15 September 2025
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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
Dec 29, 2017 —
Robert Wright & Dan Harris
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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 16, 2017 —
Robert Wright & John Horgan
- 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
Dec 11, 2017 —
Daniel Kaufman & Bryan Van Norden
- Just how Euro-centric are American philosophy departments, anyway?
- Is racism baked into Western philosophy?
- A brief account of Western dalliances with Eastern thought
- Why new movements in philosophy must kill their ancestors
- Why do philosophy departments stay white? Subtle self-selection, Bryan says
- Is philistinism killing philosophy as a discipline?
Dec 7, 2017 —
Robert Wright & John Horgan
- John continues to ruffle the feathers of scientists and philosophers
- Concepts of consciousness, from pure materialism to panpsychism
- John: The solipsism problem will keep the mind-body problem problematic
- Daniel Dennett’s inordinate aversion to mystery
- John gives us the plot spoiler about his book-in-progress
- Bob thought he had Dan Dennett cornered. But then…
- Are we in a simulation? Perish the thought, says John
Dec 5, 2017 —
Noah Rasheta & Ellen Leanse
- Ellen’s new book The Happiness Hack as an owner’s guide to the human brain
- Distraction as a “dopamine hijack”
- Conditioning the mind for happiness
- The neurology behind self-inflicted emotional wounds
- How to change happiness from “destination” to “journey”
- Ellen’s tips for “hacking into” contentment and purpose
Nov 22, 2017 —
Robert Wright & Shaun Nichols
- Pondering free will before Thanksgiving’s excesses
- Shaun: Determinism is too complicated to be intuitive
- The benefits of blame
- Is “free” will just a matter of semantics?
- What game theory experiments tell us about moralistic anger
- Shaun: It’s okay to use determinism to forgive yourself
- Do the “uncaused effects” of quantum physics bear on the free will question?
Oct 29, 2017 —
Robert Wright & Craig Harline
- Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses, 500 years later
- Luther was very hard on himself, and the consequences were huge
- Why Luther’s sermons went viral in 16th-century Germany
- Luther’s mark on future Protestant denominations
- The Diet of Worms and its improbably dramatic aftermath
- Why did Prince Frederick III of Saxony protect Luther?
Oct 12, 2017 —
Robert Wright & Ethan Nichtern
- Ethan’s unusual upbringing as a “Dharma brat” in the Shambala Buddhist tradition
- How a cult classic took on spiritual significance for its fans
- What the film’s iconic line “as you wish” says about idealized love
- How Buddhist teachings are reflected in the film’s treatment of family, friendship and romance
- Ethan’s take on his parent’s spiritual teacher, Chögyam Trungpa, the controversial founder of Shambala Buddhism
Oct 9, 2017 —
Daniel Kaufman & Daniel Tippens
- What is the “morality everywhere” problem?
- Hume on “the cautious, jealous virtue” of justice
- The moral responsibility of comedians
- What moral universalists get wrong about everyday choices
- A critique of Daniel Tippens’ concept of moral production
- Daniel Tippens explains what it takes to be morally courageous
- Can moral activists win?
Sep 24, 2017 —
Nikita Petrov & Tony Ortega
- Former Scientology executive Marty Rathbun’s private conflict with the Church
- New breakthroughs in media coverage of Scientology
- How the Church swiftly conquered US law and the IRS
- What makes Scientology different from other religions?
- How L. Ron Hubbard invented a reality for his followers
- Why Scientology isn’t concerned with the apocalypse
- The Church’s beef with professional psychology
Sep 7, 2017 —
Robert Wright & Alison Gopnik
- How a personal crisis brought Alison back to David Hume
- Hume’s (likely) chance encounter with Buddhism
- Lessons learned from 23-year-old Hume’s nervous breakdown
- Which ideas might Hume have borrowed from Buddhism?
- How meditation disrupts the ‘autopilot’ of adulthood
- Is introspection as valuable as neuroscience?
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