logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2025
1h 15m

Episode 313: The Spontaneous Eruption of...

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
About this episode
tail spinning
Up next
May 26
Episode 333: P-hacking the Mind
David and Tamler do another tier ranking--this time on philosophical thought experiments, so as not to further alienate our chemistry-adjacent listeners. We hit most of the big ones: Pascal's wager, Pascal's mugging, Mary the color scientist, the Ring of Gyges, Jarvis Thomson's v ... Show More
54m 27s
May 12
Episode 332: Talking to Myself ("The Other" by Jorge Luis Borges)
David and Tamler talk about Jorge Luis Borges' disorienting short story "The Other." A 70-year-old Borges sits on a bench by the Charles River and who should he encounter but himself as a 19-year-old, by the Rhône River in 1918 Geneva. Is this a dream? Who is dreaming it? What do ... Show More
1h 54m
Apr 28
Episode 331: Who's Your Law Daddy? (Plato's "Crito")
In another Back 2 Basics episode, David and Tamler talk about Plato's "Crito," a dialogue that takes place two days before Socrates' death by hemlock. His friend Crito wants him to escape, but Socrates will only agree if they judge that it's the right thing to do. One imagined de ... Show More
1h 31m
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2025
300 | Solo: Does Time Exist?
A new year, and a new centennial -- 300 (regularly-numbered) episodes of Mindscape! Our tradition is to have a solo episode, and what better topic than the nature of time? Physicists and philosophers have so frequently suggested that time is some kind of illusion that it's become ... Show More
2h 11m
Jun 2024
Consciousness - a science or a philosophy? | Avshalom Elitzur
<p>Why has the concept of consciousness stumped scientists forever? Is there a way of overcoming this impasse?</p><p>Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes</p><p><br></p><p>Join physicist and philosopher Avshalom Elitzur as he fearless ... Show More
35m 4s
Mar 2023
Breaking through the consciousness stalemate | Philip Goff
tail spinning
26m 7s
Jul 2024
#27 - Sean Carroll - The Enigma of Complexity
<p>Is complexity the new frontier of physics? How should we approach metaphysical uncertainty? What makes a great Physicist? These are just some of the questions covered in this Win-Win episode with the incredible Sean Carroll. Sean is a theoretical physicist and philosopher who ... Show More
1h 58m
Oct 2024
Episode #214 ... Framing our Being in a completely different way. (Heidegger)
Today we look at Heidegger's critique of metaphysics and the traditional subject-object framing in philosophy. How multiple framings are necessary for a fuller picture of our being. His challenge to thinkers like Nietzsche and Descartes. Dasein, the limitations of objectivity. Ph ... Show More
37m 54s
May 2023
Can experiments settle the free will debate? | Julian Baggini, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Sarah Garfinkel
tail spinning
51m 16s
Oct 2025
How to fathom timelessness | Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes
<p>What should time mean to us?</p><p>Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes is a philosopher of mind who specialises in the thought of Alfred North Whitehead, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Benedict de Spinoza, and in fields pertaining to panpsychism and altered states of mind. In this talk, he combin ... Show More
31m 23s
Oct 2023
The ignorance of experts |Julian Baggini, Ellen Clarke, Ben Burgis
tail spinning
45m 42s
Jan 2024
262 | Eric Schwitzgebel on the Weirdness of the World
Scientists and philosophers sometimes advocate pretty outrageous-sounding ideas about the fundamental nature of reality. (Arguably I have been guilty of this.) It shouldn't be surprising that reality, in regimes far away from our everyday experience, fails to conform to common se ... Show More
1h 20m
Oct 2025
Deleuze vs Hegel: Beyond Kant and Representation with Henry Somers-Hall
<p>What happens when Deleuze and Hegel are set in violent philosophical encounter over the ruins of Kantian representation? In this episode, we explore how both thinkers attempt to move beyond the categories of judgment and identity to recover the genesis of sense itself. Henry S ... Show More
53m 59s