All Episodes

#1134 Norbert Peeters: Botanic Philosophy, von Humboldt, Darwin, and Why Plants Matter

Aug 8, 2025

Norbert Peeters is a teacher at Wageningen University and a PhD student at the Institute for Philosophy at Leiden University. His research is focused on an investigation of the philosophical and historical roots, implicit founding presuppositions and argumentative structure of the concept of wilderness, and its practical application in Dutch wildlife conservation projects. The first part of his dissertation will focus on the historical roots and the philosophical conceptual structure of our current wilderness concept. The second part will take a more practical approach. By studying several wilderness areas, as denoted by Natura 2000, this dissertation will investigate to what degree the idea of wilderness poses practical problems and solutions to wildlife management. More»
#1133 Blake Roeber - Political Humility: The Limits of Knowledge in Our Partisan Political Climate

Aug 7, 2025

Dr. Blake Roeber is the Michael P. Grace II Associate Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame. He is also an Associate Editor at Philosophical Studies. He specializes in traditional epistemology, and he has further research interests in formal and social epistemology. His work focuses on the relationship between knowledge and rational action, the nature of belief, the value of knowledge, and issues in epistemology that shed light on fake news, political polarization, and related phenomena. He is the author of Political Humility: The Limits of Knowledge in Our Partisan Political Climate. More»
#1132 Kevin Mitchell: Free Will, Robert Sapolsky, the Genomic Code, and Human Embryo Editing

Aug 4, 2025

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»
#1131 Alan Love: How Can Development Influence Evolution?

Aug 1, 2025

Dr. Alan Love is Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Philosophy and Winton Chair in the Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, as well as Director of the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science. His research focuses on conceptual issues in biology and has concentrated on evolutionary developmental biology (Evo-devo), developmental biology, molecular biology, and paleontology (among others). Other areas of interest include the role of history in philosophical research and the nature of intuitions generated by thought experiments in philosophical inquiry. More»
#1130 Sam Carr: How People Deal With Loneliness

Jul 31, 2025

Dr. Sam Carr is Reader in the Department of Education at the University of Bath. He has a particular interest in exploring human relationships and their role in shaping our psychological experiences through the lifespan. He is equally intrigued by (a) the impacts of our close attachments on our existence and (b) the impacts of broader social and political structures upon our attachment bond formation and psychological experiences. He is the author of All the Lonely People: Conversations on Loneliness. More»
#1129 Agnes Callard - Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life

Jul 28, 2025

Dr. Agnes Callard is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Chicago. She received her BA from the University of Chicago in 1997 and her PhD from Berkeley in 2008. Her primary areas of specialization are Ancient Philosophy and Ethics. She is the author of Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life. More»
#1128 Daniel Silverman: Why People Believe Misinformation in War

Jul 25, 2025

Dr. Daniel Silverman is an Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology (CMIST) at Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on international security, political psychology, and the politics of the Middle East and the wider Islamic world. He is particularly interested in the psychological factors – including the biases and misperceptions – that drive violent conflicts, and how they can be mitigated or leveraged to promote peace. He is the author of Seeing Is Disbelieving: Why People Believe Misinformation in War, and When They Know Better. More»
#1127 Jonathan Losos - Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution

Jul 24, 2025

Dr. Jonathan Losos is the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in St. Louis. He is an internationally renowned scholar in the field of evolutionary biology. In partnership with the Missouri Botanical Garden and the St. Louis Zoo, Dr. Losos leads the Living Earth Collaborative, an academic center dedicated to advancing the study of biodiversity. Within the biology department at Washington University, the primary focus of the Losos Lab is on the behavioral and evolutionary ecology of lizards and the study of evolutionary adaptation of wild species to urban habitats. He is the author of several books, including Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution. More»
#1126 Nicole Prause: Pornography, NoFap, and Orgasm

Jul 21, 2025

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»
#1125 Daniel Fessler: Physical Formidability, Male Muscularity, Pathogen-Avoidance & More

Jul 18, 2025

Dr. Daniel Fessler is a Professor of Biological Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is an evolutionary anthropologist whose principal focus is contemporary humans. His research currently focuses on a number of domains, including: emotions; disease avoidance; morality; prosociality and cooperation; conflict, aggression, and risk-taking; cultural transmission; food and eating; and sex and reproduction. More»