world. Things are changing rapidly, and so I am even more grateful than usual for your continued support as I get used to things, and work out how to keep the ball rolling as we keep picking up steam.

Here’s how I will make it up to you: the beautiful podcast with the Kneechtles will come out this month. I am flying in two days to meet Destiny in person for a pre-election podcast. Later this month I will speak with Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the show — in person and properly produced (another considerable expense, the possibility of which I again have you to thank, in part). I also have a number of other video content planned, from more Christopher Hitchens sophistry, to Trolley Problem Memes, to Philosophical Hot Takes, and video essays. I have also a written essay to share with you, perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow.

Thank you for bearing with me. More to follow!

- Alex