23 November 2024
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Aug 1, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & Robert Wright
Dan and Bob debate the Buddhist idea that the “self” doesn’t exist
Bob’s brush with a “not-self” experience
Is it bad to transcend human nature?
What is “the self”, anyway?
Do our moral intuitions mislead?
Jul 26, 2017 — Robert Wright & Daniel Ingram
Daniel: Aim for enlightenment (even if you’ll never reach it)
Levels of Buddhist awakening
Daniel assesses Bob’s level of spiritual attainment
Trump as an affront to Buddhism
The awakened sociopath
Daniel’s enlightened view of Trumpism
How to leverage anger wisely
Jul 21, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & Crispin Sartwell
What is knowledge?
What are values made of?
Free will and moral responsibility
Imagining stateless, coercion-free politics
What’s wrong with the left-right dichotomy
The purpose of political philosophy
Jul 16, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & Crispin Sartwell
Crispin’s new book
Entanglements: A System of Philosophy
Individuals as knots on a thread
Crispin’s materialism: The world is real, but it is “all the ways”
A materialist’s way of understanding social reality
Perception as being penetrated by the world
How distinct from the rest of the world are we?
Knowledge, power, and politics
Jul 13, 2017 — James Hughes & Regina Rini
How to raise a good robot
The moral development of machines
The trouble with robots who can reason
Will AI have feelings?
Is it wrong to hurt a zombie?
How AI could shape human morality
Jul 10, 2017 — Josh Summers & Jason Siff
Why it’s okay to let thoughts happen during meditation
The case for a busy mind
Jason: The origins of our thoughts matter
Looking beneath the mind’s fictions
The problem with pursuing nirvana
Why memory is essential to growth
Jun 28, 2017 — Robert Wright & Jay Garfield
Teaching Buddhist philosophy
Jay’s book,
Engaging Buddhism
Why “you” might not exist
Buddhism and determinism
When clarifying your view of reality makes you a better person
The error of essentialism
Jun 27, 2017 — David Kyuman Kim & Eboo Patel
What led Eboo to interfaith work
The quandaries of religious pluralism
Reflecting on Muhammad Ali’s refusal to serve in Vietnam
Loving a country that doesn’t love you back
Why Eboo thinks social action needs to be about persuasion
Jun 25, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & David Ottlinger
David’s essay
Medium, Message, and Effect
What sitcoms owe to small TV screens
HBO brings film techniques to television
Theatrics in movies
When cinematics on TV became too much
The new model: Binge-watching
Why streaming shows are anti-social
Jun 23, 2017 — Robert Wright & Massimo Pigliucci
Massimo’s new book,
How to Be a Stoic
, and Bob’s forthcoming book,
Why Buddhism Is True
Similarities between Buddhism and Stoicism
The metaphysics of Stoicism
Is there a Stoic version of the Buddhist “not-self” doctrine?
Massimo’s Stoic advice column
Seneca’s tips for anger management
Achieving an objective awareness of your emotions
Using meditation to cope with feelings of failure
Jun 22, 2017 — Josh Summers & Linda Blanchard
Linda’s book,
Dependent Arising in Context
on a central Buddhist teaching
An anatomy of suffering
The first step on the path to suffering: Ignorance
How the “self” is created
What do Buddhists mean when they say “life is suffering”?
Linda’s meditation advice
Jun 19, 2017 — Robert Wright & Sharon Salzberg
Sharon’s new book,
Real Love
How lovingkindness meditation works
What Buddhists mean when they advise against attachment
The stories that shape our self-perception
What real love looks like in relationships
How to cultivate love for strangers
Loving people you hate
Jun 6, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
“Purpose” in science and morality
What Aristotle thought about purpose in nature
Why asking “what is it for?” makes sense in biology but not other sciences
Does form dictate function?
Is there a “law” of morality?
The paths to human flourishing
Why a “scientific” approach to ethics à la Sam Harris doesn’t work
Jun 2, 2017 — David Bryce Yaden & Massimo Pigliucci
May 22, 2017 — Robert Wright & Jay Van Bavel
The partisanship that bolsters Trump
Jay’s favorite experiments on the psychology of tribalism
Is the anti-Trump movement its own worst enemy?
What’s going on in Trump’s brain?
How a sports fan’s brain warps reality
Is there hope for overcoming our tribal psychology?
Want a retweet? Stoke moral outrage.
May 15, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
Massimo’s new book
How to Be a Stoic
Why we all need a philosophy of life
Why Stoicism can appeal to Christians, Buddhists, and atheists alike
Stoic virtues, disciplines, and areas of study
Cynics—the monks of Stoicism
Things within and outside your control
Massimo’s Stoic version of a
Dear Abby
column
May 2, 2017 — Robert Wright & Adam Alter
The bad effects of addictive tech
How much time do you spend on your phone?
You might be addicted if…
The World of Warcraft as a case study in tech addiction
The tricks Silicon Valley uses to get you hooked
Adam’s advice for breaking your screen addiction
Apr 25, 2017 — Josh Summers & David Barash
David’s fusion of existentialism, Buddhism and biology
Triangulating the meaning of life
Buddhist doubts about the existentialist view of freedom
Free will and the hard problem of consciousness
The myth of Sisyphus
Being an existentialist bio-Buddhist
Apr 9, 2017 — Scott Parker | How to live
Apr 7, 2017 — Robert Wright & Wendell Wallach
When technology takes people’s jobs
Asking your iPhone for medical advice
Killer robots!
Letting machines decide whether to push the nuclear button
The growing threat of bioterrorism
How to stop bioterrorists
Is it all happening too fast?
Apr 6, 2017 — Robert Wright & Adam Frank
What is matter?
What is the relationship between math and reality?
Your metaphysical bias is showing
You can’t escape the weirdness of quantum physics!
The mystery of consciousness
The emptiness of
The Tao of Physics
The observer and the observed
Apr 5, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman, Massimo Pigliucci, & Skye Cleary
Fundamentals of Stoicism…
…and existentialism
The roles we play
Seasickness and other things we can’t control
Contributions to psychotherapy from Stoics and existentialists
Suicide, “the only serious philosophical problem”
Stoicism as a philosophy of love
When being virtuous is close to impossible
Apr 2, 2017 — Michael Dowd | When religion fails, economics becomes demonic
Mar 28, 2017 — Josh Summers & Howard Axelrod
The Point of Vanishing
, Howard’s memoir about life as a hermit
How an eye injury changed Howard’s reality
Into the woods
How isolation changed Howard’s sense of self
Howard’s expansive awareness of time
Out of the woods
Mar 26, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
The underappreciated philosopher Wilfrid Sellars
The “manifest image” vs. the “scientific image”
Why scientism bothers Massimo
Don’t blame me, my brain made me do it!
What Daniel Dennett gets wrong in his new book
The limits of science
Mar 20, 2017 — Robert Wright & S. Matthew Liao
Changing the human genome to combat climate change
Will new technologies stratify society genetically?
Military and civilian uses of memory-changing technology
The army’s plans for deep brain simulation
Matthew’s book
The Right to Be Loved
Mar 13, 2017 — Nikita Petrov & Tony Ortega
How the Church of Scientology managed to run a “prison”
L. Ron Hubbard’s theory of the mind
“Auditing” and the “superpowers” it leads to
Did Hubbard believe his own mythology?
The cruel humor of LRH’s space opera
The SeaOrg: A billion years of snitching and interrogations
Scientology after Hubbard and outside the U.S.
Mar 1, 2017 — Robert Wright & David Wallace
The challenge of interpreting quantum physics
The many-worlds interpretation
At what moments do new worlds appear?
Quantum physics and free will
The multiverse and you
Why you (or one of you) may never die
Quantum entanglement holds the world together
Feb 24, 2017 — Josh Summers & Ellen Langer
Mindfulness without the meditation
Ellen: You should know that you don’t know
How Ellen turned back the clock for a group of old men
Ellen’s “chambermaid study”
Can the mind change the body?
Does being mindful make you more likable?
How to keep a mindful mindset
Feb 22, 2017 — Robert Wright & Micah Redding
Transhumanism and the singularity
Teilhard de Chardin’s “Omega Point”
The (theoretical) physics of immortality and resurrection
The theism of the simulation theory
Any word on transhumanist Islam or Judaism?
Christianity and globalization
Feb 20, 2017 — Robert Wright & Mark Van Steenwyk
Meet Mark Van Steenwyk, Christian Anarchist
Mark’s mystical experience at a Bible camp
The time Mark was diagnosed with demonic possession
Forms of Christian activism
Trump makes anarchism more appealing
Mystical dimensions of political activism
Getting the attention of Christians via civil disobedience
Feb 15, 2017 — Robert Wright & Robert Stickgold
What is sleep for?
Why do we dream?
How dreaming helps us remember
Chaotic dreams and creativity
The limited value of dream interpretation
Lack of sleep and psychological disorders
How to sleep better
Feb 14, 2017 — Josh Summers & Jason Siff
Jason’s “recollective awareness” meditation
A head-on approach to grasping what’s going on in your head
The trouble with traditional meditation techniques
Dodging meditation paradoxes
Jason: Don’t be afraid of your thoughts
The tough process of learning lovingkindness
Feb 13, 2017 — Robert Wright & Marc Katz
Marc’s book,
The Heart of Loneliness
Are we getting lonelier?
The different kinds of loneliness
More connected yet more alone
How to combat loneliness
Is God lonely?
How Marc, as a rabbi, comforts the lonely
Feb 6, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & Massimo Pigliucci
Join the hordes clamoring for Massimo’s forthcoming book!
The science of ethics
Is morality baked into our biology?
Can primates tell us where morality comes from?
How Kant and moral psychology complement each other
Nietzsche’s moral philosophy
Warning: Chimps and bonobos are not hairy proto-humans!
The trouble with studying morality in infants
Feb 2, 2017 — Robert Wright, Deepak Chopra, & Michael Shermer
Is consciousness everything…
…and is it the only thing?
Can you find truth by looking inward?
Debating whether physics supports Deepak’s views
The weirdness of quantum entanglement
Why skeptics are skeptical of Deepak’s work
Jan 30, 2017 — Josh Summers & Alex Howard
Alex’s documentary series
How I Created a Cult
…and its hero, spiritual leader Andrew Cohen
How do smart people end up in cults?
The power dynamics and psychological abuse
Cohen’s downfall and re-emergence
The “shadow” side of spiritual communities
Jan 23, 2017 — Daniel Kaufman & David Ottlinger
John Stuart Mill on social shaming
Was the U.S. envisioned as a classical liberal polity?
Why the New Deal was not a break with liberalism
Is there such a thing as personal autonomy?
Why the social justice movement is illiberal
Future prospects of liberalism
Jan 22, 2017 — Rajagopal Narasimhan | Stories
Jan 22, 2017 — Robert Wright | Mindfulness isn't mushy
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