David and Tamler crawl up a riverbank, kiss the mud, and dream a discussion of Borges’ “The Circular Ruins.” We sort through various interpretations and allusions, the story as a metaphor for artistic creation, gnostic cosmology, solipsism, eternal recursion, and the unstable boundary between reality and illusion. How does Borges fit all of this and much more in a 5 page story? Plus, Scientific American endorses Kamala Harris – is that a big deal? We look at a study purporting to show that Nature’s Biden endorsement eroded trust in science among Trump supporters.
Political endorsement by Nature and trust in scientific expertise during COVID-19 [nature.com]
The Circular Ruins by Jorge Luis Borges [wikipedia.org]
![<description><p>David and Tamler crawl up a riverbank, kiss the mud, and dream a discussion of Borges’ “The Circular Ruins.” We sort through various interpretations and allusions, the story as a metaphor for artistic creation, gnostic cosmology, solipsism, eternal recursion, and the unstable boundary between reality and illusion. How does Borges fit all of this and much more in a 5 page story?<br /> <br /> Plus, Scientific American endorses Kamala Harris – is that a big deal? We look at a study purporting to show that Nature’s Biden endorsement eroded trust in science among Trump supporters.</p> <p><a href= "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01537-5.pdf">Political endorsement by Nature and trust in scientific expertise during COVID-19</a> [nature.com]</p> <p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circular_Ruins">The Circular Ruins by Jorge Luis Borges</a> [wikipedia.org]</p> <p> </p></description>](https://us-central1-podcastguru-217d6.cloudfunctions.net/gcf_get_image?image_url=https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/5/2/6/a/526ac0bca875678727a2322813b393ee/VBW_logo2.jpg&width=300&height=300&api_key=xqFmUFX5BHLBTA){kind=logo}