TrueSciPhi

Podcast Profile: Walter Veit Podcast

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54 episodes
2023 to 2026
Median: 40 minutes
Collection: Philosophy

Description (podcaster-provided):

Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):

This podcast centers on philosophy that is explicitly continuous with the sciences, often using essays, academic talks, and interviews to connect conceptual questions with empirical research. A recurring focus is consciousness—what it is, how it could be studied scientifically, and how evolutionary theory (including Darwinian gradualism) reshapes debates that sometimes treat consciousness as an all-or-nothing property. Related discussions examine animal minds and sentience, drawing on cognitive ethology and comparative cognition to ask what experiences might be like for nonhuman animals, including birds, and what methodological limits arise when inferring subjective experience from behavior and neuroscience.

Another major theme is evolutionary thinking more broadly, including work on natural selection, the evolution of multicellularity, and the development of agency. The show also engages philosophy of medicine and biology, especially disputes about conceptual analysis versus more naturalistic approaches that aim to track real patterns in nature rather than tidy definitions grounded mainly in intuitions.

Ethics and applied philosophy appear frequently, particularly around animal welfare, effective altruism, moral psychology, and the social consequences of enhancement technologies (cognitive enhancement, genetic enhancement, and inequality). Episodes also branch into existential questions about meaning and nihilism, and include debates over controversial positions in contemporary philosophy of mind, as well as conversations about scientific practice and potential political bias. Overall, the content mixes theoretical argument, engagement with academic literature, and dialogue with philosophers and scientists working on connected problems.

Episodes:

A Flaw of Analytic Philosophy 2026-Feb-13 12 minutes

What to do with a meaningless life? 2026-Feb-19 6 minutes

Why Effective Altruists (And Everyone Else) Should Become Nihilists 2026-Feb-03 11 minutes

What’s it like being a raven or a crow? 2026-Feb-02 7 minutes

Panpsychism is a New Form of Creationism 2026-Jan-26 9 minutes

What is consciousness? 2026-Jan-12 8 minutes

Possums and the Evolution of Consciousness 2025-Dec-31 8 minutes

Why Consciousness Science Needs Darwin 2025-Dec-30 8 minutes

#46 - Scaffolding Natural Selection (Part 2) 2025-Jun-19 64 minutes

#45 - Scaffolding Natural Selection (Part 1) 2025-Jun-10 21 minutes

#44 - Feminism and Enhancement 2025-May-22 40 minutes

#43 - Recognizing the Diversity of Cognitive Enhancements 2025-May-21 18 minutes

#42 - ESEB Talk: Evolution of Multicellularity 2024-Nov-20 13 minutes

#41 - Eric Schliesser: On Synthetic Philosophy 2024-Nov-19 68 minutes

#40 - Cory Clark: Is there Political Bias and Censorship in Science? 2024-Nov-18 85 minutes

#39 - Why is Health? 2024-Nov-17 15 minutes

#38 - Elizabeth Paul: Animal Consciousness and Welfare 2024-Nov-16 94 minutes

#37 - Carolyn A Ristau: A Biography of Donald Griffin - Discoverer of Bat Echolocation 2024-Nov-15 88 minutes

#36 - Toward an Ethological Science of Animal Consciousness 2024-Nov-14 19 minutes

#35 - Guest Podcast Sentientist Conversations "Animal Consciousness" 2024-Nov-13 108 minutes

#34 - Guest Podcast Episode: The NonSequitur Show Genetic Engineering Dr Sy Garte & Walter Veit 2024-Nov-12 83 minutes

#33 - Guest Podcast Sentientist Conversations "Maybe moral systems are harmful!" + Deleted Scenes 2024-Nov-11 95 minutes

#32 - AI Conversation: A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness 2024-Oct-05 9 minutes

#31 - AI Discussion: Procreative Beneficence and Genetic Enhancement 2024-Oct-02 12 minutes

#30 - Modeling Morality - PART 2 2024-Oct-02 21 minutes

#29 - Modeling Morality - PART 1 2024-Sep-30 36 minutes

#28 - Peter Singer: Retirement, Effective Altruism, Animal Rights, Zoos 2024-Sep-07 65 minutes

#27 - MA by Research in Philosophy at the University of Reading 2024-Aug-28 29 minutes

#26 - Evolution of multicellularity: cheating done right - PART 2 2024-Aug-28 27 minutes

#25 - Evolution of multicellularity: cheating done right - PART 1 2024-May-20 42 minutes

#24 - Existential Nihilism: The Only Really Serious Philosophical Problem 2024-May-15 67 minutes

#23 - Daniel C. Dennett Tribute 2024-Apr-23 17 minutes

#22 - Cognitive Enhancement and the Threat of Inequality 2024-Apr-09 44 minutes

#21 - Eric Helms: Is Bodybuilding a Sport? 2024-Apr-05 85 minutes

#20 - Drawing the boundaries of animal sentience 2024-Mar-30 14 minutes

#19 - Matti Wilks: On the Psychology of Moral Motivations and Effective Altruism 2024-Mar-13 64 minutes

#18 - Improving Invertebrate Welfare 2024-Mar-03 14 minutes

#17 - Alex Rosenberg: On Science, Philosophy, and Meaning 2024-Feb-22 55 minutes

#16 - Modeling Morality 2024-Feb-14 70 minutes

#15 - Nicola Clayton: Animal Cognition, Magic, Corvids, Dance, Embodiment 2024-Feb-07 58 minutes

#14 - Enhancement Technologies and Inequality 2024-Jan-29 20 minutes

#13 - Richard Yetter Chappell: Why Not Effective Altruism? 2024-Jan-19 79 minutes

#12 - Procreative Beneficence and Genetic Enhancement 2024-Jan-14 60 minutes

#11 - Kristin Andrews: Animal Minds, Animal Culture, Orangutans, Philosophy 2024-Jan-09 68 minutes

#10 - Princeton Panel on the Ethics of AI in Farming 2024-Jan-04 33 minutes

#9 - Princeton: Artificial intelligence, animal welfare, and the ethics of smart farming 2023-Dec-29 41 minutes

#8 - Kevin Mitchell: Free Will, Evolution of Agency, Control, Consciousness 2023-Dec-23 71 minutes

#7 - Dalai Lama Conference in India: Animal Consciousness 2023-Dec-18 47 minutes

#6 - Eva Jablonka: Epigenetics, Evolution, Consciousness, Israel and Palestine 2023-Dec-12 93 minutes

#5 - Chapter 1 of A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness 2023-Dec-05 79 minutes

#4 - Preview for A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness 2023-Nov-29 40 minutes

#3 - Heather Browning: Zookeeping, Philosophy, Sentience, Animal Welfare, and AI 2023-Nov-25 73 minutes

#2 - Why start a podcast? 2023-Nov-22 5 minutes

#1 - Daniel C. Dennett: Consciousness, AI, Free Will, Evolution, & Religion 2023-Nov-15 81 minutes