All Episodes

#1252 David Benatar - The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions

May 11, 2026

Dr. David Benatar is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town. He is best known for his advocacy of antinatalism in his book Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence, in which he argues that coming into existence is a serious harm, regardless of the feelings of the existing being once brought into existence, and that, as a consequence, it is always morally wrong to create more sentient beings. He’s also the author of The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions (2017). More»
#1251 Bradley Hillier-Smith: The Ethics of State Responses to Refugees

May 8, 2026

Dr. Bradley Hillier-Smith is an Associate Lecturer at the University of St Andrews. His main research interests are in global justice, human rights, migration ethics, obligations towards refugees, as well as ethical issues behind pressing social and political problems. His research aims to make a positive difference to people’s lives, wellbeing and rights through improving public policy and our social and political institutions. He is the author of The Ethics of State Responses to Refugees. More»
#1250 Quill Kukla - Sex Beyond "Yes": Pleasure and Agency for Everyone

May 7, 2026

Dr. Quill Kukla is Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University and a Visiting Fellow at Leibniz University Hannover. They are the author of Sex Beyond "Yes": Pleasure and Agency for Everyone. More»
#1249 Melissa Shew: Women and Intellectual Joy

May 4, 2026

Dr. Melissa Shew has her PhD in Philosophy from the University of Oregon. She is currently the Associate Director of Teaching Excellence at Marquette University, where she is also the Faculty Director of their Executive MBA Program. She is the author (together with Kimberly Garchar) of Philosophy for Girls: An Invitation to the Life of Thought. More»
#1248 Carles Lalueza-Fox - Identity: What DNA Can Tell Us About Ourselves

May 1, 2026

Dr. Carles Lalueza-Fox is Director of the Natural Science Museum in Barcelona. He participated in the Neanderthal Genome Project and led the first retrieval of the genome of an 8,000-year-old European hunter-gatherer. His latest book is Identity: What DNA Can Tell Us About Ourselves. More»
#1247 Zygmunt Baranski: Dante's Divine Comedy

Apr 30, 2026

Dr. Zygmunt Baranski is Emeritus R. L. Canala Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Notre Dame, and Serena Professor of Italian Emeritus at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Baranski has worked primarily on Dante, concentrating on Dante’s relationship to medieval literary theory and criticism and on his intellectual formation. In addition, he has published extensively on Dante’s reception in the fourteenth and twentieth centuries, on medieval Italian culture and literature (in particular, Cavalcanti, Petrarch, and Boccaccio), on modern Italian literature and culture, on Pasolini, on Italian cinema, and on Italo-Polish cultural relations. More»
#1246 Rivka Weinberg: Does Life Have Meaning?

Apr 27, 2026

Dr. Rivka Weinberg is a professor of philosophy at Scripps College in Claremont, California. As a philosopher and bioethicist, Dr. Weinberg specializes in ethical and metaphysical issues regarding birth, death, and meaning. Her latest book is The Meaning of It All: Ultimate Meaning, Everyday Meaning, Cosmic Meaning, Death, and Time. More»
#1245 Jacob Stegenga - Heart of Science: A Philosophy of Scientific Inquiry

Apr 24, 2026

Dr. Jacob Stegenga is a Professor of Philosophy at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Most of his research has been in general philosophy of science and philosophy of medicine, though he has worked on a wide range of other topics, including stereotypes, just war theory, and science in a time of crisis. His latest book is Heart of Science: A Philosophy of Scientific Inquiry. More»
#1244 Keegan Tatum: The Psychology of Politics, and the Reactionary Politics of the Conservatives

Apr 23, 2026

Keegan Tatum is a YouTuber (@TheOneKeeganTatum) and TikToker (https://tinyurl.com/89v7a5tu) who talks about the psychology of politics. More»
#1243 Jeff McMahan: Antinatalism, Extinctionism, Gene Editing, and Overpopulation

Apr 20, 2026

Dr. Jeff McMahan is Sekyra and White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He specializes in Practical Ethics, Political Philosophy, and Ethics. He is editor of the Journal of Controversial Ideas. He’s the author of books like The Morality of Nationalism, The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life, and Killing in War. More»