Best The Jim Rutt Show Podcasts (2025)

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EP 324 John Preston on 40 Flushes to Grow Your Business 1:34:05

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13d ago1:34:05

1:34:05

Jim talks with John Preston about his book 40 Flushes to Grow Your Business: The World's #2 Business Series, which is designed to be read during bathroom breaks. The conversation covers breaking free from being a one-person show, hiring self-guided employees, the importance of business owner support networks, clarity on business goals & personal ob…

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EP 323 Pablos Holman on Deep Tech 1:27:45

16d ago1:27:45

1:27:45

Jim talks with Pablos Holman about the ideas in his new book Deep Future: Creating Technology That Matters. They discuss deep tech versus shallow tech, computational modeling and simulation for real-world problems, the hacker mindset, the role of inventors, nuclear power and renewable energy solutions, population growth, development challenges, spa…

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EP 322 Brendan Graham Dempsey on Psyche and Symbolic Learning 1:53:32

21d ago1:53:32

1:53:32

Jim talks with Brendan Graham Dempsey about the ideas in his book Psyche and Symbolic Learning, volume 2 in his Evolution of Meaning series. We discussed hierarchical complexity, stage theories of development, constructivism & realism, dynamic skill theory, the Lectical Scale, ego development & consciousness, meaning systems & worldviews, cross-cul…

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EP 321 James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber on Microdosing Psychedelics 1:29:42

26d ago1:29:42

1:29:42

Jim talks with James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber about the findings in their recent book Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance. They discuss the definition of microdosing, "subthreshold" vs "subperceptual," typical doses, current usage statistics & demographics, its legal status & classification history, LSD, psilocybin, why canna…

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EP 320 David Shapiro on Mastering AI Tools for Research 55:07

1M ago55:07

55:07

Jim talks with David Shapiro about how to use AI language models as research and writing tools. They discuss post-labor economics, the evolution of AI tools from GPT-2 through GPT-4, using AI as a learning companion vs. relying on it completely, David's AI tool stack, exploring new domains, using NotebookLM for document management & searching, AI w…

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EP 319 Lawrence Cahoone on Emergence and Natural Order 1:32:55

1M ago1:32:55

1:32:55

Jim talks with Lawrence Cahoone about his book The Orders of Nature and his systematic approach to naturalist philosophy. They discuss fallibilist & local metaphysics, objective relativism, the rejection of simples, Jim's materialism which grants emergence first-class existence, Wimsatt's notion of emergence & nonaggregativity, downward causation &…

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EP 318 Adam B. Levine on Thinking on Demand 1:15:50

2M ago1:15:50

1:15:50

Jim talks with Adam B. Levine about humanity's rapidly changing relationship with AI and "thinking on demand." They discuss the GPT-5 release & pricing, open-source AI models, the three-dimensional framework of AI advancement (models & hardware & agent frameworks), the evolution of vibe coding, development tools, agent-based development, AI impleme…

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EP 317 David Shapiro on Post-Labor Economics 1:39:16

2M ago1:39:16

1:39:16

Jim talks with David Shapiro about his six-part series on "post-labor economics." They discuss historical economic transitions, the logic of labor substitution, automation & AI's impacts on employment, the four basic human economic offerings (strength, dexterity, cognition & empathy), labor as a societal pillar, the pyramid of prosperity (universal…

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EP 316 Ken Stanley on the AI Representation Problem 56:53

2M ago56:53

56:53

Jim talks with Ken Stanley about the Fractured Entanglement Representation hypothesis in deep learning neural networks. They discuss open-endedness in AI systems & evolution, the Picbreeder experiment & its significance, the objective paradox of finding things by not looking for them, comparisons between Picbreeder & SGD networks, visual difference…

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EP 315 Ed Latimore on Hard Lessons from the Hurt Business 2:09:32

2M ago2:09:32

2:09:32

Jim talks with Ed Latimore about his new book Hard Lessons from the Hurt Business: Boxing and the Art of Life. They discuss Ed's chess playing & street hustling, size differences in modern heavyweight boxing, growing up in Pittsburgh's Hill District, childhood trauma & violence, his relationships with his single mother & absent father, middle schoo…

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EP 314 Zak Stein and Marc Gafni on the Nature of Everything 1:38:59

2M ago1:38:59

1:38:59

Jim talks with Zak Stein and Marc Gafni about consciousness, attention, and value as fundamental aspects of reality. They explore continuity & discontinuity in evolution, phenomenology & naturalism, emergence, value theory, selection theory, mathematics as both discovered & created, pre-life organic chemistry, sexual selection & evolutionary dynami…

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EP 313 Chris Colin on Why Customer Service Sucks 44:09

2M ago44:09

44:09

Jim talks with Chris Colin about his recent Atlantic article "That Dropped Call with Customer Service? It Was on Purpose." They discuss customer service hell & Chris's personal story with Ford, the concept of sludge, intentional friction in customer service systems, call center operations & tactics, high-quality customer service approaches, the imp…

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EP 312 Lee Cronin on Automating Chemistry 1:04:49

2M ago1:04:49

1:04:49

Jim talks with Lee Cronin about Chemify, his startup that aims to automate chemistry through "chemifarms" that turn code into molecules. They discuss Chemify as an AWS for chemistry, the development of a chemical programming language & its evolution to Turing completeness, quantum vs classical chemistry computation, open source tools & academic acc…

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EP 311 Nicholas Humphrey on the Invention of Consciousness 1:29:15

2M ago1:29:15

1:29:15

Jim talks with Nicholas Humphrey about the ideas in his 2023 book Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness. They discuss the distinction between sentience & consciousness, access consciousness vs phenomenal consciousness, terminology in consciousness studies, ring-fencing theories, Nicholas's early experiments with phosphenes, the discovery of bli…

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EP 310 Samo Burja on Anduril’s Plan to Modernize the US Military 1:18:01

3M ago1:18:01

1:18:01

Jim talks with Samo Burja about his report on the defense startup Anduril's plan to modernize the U.S. military. They discuss "live players vs. dead players," AI adoption & cognitive tools, Anduril's background & naming origin, military technology modernization, software-defined conflicts, autonomous & software-enabled weapons, sensor deployment & …

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EP 309 Richard David Hames on the Final Performance of Western Civilization?

3M ago

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Jim talks with Richard David Hames, picking up from the ideas in his recent Facebook essay about the decline of Western civilization. They discuss the retreat from truth in politics & institutions, postmodernism's impact on rationality, China's governance model, the failure of democratic institutions, wealth inequality & social stratification, the …

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EP 308 David Chapman on Rethinking Nobility

3M ago

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Jim talks with David Chapman about rethinking nobility for the modern age through his recent "nobility tetralogy" of essays. They discuss character & virtue as "risible" concepts, noblesse oblige & elite education, nobility as intention vs status, "The Battle of Maldon" poem & its lessons, postmodernism & postmodernity, the failure of elite univers…