Best Zachary Baker Podcasts (2025)

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AI Addiction is Coming (with Zachary Gidwitz) 1:02:23

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3d ago1:02:23

1:02:23

AI is about to create an epidemic of addiction in this country and around the world, according to Zachary Gidwitz, founder of OpenRecovery. Could it also be our best shot at fighting back? In this episode of The Rip Current, I discuss the growing issue of addiction in America and the potential for AI tools to combat it with Gidwitz. Together we get…

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The Beauty of Presbyterianism: T.D. Witherspoon on Church Government 19:06

4d ago19:06

19:06

In this episode, we explore T.D. Witherspoon’s compelling case for the beauty and order of Presbyterian church government—rooted not in human hierarchy, but in Christ’s rule over His people through the courts of the church. Discover how these biblical principles safeguard unity, protect liberty, and strengthen the church’s witness today.…

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Brazil is an Alternate Universe (with Cristina Tardaguila) 1:01:06

10d ago1:01:06

1:01:06

My recent trip to Brazil happened to coincide with the trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro, and ever since I’ve been looking for the right person to explain how it is that a former military dictatorship is now the kind of democracy that actually brings a former leader to account. In this episode, Cristina Tardaguila, founder of the fact-checki…

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Is AI Pessimism Feeding the Powerful? (with Rumman Chowdhury) 1:05:57

17d ago1:05:57

1:05:57

Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, an AI ethicist and the head of Humane Intelligence, is sick of all this complaining. Not because there isn’t plenty to complain about — in this episode we unpack a host of horrors that AI and the companies who make it are foisting on all of us — but because she believes that the fatalism of AI criticism inadvertently empowers …

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The Melancholy Missionary: David Brainerd and the Power of a Weak Life 23:25

18d ago23:25

23:25

David Brainerd's short, sorrowful life became one of the most powerful missionary testimonies in church history. In this episode, we trace his struggle with depression, illness, and weakness - and how Jonathan Edwards saw in him true religion in practice: holiness, dependence, and redeeming the time for Christ's kingdom.…

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BONUS: Jake on Keen on America 45:25

22d ago45:25

45:25

When I first came on his show, Andrew Keen took a dim view of my ideas about how we might fight back against the psychological effects of AI in my 2022 book The Loop, and to be honest: he was kinda right. The “how to fight back” section of the book was thin, largely because I was hanging (and still hang) so much of my hopes on the idea that the cou…

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Can AI Be Ethical? (with Olivia Gambelin) 1:06:07

1M ago1:06:07

1:06:07

AI is having a profound effect on love, work, and democracy...but do the people making it understand that? AI ethics consultant Olivia Gambelin has been fighting to make her clients in Silicon Valley understand that good ethics are good business, and to make regulators in Europe see that good business can also have good ethics. It's a tough gig. Ga…

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Christ All in All: The Right Temper for a Theologain 25:36

1M ago25:36

25:36

In his inaugural addresses, William Swan Plumer urged Christians to approach Scripture with humility, reverence, and prayer, keeping Christ at the very center of all study. Collected as Christ All in All: The Right Temper for a Theologian, his counsel remains vital—not just for seminarians, but for every believer seeking to grow in grace and in the…

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Why Big Tech's Lawyers are SCREAMING Right Now 5:48

1M ago5:48

5:48

A new California law, SB 53, was just signed by Governor Gavin Newsom today, Monday September 29th. It has the AI makers undoubtedly throwing their mushroom coffee across the room this afternoon, because now they’re hemmed in by the EU’s AI Act on one side, and the Golden State’s new law on the other. Here’s why it matters!…

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The War Over TikTok (with Emily Baker-White) 1:01:49

1M ago1:01:49

1:01:49

TikTok is no different than any other social media company (it wants to serve you irresistible content by predicting your tastes algorithmically), and its processes aren't either (it threw spaghetti and money against the wall until it stuck). But its status as a Chinese company, the first globally successful Chinese media export, and a deeply power…

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Dead Presbyterians Society - Season 2 Trailer 0:56

1M ago0:56

0:56

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. This podcast is built on a very simple conviction: in order to be faithful in the present, we must be rooted in the past. The old paths of Presbyterianism in the…

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The Rise of AI Psychosis (with Morten Rand-Hendricksen) 59:09

2M ago59:09

59:09

AI is making people crazy. And I don’t mean in the sense that it’s driving tech observers like me crazy, with its reckless adoption path and dishonest marketing and screwy incentives. I mean it’s literally making otherwise reasonable people believe that their AI chatbots are lovers, or prisoners, or prophets of hidden wisdom. In this hourlong conve…

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Who Runs Mars? (with David Ariosto) 1:06:32

2M ago1:06:32

1:06:32

Are you ready to get in a tube built by billionaires and stay there for nine months? Ready to live in caves on the other side? And who is in charge of this dreary outpost anyway? In this episode of The Rip Current, David Ariosto, author of Open Space: From Earth to Eternity, the Global Race to Explore and Conquer the Cosmos and host of the Space Mi…

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Counterfeit Miracles 21:47

2M ago21:47

21:47

B.B. Warfield never made peace with error—and neither should we. In his 1918 book Counterfeit Miracles (lectures originally delivered at Columbia Theological Seminary), he takes aim at false wonders that have distracted the church from the early centuries to modern “faith-healers,” and calls us to measure every claim by the all-sufficient Word of G…

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99% of Crypto is a Scam (with Molly White) 1:03:30

3M ago1:03:30

1:03:30

Molly White, renowned crypto skeptic and creator of 'Web3 is Going Just Great' has spent the last few years documenting the intricate web of scams, hacks, and enormous losses that pervade the cryptocurrency industry. Molly considers crypto a solution in search of a problem, and of course now it's creating new problems, not least direct digital brib…

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Bringing Children into God's Family 23:54

3M ago23:54

23:54

In a tender and urgent sermon from 1758, Little Children Invited to Jesus Christ, Samuel Davies pleads with young hearers not to delay, but to come to Christ by faith. Preaching from Mark 10:14—“Suffer the little children to come unto me…”—Davies shows with remarkable clarity what it truly means to come to Christ. Though preached over 250 years ago…

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How to Be Two-Marshmallow Humans (with Aza Raskin) 1:12:38

3M ago1:12:38

1:12:38

Back in 2006, a young interface designer came up with the idea that rather than making people click to another page to continue reading, they should just get an endlessly reloading single page that goes on forever. That "infinite scroll" wound up being a centerpiece of the attention economy — it's how you can scroll mindlessly for hours without tak…

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The Cross-Shaped Missionary 20:24

3M ago20:24

20:24

What does true evangelism look like? In a powerful 1856 sermon on John 10:17–18, James Henley Thornwell calls the church to a missions model shaped by the cross. For Thornwell, Christ’s self-giving sacrifice is both the message and method of evangelism. “The spirit of missions is the spirit of the gospel,” he declares—bold words we still need to he…

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How to Defeat Loneliness (with David Jay) 1:04:02

4M ago1:04:02

1:04:02

We’ve all experienced loneliness, but could you really describe what it is, and what it does to you, beyond the physical experience of isolation? Before this conversation, I couldn’t. But David Jay has taken the invisible, unnameable effects of loneliness and turned them into an actionable recipe for evaluating and improving friendship and communit…

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The Life and Ministry of C.W. Grafton 24:25

4M ago24:25

24:25

What does pastoral faithfulness look like—without fame or platform? Cornelius Washington Grafton served one small church in rural Mississippi for over 60 years. In 1916, after 43 years in that same pulpit, he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly. In his address, A Forty-Three Year Pastorate in a Country Church, Grafton shares a moving acco…

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The Life and Death of Booze (with Adam Rogers) 59:31

4M ago59:31

59:31

Adam Rogers is a science journalist and the author of two amazing books about how we experience the world. His second, Full Spectrum, is about color. But we're here to discuss his first, Proof: The Science of Booze. Not just booze, though — what it symbolizes about magic and alchemy and history and chaos, and why our relationship to it is so fraugh…

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Daniel Baker's Views on Baptism 23:05

4M ago23:05

23:05

Join us this week as we revisit Presbyterian minister Daniel Baker’s A Plain and Scriptural View of Baptism (1853). In this concise, winsome exposition—rooted in both adult and infant covenantal theology—Baker distills biblical teaching on the mode and significance of baptism. Based on an earlier Washington, D.C. sermon (A Scriptural View of Baptis…

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The Trump Moment is Global (with Bart Bonikowski) 1:11:08

5M ago1:11:08

1:11:08

Trump's sudden, strange appeal took most political observers by surprise (it broke their necks, frankly), but not Bart Bonikowski. The NYU professor of politics and sociology has been looking at the global rise of populism for over a decade, along with the ideologies and forms of nationalism that help to explain why it's got us all in its grasp at …

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John Leighton Wilson's "Thoughts on Foreign Missions" 26:28

5M ago26:28

26:28

John Leighton Wilson (1809-1886), missionary to West Africa and Presbyterian pastor, offers a timeless and theologically rich call to gospel proclamation in his writing, particularly in his essay Thoughts on Foreign Missions. Here Wilson presents biblical reasons why the church must take missions seriously. Over a century later, his words still sti…

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An Expert in Violence Explains the Path to Peace (with Lord John Alderdice) 1:04:46

5M ago1:04:46

1:04:46

When I was writing my book The Loop, I was looking for experts in the degree to which we misunderstand one another, and several people pointed me at this week’s guest. He and I had an hourlong phone conversation, and while he undoubtedly doesn’t remember it (but is too polite to say so), for me it was a deeply formative experience. Lord John Alderd…

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Bonus: What It's Like at a Protest, and Why It's So Dangerous! 9:47

5M ago9:47

9:47

Here's what it's like on the ground when you're covering a protest, why it's so hard to give an accurate picture of what's happening, and why it can be misleading. Also: police targeting journalists is very much a thing.

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Samuel Miller's Thoughts on Public Prayer 25:10

5M ago25:10

25:10

Thoughts on Public Prayer, authored by Samuel Miller, is a comprehensive treatise on the nature, history, and importance of public prayer, particularly within the Presbyterian tradition. Addressed to younger ministers and candidates for ministry, it explores the biblical foundations and historical practices of public prayer, contrasts extemporaneou…

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The Battle for Your Brain (with Nita Farahany) 1:00:24

5M ago1:00:24

1:00:24

Duke Professor of Law Nita Farahany has documented the growing industry of companies and devices that try to read your intentions, analyze your mind state, and generally get inside your brain. No, really: in her 2023 book The Battle for Your Brain she documents hundreds of instances in which everyone from employers to authoritarian regimes are hopi…

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Worship in Everyday Life - B.B. Warfield 21:48

5M ago21:48

21:48

In this address, Religious Life of Theological Students, B.B. Warfield challenged theological students to cultivate a vibrant, disciplined spiritual life centered on both personal devotion and the communal worship of the seminary community. He argued that theological education should not only engage the intellect but also nurture the spiritual vita…

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Reading: The All-American Surveillance System is Coming 8:40

5M ago8:40

8:40

The Trump administration is describing its Palantir project as an effort to do away with waste and fraud by eliminating silos. But as other nations have learned, the silos are what make the difference between an efficient digital government and chilling, oppressive surveillance. Read this piece and more at TheRipCurrent.com.…

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Philosophical Foundations: Bonus Audio Recording with Cameron Green 32:34

5M ago32:34

32:34

This audio-only addendum is a segment from the conversation with Cameron that didn't make it into the last episode, but was too good to delete. It contains some of the core philosophy that underpins the ideas in the main video release.Here's a summary of the topics that are touched upon:* Reclaiming Philosophy: Making philosophy accessible and rele…

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Lessons in Sorrow - Benjamin M. Palmer 26:50

5M ago26:50

26:50

When sorrow enters the home, what does a pastor say—first to himself, then to his flock? In The Broken Home, B.M. Palmer doesn’t offer theory, but theology tested by personal grief. With tenderness and fidelity to Christ, Palmer gives us a model of how a shepherd suffers—quietly, scripturally, and with hope. It provides help for the grieving, and a…

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Why Tech Hates Us Journalists (with Paris Martineau) 59:00

5M ago59:00

59:00

It used to be that being a tech journalist was about boosterism and gadgetry. Now it’s like reporting inside the Pentagon, if the Pentagon were staffed by incredibly motivated and secretive experts who are regularly reassured they’re doing holy work, threatened with exile if they ever speak to a reporter, and paid more than any journalist can imagi…

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The Sinless Character of Jesus Christ - William Plumer 31:16

6M ago31:16

31:16

Impeccable by William Swan Plumer is a pastoral work written to encourage believers unsettled by rising theological error in post-Civil War America. Plumer defends the biblical truth that Christ, as the incarnate Son of God, was not only sinless but incapable of sinning. This doctrine affirms the absolute sufficiency of Christ’s obedience and the u…

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How to Kill Corruption with Technology (with President of Estonia Toomas Ilves) 1:07:04

6M ago1:07:04

1:07:04

Under its fourth president, Toomas Ilves, Estonia went from a struggling newly liberated democracy to one of the most technologically sophisticated nations in the world. In this hourlong conversation, Ilves describes what Estonia can teach us about how to fight corruption through technology, truly root out waste and fraud, and empower everyday citi…

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Bonus Reading: A.I. Wants to Steal Your Ideas. The White House Seems to Be Fine With That. 9:28

6M ago9:28

9:28

Read the complete piece at your leisure, and circle back to my conversation with Lawrence Lessig, in which he describes how his early, revolutionary ideas about the need to lighten up on copyright law in this country have been totally upended about A.I. Also, for context on the Google Books history and how it led us to this unfortunate moment, have…

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The Authority of Scripture - Charles Hodge 29:02

6M ago29:02

29:02

Systematic Theology (1872-1873) Hodge in his Systematic Theology defends the orthodox position that the Scriptures – given by divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit – are both infallible (not capable of error) and inerrant (without error). The implications of this doctrine are very significant in regards to the authority by which Christians are to b…

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Addiction in America (with Dr. Keith Humphreys) 1:10:29

6M ago1:10:29

1:10:29

I struggled with my own drinking habit for years, and I’m the kind of guy that has to be told to put the goddamn phone down — sometimes by the phone itself. So I think about addiction a great deal, and I find that everyone around me talks about their own habits in terms of addiction. And I decided to bring in an expert on addiction to define what i…

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Life as a Christian - Archibald Alexander 30:48

6M ago30:48

30:48

Archibald Alexander’s Thoughts on Religious Experience stands as a classic in Reformed pastoral theology, offering a penetrating exploration of the inner dynamics of Christian life. Drawing from decades of ministerial experience, Alexander traces the spiritual journey from early convictions and conversion to the trials and consolations of aged beli…

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The Best You Can Hope For in a Democracy (with John Patty and Elizabeth Penn) 1:05:50

6M ago1:05:50

1:05:50

When I was writing The Loop: How A.I. is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back, I asked everyone around me what I should be reading. My thesis was that we needed to immediately begin resisting the companies trying to sell us A.I., because they were likely to amplify the worst parts of being human, rather than the best parts. (And t…

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Bonus Reading: The Creator Economy is a Trap 9:07

6M ago9:07

9:07

The future of public discourse can't just be folksy, underpaid marketing, right? Right? Jake recounts a very bad night at a creator event, and describes the global pull away from thoughtful people investigating the truth online and toward everyone being paid peanuts to tell each other what to buy. This is a special reading from The Rip Current. To …

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Renee DiResta on Our Invisible Rulers and Building a Credibility Counterculture 1:04:37

7M ago1:04:37

1:04:37

Before she was an associate professor at Georgetown and a cofounder of Stanford’s Internet Observatory, which measured the disinformation campaigns at work in multiple presidential elections, Renee DiResta was a new mom at home getting bombarded with anti-vaccine ads on Facebook. “Why are they hitting me with this stuff?” she wondered, and her effo…

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Dead Presbyterians Society - Trailer 0:44

7M ago0:44

0:44

This podcast is built on a very simple conviction: in order to be faithful in the present, we must be rooted in the past. The old paths of Presbyterianism in the 18th and 19th century have much to teach us about the path we walk today. In weekly 30 minute episodes, we will reflect on the lives and works of figures such as Archibald Alexander, B.M. …

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Law Professor Lawrence Lessig on Corruption, AI, and the Need to Rethink Everything 1:10:43

7M ago1:10:43

1:10:43

The pioneer of open-source software and enemy of copyright tyranny has rethought his positions in the age of AI, but his fight against political corruption is more desperate than ever. When I was at a particularly despairing place about how quickly the world seemed to be doing exactly what I tried to warn against in my book The Loop: How AI is Crea…

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Journalist Kat Tenbarge on Misinformation, Media, and How Influencers Work You 1:06:09

7M ago1:06:09

1:06:09

Online culture was for years treated as a kid's beat, but Kat Tenbarge of Spitfire News has shown that the tactics and propaganda that are prototyped in the influencer world are now being used to manipulate us all. The public duels between celebrities like Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni aren’t just gossip fuel. They’re a vast business, one that’s …

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Psychologist Jennifer Freyd on the Language of Betrayal 59:05

7M ago59:05

59:05

How do public figures slip out of trouble? Using a time-honored tactic: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. The scientist who discovered DARVO has a lot to teach us about the war on truth. We’re in an upside-down moment, in which there seems to be no cost for lying and no respect for honesty. How did we get here? Jennifer Freyd can explain. …

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Historian Andrew Ward (My Dad) on Slavery and DEI 1:06:44

8M ago1:06:44

1:06:44

Why are we in such a rush to forget the very thing that made our country what it is? And how do we teach that history to kids while preserving their pride in being American? I asked my Dad. The historian and author Andrew Ward grew up on the South Side of Chicago and then in India before becoming a historian of colonialism and slavery. Years later …

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Catherine Bracy on Venture Capital and How It's Eating the Economy 58:33

8M ago58:33

58:33

This is the first episode of The Rip Current podcast. Each week I’m going to be interviewing experts in everything from venture capital to the economic impact of slavery to how bullies get the best of us. My first guest is Catherine Bracy, executive director of TechEquity, a nonprofit that examines the ways technology affects equity in areas like l…

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Cameron Green on the Triple Win of Veganism 1:12:23

9M ago1:12:23

1:12:23

Hosted by Simon Monsour 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:08 Let's talk about animals 00:11:00 Veganism popularity 00:13:29 How healthy is a vegan diet? 00:16:22 Naturalist arguments 00:20:26 Choices have consequences 00:24:44 Change is hard 00:27:40 Food as pleasure 00:30:55 Conversing about veganism 00:37:28 Why care at all? 00:39:03 The complexity of natural…

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Miles Whitaker : Fusion Party, Effective Altruism, UBI, and more... 1:12:39

11M ago1:12:39

1:12:39

Hosted by Simon Monsour.Miles Whitaker is the national campaign coordinator for Fusion Party Australia. He is active in multiple effective altruism groups, involved in social movements promoting justice, openness and fairness, and the use of innovative technologies to enhance our sense of community. This is the soundtrack to the video version of th…