Sean Carroll

But mostly I want to hear the arguments so that I can understand them better.

And it's the sum of all podcasts and also of all other things that you're listening to in life that should give you a balanced view, not each individual episode.

So I don't want to have debates with people and smack them down or anything like that.

The other and even more common failure mode is that people suggest guests who are not actually – I don't know how to say this exactly right because it's a broad world out there and there are many different ways to be –

useful and productive in society, but I want people who are really developing ideas, okay, in a really useful, rigorous way in some sense.

That doesn't necessarily mean you're a professor.

We've had artists and writers of various sorts, but these are people who are like really doing the creative work in a way that is making an impact on other people who are really doing the creative work.

And the failure mode that I have in mind is a lot of people suggest guests who are basically other podcasters.

Or pundits of various sorts, right?

Voices that are out there on the internet or on the airwaves or what have you who are saying lots of things about lots of different things and saying it in a way that you might be fooled into thinking that it's really intelligent but is just not actually engaging with the best –

intellectual discussion on these issues.

That's why it tends to be professors that I have, because it's their job to be serious about these things.

That's absolutely not a requirement, but I also don't want someone who is just very, very articulate and very, very smart even, but not really a subject matter expert at the highest level.

That's really what I'm looking for.

So the Pope, Pope Leo,

Absolutely a subject matter expert at a certain subject.

I would love to have him on the podcast.

If anyone literally knows how to get in touch with him or the relevant people, let me know.

I mean, don't just email me saying, I think you should Google it or whatever.

You know, I can do that.