All Episodes

#847 Lydia Moland: 19th-Century German Philosophy, Hegel, and Abolitionism in the US

Oct 13, 2023

Dr. Lydia Moland is a Professor of Philosophy at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where she teaches courses on moral philosophy, aesthetics, and the history of modern philosophy. For most of her career, she has written on nineteenth-century German philosophy. Recently, she turned her attention to her own country and to women. She discovered the work of American abolitionist Lydia Maria Child, on whom she wrote a book titled Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life (2022). More»
#846 Michela Massimi: Perspectival Realism

Oct 12, 2023

Dr. Michela Massimi is Professor of Philosophy of Science in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, affiliated with the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics. She works in the area of history and philosophy of science with a focus on the physical sciences. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Astronomical Society, corresponding Member of the Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences and elected Member of the Academia Europaea. Dr. Massimi is the recipient of the Royal Society’s Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal and Lecture 2017 for her interdisciplinary work and communication of philosophy of science, especially modern physics. Dr. Massimi is the author of several books, including Perspectival Realism, which has won the 2023 Lakatos Award. More»
#845 Branko Milanović - Visions of Inequality: From the French Revolution to the End of the Cold War

Oct 9, 2023

Dr. Branko Milanović is Presidential Professor at the Graduate Center and a senior fellow at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at The City University of New York (CUNY). Dr. Milanović’s main area of work is income inequality, in individual countries and globally, as well as historically, among pre-industrial societies (Roman Empire, Byzantium, and France before the Revolution), and even inequality in soccer. His latest book is Visions of Inequality: From the French Revolution to the End of the Cold War. More»
#844 Hakwan Lau - In Consciousness We Trust: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Subjective Experience

Oct 6, 2023

Dr. Hakwan Lau is Principal Investigator for the Laboratory for Consciousness at Riken Institute. He works on the neural mechanisms of conscious perception, attention, and sensory metacognition, using human fMRI and Bayesian computational modeling. He is the author of In Consciousness We Trust: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Subjective Experience. More»
#843 Émile Torres - Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation (Part 1)

Oct 5, 2023

Dr. Émile Torres is a researcher at Leibniz Universität Hannover, in Germany. Their work over the past decade has centered around a single theme: eschatology, whether religious, secular, or scientific. Recently, their work has been focused on the nature and causes of human extinction, its ethical implications, and the history of the idea. They are the author of Morality, Foresight, and Human Flourishing: An Introduction to Existential Risks, and their latest book is Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation. More»
#842 Kevin Mitchell - Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will

Oct 2, 2023

Dr. Kevin Mitchell is Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He is interested in the development of connectivity in the brain, specifically in how this process is controlled by genes and how mutations in such genes affect the connectivity of neuronal circuits, influence behavior and perception and contribute to disease. His latest book is Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will. More»
#841 Rebecca Tuvel: Feminism, Cultural Appropriation, Transracialism, and Animal Ethics

Sep 29, 2023

Dr. Rebecca Tuvel is Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Rhodes College. She works in feminist philosophy, philosophy of race, and the ethics of identity. Her book project Changing Race: The Ethics and Metaphysics of Transracialism explores the possibility and permissibility of changing one’s race. More»
#840 Alicia Juarrero - Context Changes Everything: How Constraints Create Coherence

Sep 28, 2023

Dr. Alicia Juarrero is President and Founder of VectorAnalytica. Her research in neurophilosophy has been focused on the causal role of context-sensitive constraints in the emergence of mental events such as intentions. She is the author of several books, the most recent one being Context Changes Everything: How Constraints Create Coherence. More»
#839 Michael Muthukrishna: A Theory of Everyone

Sep 25, 2023

Dr. Michael Muthukrishna is an Associate Professor of Economic Psychology at the London School of Economics. His other affiliations include Affiliate of the Developmental Economics Group at STICERD, Affiliate of the Data Science Institute, Azrieli Global Scholar at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Technical Director of The Database of Religious History, and Board member of the One Pencil Project. His research focuses on the psychological and evolutionary processes that underlie culture and how culture is transmitted, maintained, and modified. He is the author of A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going. More»
#838 Jana Gallus: The Psychology and Economics of Incentives

Sep 22, 2023

Dr. Jana Gallus is Associate Professor of Strategy and Behavioral Decision Making at UCLA Anderson School of Management. Her research interests lie in behavioral economics, strategy, and innovation, with a focus on recognition incentives and their effects on decision-making. She investigates how incentive schemes can be designed to enhance employee motivation and organizational performance in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. More»