86. A Million-Year View on Morality

Twenty years ago, before the Freakonomics book tour, Bill McGowan taught Steve Levitt to speak in public. In his new book he tries to teach everyone else. SOURCES:Bill McGowan, founder and C.E.O. of Clarity Media Group. RESOURCES:Speak, Memorably: The Art of Captivating an Audien ... Show More

Former professional poker player Annie Duke wrote a book about Steve’s favorite subject: quitting. They talk about why quitting is so hard, how to do it sooner, and why we feel shame when we do something that’s good for us. SOURCES:Annie Duke, author and former professional poker ... Show More

Psychologist David Yeager thinks the conventional wisdom for how to motivate young people is all wrong. His model for helping kids cope with stress is required reading at Steve’s new high school. SOURCES:David Yeager, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. ... Show More

Some animals, like sea sponges, can live for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. They also never get cancer. Understanding why that’s the case has led scientists to question conventional notions of ageing. The idea that future humans may never grow old now seems theoretically p ... Show More

Can humans ever be inherently good or evil?Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesWhether we see humans as essentially good or essentially selfish and violent has been central to our politics, our account of society, and our vision f ... Show More

In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast David Edmonds interviews Will MacAskill on the controversial idea that we ought to give the interests of future people substantial weight when deciding what we ought to do now.    

What would Immanuel Kant say about a fender bender? In a surprisingly funny trip through the teachings of some of history’s great philosophers, TV writer and producer Michael Schur (from hit shows like “The Office” and “The Good Place”) talks through how to confront life’s moral ... Show More

Philosopher William MacAskill of the University of Oxford and a founder of the effective altruism movement talks about his book What We Owe the Future with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. MacAskill advocates "longtermism," giving great attention to the billions of people who will liv ... Show More

Children are sometimes perceived as "defective adults", empty epistemic vessels that need to be filled with the knowledge of their elders. In fact, children can teach adults a thing or two when it comes to the getting of wisdom. But does this mean that children are philosophers? ... Show More

We think of grief as a normal response to the death of a loved one. We’re familiar with the so-called “five stages” of grief. Grief seems as an emotional episode that befalls us along life’s way, something to be endured and then gotten over. But grief isn’t as straightforward as ... Show More

Sam Harris speaks with David Benatar about his philosophy of “anti-natalism.” They discuss the asymmetry between the good and bad things in life, the ethics of existential risk, the moral landscape, the limits and paradoxes of introspection, the “experience machine” thought exper ... Show More

Albert Camus was a prolific French-Algerian philosopher and author who contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as Absurdism. He is also considered to be an existentialist. This video explores his main ideas: The Absurd, Revolt and Rebellion, as well as his most notable wo ... Show More