Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
Elucidations is an unexpected philosophy podcast produced in association with Emergent Ventures. Every episode, Matt Teichman temporarily transforms himself back into a student and tries to learn the basics of some topic from a person of philosophical interest. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Introductory conversations with philosophers • ethics, virtue, emotions, good life • political philosophy: democracy, freedom, discrimination, immigration, housing • mind, self, death, pregnancy, gender • logic, statistics, AI, computing, scienceThis podcast is structured as a guided tutorial series in which the host approaches each conversation as a student trying to learn the basics of a topic from a guest with philosophical or scientific expertise. Across episodes, the emphasis is on clarifying concepts, distinguishing closely related ideas, and working through puzzles that arise when everyday assumptions are examined carefully.
A large share of the content centers on ethics and political philosophy. Discussions commonly address how to understand moral language and moral disagreement, what it means for values to be objective, and how emotions like envy or revenge might be evaluated in terms of rationality or moral standing. The show also explores personal and civic character, including virtue, democratic citizenship, and questions about what makes a life go well. Related episodes examine freedom in liberal thought, egoism versus altruism, and policy-relevant debates such as immigration and open borders.
Another major theme is social philosophy and identity. The podcast frequently engages with the metaphysics and ethics of social categories—gender, race, class, group membership, and ideology—and with harms connected to discrimination and misgendering. These conversations often connect conceptual analysis to lived experience and to institutional or historical context.
The feed also ranges into philosophy of mind and cognitive science, including self-knowledge, memory, and the relationship between consciousness and biological mechanisms. Bioethics and medical philosophy appear through sustained attention to defining death in an era of life support and organ transplantation, with attention to legal criteria and individual choice.
Finally, the show often bridges philosophy with technical domains. It covers logic and formal reasoning (especially about obligation and permission), statistics and research methodology, and intersections between mathematics and computer science, including how algebraic structures can inform program design and how software systems can support causal explanation of failures. Practical learning itself—how to keep studying outside formal education, and how tools like spaced repetition, reading groups, and AI assistants can support understanding—also appears as a topic in its own right.
