Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Karl Popper’s philosophy and life •critical/pancritical rationalism, falsification, induction •science–pseudoscience demarcation •history of 20th‑century philosophy of science •open society, tolerance, liberalism •applications to evolution, quantum, medicine, education
This podcast is a monthly interview and discussion series centred on the philosophy and life of Karl Popper, using Popper’s work as a lens for broader questions in epistemology, the philosophy of science, and liberal political thought. Across the episodes, the host speaks with academics and other experts about core Popperian ideas such as critical rationalism, conjecture and refutation, fallibilism, and the role of criticism in the growth of knowledge. A recurring concern is how to distinguish science from pseudoscience, including sustained attention to falsifiability, the limits of demarcation criteria, and debates over induction.
The show also explores Popper’s relationships and intellectual disputes with major twentieth-century figures and movements in philosophy of science and analytic philosophy, including the Vienna Circle, Thomas Kuhn, and Paul Feyerabend, as well as Popper’s famous clash with Wittgenstein. Several conversations examine how Popper’s views interacted with developments in specific sciences, including evolutionary theory and the foundations of quantum mechanics, and what Popper may have misunderstood or later revised.
Another prominent theme is Popper’s political philosophy of the open society: tolerance and its limits, threats posed by totalitarian ideas, freedom of speech, and the institutional conditions that make inquiry objective. These issues are sometimes connected to constitutional democracy, public choice, and the extension of Popperian epistemology into social and educational institutions. In addition to interviews, the podcast includes extended, chapter-by-chapter engagement with W.W. Bartley’s work on pancritical rationalism and the debate over whether critical rationalism requires “commitment” that might open the door to irrationalism or fideism.
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Episodes:
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#52 – W.W. Bartley and his Critics
2025-Sep-14
39 minutes
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#51 – The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley, Appendix 5 and 6
2025-Aug-10
31 minutes
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#50 – The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley, Appendix 4 – Part 3
2025-Jul-13
29 minutes
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#49 – The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley, Appendix 4 – Part 2
2025-Jul-06
29 minutes
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#48 – The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley, Appendix 4 – Part 1
2025-Jun-29
25 minutes
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#47 – The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley, Appendix 3
2025-May-20
19 minutes
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#46 – The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley, Appendix 2. Part 2
2025-Apr-20
39 minutes
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#45 – 'The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley, Appendix 2. Part 1'
2025-Apr-10
28 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #44 – 'The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley, Appendix 1'
2025-Mar-25
34 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #43 – 'The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley, Chapter 8'
2025-Feb-10
23 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #42 – 'The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley, Chapters 6 and 7'
2025-Jan-11
22 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #41 – 'The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley – Pancritical Rationalism, Ch 5, Part 2'
2024-Dec-19
29 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #40 – 'The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley – Pancritical Rationalism, Ch 5, Part 1'
2024-Dec-12
15 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #39 – 'The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley - Chapters 3 and 4'
2024-Dec-05
28 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #38 – 'The Retreat to Commitment by W.W. Bartley - Chapters 1 and 2'
2024-Nov-30
19 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #37 – Jagdish Hattiangadi – 'Francis Bacon's Skeptical Recipes for New Knowledge'
2024-Jul-27
87 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #36 – James Kierstead – 'Education for Science and Democracy'
2024-Jun-24
73 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #35 – David Edmonds – 'Murder in the Vienna Circle'
2024-May-29
59 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #34 – Elliott Sober and Mehmet Elgin – 'Karl Popper's Changing Assessment of Evolutionary Theory'
2024-May-06
73 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #33 – Flavio Del Santo – 'Karl Popper and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics'
2024-Apr-28
75 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #32 – Seamus O'Mahony – 'Freud and Psychoanalysis - The Story of Science, Pseudoscience and Sex'
2023-Dec-14
81 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #31 – Dmytro Sepetyi – 'The Popper-Bartley Debate'
2023-Oct-27
68 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #30 – Jamie Shaw– 'Paul Feyerabend, Anything Goes'
2023-Sep-17
83 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #29 – Rafe Champion – 'Jacques Barzun'
2023-Aug-27
76 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #28 – Nicholas Maxwell – 'Our Fundamental Problem'
2023-Jul-30
124 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #27 – Jagdish Hattiangadi – 'The Structure of Problems'
2023-Jun-11
86 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #26 – Michael Munger – 'The Calculus of Consent'
2023-May-07
77 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #25 – Donald Gillies – 'The Philosophy of Medical Discovery'
2023-Mar-26
89 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #24 – Nimrod Bar-Am – 'The Life and Philosophy of Joseph Agassi'
2023-Feb-12
85 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #23 – Paul Levinson – 'W.W. Bartley and Pancritical Rationalism'
2022-Dec-04
100 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #22 – Elyse Hargreaves – 'The Open Society and Its Enemies, and Happiness'
2022-Nov-13
84 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #21 – James Kierstead – 'The Paradox of Tolerance'
2022-Sep-30
64 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #20 – Susan Blackmore – 'Memes - Rational, Irrational, Anti-Rational'
2022-Aug-14
66 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #19 – Joseph Agassi – 'Rules of the Game'
2022-Jul-31
105 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #18 – Joseph Agassi – 'Karl Popper's Hopeful Monsters'
2022-Jun-29
88 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #17 – Rafe Champion – 'Karl Popper's Social Turn'
2022-May-06
89 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #16 – Michael Ignatieff – 'Finding Consolation in Truth'
2022-Feb-06
63 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #15 – Jagdish Hattiangadi – 'Defending Baconian Induction'
2022-Jan-24
97 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #14 – Anthony O'Hear – 'Whiffs of Induction'
2021-Dec-20
96 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #13 – Ken Gemes – 'Karl Popper vs. Friedrich Nietzsche'
2021-Oct-25
99 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #12 – Jonathan Rauch – 'The Constitution of Knowledge'
2021-Sep-01
85 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #11 – David Edmonds – 'Wittgenstein's Poker'
2021-Jul-28
65 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #10 – Richard Landes – 'Deutsch's Theory of the Pattern - The Widespread Compulsion to Legitimise Hurting Jews'
2021-Jun-25
83 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #9 – Jeremy Shearmur – 'Karl Popper, Friedrich Hayek and the Future of Liberalism'
2021-Jun-14
106 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #8 – James Kierstead – 'New Zealand and the Authoritarianism of Plato'
2021-May-31
76 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #7 – Oseni Taiwo Afisi – 'Karl Popper and Africa'
2021-May-24
88 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #6 – Steve Fuller – 'Karl Popper vs. Thomas Kuhn'
2021-Apr-11
94 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #5 – Maarten Boudry – 'Diagnosing Pseudoscience - Why the Demarcation Problem Matters'
2021-Mar-31
103 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #4 – Robin Attfield – 'Pre-echoes of Popper - Xenophanes and Parmenides'
2021-Feb-21
71 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #3 – Nicholas Maxwell – 'More Popperian than Popper'
2021-Jan-27
113 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #2 – Matteo Collodel – 'Karl Popper vs. Paul Feyerabend'
2021-Jan-05
96 minutes
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The Popperian Podcast #1 – David Deutsch – 'Karl Popper and the Beginning of Infinity'
2020-Nov-29
91 minutes
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