Is it time to abandon the Golden Rule? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Join us as world-leading cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman discusses his cutting-edge research about consciousness and perception, as well as its astonishing implications for the ultimate nature of reality. Donald Hoffman is an American cognitive psychologist working at the University of California, Irvine. Hoffman's Interface Theory of Perception suggests that, in...
May 07, 2024•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why do so many of us in the present day belief in conspiracy theories? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Join professor and psychologist Dan Ariely as he discusses the main tenets of his 2023 book 'Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things.' With great sympathy for those, including some of us, who tend to believe various unsubstantiated claims, Ariely assesses their personality traits, the effects on society, and what, if an...
Apr 30, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Can we look for consciousness outside the realm of space-time? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Join us as world-leading cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman discusses his cutting-edge research about consciousness and perception, as well as its astonishing implications for the ultimate nature of reality. Donald Hoffman is an American cognitive psychologist working at the University of California, Irvine. Hoffman's Interface Theory of Perc...
Apr 23, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast What role can religion play in our contemporary secularised lives? Why do many (of us) still feel the need for it today? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Join former Archbishop of Canterbury, theologian, and poet Rowan Williams in a deep-dive interview into his professional and theological trajectory. He reflects on what he's learned, including the challenges of being in the spotlight, why he engaged in climate activism, and how to work in commu...
Apr 17, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Should we treat animals and humans equal? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Almost forty years after these two philosophers helped create the idea of animal rights, what do they believe would constitute further progress in our attitudes to other forms of life? Live from Melbourne, Australian philosopher, Princeton professor and author of Animal Liberation , Peter Singer joins the "UK's foremost scourge of scientific pretention" ( G...
Apr 09, 2024•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is 'energy' as a concept suited to the 21st century? Or is it a simplification of processes we do not understand, whose nature may be more mystical rather than purely rational? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Join leading minds in the world of physics - Priyamvada Natarajan, Avshalom Elitzur, and Bernard Carr - as they face head on the necessity, or lack thereof, of one of the most essential building blocks of contemporary physics: energy. It u...
Apr 02, 2024•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Is standard philosophy too conservative, overly relying on common sense? Can rationality and reason actually lead us to mysticism? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Join philosopher Michael Della Rocca as he defends his radical interpretation of what philosophy tells us of the world. He encourages us to interpret reality without any distinctions of any kind (and thus, without any relationships either): as a total unity. On this metaphysical adven...
Mar 26, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Can we attribute societal progress to enlightenment ideals? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes The Enlightenment advocated reason, science, democracy, and universal human rights as a grounding for human morality and social organization. In the quarter millennium since, to what extent have these ideals been realized? Has the Enlightenment in fact been successful in bringing about moral progress? Are there viable alternatives to the Enlight...
Mar 19, 2024•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast How do the seemingly modern discussions around transgender and transsexuality relate to age-old philosophical queries? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Join philosopher Sophie Grace Chappell in this honest interview in which she reflects both on her personal experience as transgender and also on its connections with well-known philosophers such as Plato and John Stuart Mill. Might the modern day openness to exploring our (gender) identities simp...
Mar 12, 2024•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Doestoevsky vs Nietzsche - where do we find meaning in life? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Dostoevsky and Nietzsche both regarded the creeping nihilism and meaninglessness of their time as a fundamental threat to humanity. While both were critical of modernity and rationalism, their solutions were radically opposed. Dostoevsky looked towards transcendence for an answer and found, in love and compassion, 'the chief law of human existe...
Mar 05, 2024•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Does our very need for God point to the fact that he (or perhaps she, they) does not exist? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Join well-known comedian and author David Baddiel in this honest (and funny!) conversation about humanity's deepest fears and desires with Chine McDonald, Director of Theos. Baddiel reads and cites from his 2023 book - 'The God desire: On being a reluctant atheist'. Can those of us who are atheists admit that, at some leve...
Feb 27, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Feb 21, 2024•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rethinking economics - what is the meaning of productivity in the 21st century? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes "Productivity isn't everything, but in the long run, it is almost everything" claimed Paul Krugman. Throughout the twentieth century productivity, the average level of output for each hour worked, improved dramatically across the developed world. A greater increase than in the previous 2000 years. Driven by life changing tech...
Feb 13, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast How do we save freedom? And, please, would you like coffee without cream or coffee without milk? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Join renowned philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Zizek as he divulges his ideas regarding the apocalypse, ideology, freedom in the present moment, and more through a classic Zizekian mix of personal anecdotes, pop culture, and philosophical references. As he asserts, he did not exist before theory. There are thous...
Feb 06, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast An interview with Isabel Millar. Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Questions over artificial intelligence seem to dominate our contemporary. But underpinning the technology are an array of presuppositions - about thinking, knowledge and consciousness - that are in dire need of philosophical scrutiny. In this fascinating interview, Dr Isabel Millar discusses her work in challenging these assumptions by deploying the tools of psychoanalysi...
Jan 30, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Who are we? Why are we here? Does life have a meaning beyond itself? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Join former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and ground-breaking psychiatrist, literary scholar and author of 'The Matter with Things', Iain McGilchrist, to explore the nature of meaning, and why we should move beyond the assumptions of a materialist worldview from radically divergent perspectives. There are thousands of big...
Jan 23, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast What is the difference between narcissism and self-love, vanity and pride, in today's self-obsessed world? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes From books to podcasts, we are now told to embrace the idea of ‘self-love’. But are we creating a generation of narcissists? Join renowned philosopher Simon Blackburn to unpack the uses and abuses of loving ourselves. Author of Think and Truth: A guide for the perplexed, Simon Blackburn has worked t...
Jan 16, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Can humans ever be inherently good or evil? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Whether we see humans as essentially good or essentially selfish and violent has been central to our politics, our account of society, and our vision for social progress. But is this very distinction itself a mistake? Recently, Harvard scientists have shown humans to be both the kindest and most malevolent species on the planet. While figures like Hitler and St...
Jan 09, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Have we entered a post-knowledge era? Or was the idea that we can attain knowledge misleading in the first place? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes The acquisition of knowledge has been a central factor driving advance. And since Descartes, Western thought has placed the question of what we know, and how we know what we know, at the centre of philosophy. But might this focus on knowledge be a mistake? Feminist and postmodernist critics a...
Jan 02, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Getting to Truth... Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Join groundbreaking psychiatrist, writer, philosopher, and literary scholar Iain McGilchrist in this exclusive studio interview with post-postmodern philosopher Hilary Lawson. The two thinkers explore McGilchrist's early introduction to philosophy, the nature of truth and the cosmos, and the danger of delusional thinking from the left brain. Iain McGilchrist is an Oxford scholar and p...
Dec 26, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Does our rhetoric shape reality? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Hugely powerful, we assume language enables us to represent reality. But some argue language, from the greatest narratives to the finest theories, not only fails to describe reality it actually distorts and misleads us. Language, the critics argue, formulates a world in its own image. The structure of language, nouns, adjectives, verbs, encourages us to imagine reality co...
Dec 19, 2023•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast How do we assess claims to scientific knowledge? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes What is it possible to know? Is the physical universe all there is, or is the immaterial part of reality too? Join radical scientist, Rupert Sheldrake, and world-leading sceptic, Michael Shermer, as they go head-to-head on where the edges of knowledge lie. Güneş Taylor hosts. Michael Shermer is a famous science writer, historian of science, founder of The ...
Dec 12, 2023•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is it ever right to lie? Is honesty ever wrong? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Honesty is upheld as an age-old virtue of civilisation. Yet there are many instances where we deem lying desirable. Few would think it right for parents to be honest with their offspring about their favourite child, or to be honest about talents or abilities if it is likely to be hurtful for a relative, colleague or friend. Nor are we critical of Churchill ...
Dec 05, 2023•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is rationality as vital as we think? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Philosophers from Spinoza and Hegel to Bertrand Russell argued that logic and reason are the key to understanding the world. But is this a fundamental error? After all, recent studies show that reason does not lead to more successful outcomes in business or personal relationships. Should we abandon the idea that reason is the key either to truth or successfu...
Nov 28, 2023•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast What does modern-day slavery look like? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes The past centuries have seen rapid improvements in health, poverty, literacy and violence. Yet despite this progress, few are aware that 50 million globally still live in modern slavery, the largest group ever in human history. Join fearless professor Katarina Schwarz as she explores how we can free the oppressed of our world. In partnership with Nottingham Univers...
Nov 21, 2023•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is our neurobiology at odds with the modern world? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We see the remarkable evolution of the human brain as one of the driving factors behind our success as a species. Our neurobiology evolved though to solve challenges in a drastically different world than we find ourselves in today. Might our evolved traits, once advantageous, now be our Achilles heel? For human aggression, inventiveness and a determinati...
Nov 14, 2023•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Biology against determinism! Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We all feel like we have free will. That our decisions are our own and that we could have chosen otherwise. But today, many prominent figures argue free will is an illusion. Join groundbreaking biologist Denis Noble as he argues that, in fact, our bodies hold the key to our freedom. Denis Noble is a renowned physiologist and one of the pioneers of Systems Biology. He is Emeri...
Nov 07, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is collective experience a myth? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We see experience as quintessentially subjective. But while we take this for granted might it be an error? From parliament and politics, festivals and football stadiums, to weddings and funerals, some of our most significant experiences occur in moments shared in collective experience with others. Should we conclude that experience is always shared and mediated through ot...
Oct 31, 2023•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast What is the architecture of a sustainable world? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes We are living in environmental crisis. But the solution might be closer to home than we think. Join Nottingham University Professor Lucelia Rodriguez as she sets out her vision for the cities of the future. In association with University of Nottingham. Lucelia Rodrigues is one of the world’s foremost experts on sustainability. She is Chair of Sustainable a...
Oct 24, 2023•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is internet anonymity causing social breakdown? Should we do anything about it? Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes Anonymity was the gift that was going to give everyone a voice, free from the oversight of institutions and government control. Yet critics claim the dream has turned into a nightmare. For the anonymous world turns out to be one full of abuse, division and wild conspiracy. In addition, many contend that the dark side of the a...
Oct 17, 2023•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
