My guest this week is Daniel Schauer, a lifelong computer nerd who currently works at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in their writing department to submit materials to the FDA but is here representing himself as a computer nerd with a bunch of fiddling experience with GPT-4. We discuss what GPt-4 can do especially with regard to ethical reasoning. Democratizing Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/democratizing-music/id1546799293 Convocation: Warhammer 40k Music by GW Rodriguez Sibling...

My guest this week is Matt Browne (@ArthurCDent), professor of psychology at central Queensland, Australia, and senior co-host of the Decoding the Gurus podcast. We discuss how GPT-4 is a whole new thing compared to its predecessors, and the narratives aren't keeping up, including mine! I started playing with GPT-4 after this episode and honestly feel we downplayed it. More on that soon! Decoding the Gurus: https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/ Convocation: GPT-4 Music by GW...

My guest this week is Fredrik Trusohamn (@DUAncientAliens) host of the Digging Up Ancient Aliens podcast, where he recently did a series on Graham Hancock’s Ancient Apocalypse materials on netflix. We discuss the overlaps in our research on Hancock and broader questions about the culture of racism and harmful conspiracism in the Ancient Aliens world. Fredrik's website: https://diggingupancientaliens.com/ Convocation: Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Slaughterhouse-Five My UK Skeptic Mag article on Hancock:...

My guest this week is Leah Prime (@leahprime) host of The Invisible Night School, author at sub stack, and working on a project called We Own the Night: The Legacy of Art Bell and Coast to Coast AM. Leah does work in exotic states of conscious and Spiritual emergence and AI ethics in tech. We discuss High Weirdness/Strangeness, spiritual emergence, conspiracism, and the tightrope of skepticism. Leah's site: https://bio.site/leahprime Convocation: Webb...

My guest this week is Erik Davis (@erik_davis), author of High Weirdness and many other worthwhile reads on counterculture topics. We discuss the history of High Weirdness and how it has shaped our modern world for better and for worse. Erik Davis: https://techgnosis.com/ https://www.burningshore.com/ Convocation: Erik Davis Music by GW Rodriguez Sibling Pods: Philosophers in Space: https://0gphilosophy.libsyn.com/ Filmed Live Musicals Pod:...

My guest this week is Ben Dow (@benjaminjdow), a professor of practice at Southern Methodist University with a focus in management studies. He recently sent me several papers he worked on with other folks about conspiracism and leadership, and we discuss what those papers suggest about the role of conspiracism in modern politics and other organizations. Ben's website: https://www.smu.edu/cox/Our-People-and-Community/Faculty/Benjamin-Dow Convocation: H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy Music...

My guest this week is Matthew Cull (@MaattCuull), a philosopher postdoc at the University of Edinburgh, with an interest in social philosophy, particularly debates around the concept of conceptual engineering. We discuss the debate between classic approaches to defining terms and conceptual engineering. We also discuss whether my pedagogy of luck counts as conceptual engineering or not. NOTE ON VIP CONTENT FOR THIS WEEK: Sadly, we had some issues with the bonus content and Matt and I decided...

My guest this week is Joshua Stein (@thephilosotroll), a postdoc in philosophy at Georgetown. His interests include social ontology, political philosophy, collective responsibility, and today’s topic, antisemitic conspiracism. We discuss Ye's recent public spiral and what it says about the future of right wing politics. Joshua's Website: Convocation: Sartre Music by GW Rodriguez Sibling Pods: Philosophers in Space: https://0gphilosophy.libsyn.com/ Filmed Live Musicals Pod:...

My guest this week is Yassine Meskhout (@ymeskhout), a Public defender and infrequent host of The Bailey podcast. Yassine argues for anarchy perspectives also writes on substack and for Jesse Singal’s newsletter on topics related to the criminal justice system as well as some culture war issues. His articles include “Eleven Magic Words” and “I am here because of dumb luck”. Yassine's website: https://ymeskhout.substack.com/ Convocation: Ayn Rand Music by GW Rodriguez Sibling...

My guest this week is Jonathan Church (@jondavidchurch), a chartered financial analyst, government economist, and author. His recent books include Reinventing Racism: Why White Fragility is the wrong way to think about racial inequality, and Virtue in an age of identity politics: A stoic approach to social justice. From my perspective his works aim to provide substantive critiques of current approaches to marxism and social justice, or “Wokeness” my term not his, while also criticizing the...

My guest this week is Helen Lewis (@helenlewis), a staff writer at the Atlantic and author of the book Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights. Helen has a project with the BBC coming out December 19th about internet gurus. We discuss her book, her article on wokeness as a religion, and debates around trans rights and gender self-ID. Helen's Substack: https://helenlewis.substack.com/ Convocation: Difficult Women Music by GW Rodriguez Sibling Pods: Philosophers in Space:...

My guest this week is Matt Dillahunty (@Matt_Dillahunty), longtime activist for skepticism and atheism and former host of The Atheist Experience. Matt has engaged in public debates on contentious issues like religion and reproductive rights with contentious individuals like Ray Comfort and Jordan Peterson. We discuss his 16 year stint on the Atheist Experience and how the culture wars have impacted our community during that time. Matt's Patreon Feed:...

My returning guest this week is Stephanie Lepp (@stephlepp), a conceptual artist and the incoming executive director at the Institute for Cultural Evolution. We discuss her recent project, Deep Reckonings, a series of videos using deep fake technology to imagine what it would look like if famous individuals apologized for harms they've caused. Note: We recorded this episode twice in an attempt to have a productive conversation worth listening to. While I believe this final version is worth...

My guest this week is Alfred Mele, the William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmesiter Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University, and author several books on free will, most recently Free Will: An Opinionated Guide. Mele argues for a soft compatibilism, claiming he's not convinced by either the compatibilist or incompatibilist positions, but feels the first is more likely to be true. We discuss the arguments for this position and whether it's livable. Free Will: An Opinionated Guide:...

My guest this week is David Berstein (@DavidLBernstein), author of Woke Antisemitism. In the book he argues that wokeness poses a threat to Jews because it promotes an illiberal society and the view that Jews are white oppressors. We discuss the merits and potential pitfalls of his argument. Woke Antisemitism: https://jilv.org/book/ Convocation: Fanon Music by GW Rodriguez Sibling Pods: Philosophers in Space: https://0gphilosophy.libsyn.com/ Filmed Live Musicals Pod:...

My guest this week is Reverend Todd Eklof, author of The Gadfly Papers: Three Three inconvenient essays by one pesky minister. Rev Eklof was removed from fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist church as a result of complaints made by members of the church in response to his dissemination of The Gadfly Papers at a Unitarian Universalist Alliance in Spokane in 2019. We discuss his claims the UUA has succumb to safteyism and PC culture in a way that undermines the core UU principles of...

My guest this week is Dell Onnerth (@moarcowbelle), a longtime friend of the show who I finally got to meet in person at the American Atheists con. They own their own dairy farm, as well as working other jobs to afford that farm. We discuss the concept of animal welfare, comment attempts to define it and how modern agriculture is measuring up. Convocation: https://crohnsmonster.com/2013/06/03/what-you-risk-by-telling-your-story/ Music by GW Rodriguez Sibling Pods: Philosophers in Space:...

My guest this week is Jesse Rabinowitz, a clinical psychologist and creator of Mindfulness for Mensches. We discuss his decades of experience using gestalt mindfulness in clinical psychology and how that's culminated in Mindfulness for Mensches. Mindfulness for Mensches: https://www.menschitude.com/ Convocation: Fritz Perls Music by GW Rodriguez Sibling Pods: Philosophers in Space: https://0gphilosophy.libsyn.com/ Filmed Live Musicals Pod:...

My guest this week is Brittany Page (@brittanyepage), a psychotherapist and co-host of the I Doubt it Podcast. We discuss her experience growing up in a neo-nazi family and how that impacts her work in psychology and politics. Convocation: Aryan Nation poem Music by GW Rodriguez I Doubt it Podcast: https://dollemore.com/ Sibling Pods: Philosophers in Space: https://0gphilosophy.libsyn.com/ Filmed Live Musicals Pod: https://www.filmedlivemusicals.com/thepodcast.html Support us at...

My guest this week is Will MacAskill, an associate professor in philosophy and research fellow at the global priorities institute at the University of Oxford. Will is one of the founders of the effective altruism and 80,000 hours, as well as a proponent of longtermism. His new book is “What we owe the future”. We discuss developments in longtermism and challenges like being co-opted or leading to undervaluing of present persons. Convocation: MacAskill What We Owe the Future:...

My guest this week is Ian Czora, a technical trainer who works as for a company that develops and deploys satellite technology primarily for the military. We discuss his experience as an atheist both in and working with the military system. We also talk about Wine. Convocation: Aaron's twisted psyche Music by GW Rodriguez Sibling Pods: Philosophers in Space: https://0gphilosophy.libsyn.com/ Filmed Live Musicals Pod: https://www.filmedlivemusicals.com/thepodcast.html Support us at...

My guest this week is M R. X. Dentith (@conspiracism), a philosophy professor at BNUZH’s Center for international philosophy, with a focus on conspiracy theories, secrecy, and fake news. They’re also cohost of the podcaster’s guid to the conspiracy and have a recent paper out in Synthese open access called Suspicious conspiracy theories. We discuss debates around the definition of "conspiracy theory" and the challenges we face trying to quantify and address the growth of conspiracism in the...

My guest this week is Captain DadPool (@Captain_DadPool), an Iraq war vet and TikTok atheist. We discuss his de-conversion, how he got into the world of TikTok, and why it seems like a valuable platform for atheist outreach. This episode unintentionally ended up being the second in an informal three part series of chats with former conservative christians who went into the military and also are now liberal atheists. I found the overlaps and differences between the stories really...

My guest this week is Jesse Dollemore (@Dollemore), host of the Dollemore Daily on youtube and cohost of the I Doubt it Podcast with Brittany Page. We discuss his experiences growing up in a conservative anti-governmental household, joining the military, and his transition from conservative to liberal activist. Convocation: Hunter S. Thompson YouTube feed: https://www.youtube.com/user/dollemore I doubt it podcast: https://t.co/vztGfOamBN Music by GW Rodriguez Sibling Pods: Philosophers...