All Episodes

#399 Niels Dingemanse: Ecology, Behavioral Plasticity, and Animal Personality

Dec 3, 2020

Dr. Niels Dingemanse is Tenured Professor in Behavioural Ecology in the Department of Biology at the Ludwig Maximilians University, Germany. He conducts evolutionary behavioral ecology research, asking questions about the adaptive evolution of behavioral strategies, and their genetic architectures, within an ecological context. His research is motivated by behavioral ecology, life-history, and quantitative genetics theory, and seeks to test predictions and assumptions of adaptive theory using observational and experimental approaches in the laboratory and the wild. More»
#398 Stuart Russell: Human-Level AI, How Worried We Should Be About AI, and Its Present and Future

Nov 30, 2020

Dr. Stuart Russell is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also holds the Smith-Zadeh Chair in Engineering. He founded and leads the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence there. His research covers a wide range of topics in artificial intelligence including machine learning, probabilistic reasoning, knowledge representation, planning, real-time decision making, multitarget tracking, computer vision, computational physiology, global seismic monitoring, and philosophical foundations. His current concerns include the threat of autonomous weapons and the long-term future of artificial intelligence and its relation to humanity. Dr. Russell is co-author of the most popular textbook in the field of artificial intelligence: Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach used in more than 1,400 universities in 128 countries. His most recent book is Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control. More»
#397 Gordon Burghardt: The Evolution And Function of Play

Nov 27, 2020

Dr. Gordon M. Burghardt is Alumni Distinguished Service Professor in the departments of Psychology and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee. His research focus has been on comparative studies of behavioral development in animals with special attention to reptiles, bears, and the evolution of play, as well as historical and theoretical issues in ethology and psychology. He has served as editor or editorial board member of numerous journals and is past president of the Animal Behavior Society and the Society for Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology (APA Div. 6). He has edited or co-edited 6 books and authored The Genesis of Animal Play: Testing the Limits (MIT Press, 2005). More»
#396 Jeff McMahan: Killing in War, and the Ethics of Veganism

Nov 26, 2020

Dr. Jeff McMahan is White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He specializes in Practical Ethics, Political Philosophy, and Ethics. 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»
#395 Lisa Bortolotti: The Epistemic Innocence of Irrational Beliefs

Nov 23, 2020

Dr. Lisa Bortolotti is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham, affiliated with the Philosophy Department in the School of Philosophy, Theology, and Religion; and with the Institute for Mental Health in the School of Psychology. Her research is in the philosophy of the cognitive sciences. She writes about the limitations of human cognition and human agency, investigating faulty reasoning and irrational beliefs, delusions, confabulations, distorted memories, poor knowledge of the self, unreliable self-narratives, self-deception, inconsistencies between attitudes and behavior, unrealistic optimism, and other positive illusions. She is also interested in the philosophy of medicine and how health, wellbeing, rationality, and agency interact. She is the author of The Epistemic Innocence of Irrational Beliefs. More»
#394 Chiara Marletto: Quantum Mechanics, Constructor Theory, Free Will, and Reality

Nov 20, 2020

Dr. Chiara Marletto is Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the Department of Physics at Oxford University. Her research interests include Quantum Theory of Computation, Foundations of Physics, Condensed-Matter Physics and Quantum Biology. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the "Graduate Prize Scholarship" at Merton College, 2012; "Optime" Award for Academic Excellence, offered by Unione Industriale di Torino, 2011; and the "Ing. Vittorino Pollo e Dott.Ssa Zita Pollo" Award for Academic Excellence, offered by Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, 2010. More»
#393 Paul Bloom: Moral Development, Empathy, Pleasure and/in Pain

Nov 19, 2020

Dr. Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of psychology and cognitive science at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on language, morality, religion, fiction, and art. He is the author of books like How Children Learn the Meanings of Words (2000), How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like (2010), Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil (2013), and Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion (2016). More»
#392 Christopher Ferguson: Violent Media and Its Effects, and How Madness Shaped History

Nov 16, 2020

Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson is professor of psychology at Stetson University. He is interested in media violence and, in particular, video games. He has been invited to speak at Vice President Biden's task force and a 2013 Institute of Medicine/CDC panel on the subject and in summer 2018 testified at the School Safety Commission. His research has generally indicated that exposure to media violence has little effect on societal violence. Dr. Ferguson has emphasized the idea that media effects must be studied independently rather than taking a "one size fits all" approach. Thus, advertising may get us to switch from one product to another even if video games don't turn kids into mass killers. Dr. Ferguson is also interested in the sociology of media research itself...how political pressure, social moral panics and culture war can distort media effects research into "opinions with numbers.". He’s the author of How Madness Shaped History: An Eccentric Array of Maniacal Rulers, Raving Narcissists, and Psychotic Visionaries. More»
#391 Matthew Cobb: The Idea of the Brain

Nov 13, 2020

Dr. Matthew Cobb is Professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester, where his research focuses on the sense of smell, insect behavior and the history of science. He is also a historian of the French Resistance. He’s the author of several books, including The Idea of the Brain: A History. More»
#390 Justin Tosi - Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk

Nov 12, 2020

Dr. Justin Tosi is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Texas Tech University. He works in social, political, legal, and moral philosophy, and especially on state legitimacy, special obligations, and social morality. He’s the author of Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk (co-authored with Brandon Warmke). More»