21 October 2018
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Oct 14, 2018 —
Colin Pugh & Alex Guerrero
- Alex explains “lottocracy,” a system using random selection to choose politicians
- Does democracy have to mean voting?
- Democratic systems as forms of technologies
- Imagining many legislatures, each devoted to a single issue
- Capture and accountability in elections
- How would randomly selected politicians learn about policy?
- Leveraging collective knowledge for political decisions
- Alex: Elections encourage short-term focus and tribalism
Oct 12, 2018 —
Robert Wright & John Bargh
The Wright Show
- John’s book on unconscious motivations, Before You Know It
- Why thinking about the flu makes you more opposed to immigration
- Are ethnic and gender stereotypes self-fulfilling prophecies?
- The Protestant work ethic as a core part of American psychology
- Don’t resist temptations. Avoid them!
- How to use an “implementation intention” to get things done
- How have John’s famous lever-pulling experiments held up over time?
- Is the “replication crisis” really a crisis?
Oct 10, 2018 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Lauren Oyler
Culturally Determined
- What is it about social media that’s so depressing?
- Twitter, the unpopular website that elites love
- Is what happens on social media real or fake?
- Is @laurenoyler the same as Lauren Oyler?
- How everything in life became “toxic”
- Do all online communities eventually become toxic?
- The moral challenge of social media
Oct 5, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Lama Surya Das
The Wright Show
- Is Buddhism a philosophy or a religion?
- Surya Das: “I’m enlightened enough for now”
- Attachment, aversion, and “original goodness”
- Is an enlightened person by definition a moral person?
- Not-self and Emerson’s “transparent eyeball”
- The Dzogchen approach to enlightenment
- Surya Das: Trump has the spark of Buddha nature (and so do you)
Sep 30, 2018 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Kaitlyn Tiffany
Culturally Determined
- The hot new trend of being a homebody
- Social, economic, and technological reasons young people are staying in
- The surprisingly controversial topic of skincare
- Millennials using apps to order food delivered by Millennials
- Netflix and chill and take Instagram selfies wearing sheet masks
- Is being a homebody the modern way to go to Walden Pond?
Sep 26, 2018 —
Daniel Kaufman & Crispin Sartwell
Sophia
- Crispin’s essay on the politics of geography and representation
- Why did rural Americans feel that Trump’s victory was their victory?
- Is “one person, one vote” a wrong-headed view of political representation?
- Where political representation meets art and aesthetics
- Can Americans’ interests be represented accurately?
- Is being from a rural area akin to being a racial minority?
- What does our current system of political representation get right or wrong?
Sep 21, 2018 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Christopher White
Culturally Determined
- The new sex abuse crisis enveloping the Catholic Church
- An explosive letter claims Pope Francis helped a known abuser
- The allegations against the powerful Archbishop McCarrick
- What does #MeToo reveal about the Church?
- Assessing Archbishop Viganò’s accusations against Francis
- Can Francis implement real reforms?
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
Sep 10, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Gregg Caruso
The Wright Show
- What is neuroexistentialism?
- Neuroscience, free will, and existentialism
- The “compatibilist” claim that free will and determinism can co-exist
- To define “free will,” first redefine “agency”
- Why the importance of luck should make us doubt intuitions about free will
- Moral responsibility and the Nazi war criminal thought experiment
- Does Gregg’s personality predispose him to reject retribution?
Sep 4, 2018 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Lauren Shields
Culturally Determined
- Lauren’s new book on her experiment with dressing modestly, The Beauty Suit
- Lauren’s unusual path to the seminary
- Alternative readings of Quranic verses on female modesty
- Christianity, conspicuous consumption, and the Amish
- Jewish women who cover their hair with wigs that look just like their hair
- Makeup trends that only look good on social media
- Why cultural appropriation is often rooted in misogyny
- Lauren’s advice for men
Aug 31, 2018 —
Robert Wright & K. Anthony Appiah
The Wright Show
- Anthony’s new book, The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity
- Anthony’s own unusual identity
- Cosmopolitanism and its discontents
- Patriotism, nationalism, and “legitimate forms of partiality”
- Against essentialism in religion
- The invention of the idea of a national spirit
- Who owns the culture?
- How class conflict has changed in the US and UK
Aug 24, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Bhikkhu Bodhi
The Wright Show
- How Bhikkhu Bodhi first encountered Buddhism…
- …and how he became a Buddhist monk
- Can “secular” Buddhists have spiritual experiences?
- Traditional Buddhism, secular Buddhism, and immanent Buddhism
- Diving into nirvana: “conditioned arising” and “the unconditioned”
- Does Buddhism make you a better person?
Aug 23, 2018 —
Stephen Asma & Rami Gabriel
Emotions and the Brain
- What is pleasure, and what isn’t?
- How human will fits into philosophies of pleasure
- Addiction, brain chemistry, and the lies we tell ourselves
- Why are some people more prone to addiction than others?
- Addiction as a disease of deprivation
- Antonio Demasio’s new book that rethinks culture and the roots of consciousness
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 Weirdness of Physics
- 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 Weirdness of Physics
- 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 Meaning of Future Life
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 Weirdness of Physics
- 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
Emotions and the Brain
- 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 Meaning of Future Life
- 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 Weirdness of Physics
- 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
Ancient Wisdom
- 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)
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