116! The Bad Idea “Virus”

What if we could cancel ideas without cancelling people?

This week, Joey and Jess talk about cancel culture, “catching” bad ideas, conspiracy theories, helpful propaganda, Jess’s favorite story about languages, and dim sum. They don’t talk about which is better: the Portuguese egg tart or strawberry shortcake?

references

• The origin of the word “meme”

• Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene

• Also Richard Dawkins’ essay “Viruses of the Mind” from Bo Dahlbom’s Dennett and His Critics: Demystifying Mind

• Radiolab’s two-part deep dive into the ninja assassin of DNA sequencing: “Antibodies Part 1: CRISPR” and “Update: CRISPR”

• A Critical Nonsense favorite: Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s The Coddling of the American Mind

• The Guardian: “Portugal’s radical drugs policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?”

• Joey’s open letter to himself in McSweeney’s

• Glutinous rice dumplings (Hom sui gok)