Guests: Episodes with Eric Weinstein

Eric Ross Weinstein is an American mathematician, economist, and podcast host. Born on October 26, 1965, in Los Angeles, California, Weinstein is known for his involvement in the “Intellectual Dark Web.” He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his MA and PhD in mathematical physics from Harvard University.

Weinstein served as the joint managing director for Thiel Capital from 2013 until 2022. In his dissertation, he explored the extension of self-dual Yang-Mills equations across the eighth dimension, showing that these equations were not restricted to dimension four but could be generalized to higher dimensions.

Despite leaving academia after tenures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Weinstein continued to contribute to the scientific community. In May 2013, he was invited by mathematician Marcus du Sautoy to present his ideas on a theory of everything, called ‘Geometric Unity,’ at a colloquium at Oxford University’s Clarendon Laboratory. However, his theory met with skepticism from some physicists and criticism for not having a published paper to support it.

In April 2021, Weinstein released a draft paper on Geometric Unity during a guest appearance on the podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience.” However, his work faced significant criticism from some members of the scientific community for gaps and issues jeopardizing Geometric Unity as a well-defined theory or a candidate for a theory of everything.

Weinstein is also known for coining the term “intellectual dark web,” a phrase used to describe a group of academics and podcast hosts, including himself and his brother, Bret Weinstein. This term came about after Bret Weinstein resigned from Evergreen State College following a 2017 campus controversy.