If you’re new to Conversations with Tyler, welcome! Here are the five best episodes to start with:
Peter Thiel on Stagnation, Innovation and What Not To Name Your Company (Ep. 1)
This episode started the series, and it’s remained one the most popular. Tyler and Peter discuss societal stagnation, the Bible, chess, favorite TV shows, and even the “Straussian Christ.”
Neal Stephenson on Depictions of Reality (Ep. 71)
Neal joined Tyler to his discuss his books, the future of physical surveillance, how clothing will evolve, the kind of freedom you could expect on a Mars colony, whether today’s media fragmentation is trending us towards dystopia, why the Apollo moon landings were communism’s greatest triumph, Leibniz as a philosopher, Dickens and Heinlein as writers, and what storytelling has to do with giving good driving directions.
Martina Navratilova on Shaping Herself (Ep. 37)
This conversations covers Martina’s illustrious tennis career, her experience defecting from Czechoslovakia and later becoming a dual citizen, the wage gap in tennis competition and commentary, gender stereotypes in sports, her work regimen and training schedule, technological progress in tennis, her need for speed, journaling and constant self-improvement, some of her most shocking realizations about American life, the best way to see East Africa, her struggle to get her children to put the dishes in the dishwasher, and more.
Juan Pablo Villarino on Travel and Trust (Ep. 44)
The world’s best hitchhiker talks with Tyler about the joys of connecting with people, why it’s so hard to avoid stereotypes (including of hitchhikers), how stamp collecting guides his trips, the darkest secrets of people he’s gotten rides from, traveling and writing books with his wife, the cause of violence in the Americas, finding the emotional heart of a journey, where he’s going next, and more.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Jazz, Fighting Bruce Lee, Growing Up in Harlem, and Basketball (Ep. 6)
Tyler and Kareem talk segregation, Islam, Harlem vs. LA, Earl Manigault, jazz, fighting Bruce Lee, Kareem’s conservatism, dancing with Thelonious Monk, and why no one today can shoot a skyhook.
