Episode 10 - Fate

[CarolineEAnd 41]

Nick Kroll is one of the most prolific Earwolf guests, so he was destined to show up on Professor Blastoff! That is, if destiny exists. Destiny or fate, or karma, or astrology, or free will. It's all up for grabs this week, along with a pre-posthumous message from Tig and Nick's new "Weird Gypsy" character. I would say to enjoy it, but perhaps your enjoyment has already been determined. Trippy, right?

[jughead 189]

anytime you start a sentence out with "I don't mean this to be racist" you pretty much know its going to be a racist statement. That being said, I totally agree with Kroll on this one and also his view on "God". I share the same exact sentiment when people ask whether I believe in "God" or not. Another freaking awesome episode. This podcast, by far, is now my favorite right behind CBB.

[Rodney 5]

I have a weird astrology story to share, which this episode reminded me of. I don't believe in it at all, but every time I remember this it makes me think for a while.
A few years ago I was visiting with 3 of my good friends (2 male, 1 female) on a summer break from college. We went out to the beach and one of the guys invited his housemate along. The housemate was really into astrology, and she started asking us our signs as a way to start getting to know us. As it turns out, the 4 of us (not the housemate) were all born within the same 11 day period of the same year (but in 2 different parts of the country). To her, that was an example of astrology’s validity because it says sagittariuses get along together well or something.
It's not like those are my only friends, so what a weird coincidence that the only time I've ever met someone way into astrology it would be while in the company of those 3 only.

(my thought on why sagittaruises get along so well- we can commiserate how growing up, our birthdays are so close to final exams and Christmas that they’re barely recognized)

[RichardDinkmond 0]

So Tig and Taylor Dayne are neighbors now?

[EarHair 0]

Way to make your guest feel guilty for being a billionaire.

[Roy Ziegler 108]

You guys touched on some really interesting stuff when you started talking about free will and genetic determinism, I think it was David who mentioned the idea that life is just a huge equation playing itself out, which is a good way of putting it, however I would've liked to see you guys explore that stuff more. Fate in the supernatural sense is not interesting to me because it seems so patently absurd, especially, as you guys talked about, when you look at the "fates" of the less fortunate and impoverished, but fate in the sense of determinism is extremely interesting and you can make a much more compelling argument for it. I'd like to see you guys do a full episode on free will, it may seem obvious that free will exists just by the intuitive feeling you have that you are controlling your actions, but the more you analyze it, the harder it becomes to rationalize, while at the same time, a world in which free will does not exist doesn't make much sense either.

Also, I don't know if Nick Kroll knows this, but his idea about how the poor/unfortunate need religion is pretty much a paraphrasing of Nietzsche's theory of how religion and morality in general originated. His idea was that in the early days of civilization, there were civilizations that didn't have enough resources and so had to conquer other civilizations, and then there were the peaceful, balanced civilizations that got conquered. The conquered peoples had to rationalize the atrocities committed upon them, so they came up with the idea of good and evil, and labeled themselves as the righteous ones, and this developed into ideas about eternal rewards for those who were good"= and punishments for those who were evil, and eventually it turned into religion.

[thejames 8]

Hey T&K&D,

Thanks for another good one-I think this episode would have been even better if you could have wrangled a Philosophy expert or at least laid out some definitions here and there-I was getting a little confused with the discussions of free will and fate and social mobility and class structure, etc., but overall a lot of fun.

PS-Could one of you guys cover my dinner shift at Shenanigan's?

[eddie 1]

great episode. i'm really loving this podcast. you guys are consistently funny and make me think. i'm fascinating by all of these topics, and it's nice hearing them discussed in a way that isn't dry or boring and instead fascinating and insightful.

[BenV 8]

I'm also fascinating by all of these topics. Wait, what?