TrueSciPhi

Podcast Profile: Philosopher's Zone

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242 episodes
2021 to 2026
Median: 30 minutes
Collection: Philosophy

Description (podcaster-provided):

Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):

This podcast explores philosophical questions across logic, metaphysics, ethics, and social and political thought, often starting from everyday assumptions and then testing how secure they really are. A recurring concern is how we form and justify beliefs: what counts as good-faith inquiry versus doubt used to undermine knowledge, how conspiracy thinking and “doing your own research” relate to our dependence on collective expertise, and how responsibility for harmful or extreme beliefs might be shaped by echo chambers and broader epistemic environments.

Many discussions connect abstract theory to contemporary institutions and crises. The show examines climate change through ideas of justice, vulnerability, colonial history, and the limits of framing disasters as purely “natural,” alongside questions about individual action versus systemic change. It also looks at democracy’s internal tensions, racism as a structural phenomenon, and the ways law and bureaucracy shape identity and social outcomes, including debates about legal gender status, education’s aims, welfare policy, and punishment.

Philosophical anthropology—what it is to be a self, an agent, or a conscious being—appears through engagements with Buddhist debates about the self, collective versus individual identity, embodiment and disability, and contested accounts of consciousness (including infants and nonhuman “candidates”). Classical and modern thinkers are used to illuminate present dilemmas, from Kant, Adam Smith, and medieval Jewish philosophy to Schopenhauer and Camus.

Technology is another through-line: the authority of AI-generated directives, AI companionship and friendship, AI-driven propaganda, and how apps reshape reading, parenting, and beauty norms. The podcast also attends to culture and interpretation, asking what we do when we read, how aesthetics interacts with scientific understanding of nature, and whether contemporary culture is shifting beyond postmodern irony toward renewed sincerity.

Episodes:

Can sport survive AI? 2026-Jun-11 37 minutes

Purity, filth and 'promiscuous defecators': why we're weird about poo 2026-Jun-04 36 minutes

Bad faith and 'just asking questions' 2026-May-27 28 minutes

'Natural' disasters and climate justice 2026-May-21 31 minutes

Where am I? Buddhist philosophy and the self 2026-May-12 39 minutes

Common sense vs reason: when philosophy gets weird 2026-May-07 35 minutes

Adam Smith, economics and moral philosophy 2026-Apr-30 32 minutes

Can AIs be friends? 2026-Apr-22 36 minutes

Kant and religion 2026-Apr-15 35 minutes

Speech acts and AI 2026-Apr-09 34 minutes

'Being a burden' and assisted dying 2026-Apr-01 29 minutes

Sincerity, irony and metamodernism 2026-Mar-25 38 minutes

Is it time to get rid of legal gender status? 2026-Mar-18 35 minutes

Medieval Jewish philosophy and the lessons of history 2026-Mar-11 30 minutes

The reluctant feminist: Clara Zetkin and International Women's Day 2026-Mar-04 37 minutes

Move fast, break everything: Nick Land and accelerationism 2026-Feb-26 33 minutes

Can 'planetary civics' save us from techno-catastrophe? 2026-Feb-18 43 minutes

Racism and racial regimes 2026-Feb-11 48 minutes

Do we still love art? 2026-Feb-05 35 minutes

Who am I? Individual and collective identity 2026-Jan-29 40 minutes

What's the point of education? 2026-Jan-21 28 minutes

Albert Camus, fascism and America 2026-Jan-14 46 minutes

How feminism changed primatology 2026-Jan-07 34 minutes

What's the time? Indigenous temporalities and the 'Everywhen' 2025-Dec-31 29 minutes

Buddhism and nationalism 2025-Dec-24 32 minutes

Innocence and 'child rescue' in the colonial imagination 2025-Dec-17 37 minutes

Distributed intelligence and the problem with 'doing your own research' 2025-Dec-10 32 minutes

Can atheists be virtuous? The moral philosophy of Catharine Trotter Cockburn 2025-Dec-04 41 minutes

What are we doing when we read? 2025-Nov-26 28 minutes

Love, compassion and gloom: the contradictions of Arthur Schopenhauer 2025-Nov-19 42 minutes

Poverty and punishment 2025-Nov-13 37 minutes

Knowledge, culture and parenting apps 2025-Nov-06 28 minutes

The contradictions of democracy 2025-Oct-27 35 minutes

Environmental techno-utopias: building nature better 2025-Oct-22 56 minutes

Slopaganda 2025-Oct-14 35 minutes

Indigenous literature and the academy in Australia 2025-Oct-09 28 minutes

Albert Camus, fascism and America 2025-Oct-02 46 minutes

What beauty apps are doing to us 2025-Sep-25 33 minutes

Are babies conscious? 2025-Sep-18 41 minutes

How AI could transform reading 2025-Sep-10 28 minutes

Is it time to get rid of legal gender status? 2025-Sep-04 35 minutes

Who's responsible for extreme beliefs? 2025-Aug-27 31 minutes

Is a blobfish beautiful or ugly? Science, aesthetics and the natural world 2025-Aug-21 32 minutes

Who's responsible for solving the world's problems—me, or The System? 2025-Aug-14 37 minutes

Disability, discrimination and disgust: why gut issues are a philosophical problem 2025-Aug-08 28 minutes

Nature, gender and discomfort with 'woke' language 2025-Jul-31 33 minutes

What's the time? Indigenous temporalities and the 'Everywhen' 2025-Jul-24 29 minutes

Is it time to bring back natural philosophy? 2025-Jul-17 33 minutes

Judgement and remorse: a conversation with Raimond Gaita 2025-Jul-10 28 minutes

Freud, Wittgenstein and the unconscious 2025-Jul-03 29 minutes

Buddhism and nationalism 2025-Jun-26 32 minutes

Philosophy's problem with its history 2025-Jun-19 28 minutes

Authority and medical diagnosis 2025-Jun-11 28 minutes

Nationalism and immigration 2025-Jun-05 33 minutes

Speech acts and AI 2025-May-29 34 minutes

Belief, emotion and trust 2025-May-22 35 minutes

In defence of workism 2025-May-14 31 minutes

How feminism changed primatology 2025-May-07 34 minutes

History and the left 2025-May-01 28 minutes

Henri Bergson, philosopher of past and future 2025-Apr-23 34 minutes

Style wars pt 2: Scandals and hoaxes 2025-Apr-16 31 minutes

Style wars pt 1: Postwar France and a new philosophical mode 2025-Apr-09 33 minutes

LIVE EVENT: What use is philosophy? 2025-Apr-01 51 minutes

Queer theory and animal rights 2025-Mar-27 37 minutes

AI, reliability and trust 2025-Mar-18 33 minutes

Innocence and "child rescue" in the colonial imagination 2025-Mar-13 37 minutes

What is a conspiracy theory? 2025-Mar-06 28 minutes

Getting past post-truth 2025-Feb-26 38 minutes

Expanding our moral circle 2025-Feb-19 39 minutes

Knowing what things are like 2025-Feb-12 31 minutes

How important is aesthetic education? 2025-Feb-05 28 minutes

Rediscovering Wilfrid Sellars 2025-Jan-30 29 minutes

Auschwitz: experiencing what can't be experienced 2025-Jan-23 33 minutes

Summer season: History and narrative 2025-Jan-15 33 minutes

Summer season: Libertarianism and freedom 2025-Jan-08 40 minutes

Summer season: What is swearing? 2025-Jan-01 34 minutes

Summer season: How philosophy fell in love with language 2024-Dec-25 28 minutes

Summer season: Music, taste and AI 2024-Dec-18 42 minutes

Stability, security and survival: a conversation with Mary Graham 2024-Dec-11 27 minutes

Hannah Arendt and the aesthetic 2024-Dec-04 36 minutes

Sense, sensibility and the authentic self 2024-Nov-27 34 minutes

Philosophy and mysticism 2024-Nov-21 38 minutes

Health care ethics: otherness and belonging 2024-Nov-13 28 minutes

Sentience 2024-Nov-07 30 minutes

Nationalism and immigration 2024-Oct-30 33 minutes

Philosophy, history and religion 2024-Oct-24 40 minutes

The 2024 Alan Saunders Lecture: Krushil Watene 2024-Oct-17 42 minutes

Is there purpose in the cosmos? 2024-Oct-10 36 minutes

Feminism and freedom 2024-Oct-03 40 minutes

Indigenous literature in Australia 2024-Sep-25 28 minutes

Deep ecology 2024-Sep-18 28 minutes

AI and reading 2024-Sep-11 28 minutes

The philosophy of history in China 2024-Sep-04 34 minutes

Extremism, gender and science 2024-Aug-28 28 minutes

Orwellian equality: What can this philosophical outsider teach us about how to live 2024-Aug-23 28 minutes

Can philosophy save us from the tyranny of toxic positivity? 2024-Aug-16 28 minutes

Why liberalism needs fewer defenders, and more devotees 2024-Aug-09 28 minutes

What is AI doing to our humanity? 2024-Aug-02 28 minutes

De-extinction, pt 2 2024-Jul-24 28 minutes

De-extinction, pt 1 2024-Jul-17 28 minutes

What's your story? Life narrative and "main character" thinking 2024-Jul-09 28 minutes

History and narrative 2024-Jul-02 33 minutes

The ancient key to modern happiness 2024-Jun-27 28 minutes

Fighting fatphobia with Kate Manne 2024-Jun-21 28 minutes

The philosophy of emotions 2024-Jun-14 28 minutes

Civil Disobedience with Noëlle McAfee 2024-Jun-07 28 minutes

Why time doesn't pass 2024-May-30 28 minutes

Philosophy for tough times 2024-May-24 28 minutes

Women philosophers in 19th century Germany 2024-May-16 38 minutes

Neofeudalism: techno-lords and peasants 2024-May-08 38 minutes

Obedience 2024-May-01 28 minutes

Style wars pt 2: Scandals and hoaxes 2024-Apr-25 31 minutes

Style wars pt 1: Postwar France and a new philosophical mode 2024-Apr-18 33 minutes

The predicament of existence 2024-Apr-10 28 minutes

Mary Midgley, public philosophy and plumbing 2024-Apr-04 28 minutes

Intellectual humility 2024-Mar-27 28 minutes

Freedom or liberty? 2024-Mar-20 40 minutes

Philosophy, angst and hope 2024-Mar-14 27 minutes

Music, taste and AI 2024-Mar-06 42 minutes

The philosophy of twins 2024-Feb-29 28 minutes

Philosophy, disability and the gut 2024-Feb-22 29 minutes

Pornography and free speech 2024-Feb-15 32 minutes

What are Australian philosophers thinking? 2024-Feb-07 34 minutes

Queer vs the state 2024-Jan-30 43 minutes

What is swearing? 2024-Jan-24 34 minutes

Friendship 2024-Jan-17 28 minutes

Transgender identity and experience 2024-Jan-10 30 minutes

Gender, gaming and pop culture 2024-Jan-03 28 minutes

Richard Rorty and America 2023-Dec-27 35 minutes

Women philosophers in antiquity 2023-Dec-20 28 minutes

Time in the time of COVID 2023-Dec-13 28 minutes

Stability, security and survival: a conversation with Mary Graham 2023-Dec-07 28 minutes

Libertarianism 2023-Nov-28 40 minutes

The Cynics 2023-Nov-23 45 minutes

The philosophy of biology 2023-Nov-15 28 minutes

Banality, deception and evil 2023-Nov-09 35 minutes

Defining Aboriginality 2023-Nov-02 28 minutes

Race, biology and medicine 2023-Oct-25 28 minutes

Is there purpose in the cosmos? 2023-Oct-17 36 minutes

Power, domination and the ethics of global philanthropy 2023-Oct-11 34 minutes

Poverty and punishment 2023-Oct-04 36 minutes

Free will, consciousness and AI: a conversation with Daniel Dennett 2023-Sep-28 38 minutes

René Girard and victimhood 2023-Sep-21 28 minutes

Beauty and AI 2023-Sep-13 28 minutes

The pathology of ugliness 2023-Sep-07 28 minutes

Women philosophers in 19th century Germany 2023-Aug-30 38 minutes

Police abolition 2023-Aug-23 28 minutes

Neofeudalism: techno-lords and peasants 2023-Aug-17 39 minutes

Friendship 2023-Aug-10 28 minutes

Gaslighting 2023-Aug-03 28 minutes

Why time doesn't pass 2023-Jul-27 28 minutes

Exploring Tourette's 2023-Jul-20 38 minutes

Philosophy and myth 2023-Jul-11 28 minutes

Transgender identity and experience 2023-Jul-05 30 minutes

How philosophy fell in love with language 2023-Jun-27 28 minutes

Philosophy for tough times 2023-Jun-22 28 minutes

Taking politics seriously 2023-Jun-15 28 minutes

Gender, gaming and pop culture 2023-Jun-08 28 minutes

Exploring the multiverse 2023-Jun-01 28 minutes

Leadership 2023-May-25 28 minutes

Bilingual parenting, home and the mother tongue 2023-May-21 28 minutes

Philosophy behind bars 2023-May-14 28 minutes

Trans-national adoption and "blending in" 2023-May-03 28 minutes

Richard Rorty and America 2023-Apr-27 35 minutes

The anti-philosophers 2023-Apr-23 28 minutes

De-extinction, pt 2 2023-Apr-12 28 minutes

De-extinction, pt 1 2023-Apr-05 28 minutes

Art and hate speech 2023-Mar-30 28 minutes

Women and the canon 2023-Mar-22 30 minutes

Data privacy and informed consent 2023-Mar-16 30 minutes

Women philosophers in antiquity 2023-Mar-08 30 minutes

Moral creativity 2023-Mar-05 30 minutes

Tradition, modernity and crisis in Ukraine 2023-Feb-23 30 minutes

The lessons of failure 2023-Feb-16 30 minutes

A Buddhist perspective on the ethics of violence 2023-Feb-10 30 minutes

On being a minority in philosophy 2023-Feb-02 30 minutes

Skilled performance and cognition 2023-Jan-24 30 minutes

China, Confucius and the courtyard 2023-Jan-17 30 minutes

Values and goals 2023-Jan-10 30 minutes

Pop, philosophy and politics 2023-Jan-03 30 minutes

Conspiracy theories, anti-Semitism and fun 2022-Dec-27 30 minutes

Efficiency, productivity and excess 2022-Dec-20 30 minutes

Philosophy and children 2022-Dec-13 30 minutes

Power, domination and the ethics of global philanthropy 2022-Dec-08 30 minutes

Bilingual parenting, home and the mother tongue 2022-Dec-01 30 minutes

Owning the public square 2022-Nov-24 30 minutes

Philosophy behind bars 2022-Nov-16 30 minutes

Causation and death 2022-Nov-10 30 minutes

The prophetic vision of Günther Anders 2022-Nov-02 30 minutes

How should we treat insects? 2022-Oct-30 30 minutes

Philosophy and travel 2022-Oct-19 30 minutes

Refugees and moral obligation 2022-Oct-12 30 minutes

How Nietzsche extracts cheerfulness from suffering 2022-Oct-07 30 minutes

Trust and scepticism in a post-truth world 2022-Sep-30 30 minutes

Satanism 2022-Sep-25

Housing part 3 - land rights 2022-Sep-18

Housing part 2 - rent 2022-Sep-11

Housing pt 1 - care ethics 2022-Sep-04 30 minutes

Values and goals 2022-Aug-28 30 minutes

What's new in death - part 2 2022-Aug-21

What's new in death - part 1 2022-Aug-14

Doctors and dualism 2022-Aug-07 28 minutes

Art and hate speech 2022-Jul-31 28 minutes

Simone de Beauvoir: becoming a woman 2022-Jul-24 28 minutes

Ubuntu 2022-Jul-17 28 minutes

Philosophy in a nutshell: The aphorism 2022-Jul-10 28 minutes

The great and the good-enough 2022-Jul-03 28 minutes

Pop, philosophy and politics 2022-Jun-26 28 minutes

Edmund Burke, revolution and reform 2022-Jun-19 35 minutes

Hegel, nature and the Anthropocene 2022-Jun-12 28 minutes

The phenomenology of love 2022-Jun-05 28 minutes

Conspiracy theories, anti-Semitism and fun 2022-May-29 38 minutes

Adoption and moral obligation 2022-May-22 28 minutes

Identity politics 2022-May-15 28 minutes

Beauty: aesthetic or moral ideal? 2022-May-08 28 minutes

Rupture and hope 2022-May-01 28 minutes

Sex, death and chilli sauce 2022-Apr-24 28 minutes

Philosophy and myth 2022-Apr-17 28 minutes

The predicament of existence 2022-Apr-10 28 minutes

Moral beauty and art 2022-Apr-03 28 minutes

Philosophers in love 2022-Mar-27 28 minutes

The ethics of uterus transplantation 2022-Mar-20 28 minutes

Extremism 2022-Mar-13 28 minutes

Trans-national adoption and "blending in" 2022-Mar-06 28 minutes

Efficiency, productivity, excess 2022-Feb-27 40 minutes

Consciousness and contemplation 2022-Feb-20 28 minutes

Art and climate 2022-Feb-13 28 minutes

China, Confucius and the courtyard 2022-Feb-06 28 minutes

Stuff 2022-Jan-30 28 minutes

What we talk about when we talk about race 2022-Jan-23 28 minutes

The death of analytic philosophy? 2022-Jan-16 28 minutes

Restlessness 2022-Jan-09 28 minutes

Structural injustice and individual responsibility 2022-Jan-02 28 minutes

Derrida and difficulty 2021-Dec-26 28 minutes

The many worlds of David Lewis 2021-Dec-19 28 minutes

Mathematics and the good life 2021-Dec-12 28 minutes

Bad thinking and good people 2021-Dec-05 28 minutes

The individual and the collective 2021-Nov-28 28 minutes

Philosophy and psychedelic experience 2021-Nov-21 28 minutes

Buddhist logic 2021-Nov-14 28 minutes

Care ethics 2021-Nov-07 28 minutes

Philosophy and children 2021-Oct-31 28 minutes