Today I'm walking along a beach in rural Bali, working through something that's been gnawing at me since I moved villas this week: the pull between attachment and novelty.

I'd been getting precious about my old setup, the cafe, the desk angle, the air conditioning, all of it. Almost packed up and headed back to Canggu before I caught myself and went for a walk instead.

What came out of it:

- Why grasping for the familiar can rob you of what's actually in front of you

- The OCD-ish perfectionism I run into when something feels off, and how to break the loop

- Sand as a literal lesson in letting go

- The knot in my stomach when I think about my year around the world nine years ago, and what it might actually be about

- Privilege, gratitude, and the reframe that's been keeping me grounded out here

If you've been clinging to a routine that's stopped serving you, this one might land.

If this one lands, let me know. Subscribe and drop a review if you're enjoying the show. Subscribe to my newsletter at awakenoutofcontext.com

***LINKS***

awakenoutofcontext.com

thechaptersystem.com

indiip.com/beta

thechaptersystem.com

Sat in a café in Canggu this week, a stunning girl walked in and I clocked my own reaction: the instinct to immediately count myself out, put her on a pedestal, and hand over all my power before a word had even been said.

So I'm introducing a concept I'm calling Mascuriosity, taking that masculine sexual energy and modulating it into genuine curiosity about the person in front of you, rather than collapsing into the classic "no chance, mate" response.

In this one I get into:

- The "she's too good for me" conditioning most of us grew up with

- Why suppressing healthy masculine drive isn't the answer, channelling it is

- How curiosity dissolves anxiety (and even physical pain, credit to Ross Edgley)

- Why this has to be drilled, not just understood

- Why beautiful people aren't automatically interesting, and why that matters for your own self-worth

- The Northern working-class "tip it on the ramp" origin story

If this one lands, let me know. Subscribe and drop a review if you're enjoying the show.

Subscribe to my newsletter at awakenoutofcontext.com

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also enjoy these:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMebuClQRf09omZ7V629URAvyHG0KxIH_

A few weeks ago I talked about not deleting people from your past. This week, life handed me a story that proved that point all over again - from an unexpected date in Bali, to a journal entry I almost censored, to a Black Mirror episode that was already playing on my TV before I'd consciously chosen it.

In this episode I get into why we instinctively edit our own memories, what it actually means when you feel the need to sanitise your journal for a future partner who doesn't even exist yet, and why that instinct might say more about your fear of being fully known than any real consideration for someone else.

We also cover: why a gym date is underrated, the Black Mirror episode Eulogy and what it gets exactly right about erasing people, and a practical tool for managing your Google Photos memories without nuking your past entirely.

If your partner's jealous of your history - point them to this episode. Or maybe just point them to the door.

Subscribe, leave a review, and share this with someone who needs to hear it.

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I'm in Bali. It's day three. I've just been flat on the floor of a CrossFit gym wondering if I'm dying. Welcome back. This week is a solo catch-up from Canggu - covering the CrossFit meltdown a flashback from the Gili Islands 9 years ago, and the big realisation that's been shaping how I think about this show going forward. I get into why AI can give you everything except a real human story, the three pillars I'm using to structure my time out here (reflect, connect, create), how I'm using a moleskine and a camera symbol to build the most useful journal I've ever kept, and why the conversation I enjoy most is the one where the guest stops performing. No guest this week. Just the thoughts, the sunburn, and the sound of what turned out to be a very enthusiastic temple ceremony next door.

00:00 Welcome to Bali: Setting the Scene

10:12 The Three Pillars of My Bali Trip

14:11 Reflections on Creativity and Travel

18:28 Navigating Podcasting Challenges

21:06 The Value of Human Experience Over AI

30:16 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

***LINKS***

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Experimental format today! I pulled over in the Lake District, pointed the camera and let AI flip the script - interviewing me instead.

What came out was more honest than I expected. We cover which marketing channels I'd bet on if starting from scratch, why I'd probably sacrifice the agency if I had to choose, my first long-term relationship and the failure I've never really talked about, four wild podcast concepts I've been sitting on, my complicated relationship with cold plunges, evening ice cream as a recovery tool, and what Bali actually means to me right now.

No guest. No structure. Just me, the road through Windermere and Coniston, and an AI that kept trying to wrap the episode early (lol!)

If you've been in a liminal phase yourself - unsure what's next - this one might land.

Subscribe, leave a review, and drop me a message if any of this resonated. I always reply.

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No guest this week, just me.

Since December I've been in a bit of a flat patch. Not depressed, not broken, just... not quite myself. In this episode I talk through what's been going on: the strange paradox of building more with AI than ever before and feeling less fulfilled because of it, the reality of living alone for four years in a town built around nuclear family life, and why I think my environment has quietly dragged me down.

I also touch on the dopamine seesaw, what a therapist said about stress and depression being two sides of the same coin, and why I'm hanging on for Bali to give me a blank canvas again.

One for the aficionados only I’d suspect.

awakenoutofcontext.com

David Pearce is a British transhumanist philosopher and co-founder of Humanity+, best known for The Hedonistic Imperative; his 1995 manifesto calling for the use of genetic engineering to eliminate suffering from all sentient life.

In this episode, I sit down with David for one of the most thought-provoking conversations this podcast has had. We cover whether suffering is a design flaw we could actually fix; the ethics of editing your children's genetic predisposition toward depression; the difference between genome reform and eugenics; why MDMA gave David his clearest glimpse of what mental health could genuinely feel like; and what three decades of banging this drum has taught him.

Key topics:

- Natural selection as an engine of suffering and how CRISPR could change that

- Hedonic set points; what they are, why they matter, and how to raise them

- The eugenics problem; why the word is probably "damned forever" even with good intentions

- MDMA, psychedelics, and the blind rationalists parable

- David's own hedonic set point; a surprisingly honest personal answer

Subscribe wherever you listen, and if this one made you think, a review goes a long way.

Chapters

00:00 David's journey and the hedonistic imperative

01:37 Why suffering has loomed large in his own life

03:01 30 years of progress; CRISPR, AI and what surprised him

10:27 What he'd tell world leaders; end factory farming first

13:55 What is a hedonic set point and why does it matter?

20:04 Would you want your children engineered to be happier?

28:27 SSRIs, antidepressants and the case for genetic alternatives

31:53 What is stopping us; the eugenics problem explained

35:57 Does suffering produce great art? AI says otherwise

43:09 MDMA as a window into what mental health could be

45:26 Psychedelics, consciousness and the blind rationalists parable

54:43 Atheism, physicalism and the hard problem of consciousness

58:57 David's own hedonic set point; a personal confession

1:03:12 Defining hedonic zero; apathy, numbness and mixed states

1:05:43 Bliss vs motivation; can you have both?

***LINKS***

Websitehedweb.com

The Hedonistic Imperative (manifesto)hedweb.com/hedab.htm

Facebook Group - The Hedonistic Imperativefacebook.com/groups/hedonistic.imperative

X / Twittertwitter.com/webmasterdave

Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pearce_(philosopher)

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