Jesse Michels — American Alchemy (Infinite Loops Classics)

Aug 6, 2026

Hi everyone, Jim here. We're taking a short pause on new episodes through the end of August. In the meantime, we're digging out some of our favorite conversations from the archive. This one is from February 2023, so a few of the references have aged since (mine included), but the ideas have only gotten better. Enjoy this one with the wonderfully heretical Jesse Michels.

Jesse Michels is an investor at Thiel Capital and the creator and host of ‘American Alchemy’, a Youtube channel dedicated to highlighting the most heretical thinkers and ideas of our time.

He joins the show to discuss the transmission theory of consciousness, whether mushrooms are aliens, the reawakening of the Boomers and MUCH more!

Important Links:

- American Alchemy - https://www.youtube.com/@JesseMichels/about
- Jesse’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/alchemyamerican

Books Mentioned:

- The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date; by Samuel Arbesman
- The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size; by Tor Norretranders
- Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid; by Douglas Hofstadter
- The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
- The Immortality Key : The Secret History of the Religion with No Name; by Brian C. Muraresku
- The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science; by Robert Anton Wilson
- How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence; by Michael Pollan
- Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties; by Tom O’Neill
- Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream; by David McGowan
- Prometheus Rising; by Robert Anton Wilson
- Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You & Your World; by Robert Anton Wilson
- The Cosmic Trigger trilogy; by Robert Anton Wilson
- Communion: A True Story; by Whitley Strieber