Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
Philosophical excursions into interesting, and often controversial, topics. Hosted by Spencer Case.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Contemporary analytic philosophy conversations•political polarization, wokeness, free speech, academic freedom•ethics of policing, guns, war, nuclear weapons, foreign policy•AI risks, surveillance, technology harms•metaphysics: consciousness, free will, death, God•applied ethics: charity, parenting, gaming, genetic enhancementThis podcast offers wide-ranging philosophical conversations that use contemporary controversies as entry points into deeper questions about ethics, politics, and human nature. Hosted by Spencer Case, it frequently features academic philosophers and other commentators in discussions that blend conceptual analysis with attention to real-world institutions such as universities, policing, courts, and democratic politics. A recurring concern is how to reason clearly amid polarized public debates, including disputes about moderation and extremism, the incentives that shape political beliefs, and the difficulty of finding politically neutral language.
Much of the content explores applied ethics and political philosophy. Listeners will find sustained engagement with issues like the legitimacy and limits of policing, the ethics of gun ownership, affirmative action and legal reasoning, academic freedom, and the moral status of participation in war. International affairs and geopolitical conflict also appear as topics for philosophical scrutiny, including debates over Israel/Palestine, the war in Ukraine, and questions about nuclear weapons, proliferation, and deterrence.
The show also devotes substantial attention to contested cultural and moral questions—such as hate speech, “wokeness,” politicization in science, and disputes over sex, gender, and pronoun usage—often by examining underlying definitions, moral assumptions, and epistemic standards rather than only trading slogans. Related to this are episodes that probe the role of expertise, including whether and when people should defer to scientific or moral experts.
Alongside these public-facing issues, the podcast returns to core areas of philosophy: free will and moral responsibility, skepticism and the problem of induction, consciousness and the self, and arguments for and against the existence of God. Questions about death, harm, and immortality receive extended treatment, as do debates in moral theory concerning charity and demandingness. The show also occasionally branches into philosophy of religion beyond the Western canon, including discussions of Sikh metaphysics and ethics, and into technology ethics, including AI alignment, surveillance, and content moderation. Interspersed are informal roundtable-style “rant” formats and reflective discussions about the aims of philosophy itself.
| Episodes: |
AI Dangers (The Dark Side of Technology, Part 3)2025-Dec-04 71 minutes |
What is Hate Speech?2025-Nov-25 59 minutes |
Philosophical Horrors2025-Oct-24 81 minutes |
On Moderates and Extremists2025-Sep-16 66 minutes |
What is Wokeness?2025-Aug-15 82 minutes |
Conundrums of Academic Freedom2025-Jul-23 57 minutes |
"You're Under Arrest!" On Ethical Policing2025-Jun-22 91 minutes |
Better Arguments for the Existence of God2025-May-19 94 minutes |
Free Will and Responsibility: Huemer vs. Kershnar2025-Mar-28 66 minutes |
Not-So-Great Arguments for the Existence of God2025-Feb-24 92 minutes |
The Virtuous Gamer2025-Jan-20 81 minutes |
Rant-a-thon 2024! (Part 2)2024-Dec-26 91 minutes |
Rant-a-thon 2024! (Part 1)2024-Dec-20 72 minutes |
Progressive Myths about Sex and Gender2024-Nov-28 73 minutes |
Progressive Myths2024-Oct-20 111 minutes |
Nuclear War, Part 22024-Sep-25 85 minutes |
Nuclear War2024-Aug-17 92 minutes |
Come on, man! Debating the Joe Biden presidency2024-Jul-20 91 minutes |
Consciousness and the self2024-Jun-18 84 minutes |
Death and Immortality (Thinking About Death Part 2)2024-May-22 80 minutes |
Thinking about Marxism2024-Apr-29 79 minutes |
Debating Israel/Palestine2024-Mar-31 96 minutes |
Is it Ok to Own a Gun?2024-Feb-24 74 minutes |
Thinking about Death, Part 12024-Jan-25 92 minutes |
Rant-a-Thon 20232023-Dec-20 134 minutes |
Political Beliefs (with Oliver Traldi)2023-Nov-19 69 minutes |
Discriminating for the Greater Good Part 2: Law and Affirmative Action2023-Oct-30 90 minutes |
Trust and the liberal order2023-Sep-29 71 minutes |
Gender, Pronouns and Linguistic Negotiation2023-Aug-07 80 minutes |
American Patriotism2023-Jul-01 83 minutes |
Wokeness in Science: Critiquing a critique2023-Jun-09 74 minutes |
Thought experiments (Special Brain in a Vat co-production)2023-May-21 75 minutes |
Sikh Metaphysics and Ethics2023-Apr-21 71 minutes |
Creating Future People2023-Mar-30 97 minutes |
Unreasonable Doubt: Rejecting Skepticism2023-Feb-25 93 minutes |
The Dark Side of Technology, Part 22023-Jan-28 70 minutes |
Rant-a-thon spectacular (2022)2022-Dec-25 95 minutes |
Black Friday Special episode: Famine, Affluence and Morality, Part 22022-Dec-09 68 minutes |
Black Friday Special episode: Famine, Affluence and Morality, Part 12022-Dec-01 72 minutes |
Realism, idealism, and the War in Ukraine2022-Oct-27 113 minutes |
Self-Contempt and the Decline of Civilizations2022-Sep-17 77 minutes |
Parenting and Philosophy2022-Aug-21 80 minutes |
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Is everything becoming political? (Remastered) 2022-Aug-03 64 minutes |
Let's talk about Socialism2022-Jul-18 103 minutes |
The University Disaster2022-Jun-11 86 minutes |
SPECIAL EPISODE: Moral Experts2022-May-19 111 minutes |
The Problem of Induction and the Uniformity of Nature2022-Apr-21 91 minutes |
Hypocrisy and Bad Intentions2022-Mar-15 87 minutes |
Why Philosophy?2022-Feb-20 80 minutes |
Killing in War2022-Jan-26 91 minutes |
Should borders be open?2022-Jan-01 105 minutes |
Beauty, Ugliness and Morality: Some moral quandaries of art2021-Nov-30 97 minutes |
SPECIAL EPISODE: Debating abortion2021-Nov-01 97 minutes |
The Dark Side of Morality2021-Oct-13 65 minutes |
Discriminating for the greater good2021-Sep-23 116 minutes |
Religious and atheistic experience2021-Aug-31 73 minutes |
SPECIAL EPISODE: What's the Deal with Critical Race Theory?2021-Jul-14 104 minutes |
The metaphysics of bitcoin2021-Jun-14 74 minutes |
Dangerous ideas: an interview with Francesca Minerva2021-Apr-28 55 minutes |
Some conflict, she says: An interview with Holly Lawford-Smith2021-Apr-02 82 minutes |
What is knowledge (and who cares)?2021-Mar-30 71 minutes |
Thinking about Disagreement2021-Jan-26 88 minutes |
Conquering Anger and Fear2020-Dec-26 66 minutes |
The Limits of Scientific Authority2020-Oct-07 78 minutes |
Has liberalism failed?2020-Sep-01 76 minutes |
The Virtue Illusion: Are you as good as you think you are?2020-Aug-07 69 minutes |
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You're cancelled! 2020-Jul-19 65 minutes |
Philosophical Dispositions2020-Jul-06 67 minutes |
What's the deal with relativism?2020-Jun-06 60 minutes |
Compassion and Rationality: An interview with Jacy Reese Anthis2020-May-20 61 minutes |
Is Everything Becoming Political?2020-May-08 66 minutes |
Do you have a right to your opinion? Clifford, James and the ethics of belief2020-Apr-21 58 minutes |
What good is free speech?2020-Mar-29 63 minutes |
The dark side of technology2020-Mar-25 54 minutes |