Name: Episode 42 - Matt Thornton on Violence by Bullshido
Duration: 38 min 24 s
Description: Matt Thornton of the Straight Blast Gym is an icon in the martial arts world, and in particular, has been beating the drum about functional training even longer than we have. In this conversation we discuss violence, how it is an unavoidable part of the human experience, and how to ensure good men are better at it than bad.

Matt Thornton of the Straight Blast Gym is an icon in the martial arts world, and in particular, has been beating the drum about functional training even longer than we have. In this conversation we discuss violence, how it is an unavoidable part of the human experience, and how to ensure good men are better at it than bad.

Episode 42 - Matt Thornton on Violence

02 - Gun - Control

On this episode of The Art of Fighting BS podcast, we have an international SAMBO competitor who goes by the name of "Blackmonk" on the Bullshido forums. He's also the frontman for the band Bullshit Detector, if that ain't just f'n awesome.

We discuss what it's like to compete overseas, the difference between how Americans and how Russians train, and he's brought along a few grizzly war stories from the Austin punk rock scene.

09 Blackmonk: SAMBO, Street Fighting, Punk Rock

There is a lot of noise being made about the Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), especially now that the WHO has classified it as a pandemic. Dr. Jason Goldsmith, MD, PHD comes back on the show to explain the particulars and cut through the BS.

Also, we make some grim jokes. Because, of course we do.

10 COVID-19: Nature's Way of Saying "OK Boomer"

Have you ever thought about getting into comics? Well comic shop owner, writer, and combat veteran Steve Mix comes on the podcast to answer questions about where to start, the best new series out now, and the influence the medium has on the broader culture.

11 Comics And Culture With Steve Mix

With the literal shit about to hit the figurative fan, Dr. Jason Goldsmith comes back on to provide information from the front lines about what to expect in the coming weeks, that you're probably not getting from your chosen news source.

12 Coronavirus Quarantine And Updates

Massimo’s books include Phenotypic Plasticity: Beyond Nature and Nurture (Syntheses in Ecology and Evolution) (2001):
https://www.amazon.com/Phenotypic-Plasticity-Syntheses-Evolution-2001-07-17/dp/B01K17YKGQ

Making Sense of Evolution: The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology, with co-author Jonathan Kaplan (2006):
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo4100801.html

Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (2010):
https://www.amazon.com/Nonsense-Stilts-Tell-Science-Bunk-dp-0226667863/dp/0226667863/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=
and 
How to be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life (2017):
https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Stoic-Ancient-Philosophy/dp/0465097952

He is the co-author, with Gregory Lopez of Live Like A Stoic: 52 Exercises for Cultivating a Good Life (2019):
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1116985/live-like-a-stoic/9781846045967.html

He is the co-editor, with Maarten Boudry, of Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem:
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo15996988.html

You can find Massimo’s Letter conversation with David Sloan Wilson here:
https://letter.wiki/conversation/34

And my article about this conversation here:
https://areomagazine.com/2019/07/10/human-cultural-evolution-a-letter-exchange

You can find Massimo’s Letter conversaion with Philip Goff here:
https://letter.wiki/conversation/277

For more on the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis:
https://extendedevolutionarysynthesis.com/

On Stoic Week: https://modernstoicism.com/about-stoic-week/

Follow Massimo on Twitter: @mpigliucci

Write to Open Letters at Letter here:
https://letter.wiki/OpenLetters/conversations

Write to me: https://letter.wiki/IonaItalia/conversations

Further Notes

Derren Brown, Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine (2016)

My essay on Stoicism: https://areomagazine.com/2019/01/21/in-praise-of-stoicism-derren-browns-happy-book-review/

For Karl Popper on the demarcation problem see:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/#ProbDema

Larry Laudan on the demarcation problem:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-009-7055-7_6

For Wittgenstein on the definition of a game see:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/#LangGameFamiRese

The SETI institute: https://www.seti.org/

Geoffrey Miller, The Mating Mind: How Sexual Selection Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature (2001):
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/114577/the-mating-mind-by-geoffrey-miller/

Richard Lewontin, 1929–

Lawrence Kraus, A Universe from Nothing (2012)

Massimo, Maarten Boudry, Lawrence Krauss and Daniel Dennett on the Limits of Science: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRzfCemXYLc

For Wilfred Sellars on the stereoscopic vision of science see:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sellars/#8

Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel (1941):
https://maskofreason.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/the-library-of-babel-by-jorge-luis-borges.pdf

Sam Harris, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values (2010)

Massimo’s review of The Moral Landscape:
https://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/11-02-02/#feature

Ayn Rand’s objectivism: https://aynrand.org/ideas/overview/

The Discourses of Epictetus: http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.html

Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations:
http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html

Seneca, Of Anger: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Of_Anger/Book_I

For more on Chryssipus: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chrysippus

Timestamps
3:47 The demarcation problem, the difference between science and pseudoscience
17:26 What made Massimo change fields from biology to philosophy
21:45 What is the relationship between philosophy and science?
38:32 Science and ethics
45:59 The appeal of Stoicism
57:17 Stoic practices
1:11:31 The Stoic fork/dichotomy of control
1:23:11 Free will
1:34:00 The misrepresentation of Stoicism as repression of emotion
1:43:18 The lessons of the pandemic

55 - Massimo Pigliucci -  A Modern Stoic

Clark Neily, Vice President for Criminal Justice at the CATO Institute joins us to discuss the issues surrounding Qualified Immunity in light of the George Floyd protests and other recent incidents. If you've never heard the term, but have concerns about the levels of force used by the police, you need to listen to this podcast.

13 Qualified Immunity With Clark Neily

There's a billion-dollar industry around BS performance-enhancing supplements, but legendary Bullshido member and supplement industry insider code-named "Roidie McDouchebag" comes on the podcast to separate that BS from facts and provide answers to questions you were afraid to ask.

14 Steroids - Myths and Reality

This episode of the podcast features Rebecca Little, author of "Swing: Are American Elections Legitimate?" to discuss the book and the flaws in our voting system as we close in on the biggest election of many people's lives this year.

15 How To Steal An Election

Dr. Jason Goldsmith (MD, PhD) and the crew delve into the latest information on the clusterfracas that is the Coronavirus Pandemic in the United States.

Episode 42 - Matt Thornton on Violence

Bullshido

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