Based Camp | Simone & Malcolm Collins
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Based Camp is a podcast focused on how humans process the world around them and the future of our species. That means we go into everything from human sexuality, to weird sub-cultures, dating markets, philosophy, and politics. Malcolm and Simone are a husband wife team of a neuroscientist and marketer turned entrepreneurs and authors. With graduate degrees from Stanford and Cambridge under their belts as well as five bestselling books, one of which topped out the WSJs nonfiction list, they are widely known (if infamous) intellectuals / provocateurs. If you want to dig into their ideas further or check citations on...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Simone and Malcolm make contentious cultural arguments legible by exposing the assumptions, evidence gaps and personal intuitions underneath them.
Based Camp turns contentious cultural questions into an argumentative conversation between Simone and Malcolm, with each interrupting, challenging and extending the other's claims.
A theory of peacocking can end with a household chip negotiation; you'll need to enjoy the detour.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sharp Epstein segment that keeps pulling the claims back to evidence.
Simone and Malcolm start with the question of whether Epstein is actually dead, and from there they strip away the easier stories. They clear out the Stephen Hawking rumor, then move through names, accounts, bans, and the loose logic people reach for when they want the matter to…
A fast, combative geopolitical argument about collapse, dependency, and the politics around both.
The episode treats Cuba's fuel crisis as a wider case study in state failure, dependency, and how breakdown can start as arithmetic long before it shows up as news. It moves quickly from tanker routes to Venezuela, Mexico, and U.S.
A sharp Star Wars takedown that treats Jedi virtue as institutional rot.
The episode treats Star Wars as a moral teardown. It argues that the Jedi Order is less a clean peacekeeping tradition than a control-minded machine, and it leans hard on the lore's own weak points: midichlorians, celibacy, slavery, and the fact that Anakin is pulled out of…
A brisk argument about status signals, wealth, fashion restraint, and how attraction gets performed.
Peacocking is framed here as a theory of status signaling: once one signal is read, people reach for another. The discussion moves from sports cars and marriage to wealth-hiding, casual dating, and the broader question of how attraction gets performed.
A sharp, unruly discussion that keeps showing how messy attraction can be.
The episode takes a familiar argument about attractiveness and gives it enough motion to stay interesting. It moves between studies and long-held assumptions about how people judge their own group, and it is strongest when it stops talking in slogans and gets into the messier…
A brisk, combative critique of self-actualization that turns self-help into a broader cultural argument.
Simone and Malcolm Collins use self-actualization as a doorway into a larger cultural argument, tracing the term back to an older meaning and treating its modern use as part of the mental framing they want to reject.
A fast, unruly plausibility check on conspiracy logic.
This episode moves at a sprint. It jumps from 9/11 and the Bolshevik revolution claim to Harvard-as-Mossad talk, then to Brigitte Macron, Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, and Charlie Kirk, with the whole thing held together by conspiracy logic and a running plausibility check.
Ira Glass frames weekly theme-driven segments spanning family secrets to Portland's protest conflict.
Shankar Vedantam unpacks the psychology behind relationships, careers, and money through researcher interviews.
David McRaney interviews researchers on cognitive bias, motivated reasoning, and why minds change.
Ryan Holiday pairs daily Stoic lessons with long-form guest conversations at his Texas bookstore.
NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
Russ Roberts interviews authors and economists on ideas from classical liberalism to AI.
Malcolm and Simone Collins trace the origins of wokeism to the Hicksite Quaker movement and discuss its parasitoidal nature.
The hosts critique the concept of the 'girl boss' as an inauthentic, state-sponsored ideal that has fallen out of cultural favor.
The hosts discuss the inclusion of polyamory as a discriminated sexual identity within progressive frameworks, referencing historical LGBT movement arguments.
Simone and Malcolm Collins discuss a viral debate about transgender history and challenge the claim that trans people have existed across all cultures since the beginning of time.
The hosts trace the ideological evolution of early online atheist communities into either the new right or left-leaning positions, focusing on a specific YouTuber who drifted left.
Simone and Malcolm discuss why members of the online atheist/skeptic community who moved right retained influence while those who moved left lost relevance.
The hosts discuss OpenAI's messaging and policy document about AGI, analyzing its societal impact and their own AI agent work.
The hosts discuss the concept of 'us vs them' in society, focusing on cultural and legal expectations for different groups.
Malcolm and Simone Collins analyze new evidence from the Epstein files, focusing on a 4chan post by a corrections officer who claimed Epstein was wheeled out alive before his death was announced.
The hosts discuss Cuba's imminent economic collapse due to a severe oil shortage, exacerbated by severed ties with Venezuela and Mexico.
Malcolm and Simone Collins analyze Star Wars lore to argue that the Jedi Order is a parasitic organization controlled by midi-chlorians, which lie about the Force and use child soldiers.
Malcolm and Simone Collins explore the concept of peacocking from evolutionary and anthropological perspectives, discussing honest and dishonest signaling in humans and animals.
Simone and Malcolm Collins explore peer-reviewed studies on ethnic attractiveness rankings, revealing data on racial dating preferences, publication biases, and media influences.
Simone and Malcolm Collins critique the concept of self-actualization, tracing its origins from Kurt Goldstein to Abraham Maslow and arguing it has damaged Western society by promoting hedonism and toxic individualism.
Simone and Malcolm Collins analyze Candace Owens' escalating conspiracy theories, from claims about Charlie Kirk attending an X-Men school to anti-Semitic allegations and time traveler narratives.
Simone and Malcolm discuss a news story about a man in California forced to live with a black bear, exploring human-animal interactions and urban wildlife adaptation.
Simone and Malcolm Collins discuss the context behind a viral debate clip, framing it as a cultural turning point where the right becomes the party of science and the left becomes anti-science.