E36: Religion, Canceled Thinkers, LARPing Liberalism, and The End of History

Antonio Garcia Martinez is back from his travels, and joins Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg to dive into his current theory of ‘The End of History’. They also discuss the cancellation of intellectual figures like Richard Hanania, contrast the political situation in Israel with political polarization in the states, and discuss liberalism vs. religion. Towards the end, they talk about social media, crypto, Elon vs Zuck, and Sam Bankman-Fried. We're proudly sponsored by Vanta. Get $1000 off Vanta with https://www.vanta.com/zen Moment of Zen is part of the Turpentine podcast network. Learn more: www.turpentine.co TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Episode Preview (02:13) Elon Musk vs. Dustin Moskovitz (05:00) Decarceration in SF (07:53) What problems should we focus on for the biggest impact? (12:05) Waiting for Antonio and reflecting on his conversion (15:30) Moment of Zen: Who’s listening and why?  (18:00) Behind the scenes at Turpentine network (19:43) Updates: Spindl and Antonio’s travels to France and Israel (21:27) Sponsors: Vanta | NetSuite (26:04) Mapping the left and the right in Israel vs in the US (34:15) End of history (37:10) Is Richard Hanania canceled? (39:50) The new Right (41:35) Liberalism LARPing (43:20) LindyMan (44:50) The movies (46:40) Why hasn’t there been new religions? (52:20) Christian vs Jewish narrative (56:08) Is Modernity a death cult? (57:10) How do we fix the birth rate? (01:04:40) Updates: Farcaster and Dan’s take on how we usher in a new era for social media (01:08:00) Crypto infrastructure companies (01:13:00) The underrated impact of Apple’s app store  (01:15:10) What our interest in Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg at the Coliseum reveals about us (01:18:10) The story about SBF (01:20:00) Shkreli season (check out In The Arena) LINKS: Bruno Maçães, History Has Begun: https://www.amazon.com.au/History-Has-Begun-Bruno-Macaes/dp/1787383016 Patrick Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Liberalism-Failed-Politics-Culture/dp/0300223447 Dara Horn, People Love Dead Jews: https://www.amazon.com/People-Love-Dead-Jews-Reports/dp/B09CFYVY3F/ X: @antoniogm (Antonio) @dwr (Dan) @eriktorenberg (Erik) @MOZ_Podcast SPONSORS: Beehiiv | Shopify | Vanta | NetSuite Head to Beehiiv, the newsletter platform built for growth, to power your own. Connect with premium brands, scale your audience, and deliver a beautiful UX that stands out in an inbox. 🐝to https://Beehiiv.com and use code "MOZ" for 20% off your first three months. SHOPIFY: https://shopify.com/momentofzen for a $1/month trial period Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the US. And Shopify’s the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy’s, and Brooklinen, and 1,000,000s of other entrepreneurs across 175 countries. From their all-in-one e-commerce platform, to their in-person POS system – wherever and whatever you’re selling, Shopify’s got you covered. With free Shopify Magic, sell more with less effort by whipping up captivating content that converts – from blog posts to product descriptions using AI. Sign up for $1/month trial period: https://shopify.com/momentofzen Are you building a business? If you’re looking for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR or HIPAA compliance, head to Vanta. Achieving compliance can actually unlock major growth for your company and build customer loyalty. Vanta automates up to 90% of Compliance work, getting you audit-ready in weeks instead of months and saving 85% of associated costs. Moment of Zen listeners get $1000 off at www.vanta.com/zen NetSuite has 25 years of providing financial software for all your business needs. More than 36,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you’re looking for an ERP platform, head to NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/ZEN and download your own customized KPI checklist.