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Ada Palmer

Published podcast speaker

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45
Episodes
3
Shows
2
Named items
1

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book / likes

Vikings

“I really love Vikings. This is a Viking myth and history book, and it looks at a number of questions.”

Conversations with Tyler · 4 Oct 2023

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

Claim ledger

What Ada said.

45 transcript-backed records

01 / observation

Machiavelli, in an interesting way, anticipates this, because Machiavelli says, “All institutions are gradually corrupted and need to be reformed and returned to their foundations, or they will collapse under the weight of their corruption.

“Machiavelli, in an interesting way, anticipates this, because Machiavelli says, “All institutions are gradually corrupted and need to be reformed and returned to their foundations, or they will collapse under the weight of their corruption.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

02 / observation

Florence’s tactic is: if someone is invading the area, can we bribe them? Because paying somebody to not attack you is a much more surefire thing than preparing to actually fight against them.

“Florence’s tactic is: if someone is invading the area, can we bribe them? Because paying somebody to not attack you is a much more surefire thing than preparing to actually fight against them.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

04 / commitment

You must appoint your illegitimate son to command your armies, because your illegitimate son will never betray you, and we will know we can trust the papal armies not to turn on Rome if the Pope’s son is the commander.

“You must appoint your illegitimate son to command your armies, because your illegitimate son will never betray you, and we will know we can trust the papal armies not to turn on Rome if the Pope’s son is the commander.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

06 / belief

I think for us, some of the orgies and massacres stand out more because we don’t have as many orgies and massacres now, or at least not publicly that we know about.

“I think for us, some of the orgies and massacres stand out more because we don’t have as many orgies and massacres now, or at least not publicly that we know about.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

08 / evaluation

Because we now think of proportional justice: the sentence for the crime should be this, and ideal justice is that everyone who is guilty of the crime gets that sentence.

“Because we now think of proportional justice: the sentence for the crime should be this, and ideal justice is that everyone who is guilty of the crime gets that sentence.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

09 / prediction

If I don’t manipulate the Church, my enemies may manipulate the Church, and then there’s danger.” This happens all the way up to the scale of kings, where popes can make your enemy the most powerful bishop in your kingdom or can deny you the right to marry, because inevitably the person you want to marry is a cousin, and you’re going to need a special dispensation to marry them.

“If I don’t manipulate the Church, my enemies may manipulate the Church, and then there’s danger.” This happens all the way up to the scale of kings, where popes can make your enemy the most powerful bishop in your kingdom or can deny you the right to marry, because inevitably the person you want to marry is a cousin, and you’re going to need a special dispensation to marry them.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

10 / prediction

They would never consider razing important parts of it to the ground. They would never consider threatening the Florentines with, “We will destroy your city walls,” or, “We will destroy your cathedral if you rebel.

“They would never consider razing important parts of it to the ground. They would never consider threatening the Florentines with, “We will destroy your city walls,” or, “We will destroy your cathedral if you rebel.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

12 / evaluation

” The Inquisition immediately realized, this is a great way to get publishers on our side, to get authors on our side, and to get their bosses on our side, because we are protecting the book that is important to the duke because it’s dedicated to the duke, or it’s dedicated to his grandfather.

“” The Inquisition immediately realized, this is a great way to get publishers on our side, to get authors on our side, and to get their bosses on our side, because we are protecting the book that is important to the duke because it’s dedicated to the duke, or it’s dedicated to his grandfather.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

13 / evaluation

In the case of Florence, you’re going to send the most prominent citizen you can. So when Pope Sixtus was elected, it was Lorenzo de’ Medici himself—not the dedicatee of The Prince, the grandfather and namesake of the dedicatee of The Prince—who went to deliver this oration of obedience, which means literally prostrating yourself in front of the pope, literally kissing his feet, and giving this oath.

“In the case of Florence, you’re going to send the most prominent citizen you can. So when Pope Sixtus was elected, it was Lorenzo de’ Medici himself—not the dedicatee of The Prince, the grandfather and namesake of the dedicatee of The Prince—who went to deliver this oration of obedience, which means literally prostrating yourself in front of the pope, literally kissing his feet, and giving this oath.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

14 / evaluation

It makes no rational sense until we remember that they are serving the pope abstractly. So you get multiple situations where there’s a war between Rome and Florence over the fact that Florence wants to defend papal authority in papal lands against the pope itself, because that individual pope was from the anti-papal faction.

“It makes no rational sense until we remember that they are serving the pope abstractly. So you get multiple situations where there’s a war between Rome and Florence over the fact that Florence wants to defend papal authority in papal lands against the pope itself, because that individual pope was from the anti-papal faction.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

15 / evaluation

He took over, and the old system was gone. But because the republic fought so hard and because the people really believed in it, the people had a lot more rights, and the tyrant was a lot less tyrannical because there had been that fight.

“He took over, and the old system was gone. But because the republic fought so hard and because the people really believed in it, the people had a lot more rights, and the tyrant was a lot less tyrannical because there had been that fight.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

16 / evaluation

The corridor goes around in this awkward square around that tower, because he knows that if he violates something as traditional and core to the civilization as the property rights of somebody who has owned something for a long time, there will be rebellion, civil war, dissent, and resistance.

“The corridor goes around in this awkward square around that tower, because he knows that if he violates something as traditional and core to the civilization as the property rights of somebody who has owned something for a long time, there will be rebellion, civil war, dissent, and resistance.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

17 / observation

Remembering moments like how Florence’s resistance all the way to the end meant that there was more liberty for the next several centuries, even under the tyrant, is what we need to remind ourselves, that partial victory is an important thing.

“Remembering moments like how Florence’s resistance all the way to the end meant that there was more liberty for the next several centuries, even under the tyrant, is what we need to remind ourselves, that partial victory is an important thing.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

20 / commitment

If he had wanted to go be an intellectual power broker, the correct move is to run off to Rome and say, “I will give up the chance to go home the way Dante did, but I will be a Florentine in exile, and I will write important things.

“If he had wanted to go be an intellectual power broker, the correct move is to run off to Rome and say, “I will give up the chance to go home the way Dante did, but I will be a Florentine in exile, and I will write important things.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

26 / evaluation

ici effectively controlled this lotteried system, because they guaranteed that the plurality, in a situation that doesn’t have a majority, will always be them.

“ici effectively controlled this lotteried system, because they guaranteed that the plurality, in a situation that doesn’t have a majority, will always be them.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

27 / evaluation

The newspaper is invented to cope with the pamphlet because you don’t know whether to trust the scandalous tale of the doctor from Padua and how he murdered his wife.

“The newspaper is invented to cope with the pamphlet because you don’t know whether to trust the scandalous tale of the doctor from Padua and how he murdered his wife.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

28 / evaluation

This is based on an assumption that education is very much like osmosis, that if you’re exposed to something, you’ll imitate it. And the uptake of this is strong because Italy is also full of upstart rulers who just seized power five minutes ago by having a coup in their state and have no legitimacy and no right to be ruling what they’re ruling and are resented by their people.

“This is based on an assumption that education is very much like osmosis, that if you’re exposed to something, you’ll imitate it. And the uptake of this is strong because Italy is also full of upstart rulers who just seized power five minutes ago by having a coup in their state and have no legitimacy and no right to be ruling what they’re ruling and are resented by their people.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

29 / prediction

” That’s the 1560s, 1580s, 160 years after Lucretius comes back, because it takes generations of work to build the libraries, to have the libraries, to use the libraries. So when we get to 1600, which is almost exactly 200 years after this begins, a little bit more, we’ve had time to say, “Let’s build the libraries, have the libraries, use the libraries, or realize we failed in how we use the libraries, and use the libraries differently.

“” That’s the 1560s, 1580s, 160 years after Lucretius comes back, because it takes generations of work to build the libraries, to have the libraries, to use the libraries. So when we get to 1600, which is almost exactly 200 years after this begins, a little bit more, we’ve had time to say, “Let’s build the libraries, have the libraries, use the libraries, or realize we failed in how we use the libraries, and use the libraries differently.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

31 / belief

I’m not familiar with that question, although I am familiar with the fact that internationally, when we look at things like the movements for women getting the vote in some of the theocratic Arab countries, when women got the vote, they disproportionately voted for the very religious and conservative parties. So, I think that there is a slight preponderance of women who end up supporting religious fringe movements.

“I’m not familiar with that question, although I am familiar with the fact that internationally, when we look at things like the movements for women getting the vote in some of the theocratic Arab countries, when women got the vote, they disproportionately voted for the very religious and conservative parties. So, I think that there is a slight preponderance of women who end up supporting religious fringe movements.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

32 / observation

If you think about the goal being to silence Galileo, the way to silence Galileo is not to make Galileo world-famous by having a giant splashy trial of Galileo.

“If you think about the goal being to silence Galileo, the way to silence Galileo is not to make Galileo world-famous by having a giant splashy trial of Galileo.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

33 / belief

We have essays about how science fiction historically has served to combat censorship and to increase international empathy. So, it’s a collection of detailed reflections on the genre, its history, and just how powerful it is to influence the way we think as a society.

“We have essays about how science fiction historically has served to combat censorship and to increase international empathy. So, it’s a collection of detailed reflections on the genre, its history, and just how powerful it is to influence the way we think as a society.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

34 / belief

I think more of brocade as the cloth of the Renaissance. But certainly, there were major technological advances in velvet production and a number of other very high-end fabric production in the Renaissance.

“I think more of brocade as the cloth of the Renaissance. But certainly, there were major technological advances in velvet production and a number of other very high-end fabric production in the Renaissance.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

35 / prediction

In Renaissance Florence, which is my specialty, one of the things people never expect is that most sorts of day laborers — which is the bottom of the economic totem pole in the city — earned enough to live on working three days a week and spent the other several days of the week enjoying themselves and looking at art. This is not what we expect, but it was actually true.

“In Renaissance Florence, which is my specialty, one of the things people never expect is that most sorts of day laborers — which is the bottom of the economic totem pole in the city — earned enough to live on working three days a week and spent the other several days of the week enjoying themselves and looking at art. This is not what we expect, but it was actually true.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

36 / recommendation

And if anyone enjoys and is interested in the history of censorship and clandestine publishing, I can’t recommend enough the work of Robert Darnton, a brilliant, brilliant historian of clandestine literature. But the same underground bookshops sell all underground materials, which means an underground bookshop sells pornography, and it also sells Voltaire and Rousseau, and it also sells diatribes criticizing the king, and it also sells radical Jansenist theological pamphlets about whether the Holy Spirit derives from the Father and Son equally or from the Father alone.

“And if anyone enjoys and is interested in the history of censorship and clandestine publishing, I can’t recommend enough the work of Robert Darnton, a brilliant, brilliant historian of clandestine literature. But the same underground bookshops sell all underground materials, which means an underground bookshop sells pornography, and it also sells Voltaire and Rousseau, and it also sells diatribes criticizing the king, and it also sells radical Jansenist theological pamphlets about whether the Holy Spirit derives from the Father and Son equally or from the Father alone.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

37 / evaluation

It’s politically dangerous to censor pornography because censorship is a very blunt instrument, and we must always imagine how a tool we set up to censor something will be used in the future by bad actors we disagree with.

“It’s politically dangerous to censor pornography because censorship is a very blunt instrument, and we must always imagine how a tool we set up to censor something will be used in the future by bad actors we disagree with.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

38 / evaluation

I think the problem with “Is history just a kind of clutter” is the just, because what is clutter, if not a record of the human beings who have been in a place and used it and lived it and all of the delightful experiences?

“I think the problem with “Is history just a kind of clutter” is the just, because what is clutter, if not a record of the human beings who have been in a place and used it and lived it and all of the delightful experiences?”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

39 / evaluation

Weirdly, right now, I would say that one of the ones that’s most undervalued is biography, unfortunately, partly because biography was a very fashionable genre in the 19th century and very early 20th century, and so as a reaction against it, it’s been pushed away.

“Weirdly, right now, I would say that one of the ones that’s most undervalued is biography, unfortunately, partly because biography was a very fashionable genre in the 19th century and very early 20th century, and so as a reaction against it, it’s been pushed away.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

40 / evaluation

In Terra Ignota, for example, there are people who are living in a largely genderless future in which only gender-neutral language is used. And people are not intended to publicly acknowledge gender, nonetheless are sexually excited by gender because of its taboo-ness — not because I’m presenting gender as something that is biologically ingrained or innate, but because our society has spent literal thousands of years developing complex ways to perform gender in not only language, but in clothing, in physicality and comportment, in patterns of inflection, in how we walk, which are performed differently in different societies.

“In Terra Ignota, for example, there are people who are living in a largely genderless future in which only gender-neutral language is used. And people are not intended to publicly acknowledge gender, nonetheless are sexually excited by gender because of its taboo-ness — not because I’m presenting gender as something that is biologically ingrained or innate, but because our society has spent literal thousands of years developing complex ways to perform gender in not only language, but in clothing, in physicality and comportment, in patterns of inflection, in how we walk, which are performed differently in different societies.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

41 / evaluation

I would say that a part of that is, those are excellent figures, and they were embraced by and are famous in the anglophone scientific tradition. But there are certainly two dozen equally innovative and important people from Spain or Italy in the same moment — if not more — who aren’t famous in the anglophone histories of science because we center the nationalistically celebrated British Isles area more, if that makes sense.

“I would say that a part of that is, those are excellent figures, and they were embraced by and are famous in the anglophone scientific tradition. But there are certainly two dozen equally innovative and important people from Spain or Italy in the same moment — if not more — who aren’t famous in the anglophone histories of science because we center the nationalistically celebrated British Isles area more, if that makes sense.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

42 / preference

I love bringing people to think about those contingent moments when a tiny decision, made by somebody often unfamous — and Voltaire’s father is not famous the way Voltaire is — nonetheless shapes enormous amounts of what comes after.

“I love bringing people to think about those contingent moments when a tiny decision, made by somebody often unfamous — and Voltaire’s father is not famous the way Voltaire is — nonetheless shapes enormous amounts of what comes after.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

43 / recommendation

If I want to do the most good — because I’m actually changing history — then I need to go back to preclassical Egypt and teach Imhotep the germ theory of disease and handwashing practices because he is the earliest medical authority who has the correct background to be able to understand the germ theory of disease and the correct degree of authority to be able to teach it to people.

“If I want to do the most good — because I’m actually changing history — then I need to go back to preclassical Egypt and teach Imhotep the germ theory of disease and handwashing practices because he is the earliest medical authority who has the correct background to be able to understand the germ theory of disease and the correct degree of authority to be able to teach it to people.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

44 / preference

The Spanish Inquisition is a very separate thing from the other inquisitions that I work on in other regions. And I like to avoid using the word inquisition ever in the singular because it creates the illusion that there was an actual unified .

“The Spanish Inquisition is a very separate thing from the other inquisitions that I work on in other regions. And I like to avoid using the word inquisition ever in the singular because it creates the illusion that there was an actual unified .”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

45 / prediction

The one-word answer is “progress,” counterintuitively, because as Europe’s economy regenerated after the Black Death and merchants started traveling farther, people started circulating from town to town more.

“The one-word answer is “progress,” counterintuitively, because as Europe’s economy regenerated after the Black Death and merchants started traveling farther, people started circulating from town to town more.”
Speaker
Ada Palmer
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler
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