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):
➤ Controversial philosophical debates • Moral testimony, advice, responsibility • Epistemology, skepticism, induction • AI risks, surveillance, tech harms • Free will, consciousness, death • Political polarization, wokeness, speech • Academic freedom, universities • Policing, guns, war, Israel/Palestine • God arguments, religion • Bioethics, gaming, socialismThis podcast features wide-ranging philosophical conversations, often centered on contentious public issues and the conceptual tools used to think about them. Across episodes, the host speaks with academic philosophers, writers, and commentators about topics in moral and political philosophy, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and applied ethics, typically by probing common arguments, clarifying key terms, and testing competing moral frameworks.
A recurrent focus is moral agency and responsibility: how advice and moral testimony can generate understanding, what obligations attach to those who influence others, and how free will bears on praise and blame. Another thread examines institutions and public life, including academic freedom, the purpose of universities, the incentives shaping political belief, and how liberal societies depend on trust and shared norms. Several discussions tackle politically charged concepts—such as hate speech, “wokeness,” sex and gender language, moderation and extremism, and patriotism—by analyzing definitions, underlying values, and the prospects for politically neutral discourse.
The podcast also regularly applies philosophical analysis to concrete policy and technology questions, including ethical policing, gun ownership, nuclear deterrence and proliferation, foreign policy realism versus idealism, and the risks posed by modern technology and artificial intelligence (including alignment and surveillance). Other episodes move toward more traditional metaphysics and philosophy of religion, engaging debates about consciousness and physicalism, skepticism and induction, arguments for God, and religious ethics and metaphysics (including Sikh philosophy). Occasional roundtables and “rant” formats broaden the scope while keeping the emphasis on argument, conceptual clarity, and disagreement.
| Episodes: |
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 |