At what point does “learning everything” stop helping?

In this Season 1 finale, we zoom out to look at a strange truth: humans have always been obsessed with understanding reality—we’ve just kept upgrading the tools.

From oral prophecy and ancient divination systems to modern AI and black-box algorithms, we keep asking the same questions with shinier interfaces. Season 1 ends where it began: curious, slightly skeptical, and still very much debugging.

Blink twice if you’re still here. Then email ⁠inferenceandincense@gmail.com⁠ for a shot at a $50 Amazon gift card.

Is AI a path to enlightenment… or the start of a very weird religion?

In this episode of Inference & Incense, we spiral into one of the questions we probably shouldn’t ask at the end of a workday: whether AI is pushing us closer to enlightenment. We talk about what “enlightenment” even means, why knowledge doesn’t always equal freedom, and whether asking better questions matters more than getting better answers.

If you’ve ever wondered whether AI is accelerating insight or outsourcing intuition—this one’s for you.

Why do we overthink 'the moment' and underthink 'the aftermath'?In this episode of Inference & Incense, we take a hard (and amused) look at the way we inflate certain choices into life-defining events—and quietly lose our minds in the process.

We talk about why decisions feel heavier before we make them, how logic and intuition are both unreliable when we’re exhausted. If decision-making has ever felt overwhelming, paralyzing, or weirdly overhyped… welcome. You’re among friends.

What if growth isn’t about trying harder? In this episode of Inference & Incense, we talk about letting go—not in the dramatic, burn-your-life-down way, but in the quieter, messier way that actually creates room to grow.

We share stories from our lives as Asian immigrants and women in tech. Along the way, we unpack why letting go feels so hard (ego, fear, sunk costs, cultural conditioning), how modern life keeps us stuck in outdated patterns. If you’ve ever felt tired of holding everything together—or secretly excited by the idea of starting fresh—this one’s for you.

What if your gut has opinions… but not all of them deserve a vote?

We’ve all been told to “trust your gut,” but no one tells you what to do when your gut is traumatized, overprotective, or running on outdated data. In this episode of Inference & Incense, we explore the blurry line between intuition and survival instinct—why some gut reactions are sharp and wise, and others are just your nervous system panicking in HD.

Join us to explore our second brains, the trauma loops, false alarms, and how to tell the difference between a real inner knowing and a reflex that just wants you to disappear.

If an AI makes a great movie, who do you thank—the director, the data, or the algorithm? In this episode of Inference & Incense, we get into the weird, messy middle of AI and cinema: who’s actually holding the pen, why everything is starting to look the same, and what gets lost when speed replaces intention.

We argue (lovingly) about whether AI is a soulless remix machine or a strange new creative mask—and why the real danger isn’t the tool, but how quickly we stop paying attention.

Along the way, we talk about authorship, algorithms, and the forgotten art of sitting with a story instead of immediately scrolling past it. If you’ve ever watched something that looked impressive but felt… empty, this episode is for you.

What if your biggest failure wasn’t a mistake—but a message you ignored the first few times? In this episode of Inference & Incense, we talk about failure not as collapse, but as interruption—the kind that shows up when you’ve optimized your life a little too well.

We share personal stories of crashing while doing everything “right,” overfitting ambition to the wrong model, and realizing—usually too late—that some breakdowns are actually course corrections.

Along the way, we pull from psychology, data thinking, and spiritual frameworks (with a live card reading, of course) to explore why clarity so often arrives only after the faceplant. If you’ve ever looked back at a painful moment and thought, “Oh… that was trying to move me,” this episode is for you.

Have you ever felt like a fraud even when you're actually crushing it? In this episode of Inference & Incense, we talk about imposter syndrome the way it actually shows up—mid-career, mid-meeting, mid-scroll on LinkedIn.

We unpack why AI makes some people wildly overconfident and others quietly spiral, how comparison gets weird when everyone’s part-human, part-machine, and why feeling like a fraud often hits the people who care the most about doing good work.

Along the way, we pull from psychology, Buddhism, and tarot—not for answers, but for better questions about identity, learning, and letting go of the need to always feel “legit.” If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re falling behind, faking it, or just tired of pretending you have it all figured out—this one’s for you.