Does Artistic Genius Come From the Devil? | Faust, Yeats, and the Poetic Sublime

More from Solomon & Smith All episodes →

1. 

   9 Oct 2026 · 59 min

   Epstein, Lolita, and the P*rnification of Childhood

   00:00 Introduction04:38 Lolita Summary10:50 Did Epstein actually read/like Lolita?14:32 Epstein's upbringing - boomer sexuality19:51 Did male boomers create modern sexuality?24:21 Differences between Epstein and Humbert28:29 Do we all want to be children forever?30:35 Our desires have been created for us32:27 The modelling industry34:55 Creation: of oneself, of others36:30 Britney Spears, Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter38:37 Piper Rockelle: the Gen Alpha twist on the American Dream41:53 Creation in Lolita - The ending45:34 Lolita - controversial then and now, for different reasons48:19 To…

2. 

   25 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 39 min

   Is the Quran the EXACT Speech of God? Islamic Theology Explained | Ramon Harvey

   Please help us continue having these discussions on Patreon, or follow us on other Podcast channels here: https://linktr.ee/solomon_smith00:00:00 Intro00:05:30 Ramon arrives - poetic epigraph00:06:30 What does it mean for God to Speak?00:09:47 Is Arabic Special? Is it older than Nature?00:12:04 Is the Quran translated into Arabic from Transcendent Speech?00:14:11 Could putting God's words in a human language degrade them?00:18:41 Are Arabic speakers especially chosen by God? Is Islam exclusive?00:23:05 Should all Muslims learn Classical Arabic?00:25:48 If you have two sentences that say the…

3. 

   18 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 26 min

   Consciousness is NOT an illusion... REALITY IS | William Seager

   Please help us continue having these discussions on Patreon, or follow us on other Podcast channels here: https://linktr.ee/solomon_smith00:00:00 Intro00:07:38 Why Does Consciousness Break Science00:10:40 Is Life Special? Biophychism: Is Life Consciousness?00:14:40 Are Observations (Quantum Physics) Dependent on Consciousness?00:18:10 A Unique Element of Consciousness, distinguishing it from Life00:21:25 Why is Consciousness Not A Vague Concept?00:26:40 Are Our Brains Lying to Us? Is Consciousness an Illusion00:32:58 Is Artificial Intelligence Conscious?00:35:00 Epiphenomenalism00:39:25 The…

4. 

   15 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 23 min

   The Dark Religion of American Literature | Taylor Caron on the Neo-Gnostics

   Please help us continue having these discussions on Patreon, or follow us on other Podcast channels here: https://linktr.ee/solomon_smithTaylor returns to take Milo and Jack through ten great works of American "Gnostic" literature, beginning with Emerson’s Nature and ending, exactly a century later, with Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! Along the way: Jones Very believes himself to be Christ, Hawthorne discovers the stain in creation, Ahab declares war on visible reality, Whitman meets the “real Me”, Dickinson confronts an inaccessible God, and Melville, Bierce, West, and Faulkner push the…

5. 

   11 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 18 min

   The Christians Who Thought God Was Evil | Taylor Caron on the Gnostic Gospels

   Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmithSolomon & Smith on Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/solomon-smith/id6808681930On Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/2DkVPzTS5lHkynSlHMyOL2?si=FsVpIakbR861Vg9jM3WZvQ&utm_source=copy-linkOn Amazon:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7ca1e4c1-2e5a-4691-9c32-35c05fc01f05On iHeart:https://iheart.com/podcast/343165456In this episode of Solomon and Smith, Jack and Milo speak with Taylor Caron about the Gnostics: those strange, alluring, heretical early Christians who…

6. 

   8 Sep 2026 · 45 min

   Youtube Just Made Views Worthless | Hyper Viewflation

   Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmithWhat is a view? What is attention? Does a number become more real if it is larger? Are advertisers being ushered into a hall of mirrors? And if every video, every creator, every athlete, every billionaire, and every man on earth can be given a bigger number, have we made the world better — or simply made value meaningless?We discuss YouTube views, attention inflation, dead internet paradise, advertisers, Zimbabwean trillionaires, egalitarianism, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg,…