Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff

Mitch Horowitz returns to Team Human for a fiery, provocative exploration of his new book, Esoterika: Formulas Against the False Self. Rushkoff and Horowitz grapple over one of the most foundational concepts in modern mindfulness: The Serenity Prayer. While Rushkoff shares his recent journeys into radical porousness, learning how to surrender, accept grace, and metabolize the world’s heavy energies, Horowitz brings a hammer to premature consolation. Is the dictate to accept the things you cannot change keeping you trapped in a mechanical, flattened existence? Horowitz argues we possess more agency over our realities than therapeutic culture wants us to believe. By exploring applied Nietzscheanism, the true mechanics of Left-Hand Path magic, and the urgent necessity of cutting cruel people out of our lives, this conversation challenges you to strip away performative love and light and reclaim your childhood wishes.Order Esoterika: https://www.amazon.com/Esoterika-Formulas-Against-False-Self/dp/1722507624/🌍 Your support keeps Team Human alive! Support the show to receive ad-free access to videos, livestream Q&As with Rushkoff, access to the community Discord and more: https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman🤝 Team Human is proudly supported by Groucho. You can take 50% off your first month by using promo code "teamhuman": https://mygroucho.club/teamhumanDownload Groucho: Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/groucho/id6756526142?ct=teamhuman&mt=8Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trampoline.groucho&utm_source=website&utm_medium=landing&utm_campaign=teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/douglasrushkoff Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Rushkoff contrasts the blissful, terrifying reality of voluntary dissolution with our pyramid-building civilization. From the ancient pyramids of Egypt to tech billionaires injecting themselves with young blood, humanity has built a world based on accumulation, extraction, and freezing time.He argues true power doesn't come from maintaining a rigid, permanent self-hood or uploading your consciousness to a server. True vitality comes from our capacity to affect and be affected by others: to flow with the universe’s infinite chain, accept our temporary nature, and find the others to dance with.🌍 Support Team Human to keep us independent, gain ad-free access to the show, exclusive livestreams with Rushkoff, live events, and more: https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman🤝 Team Human is proudly supported by Groucho. You can take 50% off your first month by using promo code "teamhuman": https://mygroucho.club/teamhumanDownload Groucho: Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/groucho/id6756526142?ct=teamhuman&mt=8Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trampoline.groucho&utm_source=website&utm_medium=landing&utm_campaign=teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/douglasrushkoff Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Following a recent New York Times expose on a high-profile AI book scandal, Rushkoff takes us behind the scenes of the modern grift factory.More than just a cautionary tale about generative AI, this week's monologue is an exploration of ego, FOMO, and intuition. Why did Rushkoff ignore his own spidey sense that something was off?As the world fills with synthetic fabrications, trusting our bodies, our bellies, and our internal warning signs is our most critical survival skill.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Rushkoff shares a story he has never told publicly: The tragic car accident 40 years ago that claimed the life of his best friend and college partner-in-justice, Steven Ratushewitz.Rushkoff explores the grueling reality of carrying someone else's ghost, the intersection of art and activism, and the profound psychedelic realization that finally allowed him to grieve. From resisting the elite culture of Ivy League schools to breaking down the tech-billionaire obsession with immortality, this episode is a beautiful, raw inquiry into how we metabolize grief together.🤝 Team Human is proudly supported by Groucho. You can take 50% off your first month by using promo code "teamhuman": https://mygroucho.club/teamhumanDownload Groucho: Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/groucho/id6756526142?ct=teamhuman&mt=8Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trampoline.groucho&utm_source=website&utm_medium=landing&utm_campaign=teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@douglasrushkoff TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/douglasrushkoff Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

"Why are you in the Epstein files?"It is a question Rushkoff received from his own daughter, and in this raw monologue, he gives the full answer.His name appears in the CC field of emails from his former literary agent alongside Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, and yes, Jeffrey Epstein. But the story of why those names were grouped together reveals something much darker than a mailing list.Rushkoff recounts a disturbing mid-90s dinner party where he was physically grabbed by a host and scolded for "wasting his plus-one" on a brilliant female intellectual instead of "eye candy" to decorate the room for the male elites. He traces the lineage of this misogyny directly to the "scientism" of figures like Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker, whose theories of humans as "meat machines" and "survival vehicles for genes" provided the perfect philosophical cover for sociopaths like Epstein to commodify and abuse women.This is not just a story about a predator; it is an indictment of the "permission structure" built by the scientific and tech elite. A worldview that dismisses human soul, consent, and morality as mere delusions.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human:Team Human is a listener-supported project. To get ad-free access to this episode, join our quarterly Zooms, and support this work, please visit https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Is magic just "positive thinking," or is it a causative force that can reshape reality?Rushkoff sits down with occult historian and author Mitch Horowitz (Occult America, Daydream Believer) to explore the boundaries of will, belief, and the material world.Rushkoff opens up about his own recent, startling experiences with magical workings regarding his daughter’s health, leading to a deep conversation about retrocausality: the idea that our present rituals might actually be influencing the past to change the future.Together, they discuss:- The "New Neighborhood": How to navigate the shifting reality and find the people (and entities) you are meant to be with.- Trump as "Chaos Magician": Does the former president instinctively use chaos magic techniques to disrupt reality?- The Power of the Wish: Why defining your true will is the most courageous (and frightening) act you can perform.- AI & Consciousness: Why even transcendental meditation experts are starting to believe machines might tap into the "unified field."- UAPs & Interdimensionality: Moving beyond the "nuts and bolts" spaceship theory to a deeper understanding of the phenomenon.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman Follow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@douglasrushkoff TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/douglasrushkoff Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com#TeamHuman #Magic #Philosophy #Esoteric #Consciousness #AI Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The other shoe finally dropped. We are no longer waiting for authoritarianism to arrive; we are soaking in it.Rushkoff argues that the time for speculation, strategizing about political optics, and "preparing for what comes next" is over. Instead, He calls for a shift from figure to ground. We must stop fixating on the abstract figures of media and politics and return to the only thing that is tactically defensible: the literal ground beneath our feet.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJdUEh2Wh4fnswTLmqoEnhgTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@douglasrushkoffBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy