• Sam Senchal on The God Conjecture: Physics, Soul, and Why Your Life Matters
    Jan 9 2026
    What if the universe isn’t a cold, dumb machine or a cosmic soap opera run by a temperamental sky-dad—but something deeper that both science and spirituality have been circling from opposite sides?In this conversation, Paul welcomes his friend Sam, the mind behind The God Conjecture: a framework that tries to show how a certain model of God and creation can sit cleanly inside modern physics and computation. Drawing on Wolfram’s Ruliad (the space of all possible computations), Kabbalistic cosmology, and observer theory, Sam lays out a universe in which conscious beings aren’t accidents—they’re how reality learns about itself. Then Paul does what he does best: he brings all of those ideas back down to the complexities of real life.They talk about:Why ethics might be something we discover, not invent—like math or gravity.How “evil” can be understood as inefficient paths that burn time and energy instead of moving us toward integration.Shame, addiction, and rock bottom as the narrowest point in your story that opens into the widest cone of new possibilities—if you survive it.How postmodernism helped us break all the old frames… and why it’s now failing to put anything back together.Why humans, for all our flaws, might still be the most “godlike” observers we know—because of our creativity, metaphor, and ability to turn trauma into art, love, and sovereignty.If you’ve ever felt too smart for the religion you grew up with and too soulful for a purely mechanical universe, this episode sits exactly in that tension: science, mysticism, shame, crisis, and the stubborn hope that your life actually matters.Episode Highlights:[00:00] – Why the God Conjecture?Sam’s journey from inventing billion-dollar financial structures and living the “Instagram life” to Kabbalah, fatherhood, and the need for a non-nihilistic compass for his son.[12:04] – The Ruliad, observers, and a different kind of “God debate.”What the Ruliad is in human terms, why the usual “does God exist?” argument is stuck, and how the God Conjecture reframes the whole thing.[20:21] – Paul’s translation: sacredness without dogma.Paul reflects back what he’s hearing: a universe with order and sacredness that doesn’t require us to crawl back into dogma or superstition.[23:51] – Ethics as discovery, not invention.Sam’s claim that ethics are more like math than fashion trends, and that “good” can be seen as the efficient path through the possibility space.[28:26] – Evil as inefficiency.A wild reframe: evil as what burns cycles, wastes computation, and keeps systems stuck near the boundary instead of moving toward integration.[33:11] – Shame, rock bottom, and the cone of possibility.Paul brings in crisis coaching and Smart Funny Tortured: why he quietly smiles when someone hits rock bottom, and how that maps to Sam’s formal model.[39:21] – Why big religions don’t die.The idea that major spiritual traditions persist because they posit the largest possible “limit object”—Dao, Brahman, Ein Sof, Logos—which psychologically explodes our sense of what’s possible.[42:56] – Postmodernism’s gift and collapse.From “genre mashup superpower” to fragmented islands and political fracture: how postmodernism helped us, and why it’s not evolutionarily fit anymore.[54:01] – Humans vs AI: who’s more “godlike”?Why Sam thinks human observers are still far more powerful than current AI, what true machine consciousness would require, and how creativity and metaphor act as “attractors” in the future.[1:04:41] – Post-traumatic sovereignty as higher-order observing.Paul brings it home: Smart Funny Tortured, siege on shame, and what it means to become the kind of observer who can integrate more reality without shattering. Links & resourcesSam’s paper: The God Conjecture (GitHub) Paul’s Smart Funny Tortured framework: smartfunnytortured.comMentioned concepts and thinkers:Wolfram’s RuliadKabbalistic cosmology (Ein Sof, Tzimtzum, Sefirot)Postmodernism and the noospherePost-traumatic sovereignty & Siege on Shame (SFT universe)GuestSam Alexander SenchalSam Alexander Senchal is an interdisciplinary researcher working at the intersection of observation, consciousness, meaning, free will, computational physics, analytic philosophy, and theology. He is published with the Wolfram Institute, where his work engages deeply with ideas like the Ruliad and observer theory, and how they might connect to long-standing questions about God, ethics, and human experience.Before stepping into this frontier space, Sam spent years in investing and product design for large institutions, raising and investing roughly $500 million over his career. That background in high-stakes, real-world systems gives his philosophical and theological work a rare groundedness: he’s not just speculating about abstract universes, he’s lived inside the machinery of this one.The God Conjecture—the focal point ...
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • David Shapiro on AI, Time Sovereignty, and the Analog Future
    Oct 9 2025

    AI futurist and author David Shapiro joins Paul to map the path between panic and progress. We dig into why he invests his “limited cognitive cycles” in building rather than despair, the liminal now he calls Vesperance (and why the fever will “break” in public debates), and how to use AI as a learning partner in real health journeys—labs, history, differentials, and better doctor conversations. We challenge the attention economy, reframe wealth as time sovereignty, and explore why the future gets more analog—third spaces, neighbors, social skill rehab—right as robots become the next big shock to labor. We close on the only thing that really moves policy: incentives.

    You’ll learn: agency in a post-AGI world, how to brief your doctor with AI, why “neuro-spicy” processing is an edge, and where David is placing his chips next. He’s writing The Great Decoupling, building courses (with Julia McCoy), and consulting across business, academia, and policy—hubbed via his Linktree.

    Chapters

    • Optimism as a calculation
    • Vesperance & litigating AI in public
    • Health: AI as your learning partner
    • Time sovereignty > attention economy
    • The analog comeback (community & third spaces)
    • Robots: the next labor reset
    • Incentives set the guardrails

    David Shapiro Linktree: https://linktr.ee/daveshap

    SMART FUNNY TORTURED
    🌐 Learn more: smartfunnytortured.com
    📱 Follow @SmartFunnyTortured on Instagram for more.
    🧠 Join the Samrt Funny Tortured community on Skool

    Copyright © 2025 • Cerebral Itch Labs, LLC / Smart Funny Tortured • All Rights Reserved

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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • SMART – Why Outsiders Are the New Geniuses
    Jul 11 2025

    TOPICS COVERED:

    - Jeffrey Hinton and the rise of AI irrelevance

    - Pattern recognition, synthesis, and cognitive flexibility

    - Douglas Hofstadter, Steve Jobs, Joy Buolamwini, and Tony Stark as intelligence templates

    - Why generalists win in an era of disruption

    - The Human OS for nonlinear, post-AGI thinkers

    MENTIONED THINKERS & SOURCES:

    - David Epstein – Range

    - Douglas Hofstadter – Gödel, Escher, Bach

    - Joy Buolamwini – Coded Bias

    - James Flynn – The Flynn Effect

    START HERE:

    Take the free Smart Funny Tortured Self-Audit to discover your unique intelligence blueprint:

    WATCH THE CINEMATIC EPISODE:

    Prefer visuals and storytelling? Watch the full video version on the Smart Funny Tortured YouTube channel

    TIMESTAMPS:

    00:00 – What intelligence really means now
    02:45 – Acumen, pattern recognition, and synthesis
    03:57 – The value of hybrid skill sets
    05:13 – Intelligence born from experience
    06:38 - Integration of All Three
    09:13 - Closing Thoughts

    SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW:

    YouTube

    Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon | Google – Search “Smart Funny Tortured”

    SMART FUNNY TORTURED
    🌐 Learn more: smartfunnytortured.com
    📱 Follow @SmartFunnyTortured on Instagram for more.
    🧠 Join the Samrt Funny Tortured community on Skool

    Copyright © 2025 • Cerebral Itch Labs, LLC / Smart Funny Tortured • All Rights Reserved

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    11 mins
  • FUNNY – Your Most Magnetic Human Advantage
    Jul 11 2025

    TOPICS COVERED:

    - The neuroscience of joy, laughter, and orgasm

    - Flow states, emotional intelligence, and pleasure as defiance

    - Viktor Frankl, Albert Camus, and the absurdity of hope

    - Why funny people are cognitively elite

    - Reclaiming joy as your most magnetic edge

    MENTIONED THINKERS & SOURCES:

    - Viktor Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning

    - Albert Camus – The Myth of Sisyphus

    - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Flow

    - Neuroscience of laughter, dopamine, oxytocin, and pleasure

    START HERE:

    Take the free Smart Funny Tortured Self-Audit to rediscover your joy, flow, and inner light:

    https://www.smartfunnytortured.com

    WATCH THE CINEMATIC EPISODE:

    Prefer visuals and storytelling? Watch the full video version on the Smart Funny Tortured YouTube channel:

    TIMESTAMPS:

    00:00 Introduction
    00:13 What If AI Can’t Touch This?
    01:10 Defining “Funny” in the SFT Framework
    02:41 Why Pleasure Isn’t a Luxury—It’s a Signal
    03:07 The Neuroscience of Joy, Flow, and Laughter
    03:57 Joy as Defiance: Viktor Frankl and Survival
    05:13 Flow State and the Dissolving Ego
    06:11 The 3 Elements integrated
    06:58 Camus, Absurdity, and Funny
    07:58 Take the Self-Audit and Go Deeper

    SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW:

    YouTube

    Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon | Google – Search “Smart Funny Tortured

    Your darkness is not the end of your story. Begin integration now at SmartFunnyTortured.com

    SMART FUNNY TORTURED
    🌐 Learn more: smartfunnytortured.com
    📱 Follow @SmartFunnyTortured on Instagram for more.
    🧠 Join the Samrt Funny Tortured community on Skool

    Copyright © 2025 • Cerebral Itch Labs, LLC / Smart Funny Tortured • All Rights Reserved

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    10 mins
  • TORTURED – How Your Darkness Becomes Your Power
    Jul 11 2025

    TOPICS COVERED:

    - Trauma, shame, and desire as fuel

    - The science of nervous system recalibration

    - Carl Jung’s shadow, Resmaa Menakem’s soul nerve

    - How shame stabilizes—then cages

    - Turning repressed energy into post-traumatic sovereignty

    MENTIONED THINKERS & SOURCES:

    - Carl Jung – Shadow integration

    - Resmaa Menakem – My Grandmother’s Hands

    - Gabor Maté – The Myth of Normal

    - Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score

    START HERE:

    Take the free Smart Funny Tortured Self-Audit to map your darker angels:

    WATCH THE CINEMATIC EPISODE:

    Prefer visuals and storytelling? Watch the full video version on the Smart Funny Tortured YouTube channel:

    TIMESTAMPS:

    00:00 Introduction - What You’ve Been Hiding Might Be the Key
    00:30 The Final Chapter of the SFT Trilogy
    01:14 Redefining “Tortured”: Not Broken, But Heavy
    02:23 Trauma as Adaptation, Not Damage
    05:29 How Shame Becomes the Emergency Manager
    06:05 The Nervous System’s Protective Rewrite
    07:18 Desire as Sacred Direction
    08:04 Listening to What You Crave
    09:26 The Invitation: Take the Self-Audit

    SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW:

    YouTube

    Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon | Google – Search “Smart Funny Tortured

    Your darkness is not the end of your story. Begin integration now at SmartFunnyTortured.com

    SMART FUNNY TORTURED
    🌐 Learn more: smartfunnytortured.com
    📱 Follow @SmartFunnyTortured on Instagram for more.
    🧠 Join the Samrt Funny Tortured community on Skool

    Copyright © 2025 • Cerebral Itch Labs, LLC / Smart Funny Tortured • All Rights Reserved

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    12 mins
  • Red Wine in a Coffee Cup – The Birth of Smart Funny Tortured
    Feb 26 2025

    Five years ago, Paul Chamberlain stood at a crossroads. Sobriety wasn’t just about quitting drinking—it was about confronting the deeper truths lurking beneath the surface. In this raw and deeply personal episode, Paul takes us back to the moment that changed everything: a red wine-stained coffee cup, a painful reckoning, and a journey to reclaiming his true self.

    From a transformative coaching retreat in Santa Cruz to a life-altering conversation that gave birth to Smart Funny Tortured, this episode is an unfiltered look at what it means to break free from self-sabotage, embrace your contradictions, and rebuild yourself from the inside out.

    Listen in as Paul shares:
    ✅ The moment he knew he had to change—no matter how hard it would be.
    ✅ Why coaching (not therapy) gave him the clarity and structure he needed.
    ✅ The phone call exercise that made him see himself through the eyes of those who truly knew him.
    ✅ The unexpected three-word revelation that became a global movement.

    0:01 - A Journey From Wine Addiction to Self-Discovery
    2:39 - The Transformative Journey of Personal Development and Coaching
    5:39 - Transforming a Brand Into a Movement for Change
    7:11 - Empathy and Humor as Unique Forms of Intelligence
    8:01 - Balancing Joy and Trauma for Personal Harmony
    11:03 - Embracing Self-Awareness and Personal Growth Through Honest Reflection

    This isn’t just a story about personal transformation—it’s about why so many of us feel trapped by our own brilliance, humor, and pain and how we can finally step into who we were meant to be.

    SMART FUNNY TORTURED
    🌐 Learn more: smartfunnytortured.com
    📱 Follow @SmartFunnyTortured on Instagram for more.
    🧠 Join the Samrt Funny Tortured community on Skool

    Copyright © 2025 • Cerebral Itch Labs, LLC / Smart Funny Tortured • All Rights Reserved

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    12 mins
  • Smart Funny Tortured: A Manifesto
    Feb 19 2025

    I was given a challenge: write a manifesto—a call to arms for a new kind of renaissance.

    A world where wit, depth, and resilience aren’t just tolerated but exalted.

    A world where being Smart, Funny, and Tortured pays the toll and gets you across the bridge.

    And that challenge? It forced me to face something bigger than words.

    Backstory:

    My business coach didn’t just ask if I believed in my own framework. He called my bluff. “Is this a movement? Is this a hill worth dying on? Then write a manifesto.”Not difficult because I couldn’t write it—I could. It flowed like water.

    Difficult because it forced me to see the jobs I took, the tasks I completed, the time I wasted on things I never would have stood behind like this.

    We all need to pay bills. We all have responsibilities. But shouldn’t there be at least one moment in our lives where we create something worthy of a manifesto?

    This is mine.

    If this resonates, let’s talk. Drop a 🔥 in the comments or find me at smartfunnytortured.com.

    SMART FUNNY TORTURED
    🌐 Learn more: smartfunnytortured.com
    📱 Follow @SmartFunnyTortured on Instagram for more.
    🧠 Join the Samrt Funny Tortured community on Skool

    Copyright © 2025 • Cerebral Itch Labs, LLC / Smart Funny Tortured • All Rights Reserved

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    2 mins
  • The Impact of AI on Coaching and Therapy
    May 31 2024

    In this thought-provoking episode, Paul sits down with Lumia Coaching Co-Founder and CEO, Noelle Cordeaux, to navigate the converging paths of human coaching and artificial intelligence. They discuss the impact of AI on coaching and therapy, diving deep into the implications of emerging technologies for the coaching profession and the broader human experience.

    The conversation examines the influence of AI on our socialization, decision-making, and the potential for systemic disruption across various sectors, including healthcare and law. Paul and Noelle explore the opportunities and challenges that arise as AI becomes more integrated into these fields, emphasizing the importance of human connection, empathy, and critical thinking in coaching. They highlight the unique skills that coaches bring to the table, stressing that as AI advances, coaches must adapt and find ways to leverage technology while maintaining the core principles of coaching. This episode offers valuable insights for coaches navigating the changing landscape of their profession, providing guidance on how to balance the integration of AI with the irreplaceable value of human-centric approaches.

    As AI rapidly advances and begins to occupy a prominent role in coaching and therapy, with systems capable of providing empathy and real-time interactions, Paul and Noelle explore the opportunities and challenges that arise. They emphasize the importance of human connection, empathy, and critical thinking in coaching, highlighting the unique skills that coaches bring to the table. The dialogue balances the utility of AI in education and advisory capacities with the irreplaceable value of human connection, nuanced understanding, and the artistry intrinsic to professional coaching.

    Noelle contemplates the psychological implications of AI integration, stressing the importance of empathy, resilience, and prime worldview. Paul presents an AI-developed tool tailored for leadership coaching, sparking a conversation around the functionalities and limitations of artificial companionship. Both advocate for a balance between embracing AI advancements and fostering human connections critical for personal and societal growth.

    As the transition to AI-powered systems in professional sectors could lead to significant displacement, the episode underscores the need for resilience and systems thinking. Noelle and Paul offer valuable insights for coaches navigating the changing landscape of their profession, emphasizing the importance of adapting and leveraging technology while maintaining the core principles of coaching. They stress that the core human skills learned in coaching, like empathy and effective communication, are crucial for navigating the challenges presented by AI integration into daily life.

    CHAPTERS

    0:05 Deciphering Emotions from a Selfie

    1:17 Coaching Evolution and AI Integration

    5:57 AI Integration's Impact on Professional Practices and Human Interaction

    10:39 AI's Impact on High-Income Jobs and Future Unemployment

    12:27 AI Disruption in Healthcare and Legal Professions

    17:17 Embracing Liberal Arts and AI for Future Human Potential

    20:22 AI's Emergence in Recursive Self-Improvement and Ethics

    23:50 Optimism and Prime Worldview Amidst Societal Divisions

    27:26 Innovating Leadership Coaching with AI Technology

    33:24 Integrating Coaching and Feedback Loops in Organizations

    36:05 Confronting Anxiety in Team Leadership and Feedback

    40:24 The Inevitable Rise of AI in Education and Beyond

    43:56 Understanding Love Through Neurobiology and Classroom Interactions

    44:37 Coaching Skills as Tools for Connection in a Digital Age

    52:53 Coaching in the Age of Technological Transformation

    SMART FUNNY TORTURED
    🌐 Learn more: smartfunnytortured.com
    📱 Follow @SmartFunnyTortured on Instagram for more.
    🧠 Join the Samrt Funny Tortured community on Skool

    Copyright © 2025 • Cerebral Itch Labs, LLC / Smart Funny Tortured • All Rights Reserved

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    1 hr