21 December 2024
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Mind-Body Problems
The mind-body problem, which Buddha, Socrates and many modern scientists have sought to solve, encompasses riddles such as consciousness, free will, morality and the meaning of life. In this podcast, science journalist John Horgan, talks to leading mind-body theorists about their views and often, about their personal lives. The show is an outgrowth of a book of the same title, available for free at mindbodyproblems.com.
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Dec 28, 2020 —
John Horgan & Amanda Gefter
A conversation about nothing inspires a career in science writing. Physicist John Wheeler’s participatory cosmos. A new interpretation of quantum mechanics. Amanda’s second-person solution to the mind-body problem.
Dec 16, 2020 —
John Horgan & Michael Brooks
How Richard Dawkins helped Michael lose his faith. Michael’s infatuation with a 16th-century “quantum astrologer.” Are dreams of a final theory delusional? John’s new stream-of-consciousness memoir “Pay Attention.”
Jul 19, 2020 —
John Horgan & Philip Goff
- Philip’s 2019 book, Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness
- What’s the difference between panpsychism and philosophical idealism?
- John: Solipsism is “an absolute impediment to a truly scientific theory of consciousness”
- Does panpsychism “cheat” when it comes to philosophy’s fundamental problems?
- The moral dimension of panpsychism
- Hallucinogens and mystical experience
Apr 20, 2020 —
John Horgan & Errol Morris
- Can we ever really know the world?
- Debating the ideas of Thomas Kuhn, famous philosopher of science
- Will we ever see the end of war?
- Errol’s book about Kuhn, The Ashtray: (Or the Man Who Denied Reality)
- Errol: Science without truth cannot live
- John sticks up for Kuhn
- Errol’s vexed personal relationship with Kuhn
- Stephen Hawking’s sense of humor
- Errol: “We’re a dumbass species”
- The glass is half empty and filled with poison
Jan 28, 2020 —
John Horgan & Massimo Pigliucci
- How Massimo’s midlife crisis moved him from biologist to philosopher
- What’s the point of philosophy?
- Philosophical doubt as as a counterweight to scientific confidence
- John mistrusts science’s yearning for certainty
- Massimo’s path to stoicism
- Can reason make you happier?
- Abusive Buddhist gurus and other unexpectedly bad people
- Was Seneca a hypocritical asshole?
Jan 16, 2020 —
John Horgan & Steve Taylor
- Steve’s childhood experiences of euphoria in nature
- Why Steve prefers “wakefulness” to “enlightenment”
- Does being “awakened” make you a better person?
- Steve: “Being a parent is a spiritual path”
- Steve’s new book, Spiritual Science
- “Panspiritism” as an alternative to panpsychism
- How is “the spirit” different than God?
- Was there a point in prehistory when man behaved morally?
- Brexit, Trump, and encounters with death that lead to transformation
Jul 11, 2019 —
John Horgan & Bernardo Kastrup
- Why Bernardo thinks the mind-body problem is not as hard as it seems
- Bernardo’s spiritual, intellectual, and psychedelic history
- God, metacognition, and the Universe
- The consolations of Bernardo’s philosophy
- Bernardo: The Universe has multiple personality disorder
- The narcissism of a human-centered Universe
- Why John thinks we’ll never solve the mind-body problem
Jun 22, 2019 —
John Horgan & Jeffrey Kripal
- Jeff’s new book, The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge
- How John and Jeff make sense of Freud
- Jeff redefines the “paranormal”
- What belief in levitation or clairvoyance reveals about human nature
- Are hardcore atheists/materialists doing religious fundamentalism a favor?
- The death and rebirth of good old human narcissism
- Jeff on humanity’s future and the nature of optimism
Dec 30, 2018 —
John Horgan & Stuart Kauffman
- Stuart’s early interest in the deepest questions in philosophy and science
- How a premonition of his daughter’s tragic death shaped Stuart’s ideas about consciousness
- Telepathy, nonlocality, and decoherence: making sense of inexplicable experiences
- “Enablement,” Stuart’s concept of a creative, unpredictable causality
- John on the connection between emotional experiences and intellectual views
- John and Stuart look to the future with cautious optimism
- A brief addendum on spoon bending
Nov 11, 2018 —
John Horgan & Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
- Rebecca’s childhood: poor, religious, and patriarchal
- How Bertrand Russell helped Rebecca lose her faith
- The problem of beauty
- When Rebecca shared a transcendent moment with a troop of baboons
- From physics to philosophy
- From philosophy to fiction
- Does art better address the mind-body problem than philosophy does?
- Reasons to feel optimistic about the world
Nov 3, 2018 —
John Horgan & Owen Flanagan
- Owen’s transition from Catholicism to “quiet skepticism”
- The problem of evil
- The hubris of modern philosophers
- Can we live with the scientific image of man?
- The origin of the universe, life, and consciousness
- Owen: Doubt yourself
- Does philosophy lead to practical wisdom?
- Mind-altering chemicals and free will
Sep 20, 2018 —
Nikita Petrov & John Horgan
- John’s new book, Mind-Body Problems, is free online
- “What are we really, what can we be, and what should we be?”
- Robert Trivers, an evolutionary biologist with an affinity for violence
- Douglas Hofstadter, a playful writer, but a melancholic person
- Why ex-materialist Christof Koch embraced panpsychism
- How losing a daughter made Stuart Kaufman study the paranormal
- Story time! Nikita and John exchange psychedelic tales
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