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):
➤ Applied epistemology, skepticism, induction, expertise • Moral testimony, responsibility, hypocrisy, extremism • Political philosophy: wokeness, hate speech, gender/pronouns, academic freedom, universities • Ethics of policing, guns, war/nukes, foreign policy • Tech ethics, AI alignment, surveillance • Religion, consciousness, free will, death, parenting, gaming, genetic enhancementThis podcast features conversational “micro-digressions” into contemporary philosophical questions, often centered on issues that spill into politics, public policy, and culture. Across discussions with academic philosophers and other commentators, the show returns repeatedly to applied ethics and political philosophy: what makes institutions legitimate, how citizens should think about rights and responsibilities, and how liberal societies manage disagreement. Frequent topics include policing and state authority, gun ownership, war and foreign policy, nuclear weapons, and disputes about academic freedom and the modern university.
A major throughline is epistemology—how we form beliefs and justify knowledge in everyday life. Episodes commonly explore the role of expertise, testimony, and advice; the reliability of “critical thinking”; the possibility of skepticism; and how incentives and group identities shape political beliefs. Related conversations address moral psychology and collective agency, including the responsibilities of advisors and the dynamics of moderation, extremism, and trust in social orders.
The podcast also engages controversies around speech, ideology, and social conflict, with attention to questions like how to define contested concepts, how language functions in political disputes, and how to reason about phenomena such as hate speech, “wokeness,” and politicization of science. Technology is another recurring theme, especially concerns about surveillance, content moderation, and AI risk and alignment.
Alongside these public-facing debates, the show includes more traditional metaphysics and philosophy of religion—free will and moral responsibility, consciousness and the self, death and immortality, and arguments for God—as well as occasional forays into religious and cultural philosophy and the ethics of personal life (such as parenting, gaming, and charitable obligation).
| Episodes: |
The Iran War2026-Apr-07 100 minutes |
Knowledge in Real Life2026-Mar-20 80 minutes |
Good and Bad Advice2026-Jan-27 65 minutes |
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 |