logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2022
1h 21m

Agnes Callard on Meaning, the Human Ques...

RUSS ROBERTS
About this episode
Suppose all of humanity was infected by a virus that left us all infertile--no one will come along after us. How would you react to such a world? Agnes Callard of the University of Chicago says she would be filled with despair. But why does this seem worse than our own inevitable deaths? Callard speaks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the meaning of lif ... Show More
Up next
Nov 24
The Status Game (with Will Storr)
<p>Will Storr talks about his book <i>The Status Game</i> with EconTalk host Russ Roberts, exploring how our deep need for respect and recognition shapes our behavior. The conversation delves into how we constantly judge others and compare ourselves to them, the pain of losing st ... Show More
1h 1m
Nov 17
The Wonder of the Emergent Mind (with Gaurav Suri)
<p>How is your brain like an ant colony? They both use simple parts following simple rules which allows the whole to be so much more than the sum of the parts. Listen as neuroscientist and author Gaurav Suri explains how the mind emerges from the neural network of the brain, why ... Show More
1h 39m
Nov 10
Shampoo, Property Rights, and Civilization (with Anthony Gill)
<p>Why is it okay to take the little shampoo bottles in hotels home with you but not the towels? And what stops people from taking the towels? Listen as political scientist Anthony Gill discusses the enforcement of property rights with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. Backing up their ob ... Show More
1h 8m
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2024
The end of good and evil | Slavoj Žižek, Maria Balaska, Rowan Williams, Richard Wrangham
<p>Can humans ever be inherently good or evil?</p><p>Looking for a link we mentioned? Find it here:&nbsp;<a href="https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes</a></p><p>Whether we see humans as essentia ... Show More
55m 15s
Aug 2023
Travis Holloway, "How to Live at the End of the World: Theory, Art, and Politics for the Anthropocene" (Stanford UP, 2022)
the near universal disappearance of shared social enterprise: the ruling class builds walls and lunar shuttles, while the rest of us contend with the atrophy of institutional integrity and the utter abdication of providing even minimal shelter from looming disaster. The irony of ... Show More
51m 14s
Aug 2020
Rocka Bye-Bye Babies: Do We Need to Stop Having Children?
Almost everyone apart from a certain President (few months left) would agree that Climate Change and Global Warming are large threats to life as we know it. But what does that mean for us? Is the world really overpopulated? Are there too many people on this earth for us to truly ... Show More
30m 19s
Dec 2018
Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible
<p>What will come to define the human race for future generations? Philosopher, teacher and writer Charles Eisenstein provides insight into what could await us in the future, and discusses how cynicism, self-delusion and separation help to create our troubled world. In his book < ... Show More
33m 21s
Mar 2019
Will humans survive the century?
What is the chance of the human race surviving the 21st century? There are many dangers – climate change for example, or nuclear war, or a pandemic, or planet Earth being hit by a giant asteroid. Around the world a number of research centres have sprung up to investigate and miti ... Show More
28m 40s
Nov 2022
Super Soul Special: Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible
<p>Original Airdate: December 19, 2018</p><p>What will come to define the human race for future generations? Philosopher, teacher and writer Charles Eisenstein provides insight into what could await us in the future, and discusses how cynicism, self-delusion and separation help t ... Show More
33m 21s
Aug 2021
TED Climate: Are we the next asteroid?
<p>So, in the list of bad actors for the planet there's been the ice age, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, and then … us? Yeah, it really looks like that sometimes. But we've got hope! So what can humans do to steer clear of steering the planet into seemingly inevitable do ... Show More
10m 33s