18 August 2018
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Aug 15, 2018 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Philip Christman
Culturally Determined
- Phil’s essay, “What Is It Like to Be a Man?”
- Modern male stereotypes: Homer Simpson vs. Harvey Weinstein
- Proud Boys, Jordan Peterson, and the crisis of masculinity
- The trans challenge to gender norms
- Phil explains why his Christian faith doesn’t provide him with certainty
- Contrasting certainty in Judaism and Christianity
Aug 14, 2018 —
Daniel Kaufman & Justin Weinberg
Sophia
- Justin’s website about the philosophy profession, Daily Nous
- What philosophers actually do when they do research
- Will we ever solve the big philosophical questions?
- What the American Philosophical Association does
- Is this a golden age for public philosophy?
- Are philosophy departments in danger?
- Dan wonders whether there should be a moratorium on new philosophy PhDs
Aug 9, 2018 —
Josh Summers & Stephen Asma
- Stephen’s new book, Why We Need Religion
- Who is Stephen’s intended audience?
- How religion shaped our emotional lives for millennia
- Can you benefit from religion without sincere belief?
- “False consolation”? No such thing, Stephen says
- Stephen learns to appreciate the “smells and bells” of Buddhism in Bhutan
- How will religion evolve in America?
Aug 6, 2018 —
Nikita Petrov & Gary Lachman
- The rise of “occult politics” in the Trump era
- Pepe the Frog and “willing Trump into office”
- Trickle-down metaphysics from Nietzsche to Trump
- Steve Bannon’s connection to European far-right esoteric philosophy
- “Putin’s Rasputin,” Alexander Dugin
- Gary’s new project on the return of “Holy Russia”
- Gary’s thoughts on Jordan Peterson
Aug 3, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Ben Blum
The Wright Show
- Ben’s essay challenging Philip Zimbardo’s famous Stanford Prison Experiment
- How a study about prisoners became a study about guards
- Evidence that Zimbardo improperly influenced the study
- The unexpected political effects of the experiment
- What explains the experiment’s durability?
- When Zimbardo tried to get Bob to dance
- Is Zimbardo himself a victim of circumstance?
Jul 31, 2018 —
Daniel Kaufman & Brian Leiter
Sophia
- To understand Marx, start with Hegel’s dialectics
- Why Marx emphasized economic production over Hegelian idealism
- Dan: Was Marx’s concept of labor too narrow?
- What will happen if technology eliminates most jobs?
- Marxism post-WWII: More than college activism and Jefferson Airplane?
- Brian: Marx’s predictions were right, but his predicted timeframe was all wrong
- Why “diversity blather” is a capitalist wolf in Marxist clothing
Jul 29, 2018 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Katie Herzog
Culturally Determined
- What Katie saw at the Jordan Peterson roadshow
- Is Peterson peddling bunkum?
- Katie defends Peterson against charges of racism
- Peterson’s views on gender: traditionalist, sexist, or misogynist?
- Peterson as a holy fool
- Jesse Singal’s controversial Atlantic cover story on detransitioning
- Is the media telling the wrong stories about trans people?
Jul 20, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Robin Hanson
The Wright Show
- Why Robin’s head will be severed and frozen upon his death
- Robin used the phrase “redistribution of sex” and people got mad
- Robin defends his controversial blog post about rape and cuckoldry
- Robin’s book about our selfish motives, The Elephant in the Brain
- Laughter as a signal about norm violation
- Robin: Politics is about proving your loyalty to your side
- What’s the real reason we engage in conversation?
Jul 11, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Michael Shermer
The Wright Show
- Michael’s controversial Scientific American column on the “final mysterians”
- Bob’s thought experiment about God and quantum mechanics
- The split among philosophers over the free will question
- Revisiting Thomas Nagel’s famous essay, “What is it like to be a bat?”
- What’s a harder problem, God or consciousness?
- What laws should govern a colony on Mars?
- Michael reports from inside the Intellectual Dark Web
- Deconstructing Jordan Peterson’s appeal
- Bob: Life is hard and religion can help
Jul 6, 2018 —
Robert Wright & John Haught
The Wright Show
- John’s book, The New Cosmic Story
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and cosmic evolution
- What it means to say that “God is more Omega than Alpha”
- John: We live in an “awakening universe”
- Putting religion in cosmic context
- Does “rightness” exist apart from human judgment?
- Why John takes comfort in the “unfinishedness” of the universe
- Alfred North Whitehead’s influence on John’s worldview
- Why John rejects Perennialism
Jun 29, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Michael Pollan
The Wright Show
- Michael Pollan’s new book, How to Change Your Mind
- Dissolving the ego via meditation and via psychedelics
- Brain, self, and personal narrative
- The underground subculture of psychedelic guides
- Michael feels the love and sees the unity (you had to be there)
- Do psychedelics validate scientific materialism or undermine it?
- Scientific vs. religious descriptions of psychedelic experience
- Why is the brain capable of psychedelic experiences?
- The future of psychedelics in research and society
Jun 27, 2018 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Alissa Wilkinson
Culturally Determined
- First Reformed, Paul Schrader’s new film that takes Christianity seriously
- Schrader’s European art-house influences
- The film contrasts two versions of American Protestantism
- Ethan Hawke’s restrained lead performance
- Spoiler alert! Analyzing the film’s shocking twists
- The intentionally ambiguous ending
- Reaction to the film from the Christian press
Jun 26, 2018 —
Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
Sophia
- Dan and Massimo on ontology: What exists and what doesn’t?
- What, if anything, do Saturn’s rings have in common with virtue?
- Materialism as a product of scientism
- The immaterial features of human life and society
- The most important philosopher you’ve never heard of
- What does Daniel Dennett mean by “self,” anyway?
- Massimo: A single ontology isn’t enough to describe reality
Jun 25, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Stuart Hameroff
The Wright Show
- The Hameroff-Penrose theory of quantum consciousness
- Why we’ll never construct a true artificial intelligence
- The implications of quantum consciousness for free will
- Do microtubules in the brain explain consciousness?
- How quantum physics could help us understand anesthesia
- Why Stuart doesn’t dismiss paranormal research
- Could quantum entanglement explain paranormal phenomena?
Jun 22, 2018 —
Robert Wright & David Pearce
The Wright Show
Jun 20, 2018 —
William Black & Jemar Tisby
- Jemar’s path from educator to historian
- How racial history shapes the landscape of the Deep South
- The “quiet exodus” of black Christians from white evangelical churches
- Not a “skin problem,” but a “sin problem”
- Jemar: Kindness isn’t just being polite to avoid offense
- Bill explains the historic racial divide within the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
Jun 15, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Jim Holt
The Wright Show
- Jim’s new book of essays, When Einstein Walked with Gödel
- The Platonists who believe mathematics is transcendent
- Against viewing math as transcendent
- The implications of Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem
- What’s so special about light? Einstein can explain
- Tachyons, the hypothetical particles that travel faster than light
- How Jim became a “rigorous dilettante” (with cameos by B.F. Skinner and Bette Midler)
Jun 13, 2018 —
Stephen Asma & Rami Gabriel
- Where do culture, emotion, and cognition intersect?
- Is altruism a fluke of humans’ inherently selfish nature?
- How Western individualism clouds our view of human nature
- Stephen: The strongest cultural adaptations are shared unconsciously
- An evolutionary explanation of Trump’s cult of personality
- Complicating the narrative on immigrant cultural values and success
- Reactions to Stephen’s new book, Why We Need Religion
Jun 12, 2018 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Connie Wang
Culturally Determined
- Why Connie has grown sick of the cultural appropriation debate
- Nicki Minaj and the flattening of Asian cultures
- How social media escalated the cultural appropriation wars
- Why are these fights so often over fashion and food?
- Appropriation, mockery, and Halloween
- The Met Gala and Catholic-inspired fashion
- Who gets to decide that a particular outfit is “okay”?
Jun 11, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Adam Frank
The Wright Show
- Adam’s new book, Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth
- Adam: Climate change is a civilizational inevitability
- How many planets are in our galaxy? Guess again. It’s more than that.
- How pessimists about the existence of extraterrestrial life became optimists
- Why haven’t we heard from any aliens?
- Does fighting climate change require spiritual change?
- Why the Gaia hypothesis isn’t new-age hooey
- The theoretical archaeology of exo-civilizations
Jun 7, 2018 —
William Dailey & Ross Douthat
- Ross’s new book, To Change the Church
- The strengths and weaknesses of Ross’s intellectual approach to faith
- Father Bill speaks from Ireland about the country’s recent abortion referendum
- Ross challenges liberal Catholics to explain their logic of doctrinal change
- How marriage, divorce, and communion came back into Catholic conversation
- What will people who read Ross’s book in a hundred years think of it?
Jun 4, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Brian Greene
The Wright Show
- Why a particle isn’t what you think it is
- Reasons to doubt the many worlds interpretation
- The theory Einstein developed that he didn’t believe
- Would going back in time violate the laws of physics?
- Black holes and the natural selection of universes
- What are the strings in string theory made of?
- Audience Q and A
May 27, 2018 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Michael Benson
Culturally Determined
- Michael’s new book Space Odyssey, about the film 2001
- The quest to make the “first good science fiction film”
- The remarkable development of the Dawn of Man sequence
- The fiction and fact of HAL 9000
- The trippy “Stargate” sequence
- Why the movie’s premiere was an utter disaster
- Is the film supposed to be boring?
- 2001‘s legacy
May 25, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Massimo Pigliucci
The Wright Show
- What is the Logos?
- The practicality of metaphysics
- Philo of Alexandria’s vision of global harmony
- Plotinus and the connection between human and divine
- The Logos and Christianity
- The Logos as an algorithm
- Why do the laws of physics infallibly work?
- Carl Jung and the Logos (and Jordan Peterson’s Jungianism)
May 23, 2018 —
Daniel Kaufman & Richard Thompson
Sophia
- Richard, a.k.a. miceelf88, joins Dan to talk gender politics
- The difference between sex and gender identity
- The ontological (and legal) issues with fluid gender identity
- Dan: Social identities like gender aren’t “self-made”
- What trans identity means for the civil rights coalition
- Jordan Peterson and gender as the essence of self
- Empathy vs. sympathy in coalition building
May 17, 2018 —
William Black & ContraPoints
- What is “autogynephilia”?
- Are there identifiable “subtypes” of trans women?
- Are trans individuals’ souls “trapped in the wrong body”?
- Why ContraPoints ruffles feathers in the Twittersphere
- New Atheism as an entry point to the alt-right
- Assessing Sam Harris and Ezra Klein’s recent debate on race and IQ
May 15, 2018 —
Stephen Asma & Rami Gabriel
- Are emotions cultural or physiological?
- Neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett’s argument for emotion-via-culture
- Why social construct theory is all the rage today
- Rami’s thoughts on self-help psychology
- Rami: Pets teach us that emotional connection predates language
- What makes emotions adaptive to environment?
- Stephen and Rami review the Jaak Panksepp Memorial Symposium
- What neuroscientists say about the brain’s unpredictability
May 4, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Steven Pinker
The Wright Show
- Steve’s new book, Enlightenment Now, and Bob’s critique
- Cognitive biases that undergird tribalism
- Bob wants to crowdfund a meditation retreat for Steve, who is uncooperative
- How Al Gore’s climate change activism may have hurt his own cause
- Is it crazy to suspect that there’s a larger purpose unfolding through the workings of nature?
- Has our growing grasp of computation and cognition made consciousness less mysterious or more so?
May 2, 2018 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Danielle Tcholakian
Culturally Determined
Apr 27, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Chris Stedman
The Wright Show
- Chris’s experience as a humanist chaplain at Harvard and Yale
- Secular community with a moral tone
- Atheism, anti-theism, and humanism
- What Richard Spencer doesn’t like about the Abrahamic faiths
- Atheism and tribalism
- Atheistic fervor as a response to religious trauma
- An inspirational atheism
- Does some New Atheist rhetoric encourage bigotry?
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 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
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