Why do some people have a strange desire to do weird things for no (good) reason? There's something fascinating about kids who eat laundry soap as part of a “challenge,” or people who deliberately... Read more
PHILOSOPHERS' CORNER
PHILOSOPHERS' CORNER
Perverse Desire
18
Aug 2023
There's something fascinating about those kids who ate laundry soap as part of a weird “challenge,” or people who deliberately loiter on the steps with the “no loitering” sign. These are strange things to want to do—what are people getting out of them?
Read moreMaking a (More) Moral World
09
Aug 2023
Making a better world would be a great thing—but do we really need philosophers to help us do that? They're often some of the worst people out there and the last people we should be taking ethical advice from.
Read moreAncient Renaissance Woman
21
Jul 2023
In her time in the 4th century, Hypatia was one of the most famous philosophers in Alexandria, and indeed in the ancient world. She studied so many different things—mathematics, astronomy, philosophy—and taught them too.
Read morePhilosophy of Mexico
07
Jul 2023
There are so many great ideas in the realm of Mexican philosophy: Sor Juana’s feminism, Emilio Uranga’s existentialism, all that fascinating stuff from the Aztecs and Mayans. But it's worth asking why we lump all those things together.
Read moreSummer Reading Uncut
25
Jun 2023
We're most most eager for you to listen to the edited broadcast and podcast, but there's always good stuff from the conversations we record for these multi-guest episodes that had to be left on the cutting-room floor.
Read moreThe Gender Box(es)
18
Jun 2023
To some, gender is an oppressive system designed to keep women down. People go around saying girls are made of sugar and spice, and boys are made of snips and snails, and pretty soon you’re making 80 cents on the dollar. But there’s another side to gender.
Read moreArt as Climate Action
28
May 2023
Fascism is on the rise, new infectious diseases keep cropping up, and we’re on the verge of environmental collapse: how could art possibly save us? Art may be a nice distraction, but surely what we really need are better leaders, better policies, and people who are willing to listen to science.
Read moreThis Blog Post Is False
21
May 2023
If I say, "I’m lying right now," I'm telling you I'm lying, so if I am actually lying the sentence is true—in which case I'm not lying. But if I am telling the truth, that means I'm lying. So either way, I'm both lying and telling the truth—and that's true contradiction.
Read moreThe Brain as Prediction Machine
25
Apr 2023
Our minds are amazing prediction machines—and sometimes they can even make their predictions come true! There's nothing mystical or magical here—like if you believe in something hard enough, you're going to "manifest" it. We're just talking about the kind of thinking we do all the time
Read moreParfit and the Selves That Matter
10
Apr 2023
Suppose you’re on your daily commute to Mars. You’re about to get beamed up, but something goes wrong—the transporter makes a copy of you on Mars, like it’s supposed to, but it forgets to vaporize you back home. So now there are two of you. And if there are two of you, the question is which one is the real you—the you on Earth, or the you on Mars?
Read moreOlfactory Philosophy
22
Mar 2023
When philosophers talk about perception, they tend to focus on what we see and hear, and rarely on what we smell. But olfaction is a strange sense that deserves greater philosophical scrutiny. For example, when you smell something, what exactly are you smelling?
Read moreWomen Talking
08
Mar 2023
More and more cinemas are struggling to keep their doors open, and more and more people consume films in their own homes, often alone. "Women Talking" is a challenging film about what it means to be a community, but it's also a film that reminds us that films were meant to be watched in community.
Read moreCancelling in Public and Private
17
Feb 2023
Some consider cancel culture a real problem: people losing their jobs, being harassd online, their home addresses being shared. Others see people who do or say terrible things getting some pushback but mostly whining on their Netflix comedy special about how they’ve been victimized.
Read moreWhy (Not) Trust Science?
20
Jan 2023
This week we’re asking why we should trust science—which may sound like a weird question. After all, why would we doubt the method that helps us build bridges and skyscrapers, formulate life saving medicines, and understand the cosmos?
Read more2022: The Year in Sound
31
Dec 2022
Following up on last year's not-so-new experiment, here's a little behind-the-scenes look into the brief audio montages (produced by yours truly) that we included in this year's episode in lieu of the usual Roving Philosophical Report.
Read moreWhat Is It Like to See Conspiracies in Everything?
02
Dec 2022
Why would anyone want to think like a conspiracy theorist? They ignore contrary evidence, they think they’re experts on things that they know nothing about, and they project malicious intent onto events that have innocent explanations.
Read moreWhy Read Proust in 2022?
11
Nov 2022
The world is on fire; authoritarianism threatens multiple countries; racism and xenophobia are rampant; women’s and LGBTQ rights are under threat—why would anyone spend time reading a novel by a man who’s been dead a hundred years?
Read moreDo Good People Make Good Leaders?
28
Oct 2022
We sure could use leaders who accept basic science and legislate effectively. But do we need our leaders to be good people on top of all that? Isn't asking them to be virtuous people kind of a high bar?
Read moreLiberalism and Self-Government
14
Oct 2022
Classical Liberal thinkers held that we're all born free, equal, and capable of rationality. So how does that square with a British Empire that denied people around the globe their autonomy for centuries?
Read moreClimate as a Collective Action Problem
30
Sep 2022
With floods and fires getting more frequent and intense, and the summer just ended shattering heat records around the globe, we clearly need to do something—collectively—about climate change.
Read moreCulture, Appropriated
16
Sep 2022
How can anyone own a culture? The British Museum is full of artifacts that the UK stole from all around the world, but mostly when we talk about cultural appropriation, we’re talking about borrowing an idea.
Read moreDoing Good, Effectively
26
Aug 2022
Effective Altruism is the idea that you should do the most good you can, and you should do research to figure out the best way to give. But if we were all effective altruists, wouldn't we end up ignoring people in need in our own communities?
Read morePolitical vs. Economic Inequality
12
Aug 2022
Political Inequality is when some people don’t get an equal voice in society, because they’re not represented in government, or they’re not allowed to vote, or their ballots are just ignored. Of course, that’s not all that matters—in fact it may not even be the main issue.
Read moreHumans, the Optimistic Animal?
24
Jul 2022
Is optimism rational? If you've been paying attention to the news lately, then pessimism about issues like climate change, women’s rights, the future of democracy seems more appropriate. But don't we need optimism to even tackle those problems?
Read moreAntisemitism, Then and Now
19
Jun 2022
Antisemitism is a big problem these days and it's hard to see it getting any better; both the FBI and the Anti-Defamation League reporting massive increases in incidents over the past several years. But antisemitism is also a really old problem.
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