26 April 2018
comments
|
archives
subscribe
follow
Programs
Conversations@Union
MeaningofLife.tv Asks…
Science of Spirituality
Sixty-Second Sermons
Sophia
The Wright Show
Archived Programs
Love-Driven Politics
Series
The Meaning of Future Life
Popular Tags
physics
meditation
consciousness
ethics
human nature
Donald Trump
mindfulness
cognitive science
evolution
technology
Buddhism
religion
spirituality
philosophy
politics
death
ancient philosophy
psychology
science
Christianity
MeaningofLife.tv videos
Subscribe to MeaningofLife.tv videos via podcast or email
1
…
10
older ▶
Apr 25, 2018 — Daniel Kaufman & Crispin Sartwell
Sophia
Is masculinity treated as a pathology?
Why girls are outperforming boys in class
Disentangling gender and sex, culture and biology
“Girl power” was a success, but at what social cost?
Crispin’s years as a teen revolutionary
The modern school as a totalitarian institution
What really explains high-security schools?
How safe can we reasonably expect to be in society?
Is the media distorting our narratives of crime and danger?
Apr 23, 2018 — Philip Menchaca & Kelly Baker
The Ku Klux Klan’s appeal to Protestant America
How the KKK rationalized a Jewish Jesus
The Birth of a Nation
and the symbology of the burning cross
How to “love thy neighbor” as a Klansman (answer: very selectively)
Kelly: The Klan declined, but its politics went mainstream
Kelly’s search for apocalyptic rhetoric in Klan literature
Apr 20, 2018 — Robert Wright & Jon Kabat-Zinn
The Wright Show
Was the Buddha a Buddhist?
What the Buddha meant by “suffering”
Mindfulness as awareness
“Secular” mindfulness as sacred
The trap of goal-oriented meditation
The heart of the Buddha’s message
When Jon discovered his purpose
Mindfulness training in schools
Apr 9, 2018 — Stephen Asma & Rami Gabriel
Puppet Show: Are emotions in the brain?
Luiz Pessoa’s argument for the feedback between lower and higher brain function
How the regions of the brain evolved to interact
“The content problem” in the neuroscience of emotion and cognition
Are the common fears of snakes and spiders “hard-wired,” and how?
What brain mapping fails to tell us about cognition
Rami’s research on prosopagnosia (face blindness) and emotional cognition
Apr 2, 2018 — William Black & Elizabeth Catte
The narrative of “economic anxiety” in Appalachia
Elizabeth: Appalachia is more diverse than you think
The myth of the “mountain white”
Critiquing J.D. Vance’s book
Hillbilly Elegy
Political activism in the region
How Elizabeth sees her role as a “public historian”
Mar 23, 2018 — Robert Wright & Massimo Pigliucci
The Wright Show
Massimo’s new edited volume,
Science Unlimited?: The Challenges of Scientism
What is scientism?
Science and the challenge of studying subjective experience
And about those pesky fundamental questions of existence…
How philosophical thought underpins all research methodology
Massimo: Core concepts across science have competing interpretations
The importance of distinguishing “is” from “ought
What neuroscience can never explain about human consciousness
Mar 16, 2018 — Robert Wright & Molly Crockett
The Wright Show
Molly’s research on social media and moral outrage
The personal benefits of sanctimony
Why do certain posts go viral?
Even without complex algorithms, social media discourages mindful reflection
Online outrage and the signal-to-noise problem
Mar 13, 2018 — Josh Summers & David Lesondak
What is fascia and why does it matter?
When fascia malfunctions
What David does as a “body worker”
How body posture could influence mental health
Unanswered questions in fascia research
Can mindfulness meditation reduce the perception of pain?
The concept of “tensegrity,” or tensional integrity, in the human body
Mar 9, 2018 — Robert Wright & Josh Summers
The Wright Show
Bob and Josh recount their first meeting after a silent meditation retreat
Does yoga always have a spiritual component?
How Josh’s yoga practice prepares the body for meditation
How yoga’s focus on breath can lead to the body
Solutions to modern distraction
Bob: Mindfulness practice can erode essentialist thinking
What’s the point of Bob’s Mindful Resistance Project?
The present and future of the Mindful Resistance Newsletter
Mar 8, 2018 — Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Pater Edmund Waldstein
Why the Mortara case is still provoking argument 150 years later
Pater Edmund offers a defense of Pope Pius IX
Integralism and different conceptions of liberty
What would an integralist Catholic state look like?
How Pater Edmund became a monk (with a blog)
The day-to-day life of a modern meditating monk
Mar 7, 2018 — Stephen Asma & Rami Gabriel
Puppet show: Why are human emotions unique?
Does self-restraint make us human?
Considering emotions as social constructs
Stephen: If you have emotions, you have consciousness
Artificial intelligence doesn’t necessarily defer to it its creator
How insects are like robots
Does culture change how the brain reads emotion in faces?
Mar 4, 2018 — Philip Menchaca & Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble
Growing up Very Catholic
Sister Theresa’s atheist youth and subsequent return to faith
Finding a calling within the Church
Why remembering her own mortality is essential to Sister Theresa’s faith
Sister Theresa: Not all believers understand their children’s doubt
Mar 2, 2018 — Robert Wright & Richard Prum
The Wright Show
Darwin’s approach to explaining the peacock’s cumbersome plumage
Could beauty have evolved, in part, for beauty’s sake?
The sense in which traits favored via mate selection may not be ‘adaptive’
Mate preference and aesthetics
What can we learn from ducks’ miserable sex lives?
How paternal investment in offspring became part of human life
When sex isn’t for reproduction
Richard’s misgivings about evolutionary psychology
Mar 1, 2018 — Daniel Kaufman & Crispin Sartwell
Sophia
Crispin’s “Why They Suck” essay series
Why in particular does Michelangelo suck?
The contrasts in humanism represented in Italian and Northern Renaissance art
The “ennobling quality” of human emotion in early Renaissance art
Why Dan is a humanist and Crispin is not
Identifying the internal incoherence of Michelangelo’s work
Dan: Judaism’s approach to moral agency begins in the Garden of Eden
Crispin questions emphasizing human endeavors over all others
Feb 23, 2018 — Robert Wright & Galen Strawson
The Wright Show
Why scientific materialism is harder to define than you think
Galen explains panpsychism
What does “mind is all there is to reality” mean?
Is human consciousness epiphenomenal?
Do physical laws come from somewhere?
Is it like something to be a rock? (And is Galen saying it is?)
Galen: Discussion of the mind-body problem was better 100 years ago
Feb 22, 2018 — Daniel Kaufman & Daniel Tippens
Sophia
What does Dan K. mean by Philistinism?
How philistines reduce the irreducible in all walks of life
Philistinism’s creeping control in philosophy and the academy
When we invest in arts and letters, what do we get in return?
What good are refined senses, anyway?
Dan T. explains how refinement can prevent us from being duped
Feb 21, 2018 — Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Catherine Nichols
Why is pop culture obsessed with good guy vs. bad guy stories?
Catherine: Modern stories don’t let the villain be fully human
World War II and the trope of the ragtag band of misfits
Shakespeare vs. comic book movies
Storytelling about why we go to war
What pop culture best represents moral complexity?
Feb 18, 2018 — Aryeh Cohen-Wade & David Ottlinger
Is Trump a postmodern figure?
Why, despite what you might hear, academia has not embraced postmodernism
Debating Jeet Heer’s argument for viewing Trump as postmodern
Why healthy public debate requires belief in a discoverable truth
Aryeh says Bitcoin is postmodern, but David disagrees
Feb 16, 2018 — Robert Wright & Ann Hulbert
The Wright Show
Ann’s new book on child prodigies,
Off the Charts
Will a child prodigy become an adult non-prodigy?
The cautionary tale of Bobby Fischer
The prodigy’s “adolescent crisis”
How people misunderstood Amy Chua, the “Tiger Mom”
The insanity of the college admissions gauntlet
Child prodigies inspire sympathy. Their parents? Not so much.
Feb 15, 2018 — Josh Summers & Tami Simon
From Swarthmore sophomore to meditating in India
How Tami started Sounds True publishing company at age 22
Tami’s spiritual teacher, Jasmine the cocker spaniel
Why it’s okay to mourn a deceased pet
Confronting the unethical behavior of spiritual teachers
Feb 9, 2018 — Robert Wright & Jeff Warren
The Wright Show
How Jeff went from science journalist to meditation teacher
Jeff’s new book, co-authored with Dan Harris:
Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics
How ADD and bipolar tendencies shaped Jeff’s practice
The life-changing experience of falling out of a tree while on mushrooms
The interaction between mindfulness, not-self, and suffering
Jeff takes a stab at defining enlightenment
The varieties of consciousness
How meditation can shift your priorities
Feb 9, 2018 — Stephen Asma & Rami Gabriel
This week’s puppet show: How do emotions help us survive?
Darwin’s attempts to understand the inner lives of animals
Can we really hide our feelings? Rami doubts it
The “seeking” drive that keeps us going
Angst: Fear without an object
How culture complicates finding a mate
Is there an adaptive function to recognizing beauty?
Feb 5, 2018 — William Black & Benjamin Park
The Mormon Church’s new president, 93 year-old Russell M. Nelson
The decades-long campaign to incorporate the Church into the American mainstream
Does the Church clash with academic historical study?
Untangling the fates of remarried Mormons’ souls
The LDS Church as a contained society within the US
Why did the first Mormon women choose polygamy?
Jan 29, 2018 — Robert Wright & Michael Shermer
The Meaning of Future Life
The time Michael thought he was being abducted by aliens
Michael’s new book,
Heavens on Earth
Deepak Chopra’s afterlife
Why uploading your brain to achieve immortality makes no sense
Is radical life extension just bunk?
The Second Coming, presented by Ray Kurzweil
What consolation can the atheist offer to the dying?
The spookiest thing that’s ever happened to Michael
Jan 24, 2018 — Josh Summers & Drew Ackerman
Drew’s journey from insomniac to teller of bedtime stories for adults
“Interesting, but not too interesting; boring, but not too boring”
Warning: This segment may put you to sleep
The countercultural community of insomniacs
How podcasting led to personal growth
Jan 23, 2018 — Noah Rasheta & Paige Smathers
Paige on where mindfulness and diet meet
How to build a healthier relationship with food
The meditative potential of mindful eating
All-or-nothing thinking is incompatible with eating well
Noah and Paige introduce their upcoming event, Mindful Eating Workshop
Future online resources for the project
Jan 22, 2018 — Robert Wright & Stephen Batchelor
The Wright Show
Striking parallels between Buddhism’s Mara and Christianity’s Satan
How Stephen’s opera
Mara
came to fruition
Bob and Stephen argue about the true meaning(s) of “enlightenment”
How much authority should a secular Buddhist ascribe to the Buddha?
The perils of clinging to the dharma
Stephen’s unusual place in the Buddhist world
Jan 19, 2018 — Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Liz Wolfe
Why the Aziz Ansari story blew up
Are women like “Grace” damned if they do, damned if they don’t?
Libertarianism and consent
Katie Roiphe vs. the creator of the Shitty Media Men list
Is giving the benefit of the doubt possible in the age of the Twitter mob?
Having good politics vs. being a good person
Jan 17, 2018 — Nikita Petrov & Tanya Luhrmann
How psychosis and prayer can make invisible entities ‘real’
Why the voices heard by American schizophrenics are especially mean
Turning madness into vocation: the shamans of West Africa
Why talking to one’s hallucinations is a good idea
How evangelicals shape their God
‘Remembering’ past lives in Scientology and ‘satanic ritual abuse’ in therapy
Jan 13, 2018 — Josh Summers & Thomas Joiner
Thomas describes a modern narcissism epidemic
Does a lack of self-esteem fuel narcissism?
Why is a focus on the “self” ubiquitous in mindfulness?
Challenging the health claims of mindfulness meditation
Why “self-compassion meditation” makes both Josh and Thomas uncomfortable
The common ground between mindfulness and stoicism
Jan 10, 2018 — Stephen Asma & Rami Gabriel
Stephen and Rami present: “The Evolution of Emotion” puppet show
How ancient societies managed their earthly impulses
The human anger displayed in Greek mythology
Marcus Aurelius’s concept of the “wise man”
Hafez, the drunk Sufi poet
How does culture influence our core emotions?
Are animals capable of feeling anger?
Stephen on how horror plays on our most primal fears
Jan 8, 2018 — Philip Menchaca & Jonathan Young
Who was Joseph Campbell?
Applying the idea of the monomyth to
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Can we disentangle myths from culture?
Cinderella and mental health
How Jonathan uses mythology in psychotherapy
Is it healthy to think of yourself as a hero on a quest?
Religion and the experience of meaning vs. the idea of meaning
Jan 4, 2018 — Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
Sophia
Dan and Massimo’s dueling essays on the Greek concept of eudaimonia
Who can claim to be truly satisfied with life?
What Kant and the Stoics have in common
Are humans more than their internal moral lives?
Dan: Building moral character requires interaction with society
Is philosophy going corporate?
Jan 1, 2018 — Robert Wright & Timothy O'Connor
The Wright Show
Tim explains what it means to believe in free will
Biology and free will
Science and casuality
Why Tim takes seriously the “naive stance” on free will and moral responsibility
Is subjective experience irreducible?
Determinism and deism
Philosophy departments aren’t as atheistic as you’d think
Dec 29, 2017 — Robert Wright & Dan Harris
The Wright Show
Dan’s new book,
Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics
The liberation of realizing you’re crazy (and so is everyone else)
Why Dan gave names to his inner voices
Dan’s 10% Happier meditation app
Dan: One minute of mindfulness meditation a day can be enough
Applying the Buddhist metaphor of the “second arrow” to everyday life
Meditating without losing your edge
Dec 26, 2017 — Robert Wright & Paul Bloom
The Wright Show
Is “dehumanization” really the root of cruelty?
How love deludes us
Paul: Empathy makes us morally stupid
The weird psychology of the Trump era
What people get wrong about Harvey Weinstein and dehumanization
When is objectification morally acceptable?
Keeping our worst selves in check
Getting pleasure out of your own pain
Dec 24, 2017 — Robert Wright & Kieran Setiya
The Wright Show
Midlife and coming to terms with who we aren’t
Is the midlife crisis different for men and women?
Kieran: Disappointment is a given for the mid-career academic
There’s more to life than minimizing suffering
Schopenhauer (and the Buddha): Dissatisfaction is inherent in desire
Bob suggests a familiar culprit: selfhood
Dec 19, 2017 — Robert Wright & Cullen Murphy
The Wright Show
Cullen’s new book about the heyday of the funny pages,
Cartoon County
What it was like to grow up as the child of a cartoonist
Artists who were politically liberal and culturally conservative
An idyllic white world created for a quasi-idyllic time
No belly-buttons, no male nipples
How Cullen took over writing
Prince Valiant
—and how that shaped his subsequent writing
Dec 18, 2017 — Philip Menchaca & Joseph Baker
American paranormal culture, from dabblers to devotees
Speaking in tongues vs. alien visitations
The search for Bigfoot turns professional
Can you be both “normal” and “paranormal”?
Why ghost stories seem to “latch onto our brains”
The data behind the reissue of Joseph’s book,
Paranormal America
Dec 16, 2017 — Robert Wright & John Horgan
The Wright Show
The pervasiveness of sexual harassment
Human nature according to Socrates, the Google memo guy, and Bob
Are gendered behavioral differences innate or learned?
John: Scientists keep trying, and failing, to discern the roots of human behavior
Can you be both enlightened—in the Buddhist sense—and immoral
Sexual harassment in science and philosophy
Sorry, no posts matched your selection.
1
…
10
older ▶
Archives
all videos
April 2018
(5)
March 2018
(9)
February 2018
(9)
January 2018
(11)
December 2017
(9)
November 2017
(4)
October 2017
(7)
September 2017
(7)
August 2017
(8)
July 2017
(5)
June 2017
(8)
May 2017
(3)
April 2017
(6)
March 2017
(5)
February 2017
(8)
January 2017
(27)
December 2016
(33)
November 2016
(12)
October 2016
(18)
September 2016
(13)
August 2016
(13)
July 2016
(8)
June 2016
(14)
May 2016
(15)
April 2016
(8)
March 2016
(10)
February 2016
(16)
January 2016
(8)
December 2015
(11)
November 2015
(11)
October 2015
(14)
September 2015
(11)
August 2015
(11)
July 2015
(10)
November 2014
(1)
August 2014
(2)
July 2014
(1)
May 2014
(1)
January 2014
(3)
October 2013
(2)
September 2013
(1)
July 2013
(1)
May 2013
(1)
January 2013
(1)
December 2012
(1)
November 2012
(2)
June 2010
(1)