Hey, I'm Oshan. I'm into researching consciousness, economics, & their interplay. Philosophy of mind & the social sciences have a lot to offer one another.
I'm a staff writer with Future Perfect at Vox, where I'm focused on consciousness studies and political economy. I also have a more personal newsletter, where I send occasional missives on how the worlds we build shape the experiences we behold.

I co-founded the Library of Economic Possibility, where we're trying to make economic research about heterodox economic policies more accessible to wider audiences.

I host & produce the Musing Mind Podcast, where I hold conversations at the intersection of consciousness, economics, & culture.

Each of us are here only briefly, as startling blinks of wakefulness, bundles of flesh & possibility in a vast, rich, & strange cosmic neighborhood. So firstly, let’s navigate with kindness, zest, & curiosity.
Great, you're all set! This could be the beginning of something wonderful. Alternatively, you may hate the newsletter & unsubscribe immediately, which is fine too.
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Consciousness
meditation // psychedelics // cognitive science // philosophy of mind

Economics
public goods // (post)capitalism and/or post-scarcity // basic income // economic sociology // designing incentives to drive more expansive phenomenologies.

Philosophy
Emerson // William James // Annie Dillard // André Gorz // Alan Watts // Peter Sloterdijk // Hartmut Rosa // phenomenology // existentialism // enchanted/speculative materialism

Strays
cosmology // blues & jazz // creative nonfiction // soccer // snowboarding

Do we share interests? Do you have book recommendations, collaboration ideas, or other such fun things? Reach out! I'm here (on the internet) for conversation & community.
Acid Capitalism // essay // 8/21/21
To Annie Dillard's Astonishment // essay // 8/21/21
On the Shrimp & Mystery // essay // 3/19/18
A Guide to Universal Basic Income // policy brief // 05/9/21
Capitalism & the Self // podcast with Barnaby Raine // 8/21/21
Unselfing: Philosophy of Psychedelics // podcast w/ Chris Letheby // 8/21/21
Timelapse of the Future: A Journey to the End of Time // video // melodysheep
The Crack-Up // essay // F. Scott Fitzgerald
Life Without Principle // essay // Henry Thoreau
The Knife and the One // essay // Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther
Gardens Need Walls: On Boundaries, Ritual, and Beauty // essay // Sarah Perry
Why I Call Myself a Socialist // essay // Wallace Shawn
Against School // essay // John Taylor Gatto
Meditations On Moloch // essay // Scott Alexander
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The Musing Mind Podcast.
Conversations at the intersection of philosophy of mind, social sciences, & existential bamboozlement.
Why, as citizens of the most powerful, technologically equipped, & advanced society in history, are so many of us spending most of our waking lives working jobs we do not particularly like to sustain lives we do not particularly enjoy?

How can we design incentives that nudge our evolution towards a more phenomenologically expansive, playful world? What kind of economy comes next? What kinds of consciousness are possible?
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The Library of Economic Possibility.
LEP will provide a platform & knowledge base to support the ongoing evolution of the US economy.

Despite renewed energy, research, and need for deep changes to the economy, we still lack a central platform that gathers potential policies in one place, providing an educational resource fit for a general audience. We hope LEP may provide one such platform.

We conduct extensive reviews of empirical research on a range of alternative economic ideas, breaking the research down into a networked database of 'insights' that make economic knowledge more accessible, while retaining connection to the wider contexts and methodologies behind them.

For each policy, we publish reports that synthesize the insights from the database into an overview of the existing evidence, both for and against, in one place. Our reports will provide a simple definition of the policy, provide context on its potential benefits and consequences, and curate the existing research to give a comprehensive overview of what the existing evidence supports, or doesn't.

Our mission is to raise the public profile of high-leverage economic possibilities, making them accessible to a general audience. LEP received early funding from Yancey Strickler's Bento Society to develop our prototype, which we plan to launch by the end of 2021, focusing on three policies:

I. Basic Income
II. Codetermination
III. Land Value Taxation


New policies will then be added on a rolling basis, such as social wealth funds, public investment banks, antitrust, and data dividends. To learn more, you can read our interview with Yancey, or watch our animated explainer:
Let's collaborate!
Have any ideas towards building bridges between philosophy of mind & social science?

Want to swap notes on living? Start a project that just might nourish the world? Share a pot of tea & discuss the nature of emptiness, or tax policy?

Or have you found a bug on this site (which is an experimental playground for me to learn web design)?

Get in touch -

E: oshanjarow [at] gmail [dot] com
Twitter: @OshanJarow

Or, use this handy form:
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Support
In large part, both the podcast & my writing are made possible by my community of Patreon supporters, who provide me with something like a crowdfunded research grant.

If you find value in my work, & have both the means & interest to support it, you can become a Patreon member here:
An orange button linking to Oshan's Patreon supporter platform for those interested in financially supporting his work
By joining, you're investing in the future production of the kind of work I do. You also get access to a few patron-only discussion channels in the Discord group, some patron-only podcast recordings, & the like.