Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
“What Is X?” has been described as “a cross between a Platonic dialogue and ‘The Price Is Right.’” It combines dialectical inquiry of the sort perfected by Socrates and his interlocutors with a distinctly ludic spirit. Here’s how it works: For each episode, host Justin E. H. Smith invites on a guest distinguished in their field (or occasionally a “regular” person who really likes to talk). Smith asks the guest to answer a question of the form “What is X?” (for example, “What is beauty?” “What is nature?” “What are dreams?”), after which the two partners in dialogue undertake a Socratic inquiry into the nature of X, in search of a definition that satisfies both of them. There are three possible outcomes: agreement, disagreement, and aporia (Greek for “dead end”), each with its own sound effect: if we arrive at agreement, a church bell will chime; disagreement is signaled by a bleating goat; if aporia is the best we can do, we will hear naught but a gust of wind. Rigorous but freewheeling, fun and serious at once, accessibly highbrow, these conversations model rational inquiry in a new way, providing answers for truth-seekers... or perhaps just more questions. /// Host: Justin E.H. Smith (justinehsmith.substack.com) /// Presented by The Point Magazine (thepointmag.com)Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Socratic dialogues defining big concepts • metaphysics: being, time, matter, numbers • mind: consciousness, dreams, memory, mental health • ethics and social life: virtue, love, friendship, gender, slurs • culture: art, poetry, punk, criticism, conspiracy theories, money, war, breakfastThis podcast stages Socratic-style conversations that revolve around a single deceptively simple prompt: “What is X?” In each installment, host Justin E. H. Smith invites a guest—often a philosopher, writer, critic, scientist, or other specialist—to propose an initial answer and then test it through careful questioning, counterexamples, and revisions. The tone blends rigorous conceptual analysis with an informal, occasionally playful spirit, and the conversations often end not with a neat conclusion but with a clearer sense of what makes a definition hard to secure.
Across the episodes, the show ranges widely over classic philosophical subjects such as being, time, consciousness, matter, and numbers, using them as entry points into metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of mathematics. At the same time, it treats social and political concepts—war, gender, slurs, conspiracy theories, mental health, money, and authorship—in a way that highlights how definitions can be contested, historically contingent, and tied to institutions, power, and everyday practices. A recurring theme is the gap between commonsense usage and more technical or theoretical accounts: the show examines how ordinary words acquire authority, how they guide behavior, and where they break down under scrutiny.
The podcast also spends time on aesthetic and cultural categories including art, poetry, humor, criticism, punk, and even breakfast, approaching them with the same method: asking what counts as a member of the category, whether boundaries are stable, and what purposes the category serves. Guests and host frequently draw on examples from intellectual history as well as contemporary life, connecting philosophical traditions to current debates without treating philosophy as purely academic. Overall, listeners can expect exploratory dialogue that models how to reason in public about big abstractions and familiar experiences alike, with an emphasis on clarifying concepts rather than delivering final answers.
| Episodes: |
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What Is Being? | Kris McDaniel 2022-Dec-14 55 minutes |
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What Is Money? | Joseph Tinguely 2022-Nov-15 59 minutes |
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What Is Breakfast? | Seb Emina 2022-Oct-14 63 minutes |
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What Are Numbers? | Michael Harris 2022-Sep-15 62 minutes |
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What Is Punk? | Joseph M. Keegin 2022-Aug-15 85 minutes |
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What Is War? | Vladislav Davidzon 2022-Jul-15 62 minutes |
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What Is Authorship? | Jonathan Egid 2022-Jun-14 70 minutes |
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What Is Time? | Emily Thomas 2022-Jun-01 58 minutes |
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What Are Conspiracy Theories? | Sam Kriss 2022-May-01 87 minutes |
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What Is Humor? | Luvell Anderson 2022-Apr-16 66 minutes |
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What Is Friendship? | S. Abbas Raza 2022-Apr-01 57 minutes |
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What Is Consciousness? | Eric Schwitzgebel 2022-Mar-15 69 minutes |
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What Is Virtue? | Jennifer Frey 2022-Mar-02 73 minutes |
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What Is Love? | Dominic Pettman 2022-Feb-14 64 minutes |
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What Is Gender? | Robin Dembroff 2022-Feb-01 58 minutes |
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What Are Slurs? | Jason Stanley 2022-Jan-16 59 minutes |
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What Is Criticism | Ryan Ruby 2022-Jan-01 61 minutes |
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What Is History? | D. Graham Burnett 2021-Dec-14 62 minutes |
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What Is Art? | Becca Rothfeld 2021-Nov-30 41 minutes |
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What Is Memory? | Julian Lucas 2021-Nov-15 58 minutes |
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What Is Matter? | Sean Carroll 2021-Nov-01 61 minutes |
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What Is Mental Health? | Danielle Carr 2021-Oct-21 65 minutes |
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What Is Poetry? | Jeff Dolven 2021-Oct-01 54 minutes |
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What Are Dreams? | Matthew Spellberg 2021-Sep-01 62 minutes |
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What Is Philosophy? | Agnes Callard 2021-Jul-31 62 minutes |