Tom walks us through the book The Essence of Reality by 'Ayn al-Qudat, a 12th Century Sufi text about going beyond the intellect to embrace mystical experience.

We chat about our cookie headaches and X-Com and Lebanon and Hannah Arendt.

Mentioned:

Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt On Revolution by Hannah Arendt

The X-Com 2 mod guy Tom mentions is christopherodd

Marlon Ettinger, a journalist living in France, joins Don to talk about French politics. Find Marlon on Twitter at @MarlonEttinger his new pod at @flep24pod and his book Zemmour & Gaullism.

Our friend Freddy joins from Vienna to talk about his Euro-Trip, Noam Chomsky, the war in Gaza, and the point of philosophy.

The Third Reich at War by Richard J. Evans. Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson. Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky. Left anti-communism: The Unkindest Cut by Michael Parenti. My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard. This Is a Robbery (Netflix documentary about 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery).

We chat about the failing Dream Port, the peace plan, paying off our debts, soul corn, some books and elections.

Mentioned: Harland's Half Acre by David Malouf. My Struggle Book 1 by Karl Ove Knausgaard. Historical Capitalism by Immanuel Wallerstein. Language and Myth by Ernst Cassirer. Our Bloc by James Schneider.

Tom tells the history of the Crusades, the Mongol invasions, and the rise of the Mamluks in part 3 of a series on Muslim history. The full series is available on Patreon.

An excerpt from a premium episode available through a Patreon subscription, in which Tom provides a history of the rise and fall of the original Islamic state, and a description of the Muslim world's social structure at the time, including the institution of slavery and transformations that came about as a result of the Islamic movement. (re-uploaded to fix some audio issues)

A quick and casual Q&A in which we field questions from the Discord about Russia/Ukraine, our military vehicles of choice, UFOs, the future of VR, and our astrological signs.

We chat about our reactions to Tom's series on the Franklin Scandal, from the plausibility of the crimes to the political implications. What sorts of evidence should we focus on? How do we account for average people's reactions to such crimes? We sum up our feelings on the case as we prepare for future episodes on related topics.

In the conclusion to our series on the Franklin Scandal, Tom tells the fate of the investigation and lead investigator Caradori, and the results of the grand jury trial. He then takes a look at the life of one of King's associates, Craig Spence, a CIA-connected blackmailer who paid visits to the White House.

Source: The Franklin Scandal by Nick Bryant