All Episodes

#142 James Tabery: The Nature-Nurture Debate, And Its Ethics

Feb 22, 2019

Dr. James Tabery is Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Adjunct Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah. His research focuses largely on the philosophy of science and applied ethics, as well as the intersection between those domains. On the philosophy of science side, he investigates questions of causation and explanation in biology; while on the applied ethics side, he explores how the answers to those questions have ethical, legal, and social implications. He’s also the author of the book Beyond Versus: The Struggle to Understand the Interaction of Nature and Nurture. More»
#141 Moshe Hoffman: Game Theory, Norm Enforcement, and Evolutionary Psychology

Feb 21, 2019

Dr. Moshe Hoffman is a Research Scientist at MIT Media Lab & Lecturer at Harvard's Department of Economics. He applies game theory, models of learning and evolution, and experimental methods, to try to decipher the (often subconscious and subtle) incentives that shape our social behavior, preferences, and ideologies. Dr. Hoffman obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business and his B.S. in Economics from the University of Chicago. He also co-designed and teaches "Game Theory and Social Behavior" which lays out a lot of the evidence and models behind this approach. More»
#140 Paul Zak: Neuroeconomics, Oxytocin, Trust, Companies and Society

Feb 18, 2019

Dr. Paul Zak is an American neuroeconomist, who is known as a proponent of the field. His current work applies neuroscience to build high performance organizations and to understand and guide consumer decisions. Dr. Zak is the founding Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies and Professor of Economics, Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He has degrees in mathematics and economics from San Diego State University, a Ph.D. in economics from University of Pennsylvania, and post-doctoral training in neuroimaging from Harvard. He’s also the author of books like The Moral Molecule: The Source of Love and Prosperity, and Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High-Performance Companies. More»
#139 Peter Richerson: Biology and Culture, Cultural Evolution, Cognition, and Group Selection

Feb 15, 2019

SORRY ABOUT THE AUDIO AND VIDEO ISSUES, THE INTERNET CONNECTION WAS WEAK. HOPE YOU ENJOY IT. More»
#138 Keith Frankish: Consciousness, Illusionism, Free Will, and AI

Feb 14, 2019

Dr. Keith Frankish is a British philosopher and writer, currently living in Crete, Greece. He’s an Honorary Reader at the University of Sheffield, UK, a Visiting Research Fellow with The Open University, UK, and an Adjunct Professor with the Brain and Mind Programme at the University of Crete. He works mainly in philosophy of mind, also with interests in other areas of Philosophy. He’s also the author of books like Mind and Supermind (2004) and Illusionism: As a Theory of Consciousness (2017). More»
#137 Derek Elliott: Beyond Enlightenment, Reason, Free Will, Self-deception, and Modularity

Feb 11, 2019

Dr. Derek Elliott is a newly minted doctor of philosophy from Duquesne University. He specializes in philosophy of psychology as well as action theory with a special interest in irrationality and evolutionary psychology. More»
#136 Patrick Colm Hogan: Evolution, Human Universals, Arts, and Literature

Feb 8, 2019

Dr. Patrick Colm Hogan is Distinguished Professor of the Department of English, and the Institute for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, at the University of Connecticut, US. His specialties are: literary theory, cognitive and affective science of literature, and world literature. He’s the author of several books, including The Mind and Its Stories, What Literature Teaches Us About Emotion, and Beauty and Sublimity. More»
#135 Rebecca Sear: Human Behavioral Ecology, Mating, Parenting, Reproduction

Feb 7, 2019

Dr. Rebecca Sear is Reader at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), teaching demography and researching human reproductive behaviour from an evolutionary perspective. She is trained in zoology, biological anthropology, and statistics, and subsequently worked first in a social science institution (London School of Economics) and then in an institution of global and public health (LSHTM). Having been exposed to a variety of disciplines, she is particularly interested in how the natural, social and medical sciences can be integrated as we try to understand our own species, and aims to conduct research somewhere inbetween these disciplines. She is particularly interested in taking a comparative perspective to understanding human reproductive behaviour, and exploring why such behaviour varies between, as well as within, populations. In 2008, she co-founded the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association, and she’s currently Honorary Secretary of the British Society for Population Studies and a Board Member of the Evolutionary Anthropology Society. More»
#134 Christian Miller: The Character Gap, Our Moral Flaws, and How to Improve Them

Feb 4, 2019

Dr. Christian B. Miller is the A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University. His research is primarily in contemporary ethics and philosophy of religion. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, Slate, Prospect Magazine, Relevant Magazine, Michael Hyatt Magazine, The Conversation, Newsweek, Aeon, Greater Good Magazine, Nautilus Magazine, Fathom Magazine, Institute of Art and Ideas, and Christianity Today. He’s the author of three books, including Moral Character: An Empirical Theory, Character and Moral Psychology, and the most recent one, The Character Gap: How Good Are We?. More»
#133 Don Ross: Naturalism, Philosophy of Economics, and Addiction

Feb 1, 2019

Dr. Don Ross is Head of the School of Sociology, Philosophy, Criminology, Government, and Politics at University College Cork, Ireland; Professor of Economics at the University of Cape Town, South Africa; and Program Director for Methodology at the Center for Economic Analysis of Risk at Georgia State University, USA. His research focuses on the foundations of economic theory, the experimental economics of addiction, risk, and time preference, philosophy of science, and infrastructure, trade and industry policy in Africa. He’s also the author of books like Economic Theory and Cognitive Science: Microexplanation; The Picoeconomics and Neuroeconomics of Disordered Gambling; and Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized and Philosophy of Economics. More»