Episode description

Does anyone have any real agency? What do McDonald’s and Oxford University have in common? And why did Angela give up on philosophy?

• SOURCES
  • Sam Harris, neuroscientist, philosopher, author, and podcast host.
  • Brian Galla, associate professor of health and human development at University of Pittsburgh.
  • Robert Sapolsky, professor of biology at Stanford University.
  • Harry Emerson Fosdick, founding minister of Riverside Church in New York City.
  • Martin E. P. Seligman, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Brian Kershisnik, American painter. 
  • Plato, ancient Greek philosopher.

• RESOURCES
  • Free Will, by Sam Harris (2012).
  • Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will, by Robert Sapolsky (2023).
  • “Free Will Beliefs Predict Attitudes Toward Unethical Behavior and Criminal Punishment,” by Nathan D. Martin, Davide Rigoni, and Kathleen D. Vohs (PNAS, 2017).
  • “Learned Helplessness: Theory and Evidence,” by Steven F. Maier and Martin E. P. Seligman (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1976).
  • “Failure to Escape Traumatic Shock,” by Martin E. P. Seligman and Steven F. Maier (Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1967).

• EXTRAS
  • “Final Thoughts on Free Will” by Making Sense with Sam Harris (2021).
  • “Sam Harris: ‘Spirituality is a Loaded Term’” by People I Mostly Admire (2021).