125 | David Haig on the Evolution of Meaning from Darwin to Derrida
Aristotle conceived of the world in terms of teleological "final causes"; Darwin, or so the story goes, erased purpose and meaning from the world, replacing them with a bloodless scientific algorithm....
30 Nov 20201h 15min
124 | Solo: How Time Travel Could and Should Work
Time! It doesn't stop, psychological effects of being under lockdown notwithstanding. How we experience time depends on our situation, but time itself just marches forward. Unless, of course, it's pos...
23 Nov 20202h 41min
123 | Lisa Feldman Barrett on Emotions, Actions, and the Brain
Emotions are at the same time utterly central to who we are — where would we be without them? — and also seemingly peripheral to the "real" work our brains do, understanding the world and acting withi...
16 Nov 20201h 17min
122 | David Eagleman on Tapping Into the Livewired Brain
Imagine you were locked in a sealed room, with no way to access the outside world but a few screens showing a view of what's outside. Seems scary and limited, but that's essentially the situation that...
9 Nov 20201h 17min
121 | Cornel West on What Democracy Is and Should Be
This episode is published on November 2, 2020, the day before an historic election in the United States. An election that comes amidst growing worries about the future of democratic governance, as wel...
2 Nov 20201h 21min
120 | Jeremy England on Biology, Thermodynamics, and the Bible
Erwin Schrödinger's famous book What Is Life? highlighted the connections between physics, and thermodynamics in particular, and the nature of living beings. But the exact connections between living o...
26 Okt 20201h 28min
119 | Musa al-Gharbi on the Value of Intellectual Diversity
In the service of seeking truth, there would seem to be value in intellectual diversity, both in keeping ourselves honest and in the possibility of new ideas coming from unexpected quarters. That's tr...
19 Okt 20201h 16min
