Why do we love art so much? What purpose does art serve for humans? Or is art useless and maybe that's a good thing? Joseph Holmes and Nathan Clarkson talk to author Dr. Meredith Hite Estevez about her new book "Art is How God Loves Us" on The Overthinkers.

References and resources

Does art have health benefits? https://iris.who.int/server/api/core/bitstreams/e1cc8536-773d-446f-9822-8ae376f41415/content

Can art express things words can’t? https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/langer/

Is art useless? https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/526851-we-can-forgive-a-man-for-making-a-useful-thing

Is art for therapy? https://www.alaindebotton.com/art/

Website

The Overthinkers: theoverthinkersjournal.world Nathan Clarkson: nathanclarkson.me Joseph Holmes: linktr.ee.com/josephholmes

Why is there so much anti-elite sentiment in the world today? Is it the fault of the elites themselves, or cultural trends they can't control? Joseph Holems and Nathan Clarkson talk to culture critic and author Aaron Renn on their latest episode.

Defining elites:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/elite

https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-071811-145542?

American trust in institutions at all-time low. https://news.gallup.com/poll/712436/confidence-institutions-remains-near-time-low.aspx

Global trust decreasing from fear to grievance: https://www.edelman.com/trust/2025/trust-barometer

Anti-elite sentiment worldwide: https://www.ipsos.com/en/populism-remains-strong

Christopher Nolan on democracies and greatness: https://singjupost.com/transcript-christopher-nolan-interview-with-podcaster-zhong-shu/

Low trust makes problems harder to solve: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/07/22/how-americans-see-problems-of-trust/

Tyranny of merit hypothesis: https://pitchforkeconomics.com/episode/the-tyranny-of-merit-with-michael-sandel/

Democratization of information hypothesis: https://www.discoursemagazine.com/p/revolt-of-the-public-10-years-on

Elite overproduction hypothesis: https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-elite-overproduction-hypothesis-994

Websites

The Overthinkers: theoverthinkersjournal.world Nathan Clarkson: nathanclarkson.me Joseph Holmes: linktr.ee.com/josephholmes

Are we addicted to outrage? Why does everyone seem so angry? Is social media making us angrier or making us overperceive our anger? And if we are angrier, is that a good thing because we have so much to be angry about? Nathan Clarkson and Joseph Holmes discuss the theories and science behind outrage culture on the latest episode of The Overthinkers.

References and resources

Do most Americans think politics is worse today? https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/americans-feelings-about-politics-polarization-and-the-tone-of-political-discourse/

Does negativity drive news consumption? https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01538-4

Does high emotion drive news consumption? https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1509/jmr.10.0353

Does tribal signalling drive engagement? https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8256037

Does moral grandstanding increase status? https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/papa.12075

Does status seeking predict outrage? https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6795490/

Do we overestimate how much outrage there is? https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01582-0?

Does social media amplify outrage? https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8363141/

Is outrage good?: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37000374/ Websites

The Overthinkers: theoverthinkersjournal.world Nathan Clarkson: nathanclarkson.me Joseph Holmes: linktr.ee.com/josephholmes