18 February 2020
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Feb 18, 2020 —
Daniel Kaufman & Milton Lawson
- In praise of Uncut Gems
- Why does Adam Sandler’s dirtbag character evince such sympathy?
- Punishment and forgiveness in narrative storytelling
- In praise of Dolemite Is My Name
- Eddie Murphy’s triumphant return to SNL
- Is offensive comedy coming back?
- Why were these two films snubbed by the Oscars?
- Expertise vs. experience in cultural criticism
Feb 11, 2020 —
Robert Wright & Alexander Wendt
- In a new TEDx talk, Alex calls for a science of UFOs
- Why Bob finds two naval sightings credible
- Alex: “There’s some decent chance that these things are alien”
- Alex’s proposal for a UFO monitoring system
- Might it be suicidal to let ETs know that we know about them?
- Alex: Maybe the aliens are waiting for us to figure it out
- What explains the taboo against academic study of UFOs?
- Alex’s willingness to be misperceived as a crank
Feb 8, 2020 —
Daniel Kaufman & Spencer Case
- Spencer describes being quarantined in Wuhan, China
- What is “moral realism”?
- Can you be a moral realist and a moral subjectivist at the same time?
- Revisiting Plato’s Ring of Gyges
- Dan: There’s no evidence of morality beyond performances
- The trouble with giving advice
- “All things considered,” what ought you to do?
- What we lost in the Scientific Revolution
Feb 5, 2020 —
How to Live a Good Life (Robert Wright, Massimo Pigliucci, & Skye Cleary)
- Skye and Massimo’s new co-edited book, with Daniel Kaufman, How to Live a Good Life
- Existentialism’s intersections with Stoicism
- How Skye encountered Existentialism while in business school
- Sartre and de Beauvoir’s famous attempt to live a life of freedom
- Are philosophers a bunch of hypocrites?
- Personal authenticity vs. social convention
- Why Stoicism doesn’t mean passive acceptance
- Skye and Massimo on the philosophies they found most interesting
- How Wittgenstein would view this book
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
Jan 6, 2020 —
Robert Wright & Gideon Rosen
- Defining “moral realism”
- Cognitivists vs. noncognitivists
- Are moral beliefs just expressions of human desires?
- Human happiness is better than human suffering…right?
- Considering whether you can be both a Darwinian and a moral realist
- Moral progress, teleology, and mysticism
- Why you “have to take something for granted” in any philosophical system
- The bedrock sources of meaning in life
- If life has meaning, does moral realism logically follow?
Dec 28, 2019 —
Daniel Kaufman & Joseph Biehl
- Why Joe left academia
- Bemoaning the apathy of today’s college students
- Joe’s nonprofit, the Gotham Philosophical Society
- How can philosophers help improve a place like New York City?
- Should philosophy be parochial or universalist?
- Philosophical anti-realism and parochialism
- Neighborhood pride in the cosmopolitan city
Dec 24, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Rhonda Magee
- Rhonda’s path to meditation and Buddhism
- Rhonda’s new book, The Inner Work of Racial Justice
- Is equanimity the enemy of activism?
- Using mindfulness to overcome biases and stereotypes
- How Rhonda deploys contemplative practices in her law school classroom
- Can one feel compassion for a cop who shot an unarmed black man?
Dec 17, 2019 —
Daniel Kaufman & Spencer Case
- In praise of non-elite institutions
- Spencer’s journey from Mormonism to professional philosophy
- Does philosophy matter?
- The role of temperament in shaping philosophers’ views
- Does moral philosophy contribute to moral progress?
- Dan: It doesn’t matter whether God exists
- Dan and Spencer’s concerns about the role of activism in philosophy
- Does it matter if philosophy matters?
- Spencer: Trying to live with integrity is central to philosophy
Dec 4, 2019 —
Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
- Are philosophers experts?
- Socrates didn’t have a PhD
- Massimo hates when teachers claim to learn “just as much” from their students
- What does philosophers’ expertise actually consist of?
- How much is philosophy like mathematics?
- What philosophers of science can teach scientists
- The disappointing personal morality of moral philosophers
- Grandmothers, the examined life, and the people who live best
Dec 2, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Jay Michaelson
- Jay’s new book, Enlightenment by Trial and Error
- Why Jay embarked on a path of mysticism
- Ayahuasca, unitive experiences, and bad trips
- Jews who are “religious but not spiritual”
- Finding “real happiness” through meditation
- Varieties of enlightening experience
- What’s distinctive about Jewish mysticism?
- The things Jay still takes from Judaism
Nov 25, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Paul Bloom
- A new study says empathy can increase political polarization
- How empathy operates in today’s political environment
- Is cognitive empathy a form of intelligence?
- The Machiavellian uses of cognitive empathy
- A counterproductive #Resistance view of Trump supporters
- Paul doesn’t understand how anyone can still support Trump
- Why “dehumanization” isn’t the real problem
- Paul’s core message: “Don’t listen to your heart”
Nov 22, 2019 —
David Ottlinger & J.P. Messina
- How should we define censorship?
- The sort of censorship that has no inherent moral valence
- Various ways non-state actors can censor
- When private censorship has moral stakes
- Examining moral grandstanding
- A changed heart vs. a false front
- Could we ever resolve all our disagreements?
- Reason, passion, and the founding of the Republic
Nov 11, 2019 —
Daniel Kaufman & Meghan Daum
- Meghan’s new book, The Problem with Everything
- The premature obsolescence of Generation X
- Meghan’s positive reaction to negative reviews of her book
- Joan Didion’s critique of the Women’s Movement
- The effect of online porn on Millennials
- Why do institutions capitulate to Twitter mobs?
- How Gen Xers are dealing with aging
Nov 8, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Roger Haight
- Why Pope John Paul II did not like Roger’s book Jesus Symbol of God
- Roger’s new book, Faith and Evolution: Grace-Filled Naturalism
- The intractability of the problem of evil
- Ways to understand God not as a big person in the sky
- Is natural selection an instrument of divine creation?
- Roger’s heterodox view of Jesus of Nazareth
- Roger’s problem with original sin
- What is a “grace-filled naturalism”?
Nov 1, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Preston Greene
- Why many intelligent people think we’re living in a simulation
- The philosophical argument that you’re probably not real
- How cosmic rays might (and might not) reveal that reality is fake
- Preston’s dire warning against trying to determine if we’re in a simulation
- Is the simulation hypothesis non-falsifiable?
- Is “the simulation” just religion for atheists?
Oct 22, 2019 —
Daniel Kaufman & Crispin Sartwell
- Why Crispin loves writing takedowns of cultural icons
- Crispin: Ludwig Wittgenstein is overrated
- Dan objects to people who try to live their lives philosophically
- Hume and the limits of human reason
- Wittgenstein’s critique of representationalism
- Did Wittgenstein debunk philosophical skepticism?
- Crispin: I want my metaphysics to be compatible with my common sense
Oct 21, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Nicholas Diakopoulos
- Nick’s new book, Automating the News
- Why Nick is not an alarmist about the automation of journalism
- The types of journalism jobs that algorithms can’t replace
- Successful collaborations between human journalists and machines
- The perils of algorithmic fact-checking
- Nick’s current research
- Bob hopes for a bot that can assign blame for international law violations
- Can the power of Twitter bots be used for good?
Oct 18, 2019 —
Robert Wright & John Horgan
- What is scientism, and who is doing it?
- Postmodernism and whether science just tells “stories”
- John criticizes the “ideological fervor” of evolutionary psychology
- The hubris of scientists in the ’80s and ’90s
- Has science reached its fundamental limits in trying to explain consciousness?
- John wins his Nobel Prize “long bet” on string theory
- The various corrupting influences on scientists
- A brief debate on higher purpose
Oct 15, 2019 —
This Podcast Is Self Care (Aryeh Cohen-Wade, Drew Spears, & Cait Raft)
- Cait and Drew’s podcast, This Podcast Is Self Care
- Emotional labor vs. self care
- Unpacking the idea that self care is just for women
- Crystals, sage, and “fake magic is real”
- Why are Millennials so attracted to self care and the supernatural?
- Astrology as anti-capitalism
- The hot new trend of “self-grandparenting”
- Why Aryeh loves the podcast
Oct 4, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Bhikkhu Bodhi
- What is the foundation of Buddhist ethics?
- Experiencing not-self
- Buddhism is a synthesis of consequentialism and virtue ethics
- The origins of Buddhism’s concern for animal welfare
- Does the Buddha want you to be vegetarian?
- Why isn’t there more anti-militarist activism among Buddhists?
- Trying to comply with the Buddhist ideal of “right speech”
- Mental defilements and their eradication
- Does Buddhism’s emphasis on equanimity discourage activism?
Oct 1, 2019 —
Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
- What are “natural kinds”?
- What the former planet Pluto can teach us about natural kinds
- Massimo’s changing views on theoretical entities
- Is there a paradigm shift on the horizon in evolutionary biology?
- Is skepticism toward natural kinds the same as skepticism toward essential properties?
- Why Massimo is skeptical of the concept of “laws of nature”
- Describing “ultimate reality”
- Can we distinguish between sex and gender without natural kinds?
- Can we have a conception of “normal” without natural kinds?
Sep 20, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Agnes Callard
- Why Agnes once lay down on the yellow line in the middle of the road
- What explains “akrasia,” or weakness of will?
- Agnes’s book, Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming
- How Agnes views free will and self-creation
- How do you become the “you” that you want to be?
- Aspiration and the divine
- Agnes’s forthcoming book on how Socrates changed the rules
Sep 16, 2019 —
Daniel Kaufman & David Ottlinger
- The fight, and meta-fight, in philosophy over trans issues
- David’s essay on philosophy and activism
- The admonition to “go read the literature”
- Dan: The profession needs to push back against the mob
- Should philosophers avoid signing petitions?
- David regrets the “neglect of the ordinary virtues” in this battle
- How professors should teach controversial subjects
Sep 11, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Nina Strohminger
- Nina’s research on how we understand the self
- The traits that make your self yourself
- Buddhism and the continuity of self through time
- The link between egocentrism and an equanimous attitude toward death
- Bob: Not-self is hard to experience and very hard to understand
- Asian Buddhists vs. “white boy Buddhists”
- Does a happy life require virtuous behavior?
Sep 3, 2019 —
Daniel Kaufman & E. John Winner
- A brief history of 20th-century literary criticism
- John’s battles against radical feminists as a grad student at SUNY Albany
- Post-structuralism and “how modernity failed itself”
- English department politics
- John: “Postmodernity is all around us”
- Postmodernity in the world vs. in the academy
- Post-postmodernism and cultural stagnancy
Sep 1, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Alexander Wendt
- Why Alex shifted from international relations to quantum physics
- Alex: “We are walking wave functions”
- Do the origins of consciousness and free will lie in the wave collapse?
- Quantum decision theory and human irrationality
- The advantage of viewing humanity as quantum rather than classical
- How a nation-state is like a quantum state
- Alex: Language is best understood quantumly
- The possibility of collective consciousness
Aug 26, 2019 —
John Horgan & Frederick Crews
- How Frederick became a Freudian and then an anti-Freudian
- Frederick: Psychoanalysis is the Metamucil of the intellectuals
- The politics of anti-Freudianism
- Why has Freud persisted in the public imagination?
- Frederick psychoanalyzes John
- Repressed memories as a Freudian legacy
- Frederick’s new book, Freud: The Making of an Illusion
Aug 8, 2019 —
Daniel Kaufman & Crispin Sartwell
- Crispin’s recent essay, “Western Philosophy as White Supremacism”
- Dan accuses Crispin of ahistorical revisionism
- Descartes as a product of his age
- Privileging the intellectual over the physical
- Is “the conquest of nature” a good or bad thing?
- Crispin: Metaphysics and racism feed each other
- Is self-mastery a key to freedom, or antithetical to it?
- The worst political philosophy, except for all the others?
Aug 7, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Ronald Purser
- Ron’s new book, McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality
- A brief history of mindfulness in America
- Ron’s critique of the corporate teaching of mindfulness
- A tool vs. a path
- Ron: The mindfulness industry individualizes social problems
- A call for civic mindfulness
- Can capitalism and spirituality be reconciled?
Jul 25, 2019 —
Daniel Kaufman & Oliver Burkeman
- Journalism, from information scarcity to attention scarcity
- Is it harder to find “good” information these days?
- Oliver: Reliance on social media creates false controversies
- Has the mainstream media really drifted towards partisanship?
- How to dismantle the partisan divide
- Dan: Americans were more divided in 1968 than now
- Social injustice: Perception, reality, and urgency
Jul 23, 2019 —
Josh Summers & Jenny Odell
- Jenny’s new book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
- Learning from “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (part 1)
- Cultivating attention through art and mindfulness
- Josh’s critique of contemporary mindfulness
- How social media destroys context
- Jenny: “Aliveness is change”
- Learning from “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (part 2)
Jul 17, 2019 —
Daniel Kaufman & Milton Lawson
- Why Dan and Milton love Stranger Things
- How does the new season measure up?
- Is “the Upside Down” a coherent idea?
- Is Generation X about to have its moment in pop culture?
- Dan fears wokeness is ruining pop culture
- The risks of a fourth Stranger Things season
- Pop culture in an era of massive corporate control
- Speculating on HBO’s mysterious Watchmen adaptation
Jul 16, 2019 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Jamie Lauren Keiles
- Jamie’s NYT Magazine piece, “How ASMR Became a Sensation”
- Searching for the science behind ASMR
- Why are ASMR creators disproprotionately female?
- The strange life of Gibi, one of the top “ASMRtists”
- A temporary salve for Internet-era loneliness
- Will ASMR go corporate?
- Jamie researches the history of the Jewish American Princess
- Daddy’s money, girl power, and Juicy Couture
- Are there Jewish American Princes?
Jul 15, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Josh Summers
- Common misconceptions about meditation retreats
- Hitting the bliss button
- Scheduled vs. unscheduled retreats
- How austere does it have to be to be effective?
- Process vs. outcomes
- Bob’s mini-epiphany about his dripping sink
- Is meditation “for” something?
- Pitfalls after leaving a retreat
- Tips for first-timers
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
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