Converging Dialogues
361 episodes - English - Latest episode: 15 days ago - ★★★★★ - 41 ratingsConverging Dialogues is a podcast that is designed to have honest and authentic conversations with a diversity of thoughts and opinions. Wide-ranging topics include philosophy, psychology, politics, and social commentary. A spirit of civility, respect, and open-mindedness is the guiding compass.
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Episodes
#328 - Listening to Prozac: A Dialogue with Peter Kramer
April 05, 2024 02:51 - 59 minutes - 54.8 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Peter Kramer about Prozac. They talk about the 30th anniversary of Listening To Prozac and antidepressants, origins of antidepressants, classes of antidepressants, selfhood, criticisms of SSRIs and the serotonin hypothesis, risk of suicide with Prozac, future of SSRIs, and more more topics. Peter Kramer is a psychiatrist who practiced and taught psychiatry for over 40 years. He is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Bro...
#327 - The Invention of Prehistory: A Dialogue with Stefanos Geroulanos
April 03, 2024 12:56 - 1 hour - 103 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Stefanos Geroulanos about the history of prehistory. They talk about why studying history is important and why it is not final, the emphasis on the nature of man, why Rousseau and Hobbes’ ideas still persist, human nature and equality, and the impact of Darwin. They also talk about the impact of Marx, Neanderthals, thin veneer, and the instincts, Freud’s contribution, Nazi party, how we continue to understand history, and many more topics. ...
#326 - Puerto Rico: A Natural History: A Dialogue with Jorell Meléndez Badillo
April 01, 2024 03:43 - 2 hours - 139 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jorell Meléndez Badillo about the history of Puerto Rico. They talk about the origins of the island of Puerto Rico, Taino peoples, reasons for Columbus coming to Puerto Rico, and indigenous peoples fighting back. They talk about enslaved peoples in the mid 16th century, origins of the term “Puertorriqueños,” impact of race and colorism, and hardship in Puerto Rico in the 19th century. They discuss the Lares revolution, coming to New York, S...
#325 - Health Problems: A Dialogue with Elizabeth Barnes
March 29, 2024 11:27 - 1 hour - 77.8 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Elizabeth Barnes about the ideas surrounding health. They discuss why we care about health and how we define health, social impact of health, and discussing health publicly. They also talk about shame and stigma with health, disability and health differences, ameliorative skepticism, and many more topics. Elizabeth Barnes is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia. Her research interests are divided between metaphysics, poli...
#324 - Paying Attention In A Distracted World: A Dialogue with Christian Madsbjerg
March 27, 2024 02:42 - 1 hour - 60.3 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Christian Madsbjerg about perception in the world. They discuss why perception and observation are important, the work of Merleau-Ponty, perception being reality, and intersubjectivity. They discuss the role of the body in phenomenology, phenomenology of space, the “other,” practical ways of paying attention in the world, and many more topics. Christian Madsbjerg is an author, entrepreneur, and academic who focuses on the practical and co...
#323 - Wonderstruck: A Dialogue with Helen De Cruz
March 25, 2024 00:00 - 1 hour - 66.2 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Helen De Cruz about wonder and awe. They define awe and wonder as distinct emotions, awe in other animals, social and cultural aspects of awe, and philosophy being born in wonder. They discuss the history of awe and wonder from ancient Greece to the Enlightenment, theories of emotions, magic and wonder, religion and wonder, Merleau-Ponty and habits, spiritual naturalism, and many more topics. Helen De Cruz holds the Danforth Chair in the ...
#322 - Democracy Birthed in Darkness: A Dialogue with Katlyn Carter
March 22, 2024 02:20 - 1 hour - 77.2 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Katlyn Carter about the origins of the United States during the revolutionary period. They discuss the concern about secrecy and transparency in government, representative government and representative democracy, pros and cons of democracy, and how democracy is different from 1776. They also talk about shifting from colonies to states, reasons for secrecy in the founding, comparisons with France, Madison’s speed bumps for democracy, how we ...
#321 - Homer and His Iliad: A Dialogue with Robin Lane Fox
March 20, 2024 02:56 - 1 hour - 79.3 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robin Lane Fox about Homer and his Iliad. They discuss how to best read the Iliad, structure of the poem, and the use of speeches, language, and movement. They talk about the location of Troy, Homer’s authorship, Homer’s description of the Trojan war, Homer’s illiteracy, Iliad’s transcription, genius of Homer, and many more topics. Robin Lane Fox is a historian and Emeritus Fellow of New College, Oxford, and taught Ancient History at Oxfo...
#320 - The Art of Public Conversation: A Crossover Episode with Where We Go Next
March 19, 2024 11:09 - 1 hour - 65.3 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla and Michael Callahan have a discussion about their respective podcasts. They discuss why they decided to do this crossover episode, how Converging Dialogues started, how Where We Go Next started, and how they treat guests. They discuss their process for asking questions, motivations for interviews, importance of active listening, their process for each episode, legacy of the podcast, and many more topics. Where We Go Next is a podcast focused on in-depth con...
#319 - Somebody's Gotta Win the 2024 US Presidential Election: A Dialogue with Tara Palmeri
March 15, 2024 01:01 - 35 minutes - 32.1 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Tara Palmeri about the 2024 US Presidential election. They discuss why there is rematch of the 2020 US Presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, Biden’s challengers, Biden’s age, and the Democrats “bench.” They talk about feelings mattering more than policy, immigration, predictions, and many more topics. Tara Palmeri is a Senior political correspondent at Puck and host of the Ringer’s election podcast, “Somebody’s Gotta W...
#318 - Virtues and the Founding Fathers: A Dialogue with Jeffrey Rosen
March 13, 2024 02:47 - 1 hour - 58.4 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jeffrey Rosen about the impact of Classical Writers on the founding fathers. They discuss why studying the influences of the founding fathers is important, pursuit of happiness, Franklin and the impact of Pythagoras, Adams on humility, and Jefferson as a complicated figure. They discuss Washington’s self-mastery, Hamilton and Madison on moderation, and many more topics. Jeffrey Rosen is President and CEO of the National Constitution Center...
#317 - The Five-Year Presidency: A Dialogue with Christopher Liddell
March 11, 2024 04:27 - 1 hour - 75.8 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Christopher Liddell about the five-year presidency. They discuss what is year zero and why presidential transitions are important, filling the government, and design, plan, and execution phases of year zero. They discuss the Romney transition, Trump transition, and Biden transition, standardization and flexibility with different presidents, Office of POTUS, first 200 days, the 2024 Presidential election, and many more topics. Christopher ...
#316 - The Brain From the Inside-Out: A Dialogue with György Buzsáki
March 08, 2024 04:17 - 1 hour - 100 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with György Buzsaki about the inside out framework of the brain. They discuss the outside-in vs. inside-out framework for understanding the brain, causation as problematic for self-organizing systems, and perception and action on thought. They mention the Bayesian brain model, reinforcement and reward, brain systems and neural syntax, space and time within the hippocampus, the future of using the inside-out framework, and many more topics. Gyö...
#315 - Regulating AI Systems: A Dialogue with Robert Trager
March 06, 2024 01:46 - 1 hour - 94.6 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robert Trager about international governance of AI systems. They discuss why questions of AI are important, defining intelligence and machine learning, and provide an overview of the current landscape of AI systems. They talked about the ethics and governance for AI systems, how other governance models have been used, controlling the creativity of AI, civilian AI, military AI, and enforcement rules with military AI. They also mention the al...
#314 - A Central American Exodus and the Reshaping of America: A Dialogue with Jonathan Blitzer
March 04, 2024 00:55 - 1 hour - 99.8 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jonathan Blitzer about Central American immigrants coming to the United States and the evolving relationship in the region. They talk about the emphasis on Central America and, more specifically, El Salvador, when discussing immigration. They discuss the many narrative accounts of immigrants from El Salvador and some of the background information on El Salvador. They provide some of the history of El Salvador and the many brutal aspects of ...
#313 - The Mongol Storm: A Dialogue with Nicholas Morton
March 01, 2024 02:45 - 1 hour - 82 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nicholas Morton about the Mongol empire. They discuss the background overview of Seljuck Turks, Karwazman Empire, and how the Mongols conquered and governed administratively. They talk about the environmental scope of the Mongols, religious tolerance, centralized hierarchy, the fifth crusade, how the Mongols splintered, and many more topics. Nicholas Morton is Associate Professor of History at Nottingham Trent University. He is a member o...
#312 - Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and Late Ottoman State: A Dialogue with Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky
February 28, 2024 00:22 - 2 hours - 117 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky about North Caucasian Muslims in the late Ottoman period. They discuss the landscape of the Caucasus, the Ottoman Empire, and the Russian Empire in the late 19th century. They talk about the diversity of ethnic groups in the Caucasus, the Ottoman Empire as a land of refugees, and why Russian troops perpetrated an ethnic cleansing. They discuss the term muhajir, four major migrations from the Caucasus, the Ottoman Em...
#311 - Shifting Grounds: Territory, Society, and Conflict: A Dialogue with Burak Kadercan
February 26, 2024 02:32 - 2 hours - 122 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Burak Kadercan about territory and nation states. They define territory and nation states, discuss empire, healthy nationalism, and ethnic groups in territories. They also define borders and discuss Westphalia, mosaic and monolithic order, Ottoman empire, war and conflict, Russia and Ukraine conflict, and many more topics. Burak Kadercan is Associate Professor of Strategy and Policy at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode...
#310 - Comparative Cognition: A Dialogue with Nicola Clayton
February 23, 2024 13:05 - 1 hour - 65.9 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nicola Clayton about cognition across many animals. They define cognition in humans and in animals, intelligence, using magic to understand cognition in animals, embodied mind in animals, and comparative cognition as a type of convergent evolution. They discuss difficulties in using human measures for evaluating animal cognition, New Caledonian crows and their intelligence, consciousness, the future of comparative cognition research, and ma...
#309 - Sex, Evolution, and the Female Animal: A Dialogue with Lucy Cooke
February 21, 2024 04:14 - 1 hour - 72.7 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lucy Cooke about the female animals across many species. They discuss why the female species were neglected in Darwin’s studies, binary model of sex, female choice in sexual selection and the social and sexual monogamy in birds and sexual coercion with ducks. They talk about hierarchies with males and females, female dominance in lemurs, menopause, female bonding, and many more topics. Lucy Cooke is a Zoologist, broadcaster, filmmaker, an...
#308 - The Five Million Year History of Humans: A Dialogue with Peter Bellwood
February 19, 2024 01:48 - 1 hour - 92.3 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Peter Bellwood about the five million year history of humans. They discuss the genera and species of humans and the different types of humans that lived together at the same time, genes from early human species, and the four acts of human history. They talk about Hominins arising out of the Miocene, distinct features of Australopithecus, humans in the Pleistocene, Homo Erectus walking out of Africa, Homo Floresiensis, and Neanderthals. They...
#307 - Many Worlds in the Multiverse: A Dialogue with Paul Halpern
February 16, 2024 04:08 - 1 hour - 79 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paul Halpern about the multiverse. They discuss the cosmological multiverse and many worlds interpretation, impact of Newton, Maxwell, and Einstein for general relativity, gravitational waves, and quantum mechanics. They also talk about different dimensions, dark matter, dark energy, string theory, the multiverse in popular culture, and many more topics. Paul Halpern is Professor of Physics at Saint Joseph’s University. He has a Bachelors...
#306 - Heidegger's Culmination of German Idealism: A Dialogue with Robert Pippin
February 14, 2024 02:46 - 1 hour - 79.4 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robert Pippin about Heidegger’s philosophy in connection with German idealism. They discuss Heidegger’s ideas on the culmination of Western philosophy with Hegel, Heidegger’s emphasis on Being, meaningfulness of being, and present-at-hand and ready-to hand. They talk about the impact of Husserl on Heidegger and their different ideas concerning worldhood. They discuss Heidegger’s ideas on standing presence, unveiling and concealment, imagina...
#305 - The Disillusionment of Suburbia: A Dialogue with Benjamin Herold
February 12, 2024 04:59 - 1 hour - 77 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Benjamin Herold about the evolving state of suburbia. They discuss the fast development in Dallas suburbs, Black Americans in suburbs around Atlanta, Multiethnic heritage in Evanston, Illinois, potential multiple futures in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, and the founding families and long history of Compton. They talk about culture and history in each of these locations, centrality of schools in suburbia, cultural issues, covid-19 pandemic, the ...
#304 - Failures of the Clinton Presidency: A Dialogue with Nelson Lichtenstein
February 08, 2024 06:33 - 1 hour - 83.6 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nelson Lichtenstein about the failures of the Clinton presidency. They discuss his collaboration with Judith Stein for the book, why Clinton focused on economic issues, Al From, Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), and the impact of Ross Perot on the 1992 Presidential election. They talk about important figures in Clinton’s economic team, failures of healthcare, economic negotiations with Japan and NAFTA. They also talk about the 1994 Crime...
#303 - The Science of Mental Health: A Dialogue with Camilla Nord
February 04, 2024 23:38 - 1 hour - 87.1 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Camilla Nord about the neuroscience of mental health. They define mental health and how the brain is central to mental health, measuring subjective vs. objective well-being, and chronic pain. They discuss depression, anhedonia, dopamine networks, behaviorism for motivation, and reward and valence. They talk about various emotional theories, gut microbiome, Bayesian brain and predictive processing, placebos, homeopathy, antidepressants, and ...
#302 - Modeling Social Behavior: A Dialogue with Paul Smaldino
February 01, 2024 04:41 - 1 hour - 92.9 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paul Smaldino about agent-based models of social dynamics. They discuss why modeling in social sciences are important, quantitative and qualitative data, models and how we define them, and decomposition with complexity science. They also discuss modeling with multivariate questions, importance of theory, modeling with COVID19, modeling in politics, and many more topics. Paul Smaldino is an Associate Professor of Cognitive & Information Sc...
#301 - Directionless Democrats: A Dialogue with Ruy Teixeira
January 29, 2024 00:46 - 1 hour - 55.2 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Ruy Teixeira about the current state of the Democratic party. They discuss how Democrats are running in 2024, why Democrats have abandoned the working class voters, and why they have pivoted to college educated voters. They talk about immigration challenges with Democrats, impact of populism on the Right and the Left, Latinos shifting to the Republican Party, cultural issues, and many more topics. Ruy Teixeira is a sociologist and politic...
#300 - A Leftist Reading of Nietzsche: A Dialogue with Daniel Tutt
January 25, 2024 03:43 - 2 hours - 128 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Daniel Tutt about the importance of the political left reading Nietzsche seriously. They talk about Nietzsche vs. Nietzscheanism, prolepsis and prophetic/esoteric and exoteric readings, and the Janus face of Nietzschean philosophy. They discuss building culture, caste and class, current leftist readings of Nietzsche, and Losurdo’s four stages of Nietzsche. They also talk about Nietzsche and Marx on religion, reading Nietzsche as a parasite...
#299 - Myths of Migration: A Dialogue with Hein de Haas
January 22, 2024 01:38 - 1 hour - 88 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Hein de Haas about migration and many of the myths surrounding immigration. They discuss why immigration is a major issue globally and its connection with nationalism, distinctions between immigration, emigration, asylum seekers, and refugees, and how migration is not at an all-time high. They also talk about internal/external migration, borders, labor demand in the USA, low-skilled vs. high-skilled workers, refugee crisis, hypocrisy on the...
#298 - Origins of the Just War: A Dialogue with Rory Cox
January 17, 2024 23:59 - 2 hours - 160 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Rory Cox about the multiple origins of the just war concept. They give an overview of the Egyptian empire, nile river and its importance for the Egyptian kingdom, and the three major kingdom periods with a central monarchy. They also talk about the Hittites, boundaries of their kingdom, and why they were so short lived. They discuss the Israelites, problems with the Hebrew Bible as a primary source, and the legacy of the Israelites. They al...
#297 - Social Construction of Our Emotions: A Dialogue with Lisa Feldman-Barrett
January 15, 2024 01:25 - 1 hour - 67.2 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lisa Feldman-Barrett about emotions. They discuss what emotions are and how they are different from affect and feelings. They also discuss the social construction model of emotions with discussion on interoception, exteroception, allostasis and homeostasis. They talk about predictive processing, Bayesian brain, emotions as heuristics, nature of reality, discrete emotions, emotions in relationships, and many more topics. Lisa Feldman Barret...
#296 - A Natural History of Cephalopods: A Dialogue with Danna Staaf
January 10, 2024 23:22 - 52 minutes - 48.2 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Danna Staaf about the natural history of cephalopods. They discuss the family of cephalopods and their anatomy along with some of the behaviors, intelligence and consciousness with cephalopods, and what convergent evolution tells us about cephalopods. They talk about how cephalopods are able to live outside water, how they live in all bodies of water, impact of climate change, and many more topics. Danna Staaf holds a PhD in invertebrate ...
#295 - Discovering the Ribosome Structure: A Dialogue with Venki Ramakrishnan
January 08, 2024 01:34 - 1 hour - 65.7 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Venki Ramakrishnan about his discovering and mapping the ribosome structure. They discuss his background in coming from India to study physics and then biology, layout of ribosome, DNA, RNA, mRNA, and proteins, what we have learned about the ribosome over the past 50+ years, x-ray crystallography, and his trip to the LMB. They also discuss his experience of seeing atomic subunits of ribosomes for the first time, winning the Nobel Prize, and...
#294 - The Philosophy of Twins: A Dialogue with Helena de Bres
January 04, 2024 03:59 - 1 hour - 68.7 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Helena de Bres about the philosophy of twins. They talk about why people are fascinated by twins, binarizing twins, definitions of selfhood, twins and individuality, and the extended mind. They also talk about twins and love, twins and dating, what twins teach people about objectification, and many more topics. Helena de Bres is Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College. Her main interests are on philosophy of literature, specifically ...
#293 - The History of Equality: A Dialogue with Darrin McMahon
December 31, 2023 22:34 - 1 hour - 64.7 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Darrin McMahon about the history of equality. They define equality and inequality, hierarchies, equality not being sameness, equality as a value, and equality in other animals. They also talk about the origins of equality, reverse hierarchy dominance theory for equality, cooperation, slavery, religion, the Greeks complicated history with equality, complexity of enlightenment values, equality in the future, and many more topics. Darrin McMa...
#292 - Surviving Our Catastrophes: A Dialogue with Robert Jay Lifton
December 30, 2023 02:22 - 58 minutes - 53.9 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robert Jay Lifton about resilience, catastrophe, and survival. They discuss psychohistory, his work with survivors of Hiroshima, the death imprint for survivors and his work with Erik Erikson. They talk about Freud’s death drive and differences and similarities to the death imprint. They discuss understanding resilience and surviving COVID-19, individual and collective mourning, surviving the effects of climate change, protean self, surviv...
#291 - Cold War Liberalism: A Dialogue with Samuel Moyn
December 28, 2023 00:47 - 55 minutes - 50.4 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Samuel Moyn about cold war liberalism. They provide a definition of liberalism, cold war liberalism, and some of the differences between these two forms of liberalism. They discuss some of the lessons from Cold War liberals for liberals today and the rise of neoliberalism and neoconservatism. They discuss the work of Judith Shklar, romanticism for Shklar and Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper and historicism, Hannah Arendt on liberalism, Lionel Tri...
#290 - Finding Meaning In Our Universe: A Dialogue with Philip Goff
December 25, 2023 03:56 - 1 hour - 66.9 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Philip Goff about the big questions of the universe. They discuss questions such as “why are we here” and “what is the purpose of living?” They talk about how much meaning could we possibly receive from life, value nihilism and value fundamentalism, and where do morals originate? They also discuss panpsychism, consciousness, Integration Information Theory, implications of panpsychism, and many more topics. Philip Goff is a philosopher and...
#289 - First Steps Towards Ending Mass Incarceration: A Dialogue with Colleen Eren
December 21, 2023 02:52 - 1 hour - 66.9 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Colleen Eren about mass incarceration and the First Step Act. They discuss the current landscape of mass incarceration, jail and prison, and why people have started caring about mass incarceration. They discuss the First Step Act, bipartisan support, ‘94 crime bill, and the history of legislation on incarceration since LBJ. They talk about “mainstreamization,” billionaire involvement, celebrity involvement, impact of the First Step Act, and...
#288 - Mass Incarceration and The Death of Rehabilitation: A Dialogue with Vincent Schiraldi
December 18, 2023 02:08 - 1 hour - 67.9 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Vincent Schiraldi about mass incarceration, probation, and parole. They discuss the current landscape of mass incarceration, probation, and parole, why there are high rates of incarceration and probation, history of probation and parole, and the impact of Nixon’s war on drugs. They talk about the Martinson report, bias, stereotypes, and racism, and the case example of Meek Mill and high incarceration rates in Philadelphia. They talk about a...
#287 - The Blue machine: A Dialogue with Helen Czerski
December 14, 2023 03:46 - 1 hour - 66.1 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Helen Czerski about the Ocean on the Earth. They talk about how there is one ocean on planet Earth, why we ignore the ocean, makeup of the ocean with temperature, salinity, and wetness, and how much salt is in the ocean. They discuss the layers of the ocean, the Mediterranean sea, the shape of water, impact of wind and gravity, the moon’s relationship with ocean tides, 5 gyres, the ocean floor, impact of climate change, and many more topics...
#286 - Gender Performativity in Biology: A Dialogue with Richard Prum
December 11, 2023 00:27 - 1 hour - 96.9 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Richard Prum about sex, gender, and biology. They talk about why sex and gender are sometimes controversial, defining sex, and sex as history. They discuss the materialist-feminist framework, gender as an extended phenotype, gender performativity, genes and chromosomes, Wolffian and Müllerian ducts, the role of hormones, the future of gender, and many more topics. Richard Prum is an Evolutionary Ornithologist at Yale University. His resea...
#285 - Polyvagal Theory: A Dialogue with Stephen Porges
December 07, 2023 03:49 - 1 hour - 55.3 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Stephen Porges about polyvagal theory. They discuss the importance of safety, the vagus nerve and polyvagal theory, and why the Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) is important. They discuss the various branches, the social engagement system, neuroplasticity, and how the polyvagal theory works with trauma and co-regulation. They discuss the practical and clinical uses of the polyvagal theory, criticisms of the theory, future of the theory, a...
#284 - Hegel on Being: A Dialogue with Stephen Houlgate
December 03, 2023 23:52 - 2 hours - 117 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Stephen Houlgate on Hegel’s Logic and his philosophy of being. They discuss the main aims of Hegel’s Logic and the use of categories, why Hegel believed Kant’s Logic is not critical enough, categories of thought and natural kinds, and separating thinking and being. They discuss Hegel and Heidegger on being, Hegel on objectivity and being presuppositionless, and pure being, becoming, and nothing. They discuss Nietzsche and Hegel on becoming,...
#283 - Recycling Empire: A Dialogue with Adam Mestyan
November 30, 2023 01:03 - 1 hour - 79.2 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Adam Mestyan about the post-Ottoman Middle East. They discuss nation states, recycling empire, international imperialism, and sovereignty. They talk about political order rather than governance, local states, nation states or federations, republics or monarchies, constitutive fictions, British and Ottoman involvement in Egypt, Egyptian sovereignty and the Muslim Brotherhood, the kingdom of Syria, and many more topics. Adam Mestyan is Asso...
#282 - Nuclear Doomsday Pending: A Dialogue with Carl Robichaud
November 27, 2023 02:04 - 1 hour - 109 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Carl Robichaud about past and present nuclear risks. They discuss why nuclear weapons are still relevant, creation of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer, and attempts at regulation after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They discuss Bay of pigs, SALT I & II, START I & II, and the nuclear arms race during the Cold War. They talk about the nine countries that currently have nuclear weapons, nuclear taboo, India-Pakistan tensions with nuclear weapons, Iran d...
#281 - Justinian: Emperor, Soldier, Saint: A Dialogue with Peter Sarris
November 23, 2023 03:05 - 1 hour - 82.3 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Peter Sarris about the Roman emperor, Justinian. They give an overview of Justinian, provide the context of the Roman Empire, discuss the rise of Justin and him adopting Justinian and Justinian’s succession. They talk about the lessons Justinian learned from Justin’s reign, urgency and energy early in Justinian’s reign and his emphasis on religious law. They discuss the importance of Armenia, zealous nature of Justinian with his religious l...
#280 - The Four Realms of Existence: A Dialogue with Joseph LeDoux
November 20, 2023 01:50 - 1 hour - 93.3 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Joseph LeDoux about human cognition, consciousness, and existence. They discuss his work with Michael Gazzaniga on split brain patients, the four realms of existence, idea of the self, personality and temperament, and integration information theory. They talk about the extended mind, habits and goal direct behaviors, granular and sub-granular areas of the prefrontal cortex for consciousness, and Tulving’s 3 layers of consciousness. They als...
#279 - Carbon Accounting and Climate Change: A Dialogue with Kristian Rönn
November 16, 2023 11:20 - 1 hour - 99.2 MBIn this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kristian Rönn about carbon accounting and climate change. They talk about his work with Future for Humanity and how he created Normative. They discuss the landscape of climate change at the moment, his company Normative, and the differences between net zero and carbon neutral. They discuss carbon offsets, carbon accounting, and ton-year accounting. They talk about scopes 1, 2, & 3, global regulations, cap and trade, greenwashing, impact of ...