So, I was invited by the bosses at Substack to participate in a live debate on sex and technology, held in Chicago two weeks from now. If you’re in the Windy City and want to check it out, you can get a free ticket here.
It should be a blast. Other participants are:
Aella
Kate Lindsay
Blassie
Kat Rosenfield
Noelle Purdue
Sean Monahan
Katherine Dee
I haven’t met any of these people personally, but I know most of them by reputation. (In 2023, I listed the best books I read that year, and the winner was Kat Rosenfield’s No One Will Miss Her). I will be the least cool person on stage, but I hope to win over the audience with my sweet Canadian earnestness.
Aella and I will be debating Blassie and Katherine Dee, and the topic is (something like) “Has porn and social media changed the nature of sexual desire or are our desires innate?”. Blassie and Katherine will argue in favor of the change side; Aella and I will push for innateness. I’m pretty sure Aella and I are right, but it’s not really my area, and I figure I’ll have to come up with some actual arguments. Please send some my way.
It’ll be taped, and the participants get to release the video later on to our paid subscribers—so become a paid subscriber! BUT I’m only releasing the video if I don’t make an ass of myself, so it’s a sort of 50/50 proposition. Your best bet is to show up in person.
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I was shocked to see you on the poster when they dropped it. Three internet-brained chronic poasters, plus Paul Bloom. They better not be taking advantage of you to lend respectability to this debate.
Culture reframes desire, but if desire were culture-made, it wouldn’t keep doing its job: reproduction. That reliability demonstrates our basic urges, leanings, and impulses have deep innate roots and suggests that for thousands of years we’ve been thinking more or less the same things. And if you want to take a different tact, lots of great writers, Roth and Updike come to mind, had all kinds of wild explorations long before porn and social!
Oh and hey folks, the chance to see Paul out of his element is yet another reason to become a paid subscriber!