Episode 5: Gabriel Kennedy
Robert Anton Wilson, Model Agnosticism, and the Art of Not Knowing
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What happens when certainty itself becomes the problem?
In this episode of The Bardo Podcast, comedian Marc Salmon is joined by writer and cultural historian Gabriel Kennedy for a conversation about Robert Anton Wilson, uncertainty, and learning to think without fixed beliefs.
They explore Wilson’s ideas around model agnosticism, Chapel Perilous, synchronicity, humour as an epistemological tool, and the SNAFU Principle, alongside stories from Wilson’s life, political thinking, and personal tragedies. The conversation stays with ambiguity, play, and forgiveness, asking how we live, think, and act when no single worldview can hold.
Topics include:
Robert Anton Wilson and model agnosticism
Chapel Perilous and high strangeness
Synchronicity and meaning-making
The SNAFU Principle and power
Humour, play, and epistemic humility
Anarchism, authority, and belief
Trauma, forgiveness, and choosing love over fear
The self meta-programmer and changing how we think
Guest
Gabriel Kennedy is a writer and cultural historian, and the author of Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson. His work explores politics, mysticism, counterculture, and the limits of belief.
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Music by Marc Salmon and Robert Fuller
Artwork by Zoe Brownstone - Check out her special here
