Carl Zimmer on Defining Life

For Min Jin Lee, the process of writing fiction usually begins with a deep dive into reality. She spends years researching, traveling and interviewing people.That process underscored her belief that education was a common and central value for Koreans in diaspora. But it was also ... Show More

There are few living writers as closely associated with a genre as Stephen King is with horror. Over a career spanning more than 50 years, 70 novels and hundreds of short stories, King has terrified generations of readers with books like “Carrie,” “The Shining” and “It” while als ... Show More

Paul Yoon’s new novel, “Etna,” follows a haunted, battle-scarred war veteran who wants desperately to go home. He also happens to be a dog — a mixed-breed shepherd trained to sniff out bombs for an unnamed military in the throes of an unnamed conflict — and he has no idea where h ... Show More

<p>Carl Zimmer is one of the finest science communicators of our time, having spent decades writing about biology, evolution, and heredity. His latest (and 16^th) book, <em><span style= "mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast;" ... Show More

In the first years of the COVID pandemic, a debate raged: was the virus transmitted via respiratory droplets, or was it airborne? For some, this distinction seemed overly technical, pedantic even. But for others, it represented decades of dismissal and missed opportunities - oppo ... Show More

In this Back To School episode we consider the "List of Life": the criteria that define what it is to be a living thing. Some are easy calls: A kitten is alive. A grain of salt is not. But what about the tricky cases, like a virus? Or, more importantly, what about futuristic andr ... Show More

<p dir="ltr">Sam Harris speaks with Sara Imari Walker about a scientific understanding of life. They discuss the contributions of physics to this topic, Erwin Schrödinger, the inadequacy of standard definitions of life, the prospect of "artificial" life, the role of information, ... Show More

In this episode, Tim Keller explores questions around meaning: Does life have inherent meaning? How do we find meaning in life? Can you live without meaning? This talk was recorded before a live audience on March 14, 2019 in New York City. 

In this episode, Tim Keller explores questions around meaning: Does life have inherent meaning? How do we find meaning in life? Can you live without meaning? This talk was recorded before a live audience on March 14, 2019 in New York City. 

<p dir="ltr">Sam Harris speaks with Tim Urban about his new book, "<a href="https://waitbutwhy.com/whatsourproblem">What's Our Problem: A Self-Help Book for Societies</a>." They discuss Tim's unusual career, the finitude of life, existential risk, exponential technological change ... Show More

How do you play the game of life? Do you play it as a finite game or an infinite one? In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Joe discuss the 1986 philosophy book “Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility” by American scholar James P. Car ... Show More

<p>What is life? Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Chuck Nice tackle assembly theory, artificial life, and the origin of lifeforms in the universe as we revise the definition of life with astrobiologist and theoretical physicist Sara Imari Walker.</p><p>NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can ... Show More

Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson discuss science, religion, archetypes, mythology, and the perennial problem of finding meaning in life. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe ... Show More