All Episodes

#610 Dorothea Debus: Philosophy of Memory, and Mental Self-regulation

Apr 8, 2022

Dr. Dorothea Debus is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at Konstanz University, with a special focus on the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind. Her main area of research is the Philosophy of Mind. A substantial part of her published work is concerned with the mental phenomenon of memory; but she has also written on various other mental phenomena – imagination, attention, perception and the emotions. More recently her research has focused on a more general feature of our mental lives, namely the fact that we sometimes can be, and often also are, actively involved with how our own mental lives develop; she asks how we might possibly account for this ability, and explore its axiological implications. More»
#609 Joel Marks: Morality, Amorality, Desirism, and Animal Ethics

Apr 7, 2022

Dr. Joel Marks is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of New Haven and a Bioethics Center Scholar at Yale University. His main areas of scholarly interest have been theoretical and applied ethics, both having come together in recent years in thinking about animal ethics. Meanwhile a new area of interest is planetary defense (against comets and asteroids). He is the author of several books, including Ethics Without Morals: In Defense of Amorality; It's Just a Feeling: The Philosophy of Desirism; Hard Atheism and the Ethics of Desire: An Alternative to Morality; and Reason and Ethics: The Case Against Objective Value. More»
#608 Moshe Hoffman & Erez Yoeli - Hidden Games; Game Theory and Irrational Human Behavior

Apr 4, 2022

Dr. Moshe Hoffman is a Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and Lecturer at Harvard's Department of Economics. More»
#607 Nicole Prause: Sex, Porn, and Addiction

Apr 1, 2022

Dr. Nicole Prause is a neuroscientist researching human sexual behavior, addiction, and the physiology of sexual response. She is also the founder of Liberos LLC, an independent research institute. More»
#606 Peter Sterling - What is health? Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design (Pt. 1)

Mar 31, 2022

Dr. Peter Sterling is Professor of Neuroscience in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. His broad goal has been to learn how the brain is designed – to understand its functional architecture. His research has spanned the full range of scales, from nanoscopic (synaptic vesicles), to microscopic (neural circuits), to macroscopic (regional neuroanatomy and behavior). His laboratory focused on retinal structure and function, but his theoretical interests extended to basic issues of physiological regulation and behavior, leading to the concept of allostasis. He is the author of books like Principles of Neural Design, and What is health? Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design. More»
#605 Frank McAndrew: Evolutionary Psychology, Gossip, Namesaking, and Aggression

Mar 28, 2022

Dr. Francis McAndrew is the Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology at Knox College. He studies human social behavior from an evolutionary perspective. He is especially interested in understanding the psychology of everyday life. Why do we enjoy gossip about celebrities? Why do some people name their children after themselves while others do not? His current research projects are concerned with aggression, gossip, and creepiness, and he writes a blog for Psychology Today Magazine titled "Out of the Ooze: Navigating the 21st Century with a Stone-Age Mind." Dr. McAndrew is also interested in environmental psychology, which is the study of the relationship between people and their physical environments, both natural and human-made. He has written a successful textbook in this area, Environmental Psychology. More»
#604 George Sher - A Wild West of the Mind; The Morality of Nasty Thoughts

Mar 25, 2022

Dr. George Sher is Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Rice University. In recent years, his research has centered on two main topics: responsibility and distributive justice. He is the author of several books, the most recent one being A Wild West of the Mind. More»
#603 Daniel Kreiss: Digital Media, Political Campaigns, Journalism, and Partisan Identity

Mar 24, 2022

Dr. Daniel Kreiss is Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Dr. Kreiss’ research explores the impact of technological change on the public sphere and political practice. He is the author of books like Taking Our Country Back: The Crafting of Networked Politics from Howard Dean to Barack Obama, and Prototype Politics: The Making and Unmaking of Technological Innovation in the Republican and Democratic Parties, 2000-2014. More»
#602 Sean Carroll - A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You

Mar 21, 2022

Dr. Sean Carroll is Balo-Simon Professor and Endowed Chair of Biology at the University of Maryland. He is also Professor Emeritus of Genetics and Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Carroll was an HHMI investigator from 1990 to 2010. In September 2010, he became vice president for science education at HHMI. He is the author of several books, including A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You. More»
#601 Henrik Høgh-Olesen - The Aesthetic Animal

Mar 18, 2022

Dr. Henrik Høgh-Olesen is Professor of Psychology at Aarhus University. His research interests include Evolutionary psychology, Comparative psychology/Ethology, Primatology, Aesthetics, Psychology of religion, and History of psychology. He is the author of 13 scientific books, including The Aesthetic Animal. More»