You love reading. You’re always looking for great things to read? 📖 📚
Me too! *high five* 🙏
Today, I’m talking with my friends Tinkered Thinking and Dylan O’Sullivan about ‘White Mirror’, a book written by the former, edited by the latter, and published by OSV’s Infinite Books (full disclosure: I was involved in the publication of this book, but we wanted to publish it because it’s great, we don’t think it’s great because we published it. The order matters!).
It’s a wide-ranging conversation aimed at those who HAVEN’T yet read the book, so don’t worry. We go down all kinds of rabbit holes 🐇 and tangents, including:
From a tweet to 31 stories, the wild origin of White Mirror
The intersection of technology & human experience
Reclaiming childlike imagination and a sense of wonder as an antidote to pessimism
Simulation theory, meditation, and the nature of reality
Literary architecture and chiastic structures
Predictions in the book that are coming true, and startup ideas hidden in the stories
The craft of writing fiction vs. non-fiction
Status games, adulthood, and missing rituals and rites of passage
Writing science fiction as someone who doesn’t read much scifi
…and much more
🎧 Listen on Spotify
If you prefer to listen on Spotify, here’s the feed:
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts
Here’s the podcast feed on Apple Podcasts:
📺 Watch on YouTube
🏆 Giveaway: 5 Signed Copies of White Mirror! 🪞📚✍️
Thanks to Tinkered’s generosity, I’m giving away five signed copies of White Mirror. If you want to participate, the instructions are simple:
If you’re a paid supporter and are interested, send me an email to let me know you’d like one (you can just reply to any of the newsletter emails or this podcast email). Send this before December 1, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST. That’s it.
On December 3, 2025, I’ll draw names out of a hat, or buy one of those bingo machines with the balls bouncing around, or use randomizing software, whatever, and pick 5 winners. When you win, I’ll email you to ask for shipping details.
If you’re NOT yet a paid supporter, but would like to become one before December 1, no problem, you can participate. Hit the subscribe button, and then drop me an email that mentions you’re interested in the signed book (I’ll also send you a link to the private Discord and to Zoom Q&As I do with supporters).
There aren’t that many of you, and not all will enter, so if you do put your name in the hat 🎟️ 🎩 your odds of getting a signed book are very good.
But you don’t have to wait for that to buy it. And if you win, just keep the signed copy and give the regular one to someone else. 🎁
🛒 Best Place to Buy the Book 👇
You can buy White Mirror on Amazon, but the real pro move is to get it from Infinite Books because, for the same price, you get the deluxe paperback of the book + the audiobook + the ebook (DRM-free).
The book is a beautiful artifact, we spent a ton of time obsessing over the details. 🔍
Check out this review:
So far it has 96 reviews and a 4.9/5 stars rating on Amazon and Goodreads! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Not only that, but if you’re into HARD puzzles, the book contains one that will reward whoever figures it out with $1000 + 2% of Tinkered Thinking’s royalties. 💵
🧩 Solve the Puzzle to Win the Prize
WHITE MIRROR might be the book that pays you to read it.
Hidden within its pages is a deeply layered, multidisciplinary puzzle, designed to test your attention, imagination, and detective instincts.
Crack it, and you’ll win $1,000, plus 2% of Tinkered Thinking’s royalties earned up to the point your solution is submitted (royalties only begin once publishing costs are recouped)
Figuring out where to submit your answer is part of the puzzle. So is explaining how you cracked it. Told you it’s layered!
A Discord server is already live with over a dozen curious minds working on the puzzle. They’re on the right lines… but they’re not there yet.
Do you have what it takes to beat them?If you want even more, get the other books from the Lucilius Parables.
🥚 ‘The Egg’ Short Story by Andy Weir 📖
This is the story mentioned by TT during the podcast.
The great animated version was created by Kurzgesagt.
🤖🎙️ Additional Interviews with Tinkered Thinking
If you’re looking for even more, above is great recent interview that Tinkered Thinking did about White Mirror and various other things.
Also, here’s the interview with Jim on Infinite Loops from 3 years ago that TT mentions:
🗄 More Podcasts with Tinkered Thinking & Dylan 🎥🎬🍿
🎧 Sicario by Denis Villeneuve: Going Deep with Ed William and Dylan O’Sullivan 🎥 🎬 🎞️ 🍿
🎧 The Last of Us: Going Deep on HBO’s Amazing Show with Matt Reustle and Tinkered Thinking 🍄
🎧 TENET Deconstructed: ↔️ Christopher Nolan’s Mind-Bending Time Thriller 🔁 (with BOTH Tinkered Thinking and Dylan)
