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/teamhuman

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How do we keep the machine from pulling us into another world, or escaping into ours?

Rushkoff is joined by OG game designer, hacker, and Director of Curiouser Institute Reed Berkowitz to explore the liminal space between reality, fiction, and artificial intelligence.

From the early days of late-80s text-based worlds and San Francisco’s cyberdelic rave culture to the complex modern landscape of AI development, Douglas and Reed compare notes on what they thought the internet would become - and what it actually grew into.

✨ Learn more about Reed’s work: http://www.curiouserinstitute.com

🌍 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/teamhuman

Download Groucho:

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Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trampoline.groucho&utm_source=website&utm_medium=landing&utm_campaign=teamhuman

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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/teamhuman

Download Groucho:

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/groucho/id6756526142?ct=teamhuman&mt=8

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trampoline.groucho&utm_source=website&utm_medium=landing&utm_campaign=teamhuman

Follow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:

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