Sleep and ASMR by The French Whisperer

"Gamification" describes a strategy: introducing gaming elements and mechanics into everyday activities - like learning, consuming, or producing - to make them more engaging, or even mildly addictive. It is also a phenomenon. From loyalty programs and budgeting apps to social media and ride-sharing, we play more games than we realize.
In this episode, I examine this situation, starting from my own experience as a content creator. We will explore the psychological mechanisms and neuroscience that make games so appealing, the blurred boundaries between play and work, and the benefits of gamification like fun, productivity, and motivation. We will also look at the downsides - specifically, how reality and subjective experiences may become standardized and flattened when they serve to feed a numbers game that we confuse with reality.
Timestamps:
0:00 Is your Life Gamified?
6:15 The Creator's Numbers Game
15:50 How Gamification Flattens Reality
28:58 A Bit of History
37:39 Psychology of Play and Work
47:12 What Happens in the Brain Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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What could space colonization in the next few decades look like, if it ever happens? Is it possible and does it make sense to establish bases on the Moon, mine asteroids, or build a "star bridge", also known as a space elevator? These are some of the questions I will tell you about in this episode. We will talk about the limitations of rockets, high-performance materials such as carbon nanotubes, what asteroids and the Moon are made of, why helium-3 could be a strategic resource, and many more things.
Timestamps:
0:00 Near-Space Colonization
1:04 Limitations of Rockets
9:50 Space Elevator
19:19 High-Performance Materials and Construction
32:43 Space Mining
42:40 Colonization of the Moon
49:22 Helium-3
59:19 Lunar Base Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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Bestiaries were medieval compendiums that contained information and illustrations of real and legendary animals. Following this ancient tradition, I have put together talks about the origins of different legendary and fantasy creatures. Make yourself comfortable, this will be a long historical, anthropological and mythological journey around the world.
Timestamps:
0:00 Bestiaries
1:37 Elf
27:37 Dwarf
41:12 Ork
47:32 Goblin
55:25 Troll
1:05:45 Phoenix
1:33:45 Unicorn
1:53:25 Mermaid
2:15:00 Werewolf
2:54:38 Dragon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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Alexander the Great is a name that sounds almost more legendary than real. In tonight's episode, we will dive into his time, his life and his conquests. Born from King Philip II of Macedon and Olympias of Epirus, educated by Aristotle, Alexander takes the lead of the League of Corinth, a coalition of Greek states. He leads his army into the conquest of the greatest empire of the time: the empire of the Achaemenids. He ends up conquering it entirely, defeating Darius III at the decisive battles of Issus and Gaugamela, and founding an empire that stretches from Greece to India, and Central Asia to Egypt. I will tell you what we know of the man himself too, and how his achievements changed the world. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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Machines and humans live in a symbiosis, something we are so accustomed to that we barely think about it. You are using a machine to read this, and your headset or speakers, your clothes, your chair or your bed, most of the objects around you, were made with machines or are machines.
We create them and they bring extraordinary advantages. They free us, but we also adapt to them. Think about how our work, be it remote or in production facilities where machines are located, the way we socialize, entertain ourselves, study, think, is also determined by them. In this episode, we are going to explore the history of their invention and development, together with a few aspects of how they changed our work, socialization and values, from the first simple machines of Prehistory and Antiquity to modern computers. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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