17 March 2026
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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?
TAGS atheism | cosmology | death | history | philosophy | physics | religion | science | technology | the future
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?
Jun 19, 2019 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Rachel Vorona Cote
- Rachel’s essay on her mother’s death, “The Fraught Culture of Online Mourning”
- Aryeh recalls mourning his father in the pre–social media era
- A moment when language fails
- Is it possible to talk about death with sincerity on Twitter?
- The many (often gendered) Victorian rituals of mourning
- Rachel’s forthcoming book, Too Much: How Victorian Constraints Still Bind Women Today
- Do you want to be memorialized for eternity on Facebook?
Apr 30, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Luke Kemp
TAGS climate change | cosmology | death | history | meditation | science | technology | the future | violence
Jul 20, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Robin Hanson
- 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?
Jan 29, 2018 —
Robert Wright & Michael Shermer
- The time Michael thought he was being abducted by aliens
- Michael’s new book, Heavens on Earth
- Deepak Chopra’s afterlife
- Why uploading your brain to achieve immortality makes no sense
- Is radical life extension just bunk?
- The Second Coming, presented by Ray Kurzweil
- What consolation can the atheist offer to the dying?
- The spookiest thing that’s ever happened to Michael
TAGS aging | atheism | Buddhism | consciousness | death | Hinduism | mind-body problem | New Atheists | religion | the future | transhumanism
Feb 22, 2017 —
Robert Wright & Micah Redding
TAGS Christianity | death | human nature | Islam | Judaism | love | religion | technology | the future | transhumanism
Dec 18, 2016 —
Nikita Petrov & George Young
- Does Russian thought have anything to contribute to the world?
- Nikolay Fedorov, an eccentric thinker who influenced Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky
- Fedorov’s plan: Immortality for everyone
- “Kinship” as a fundamental property of all matter
- A mass movement for the spiritual unity of humankind
- Vladimir Solovyov’s The Meaning of Love: Sexuality as a path to a Christian utopia
- Christ as the ultimate role model
TAGS Christianity | consciousness | death | evolution | history | human nature | literature | mysticism | occult | philosophy | politics | religion | science | spirituality | technology | the future | transhumanism
Oct 25, 2016 —
Philip Menchaca & Benjamin Zeller
TAGS Buddhism | Christianity | death | Donald Trump | economics | psychology | religion | science | spirituality
Oct 19, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Sam Harris
- Sam Harris, mystic and atheist
- The mystery of consciousness
- Is mysticism more like science than like religion?
- How religion makes progress
- Sam’s case for intolerance
- The root causes of extremism
- Religious and secular reasons to do good
- Ways religion may be closer to the truth than atheism
- A secular approach to death
TAGS agnosticism | atheism | Buddhism | Christianity | cognitive science | consciousness | death | empathy | ethics | evolution | history | Islam | meditation | mind-body problem | mindfulness | mysticism | nationalism | New Atheists | perception | poverty | psychology | religion | science | self | spirituality | tribalism
Oct 1, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Stephen Batchelor
- What Buddhim really is (and isn’t) about
- What various Buddhist traditions have to offer
- The Buddha as a practical philosopher
- How the Buddha revolutionized meditation
- The idea of not-self, and its connection to an ethical life
- Why death is not the end even if there’s no rebirth
- The ethical dimension of enlightenment
TAGS Buddhism | Christianity | death | enlightenment | Hinduism | meditation | secularism | spirituality
Sep 17, 2016 —
Nikita Petrov & George Young
- What is Russian cosmism?
- The religious side of cosmism
- Cosmism as a response to the challenges of the 20th century
- Nature as a temporary enemy and eternal friend
- Pavel Florensky, the Russian da Vinci
- Plant life as a spiritual ideal
- The father of the Soviet space program, and his weird spirituality
- Cosmism and transhumanism: Compare and contrast
- Cosmism as a Russian propaganda project
TAGS Christianity | consciousness | death | evolution | history | human nature | mysticism | occult | philosophy | politics | religion | science | spirituality | technology | the future | transhumanism
Aug 23, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Daniel Ogilvie
TAGS ancient philosophy | death | ethics | history | monotheism | New Atheists | philosophy | psychology | religion | Richard Dawkins | science | soul
Aug 8, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Susan Schneider
TAGS cognitive science | compassion | consciousness | death | free will | human nature | identity | mind-body problem | philosophy | physics | psychology | science | technology | the future | transhumanism
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