Within Reason - podcast cover

Within Reason

Alex J O'Connor•www.cosmicskeptic.com
Society & Culture
Philosophy
Religion & Spirituality
For the curious. A philosophy podcast that sometimes flirts with other disciplines, Within Reason has featured guests including Richard Dawkins, Douglas Murray, William Lane Craig, Peter Singer, Konstantin Kisin, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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Episodes

#69 Iain McGilchrist - The Mind is More Than a Machine

Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, writer, and former Oxford literary scholar. McGilchrist came to prominence after the publication of his book The Master and His Emissary , subtitled The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.

May 26, 2024•2 hr 40 min

#68 Andrew Mark Henry - What is The Gospel of Thomas?

Andrew Mark Henry is a scholar of religious studies. His research focus is early Christianity and late Roman religion. He earned his PhD at Boston University. His YouTube channel is "Religion for Breakfast".

May 19, 2024•1 hr 24 min

#67 Elaine Pagels | What Are The Gnostic Gospels?

Elaine Pagels is an American historian of religion. She is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Pagels has conducted extensive research into early Christianity and Gnosticism. See me speak at Level Up in Atlanta this June: http://levelupconferences.org/...

May 13, 2024•1 hr 9 min

#65 Esoterica - The History of Yahweh

Justin Sledge is currently a part-time professor of philosophy and religion at several institutions in the Metro-Detroit area and a popular local educator. His YouTube channel is " Esoterica ".

Apr 28, 2024•2 hr 45 min

#64 Rory Stewart - We Are Addicted to a Sense of Crisis

Rory Stewart is a former UK Government minister, MP, and deputy governor in Iraq following the western invasion. He walked on foot for two years across Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal in 2002. He was a private tutor to both Prince William and Prince Harry. He now co-hosts The Rest is Politics with Alastair Campbell, one of the UK's most popular shows.

Apr 21, 2024•1 hr 9 min

#63 A.C. Grayling - Who Will Own the Moon?

A.C. Grayling is a British philosopher and author. In 2011 he founded and became the first Master of New College of the Humanities, an independent undergraduate college in London. Buy "Who Owns the Moon?" here.

Apr 14, 2024•1 hr 3 min

#60 Carlo Rovelli - Time is Weirder Than You Think

Carlo Rovelli, an Italian theoretical physicist, is known mainly for his contributions to research in the field of quantum gravity. He is the author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and White Holes, amongst other works.

Mar 24, 2024•1 hr 4 min

#59 William Lane Craig - Is Biblical Slaughter Ethical?

William Lane Craig is a Christian philosopher and public speaker, who today makes his third appearance on Within Reason. We discuss why Richard Dawkins refuses to debate him, and whether Old Testament slaughter can be justified.

Mar 17, 2024•1 hr 6 min

#57 David Deutsch - The Multiverse is Real

David Deutsch is a British physicist at the University of Oxford. He is a visiting professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation in the Clarendon Laboratory of the University of Oxford. (Wikipedia.) Buy David Deutsch's book, The Beginning of Infinity

Mar 05, 2024•2 hr 36 min

#56 Susan Neiman - Left is Not Woke

Susan Neiman is an American moral philosopher, cultural commentator, and essayist. She is the author of "Left is Not Woke", available here .

Feb 18, 2024•53 min

#55 Robert Sapolsky - Free Will Doesn't Exist. Now What?

Robert Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinology researcher and author. He is a professor of biology, neurology, neurological sciences, and neurosurgery at Stanford University. He is the author of "Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will", which you can purchase here .

Feb 11, 2024•57 min

#53 Jason Brennan - The Case Against Democracy

Jason Brennan is an American philosopher and business professo at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. Brennan writes about democratic theory, the ethics of voting, competence and power, freedom, and the moral foundations of commercial society. (Wikipedia.) He speaks in this episode about the faults and flaws of democracy, and why people are often not as good as voting as they think they are. Buy "Against Democracy" (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/3HBA5df Buy "Democracy: ...

Jan 28, 2024•58 min

#52 Jonathan Pageau - The Problem With Secular Architecture

Jonathan Pageau is a French Canadian icon carver, public speaker and YouTuber exploring the symbolic patterns that underlie our experience of the world, how these patterns emerge and come together, manifesting in religion, art and in popular culture. He's also the editor of the Orthodox Arts Journal and host of the Symbolic World blog and podcast.

Jan 20, 2024•59 min

#50 Sisyphus 55 - Nihilism and the Manosphere

Ben Thomas, better known online as Sisyphus 55, is a philosophy YouTuber with one million subscribers. His videos cover topics including nihilism, existentialism, love, relationships, and political philosophy.

Jan 07, 2024•1 hr 28 min

#48 Edward Feser - Aristotle's Argument for God

Edward Feser is an American Catholic philosopher, and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Pasadena City College in California. He is the author of " Five Proofs of the Existence of God ", and in this episode speaks about one of these: the Aristotelean argument from motion.

Dec 16, 2023•2 hr 34 min

#47 Josh Rasmussen - Why is Consciousness a Philosophical Problem?

Josh Rasmussen is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Azusa Pacific University, with an expertise in analytic metaphysics. He is author of several books, including Defending the Correspondence Theory of Truth , Necessary Existence , How Reason Can Lead to God , and Is God the Best Explanation of Things . He is also the founder of the Worldview Design YouTube channel , which helps people use reason to address the big questions of life....

Dec 09, 2023•2 hr 32 min

#46 John Vervaeke - Escaping the Meaning Crisis

John Vervaeke is an award-winning professor of psychology, cognitive science, and Buddhist psychology at the University of Toronto. He is the creator of a fifty-hour series on YouTube called "Awakening From the Meaning Crisis". Dr. Vervaeke joins me to discuss why people are struggling to find meaning, how we might solve this problem, and whether death poses a series problem for believing in meaning.

Dec 04, 2023•2 hr 33 min

#45 Graham Oppy - Atheism Requires Justification Too

Graham Oppy is Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean of Research at Monash University, CEO of the Australasian Association of Philosophy, Chief Editor of the Australasian Philosophical Review, Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, and serves on the editorial boards of Philo, Philosopher's Compass, Religious Studies, and Sophia. He is one of the best known atheist thinkers in academia. You can buy "Atheism: the Basics" here ....

Nov 06, 2023•1 hr 18 min

#44 Just Stop Oil - How Far Will They Go?

Just Stop Oil are one of the most well-known and thoroughly hated political groups in the UK. You may recognise them as the brand behind stunts such as throwing soup over Van Gogh's Sunflowers, covering the felt of a snooker table at a world championship with orange powder, blocking traffic on busy roads, and, most recently, climbing on stage during a production of Les Misérables in London's West End.

Oct 19, 2023•1 hr 5 min

#43 Peter Hitchens Storms Out of My Interview

Peter Hitchens is an author, broadcaster, journalist, and commentator. He writes for The Mail on Sunday. He has published numerous books, including The Abolition of Britain, The Rage Against God, The War We Never Fought and The Phoney Victory.

Oct 16, 2023•59 min

#42 Genetically Modified Skeptic - Why Satanism is Making a Comeback

Drew McCoy is the creator and host of the YouTube channel Genetically Modified Skeptic . His videos cover topics including atheism, cults, satanism, and Biblical scholarship. In this episode we talk about his recent trip to SatanCon in Boston, Massachusetts, and about what the modern satanism movement is all about.

Oct 04, 2023•1 hr 2 min

#41 Justin Brierley - The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God

Justin Brierley was, for 17 years, the host of "Unbelievable?" on Premier Christian Radio. He is a broadcaster, author, and Christian apologist whose latest book is "The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God: Why new atheism grew old and secular thinkers are considering Christianity again". Get Justin's book here .

Sep 24, 2023•1 hr 16 min