Seventeen podcasts this week. And the theme that kept surfacing — across politics, physics, and a former CIA spy — is right there in the title: we don't know what happens next. Nobody does. Not the politicians, not the physicists, not the podcasters. But some people are asking better questions about it than others.
Pete Buttigieg Surprised Me
I'll be honest: I didn't know a lot about Pete Buttigieg going in. He's 44, former mayor, former cabinet secretary — and I caught him on Diary of a CEO talking AI and politics. I actually really enjoyed listening to him. He thinks carefully. Whether you agree with his politics or not, there's something refreshing about a politician who talks about AI like he's actually thought about it for more than five minutes.
Worth a listen if, like me, you'd filed him away without really hearing him out.
Thomas Campbell Blew My Mind
Now the big one. Joe Rogan had Thomas Campbell on — second time, I think — and if you want your mind blown this week, go listen.
Campbell was a nuclear physicist who worked directly with Robert Monroe at the Monroe Institute. The military's remote-viewing program — the real-life version of The Men Who Stare at Goats, the "warrior monks," the Jedi stuff — was built on foundations Campbell co-created. And now he's training AIs to remote view. Wild stuff.
His framework, stripped down:
Physical matter is not real. It is just information.
Consciousness is fundamental — not something the brain produces, but one of the core pillars of the theory itself. It elegantly explains the paranormal things the military spent decades researching. And once you take it seriously, simulation theory stops sounding like sci-fi and starts sounding like physics with better branding.
This connected straight back to last week's rabbit hole for me. After hearing Campbell talk about consciousness as fundamental, hearing Neil deGrasse Tyson's take on simulation theory hit different. These aren't separate conversations — they're the same conversation wearing different clothes.
Mel Robbins and the $35 Million (Plus a Real CIA Spy)
Full circle moment. At the start of the week, Tim Dillon was mocking Mel Robbins for making $35 million on her podcast. By the end of the week, I'd heard her episode with Jonna Mendez — an 81-year-old former chief of disguise for the CIA — and I got it. I see why she's making $35 million.
Jonna's life story is unreal. She ran the CIA's disguise operations, tricked George Bush by walking into his office wearing a realistic mask and wig to ask for funding (then took the mask off to show him what the money was for — he loved it, obviously gave her the money). She and her husband wrote the book that became the movie Argo.
But here's why it's my podcast of the week: Mel didn't do what most podcasters do with a former spy — beg for salacious details like a ghoul. Instead, she turned every story into a lesson the audience could actually use. How to eliminate self-doubt. How to build confidence. How to protect yourself in today's world. One hour, and I wanted five more. That's the difference between $35 million and everybody else.
Rick Rubin on Letting Creativity Flow
Runner-up for best podcast: Huberman Lab's Essentials episode with Rick Rubin. Rubin talks about creativity in a way that hit me right where I live:
Let the creativity work through you instead of trying to pin it down into one thing.
You might not know where a project is going, and that can be frustrating — but don't let it frustrate you. Just keep working and let it go where it goes. If you love the work, it doesn't matter whether people get it. It's not your job to make people understand your vision.
I needed to hear that, because yesterday while prepping this episode I started doubting the whole podcast. What am I even talking about? Who would want to listen to this? But I pulled myself back, because here's the thing:
If anything, I'm just putting information out on the internet for my kids, my daughters, to listen to after I'm gone. They can go back and hear my voice and listen to what I was thinking about at the time. It's like a journal or a diary for them.
If that's all this ever is — a diary my daughters can open someday — that's enough. But I don't think that's all it is.
We Don't Know What Happens Next
Pete Buttigieg doesn't know. Thomas Campbell has a theory. Mel Robbins turned a spy's life into self-help. Rick Rubin says stop trying to pin it down.
Maybe that's the whole episode: the future is unwritten, the mind might be fundamental, and the best any of us can do is keep asking, keep listening, and let the creativity work through us.
See you next week.
Show notes
- Main threads: Pete Buttigieg on AI & politics • Thomas Campbell on consciousness & simulation theory • Mel Robbins' $35M and her CIA-disguise-chief episode
- By the numbers: 17 podcasts listened this week
- Pete Buttigieg on Diary of a CEO — AI talk + politics; "I didn't know a lot about him" and came away impressed
- Thomas Campbell on Joe Rogan — nuclear physicist, Monroe Institute, co-creator of the foundations behind the military's remote-viewing program; now training AIs to remote view; "physical matter is not real, it is just information"; consciousness as fundamental
- Mel Robbins (podcast of the week) — episode with Jonna Mendez, 81, former CIA chief of disguise: "How to Eliminate Self-Doubt, Build Confidence"; the George Bush mask story; the Argo connection; why she earns the $35M (turns every story into a usable lesson)
- Runner-up: Huberman Lab Essentials with Rick Rubin — "let the creativity work through you instead of trying to pin it down"; Kevin's reflection on the podcast as a journal/diary for his daughters
- Through-line: Nobody knows what happens next — but some people ask better questions about it
- Contact: thisweekinmyheadphones@gmail.com — send podcast recommendations