x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Meaning Making Machines

Meaning Making Machines connects the deep past with the imminent future through the search for the eternal, enduring, and essential. Join host Simone Leon as she discusses how we find and define meaning through art, religion, and technology. She"ll be speaking to artists, technologists, technophobes, religious thinkers, and philosophers. Exploring the deep questions with a curious mind, and questioning everything. simoneleon.substack.com

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

97:22

Composing with Soul in the Age of AI | JoAnne Harris...

Meaning Making Machines ·

2025/12/12

Welcome to my conversation with composer JoAnne Harris. JoAnne has conducted and recorded film scores at Abbey Road, East West, The Village, and Avatar with artists such as grammy winning Kurt Elling and members of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Her television work includes score for: Mal de Ojo (HBO), 20/20, Primetime, and Dateline. She teaches media scoring at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema (CUNY Brooklyn College), orchestration at Catholic University of America, and is a student of

en

11:33

An Autobiography by the Trees

Meaning Making Machines ·

2025/12/06

I knew things as a child that are hidden to me now. I knew them, but I didn’t have the intellectual skills to speak of them. I simply lived them.Read full essay here: https://simoneleon.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simoneleon.substack.com

en

11:47

The Hypocrisy of Political Certainty

Meaning Making Machines ·

2025/10/18

Cultures and people trade one type of conformity for another and rarely think for themselves without being told what to think. An essay on how we can learn to free ourselves from hypocrisy.Read full essay here: https://simoneleon.substack.com/p/9536ae12-3d49-4b51-8203-458cefcf822d?postPreview=paid&updated=2025-10-17T23%3A48%3A06.730Z&audience=everyone&free_preview=false&freemail=true This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes,

en

67:07

The Cross, the Womb, and the Crown: The Paradoxes of...

Meaning Making Machines ·

2025/06/28

Welcome to my episode with medieval scholar, writer, and speaker Dr. Grace Hamman. She is the author of the book Jesus through Medieval Eyes, a fascinating and accessible introduction to the bizarre, profound, and contradictory spirituality and culture of medieval people. In this episode we speak about Christianity during medieval times, their complex views of women, sex, birth, and death, the spiritual relationship to fear and suffering, and the corruption of the church during its most powerful

en

12:04

Digital Spirituality

Meaning Making Machines ·

2025/04/16

It is becoming increasingly obvious to me that the role of the unseen in our lives is undeniable and essential. These “things” that are nonmaterial – things like God, love, courage, morality, truth, justice, joy, fulfillment – define the value and meaning of a human life.Read full essay here: https://simoneleon.substack.com/p/c6f1e05b-202e-4467-8ee2-2c41eb58e7b3 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit

en

87:41

The Meaning of Where You Live | Alissa Hessler of...

Meaning Making Machines ·

2025/04/10

Alissa Hessler is a writer and photographer, most well-known for her now decade old project, Urban Exodus. Through countless podcasts, stunning atmospheric photography, and candid interviews, Alissa has documented the lives and transitions of hundreds of former urbanites who decided to move to the country. These stories share the triumphs and difficulties they've experienced since leaving the conveniences of city life. Her book Ditch the City and Go Country, was hugely helpful and inspirational to

en

62:22

Womanhood and Reproductive Technologies | Sylvia...

Meaning Making Machines ·

2025/03/14

Welcome to part 2 of my conversation with Sylvia Linsteadt! If you haven’t seen part 1 of our conversation, you can do so HERE.If you don’t know her work already, Sylvia is an author, a scholar of ancient history and myth, and a certified wildlife tracker. Her work - both fiction & non-fiction is rooted in myth, ecology, feminism, and bioregionalism. I highly recommend exploring her wonderful substack The Pollen Basket.This week, we continue our discussion of the feminine, diving deeper into the

en

98:04

How to be Human in the Age of AI | Kyle T. | Episode 3

Meaning Making Machines ·

2025/03/02

Kyle is a crypto millionaire and a futurist. As a young adult, he was a part of the punk/anarchist scene in New Orleans. He squatted in a communal house, dumpster-dived, and made his best efforts to reject capitalism. After becoming disillusioned with the lifestyle, he left the south and began studying futurism.Shortly thereafter, he got into the world of NFTs. His most successful project reached a trading value of $1.5 million. More recently, he launched an alt-coin or a “shitcoin” that reached a

en

16:01

Miserable Gods

Meaning Making Machines ·

2025/02/20

Death limits life, disease limits health, loss limits love, and scarcity limits abundance. And as any economist will tell you, limitation drives value. The gods had none. And so, with every whim fulfilled, with the threat of death nonexistent, their limitless treasures were worthless. An essay on the power of limitation.Read full piece here: https://simoneleon.substack.com/p/b404f0d9-9361-4412-aa65-64652490ba75 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get

en

99:31

Healing the Motherline | Sylvia Linsteadt

Meaning Making Machines ·

2025/02/15

Sylvia Victor Linsteadt is an author, a scholar of ancient history and myth, and a certified wildlife tracker. Her work - both fiction & non-fiction is rooted in myth, ecology, feminism, and bioregionalism.In our conversation we speak about matrilineal vs. patrilineal cultures, motherhood across time, female fertility the connection between greek gods, aliens, and us, the relationship between fiction and spirituality, and more…Show Links:Substack: http://simoneleon.substack.comYoutube:

en

10:20

Divine Terror and Demonic Pleasure

Meaning Making Machines ·

2025/02/08

This past Christmas night I dreamt of divine terror. The night after Christmas, I dreamt of demonic pleasure. An essay about my own Christmas Carol.Read full piece here: https://simoneleon.substack.com/p/5e75356d-f635-43df-bfda-c6ec47657173 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simoneleon.substack.com

en

10:43

There are Two Worlds Within This One

Meaning Making Machines ·

2025/02/01

Connecting the deep past with the imminent future through art, religion, and technology. Subscribe on simoneleon.substack.com or wherever you get your podcasts! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simoneleon.substack.com

en

6:59

Christianity is a Nature Religion

Meaning Making Machines ·

2025/01/17

Despite not being Catholic, or raised any sort of Christian, recently I have begun praying the rosary. I find the circularity of it, the repetition, the endlessness of the practice soothing. I feel it aligns me with some greater movement of life. An essay about how Christ and the Virgin Mary reflect the natural world’s most essential patterns.Read full piece here: https://simoneleon.substack.com/p/136ac3ce-1b6e-4b13-8857-26c538a0948c This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with

en

13 results

Similar Podcasts

Voices of Life

APG Mannheim

Promo Estereo Podcast

Promo Estereo

Talking Timelines Podcast

Talkingtimelines

גיקונומי

ראם שרמן ודורון ניר

Drømmefanger

Drømmefanger