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Podcasts from philosophynow.org, home of the most widely read philosophy magazine in the world, Philosophy Now.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Accessible philosophy discussions • major thinkers (Kant, Hume, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Socrates, Hegel) • mind, consciousness, free will, metaphysics • ethics, politics, human rights, medicine • science/quantum debates • religion, feminism, education, literature, transhumanismThis podcast, produced by Philosophy Now magazine, presents conversational discussions of philosophical ideas aimed at a general audience, typically through interviews and panel-style debates with academics, writers, and practitioners. Across the episodes, the emphasis is on introducing major problems in philosophy, clarifying key concepts, and testing arguments by setting contrasting positions against each other.
A recurring theme is the philosophy of mind and consciousness: how subjective experience relates to brain activity, whether mental states can be reduced to physical processes, and what (if anything) science and neuroscience can tell us about inner life. Related questions in metaphysics and the philosophy of science also appear frequently, including how to interpret quantum mechanics, what counts as scientific knowledge, and where science may reach explanatory limits. Discussions of language and meaning—especially through Wittgenstein—explore how words acquire sense, what can and cannot be expressed, and how linguistic analysis shapes philosophical inquiry.
Ethics and political philosophy form another major strand. The show examines foundational issues in meta-ethics as well as applied questions such as deception in personal and public life, the moral status of political lying, responsibilities around health and public policy, patient autonomy, organ transplants, human rights, and the psychological sources of moral motivation. Social and cultural topics extend these concerns into debates about global capitalism, feminism, education, and the place of philosophy in schools, including what it means to teach children to reason philosophically.
The podcast also devotes substantial attention to major historical figures and traditions, using them as lenses for contemporary concerns. Thinkers such as Socrates, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer are discussed for their enduring influence, alongside engagement with Buddhism and with religious belief and atheism. Other episodes connect philosophy to adjacent fields—literature, art, film theory, psychotherapy, and transhumanism—showing how philosophical methods apply to questions about interpretation, creativity, human flourishing, and the future of humanity. Live broadcasts and occasional musical performances frame the discussions as public philosophy events.
