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A Million Little Gods: A podcast on the consolation of uncertainty. It's about being of two—or more—minds about things and being okay with that. Hosted by Aaron Gowen of the Institute for English and American Studies at the University of Hamburg. amillionlittlegods.comThemes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ philosophy and culture studies • uncertainty, skepticism, epistemology • selfhood and consciousness • race as social/scientific category • linguistics and categorization • statistics, Bayesian modeling, machine learning • politics, history, ideology, religion (Aquinas/Marx/Hegel)This podcast uses long-form audio essays, interviews, and sound-rich storytelling to explore what it means to live with uncertainty and to hold multiple, sometimes incompatible ideas at once. Hosted by an academic linguist, it blends philosophy, cultural analysis, and close attention to language—treating words, categories, and narratives as central tools by which people construct meaning and social reality.
Across the episodes, a recurring concern is how “things” become things: how concepts gain stability, how classifications (whether scientific, political, or moral) are formed and defended, and what happens when they don’t map neatly onto lived experience. Several conversations focus on race as a contested category, drawing on philosophy of science, genetics and genomics, the history of eugenics, and the practical stakes of data analysis. The show also spends time on statistical reasoning and modeling—covering uncertainty, prediction, machine learning, and how new analytical tools reshape what we think we’re measuring.
Another thread is the nature of the self and consciousness, approached through philosophy and cognitive science, including debates about subjective experience, personal identity over time, and the relationship between mind and brain. Questions of faith, skepticism, and the limits of empiricism also appear, alongside engagement with Catholic intellectual traditions and their encounters with modern philosophies.
The podcast often connects abstract ideas to cultural artifacts and public life—examining shifts in moral judgment, the social pressures that change collective interpretation, and the political histories that condition how institutions and ideologies develop. Some episodes adopt a literary, experimental mode, using framing devices and layered narration to move between history, theory, and reflective commentary, emphasizing how storytelling itself shapes what can be known and believed.
