MeaningofLife.tv: Mind-Body Problems
25 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 6 ratingsThe mind-body problem, which Buddha, Socrates and many modern scientists have sought to solve, encompasses riddles such as consciousness, free will, morality and the meaning of life. In this podcast, science journalist John Horgan, talks to leading mind-body theorists about their views and often, about their personal lives. The show is an outgrowth of a book of the same title, available for free at mindbodyproblems.com.
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Episodes
Consolations of Physics (John Horgan & Sabine Hossenfelder)
August 05, 2021 16:30 - 1 hour - 28.8 MBSabine inspires John's quantum experiment ... Sabine previews her book-in-progress ... Isn't quantum mechanics non-deterministic? ... Is consciousness conserved? ... John and Sabine tangle over free will ... Physics creationism ... Will quantum mechanics be replaced? ...
Quantum Mechanics and the Quest for Final Knowledge (John Horgan & Philip Ball)
June 07, 2021 14:01 - 1 hour - 33.3 MBWill science ever absorb the arts and humanities? ... Why Phil wrote a book about quantum mechanics ... Knowing quantum math doesn’t necessarily help ... Is "information” the key to quantum mechanics? ... What quantum computing can and can’t do ... The weirdness and arbitrariness of existence ...
Science, Fiction, and the Mind-Body Problem (John Horgan & Erik Hoel)
April 12, 2021 22:32 - 1 hour - 27.4 MBErik's new novel, The Revelations ... How Erik became a writer and a neuroscientist ... Erik defends integrated information theory ... The agnosticism of the novelist ... Should the mind-body problem have a single solutions? ...
Explaining Quantum Mechanics (John Horgan & Tim Maudlin)
March 08, 2021 19:49 - 1 hour - 34 MBWhy Tim became a philosopher ... John gets entangled in superposition ... Tim explains Bell’s Theorem with diagrams ... Tim rejects shutting up and calculating ... Will quantum computers lead to a better quantum theory? ...
Quantum Mechanics and “Reality” (John Horgan & Adam Becker)
February 01, 2021 16:59 - 1 hour - 33 MBDo you need math to grok quantum mechanics? ... Adam's quibble with Nils Bohr ... Explaining David Bohm’s pilot-wave model ... Defending the many-worlds hypothesis ... Are quantum mechanics and consciousness entangled? ... Will science ever explain the world? ...
Spooky Action at a Distance (John Horgan & George Musser)
January 06, 2021 18:00 - 1 hour - 32.4 MBIs spacetime obsolete? ... Quantum spookiness explained! ... Black holes and the big bang are spooky too. ... What preceded space and time? ... Is physics just poetry with math? ... George’s next book: how mind relates to matter ...
Quantum Mechanics and Other Mysteries (John Horgan & Amanda Gefter)
December 28, 2020 09:00 - 1 hour - 30.9 MB...
The Quantum Astrologer's Handbook (John Horgan & Michael Brooks)
December 16, 2020 14:04 - 1 hour - 33.9 MB...
The Innovation Delusion (John Horgan & Lee Vinsel)
November 01, 2020 19:44 - 1 hour - 28.9 MBLee’s new book, The Innovation Delusion ... Is progress real? ... Lee’s critique of the documentary The Social Dilemma ... The necessity and dangers of “expertise” ... John’s problems with Buddhism ...
Debating Panpsychism (John Horgan & Philip Goff)
July 19, 2020 17:57 - 1 hour - 30.4 MBPhilip’s 2019 book, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness ... What’s the difference between panpsychism and philosophical idealism? ... John: Solipsism is “an absolute impediment to a truly scientific theory of consciousness” ... Does panpsychism “cheat” when it comes to philosophy’s fundamental problems? ... The moral dimension of panpsychism ... Hallucinogens and mystical experience ...
Debating Panpsychism (John Horgan & Philip Goff)
July 19, 2020 17:51 - 1 hour - 41 MBPhilip’s 2019 book, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness ... What’s the difference between panpsychism and philosophical idealism? ... John: Solipsism is “an absolute impediment to a truly scientific theory of consciousness” ... Does panpsychism “cheat” when it comes to philosophy’s fundamental problems? ... The moral dimension of panpsychism ... Hallucinogens and mystical experience ...
The Case Against Thomas Kuhn (John Horgan & Errol Morris)
April 20, 2020 22:52 - 1 hour - 39 MBCan we ever really know the world? ... Debating the ideas of Thomas Kuhn, famous philosopher of science ... Will we ever see the end of war? ... Errol's book about Kuhn, The Ashtray: (Or the Man Who Denied Reality) ... Errol: Science without truth cannot live ... John sticks up for Kuhn ... Errol's vexed personal relationship with Kuhn ... Stephen Hawking's sense of humor ... Errol: "We're a dumbass species" ... The glass is half empty and filled with poison ...
Scientist, Philosopher, Stoic (John Horgan & Massimo Pigliucci)
January 29, 2020 00:35 - 1 hour - 33.5 MBHow Massimo's midlife crisis moved him from biologist to philosopher ... What's the point of philosophy? ... Philosophical doubt as as a counterweight to scientific confidence ... John mistrusts science's yearning for certainty ... Massimo's path to stoicism ... Can reason make you happier? ... Abusive Buddhist gurus and other unexpectedly bad people ... Was Seneca a hypocritical asshole? ...
Spiritual Science (John Horgan & Steve Taylor)
January 17, 2020 04:26 - 1 hour - 34.6 MBSteve's childhood experiences of euphoria in nature ... Why Steve prefers "wakefulness" to "enlightenment" ... Does being "awakened" make you a better person? ... Steve: "Being a parent is a spiritual path" ... Steve's new book, Spiritual Science ... "Panspiritism" as an alternative to panpsychism ... How is "the spirit" different than God? ... Was there a point in prehistory when man behaved morally? ... Brexit, Trump, and encounters with death that lead to transformation ...
Universal Consciousness (John Horgan & Bernardo Kastrup)
July 11, 2019 23:26 - 1 hour - 30.8 MBWhy Bernardo thinks the mind-body problem is not as hard as it seems ... Bernardo’s spiritual, intellectual, and psychedelic history ... God, metacognition, and the Universe ... The consolations of Bernardo’s philosophy ... Bernardo: The Universe has multiple personality disorder ... The narcissism of a human-centered Universe ... Why John thinks we’ll never solve the mind-body problem ...
Epiphanies of Mind (John Horgan & Jeffrey Kripal)
June 22, 2019 16:57 - 1 hour - 28.4 MBJeff’s new book, The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge ... How John and Jeff make sense of Freud ... Jeff redefines the “paranormal” ... What belief in levitation or clairvoyance reveals about human nature ... Are hardcore atheists/materialists doing religious fundamentalism a favor? ... The death and rebirth of good old human narcissism ... Jeff on humanity’s future and the nature of optimism ...
The Theology of Communication (Nikita Petrov & John Horgan)
March 05, 2019 00:58 - 1 hour - 48.2 MBNikita launches a YouTube channel and a Patreon page ... Could depression be rational? ... The nihilistic/psychedelic/Buddhist Russian writer Victor Pelevin ... Louis CK and the problem of evil ... Gnosticism and the blunder of creation ... The mystery of communication ... Russia is a book, America is a computer game ...
Mind, Body, and Gender (John Horgan & Deirdre McCloskey)
January 08, 2019 21:41 - 1 hour - 32.8 MBDeirdre McCloskey’s personal experience with mind, body, and gender ... Are there female and male psyches? ... How traditional liberalism guides Deirdre’s personal philosophy ... Why Deirdre describes herself as a postmodernist ... Liberalism, capitalism, and Marx ... Understanding the global turn to populism ...
Tragedy and Telepathy (John Horgan & Stuart Kauffman)
December 30, 2018 19:25 - 1 hour - 35.1 MBStuart’s early interest in the deepest questions in philosophy and science ... How a premonition of his daughter’s tragic death shaped Stuart’s ideas about consciousness ... Telepathy, nonlocality, and decoherence: making sense of inexplicable experiences ... “Enablement,” Stuart’s concept of a creative, unpredictable causality ... John on the connection between emotional experiences and intellectual views ... John and Stuart look to the future with cautious optimism ... A brief addendu...
Neuroscientist Christof Koch: The Integrated Information Theory (John Horgan & Christof Koch)
December 24, 2018 17:28 - 1 hour - 30.7 MBFootprints of consciousness in the brain ... Information and consciousness ... The “Jennifer Aniston neuron” ... Integrated Information Theory and panpsychism ... John and Christof disagree about the limits of science ... A paradigm explosion in the science of consciousness ... Implanting brain chips to compete with AI ...
Evolutionary Biologist Robert Trivers (John Horgan & Robert Trivers)
November 29, 2018 03:03 - 1 hour - 31.9 MBA social theory based on natural selection ... "This whole gender thing that’s blown up in the last 10 years..." ... Women, men, and intelligence ... Could evolutionary psychology explain honor killings? ... “The older I get, the more I turn to prayer and meditation” ... Robert’s recurring problem with spite ...
Philosopher and Novelist Rebecca Goldstein: From Physics to Art (John Horgan & Rebecca Newberger Goldstein)
November 12, 2018 01:19 - 1 hour - 33.5 MBRebecca’s childhood: poor, religious, and patriarchal ... How Bertrand Russell helped Rebecca lose her faith ... The problem of beauty ... When Rebecca shared a transcendent moment with a troop of baboons ... From physics to philosophy ... From philosophy to fiction ... Does art better address the mind-body problem than philosophy does? ... Reasons to feel optimistic about the world ...
Philosopher Owen Flanagan: Doubt Yourself (John Horgan & Owen Flanagan)
November 03, 2018 23:38 - 1 hour - 33.2 MBOwen's transition from Catholicism to "quiet skepticism" ... The problem of evil ... The hubris of modern philosophers ... Can we live with the scientific image of man? ... The origin of the universe, life, and consciousness ... Owen: Doubt yourself ... Does philosophy lead to practical wisdom? ... Mind-altering chemicals and free will ...
Deepak Chopra: "I Don't Think There's a Universe" (John Horgan & Deepak Chopra)
October 24, 2018 23:51 - 1 hour - 27.9 MBIntroducing the Mind-Body Problems podcast ... The controversy around Chopra's views on healthcare ... Does Deepak have an ulterior motive? ... Monistic materialism: there’s only matter ... Dualism: mind and matter are separate things ... Panpsychism: all matter is conscious ... Deepak’s consciousness-only theory ...
Mind-Body Problems, and Psychedelic Tales (Nikita Petrov & John Horgan)
September 20, 2018 17:15 - 1 hour - 42.3 MBJohn's new book, Mind-Body Problems, is free online ... "What are we really, what can we be, and what should we be?" ... Robert Trivers, an evolutionary biologist with an affinity for violence ... Douglas Hofstadter, a playful writer, but a melancholic person ... Why ex-materialist Christof Koch embraced panpsychism ... How losing a daughter made Stuart Kaufman study the paranormal ... Story time! Nikita and John exchange psychedelic tales ...