Episode 100: What this podcast is to me

But it feels like a milestone, right? Why are milestones important? like a hundred why is episode 100 of this podcast any different from episode 93 or 75 that's a weird thing that humans do is that we ascribe meaning to things that have no meaning outside of the made-up meaning that we're ascribing to those things, probably the best example of this is money.

I actually think the fact that we have been, and you know if you listen to this podcast a lot, you know that I'm not like, I don't love capitalism.

I'm not like fucking... money, money, money, how amazing is money, like I'm not a big money head, I suppose, money's not something I think about a lot, but I do think the fact that we, as a species, have been able to ascribe value to, you know, this tenderness, metal coins and pieces of what is cash like laminated plastic and it has no intrinsic value there's nothing you can do with it you can't grow it well you can grow it that's a really bad example you can't literally grow it in soil like what i mean is Seeds have value.

If you have a handful of tomato seeds, they have value because you're going to be able to put them in the ground and they'll turn into something that you can consume and you will survive because of it.

Tools have value.

If you have a saw, you're going to be able to use that saw to cut things.

So it makes sense that we traded and still do, in some cases, trade things that have intrinsic value.

You know, give me your fucking spanner, I'll swap it for my bicycle.

You know, a bicycle has value because you can use it to get around to places.

But the fact that we... globally like across nearly all of the entirety of our species you know with i'm sure there's exceptions like i'm sure there's uh certain societies where they still don't use money and they still do literally trade with things that have value But the imagination and the... it's storytelling, isn't it? The story that we've told ourselves where it's like, this note which has a 20 on it, it has the number 20 on it and it's a certain colour, that means it has that amount of value and...

And you can then exchange that note for something that actually has value, something that has intrinsic value.

And then the next step, which we've also kind of gotten to, I don't want to say accomplished because I don't think it's a good thing, but the next step of that imaginary journey.

charade which we've done with money the next step is to ascribe value to commodities which actually have no value so that then the flow of money can increase money can be used and spent more and more and more and more because We don't just need money to buy seeds for the tomato plants.

We don't just need money to buy a bucket so that we can transfer water from that well to our home.

Now we need money so that we can buy a cream that makes your wrinkles look more smooth.

A cream that... hypothetically will make you look younger than you actually are we've gotten so deep into the imaginary game that we're playing whereby now a bag which is more practical than another bag let's say it's made out of more durable material maybe it's more light, lightweight maybe it can hold more things it's just overall more practical that bag in a lot of cases is going to cost you far less money than a bag which is much much much less practical a bag which is small made out of i don't know a material that doesn't bend and fold as easily, so it's sort of more encumbersome.

It's like a smaller bag, but it's still more annoying to carry than the bigger bag because it doesn't bend with you.

It doesn't move and contort when you move it.

But the more expensive bag is more expensive because of a small little icon on the side of it.

There's a small little, let's say, A letter.

Let's say two letters.

DG.

Dolce...

You can tell I'm like a fashion novice.

That's like the first one that I can think of.