Erik Hoel - Letting the Creative Rivers Run Free Artwork

Too Lazy to Read the Paper

In this podcast the author explains a paper to me, your host, Professor Sune Lehmann (https://sunelehmann.com). The participants are authors of a paper in network science or data science. Sometimes I feature a group of co-authors! The intended audience is PhD students, PostDocs and other scientists. The idea is to start with a bit about the paper's author, the idea for the paper. Then talk about the research itself. And we’ll end by gossiping about the reviewing process, etc. The whole thing is based on the idea that papers are so formal. And that when two people talk to each other informally, it’s often more fun – and tends to get ideas across more effectively.

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Too Lazy to Read the Paper

Erik Hoel - Letting the Creative Rivers Run Free

September 18, 2022 • Sune Lehmann • Season 2 • Episode 8

Today we’re in for something a little bit different. Our guest is “Erik Hoel”, who’s not only a scientist, but also an exciting writer of books and essays. I read his fantastic first book “The Revelations” (1,2) last winters … and when I visited Boston this summer, I took a chance and sought him out. He graciously agreed to chat.

For this interview I traveled out to Erik’s house that’s placed down along a long gravel road and surrounded by lakes and trees on Cape Cod. And we chatted in his first floor study surrounded by a classy collection of books.

So who is Erik? This audience may know him as a research assistant professor at Tufts University in Boston. But that’s only a small part of his story. Erik grew up in his family's independent bookstore, Jabberwocky Bookshop, and this experience has stayed with him, motivating him to write books, reviews, and essays.

At college he became interested in solving the scientific problem of consciousness and ended up receiving his PhD in neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We spend a good chunk of time in the podcast with me learning about consciousness from Erik.

Later he was a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Alongside his academic accolades, Erik was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 and in 2017 he was chosen as a NYC Emerging Writers Fellow for his short stories.

My interview with Erik is different from what I normally do on the Pod. We do cover his past and motivations, but I actually did read his book, and we talk about that. As well as the writing process - and the creative process - in some detail.

I also want to flag up that Erik is a great thinker and essayist. You can find his stuff on his substack “The Intrinsic Perspective” (3). I love all of his writing, but a particular favorite is his recent award-winning book review (4), which among other thing proposes a new theory for why human civilization took a while to get off the ground … and why Twitter might be taking us back to the roots. I highly recommend that you check out his writing.

References
(1) https://www.erikphoel.com
(2) https://www.amazon.com/Revelations-Novel-Erik-Hoel/dp/1419750224
(3) https://erikhoel.substack.com
(4) https://erikhoel.substack.com/p/the-gossip-trap

PS In the beginning of the podcast, we talk about how I first became aware of Erik. In case you’re interested, the whole thing is described here https://sunelehmann.com/2022/01/09/oh-twitter/