Clerestory (Bryan Kam)
Episodes
The Math is Not the Territory, with Alex Gheorghiu
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mathematics as MethodA Conversation with Alexander V. GheorghiuBryan Kam in conversation with Alex, assistant professor and a New Frontiers Fellow in ...
The Long Now in East London, with Christopher Daniel
24 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Thursday 7th August, I walked around Bethnal Green with Christopher Daniel, who organises Long Now London.We walked through East London, discussing...
Neither/Nor Paper Discussion
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast, I discuss the draft of the academic paper on Neither/Nor which I wrote about here, with my coauthor, developmental psychologist Dr. I...
Abstraction and its discontents, with Haneen Khan
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I’m Bryan Kam. I endeavour daily to make philosophy accessible and relevant. To that end I write this newsletter and host a podcast called Clerestor...
Type 1 Diabetes, Part 2: Bridging the Gap
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
My friend Pen interviewed me about Type 1 Diabetes, which I've lived with for 38 years. This is the second episode, in which we focus on my...
Type 1 Diabetes, Part 1: A Walk in the Woods
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
My friend Pen interviewed me about Type 1 Diabetes, which I've lived with for 38 years. In this podcast we speak about what diabetes is, and what ...
From Literature to Lens, with Cécile Embleton
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
I spoke to director, cinematographer, and my good friend Cécile Embleton (instagram) about her work and influences and her new film Mother Vera...
What is Nature? with David Valerio
08 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is a cross-post from my friend David Valerio's new podcast, Discern Earth. In it, we speak about what nature is. Here's David's desc...
A Walk with Delia Burgess
26 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Delia and I walked along the Parkland Walk in London with Zoom f2 recorders and lapel mics. We cover a bit about Neither/Nor, as well as e...
Husserliana with Noah Martin
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I spoke to Dr. Noah Martin, Director of the College of Modern Anxiety. We discussed the relationship between phenomenology and existen...
Eternity and Time with Kit Tempest-Walters
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
I spoke to Kit Tempest-Walters about his new book: Plotinus on Eternity and Time, which includes a translation and commentary of Ennead III.7. We disc...
Writing and AI with Maggie Appleton
12 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's been nearly a year since our last episode, in which Maggie Appleton and I discussed why we write. A year is a long time in AI; has it m...
Creative Quandary Clinic, Part 2
06 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of 2023, I asked seven people I knew to join me in a WhatsApp group experiment. Read more here. We set up a schedule by which one of ...
Creative Quandary Clinic, Part 1
31 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of 2023, I asked seven people I knew to join me in a WhatsApp group experiment. Read more here. We set up a schedule by which one of us, ea...
Has the Human Experience Changed? with Isabela Granic
19 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Part 8 in a series of interviews on the book I'm working on, Neither/Nor. In this episode, Isabela Granic...
Jaynes, Tolstoy, and Zhuangzi, with Isabela Granic
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Part 7 in a series of interviews on the book I'm working on, Neither/Nor. In this episode, Isabela Granic asks about...
Epistolary: Meaningful Living vs Making a Living (Part 6)
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do you balance your life’s purpose, your creative impulse, or your art, with the realities of life? Here are the final four responses I received...
Neither/Nor Principles
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Principles of Neither/Nor: Every idea, concept, philosophy has a history The two opposed but complementary ways of knowing are intuition and reaso...
Epistolary: Meaningful Living vs Making a Living (Part 5)
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do you balance your life’s purpose, your creative impulse, or your art, with the realities of life? Here are the next seven responses I've r...
Epistolary: Meaningful Living vs Making a Living (Part 4)
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do you balance your life’s purpose, your creative impulse, or your art, with the realities of life? Here are the next seven responses I've r...
Mental Proliferation, with Isabela Granic
02 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Part 6 in a series of interviews on the book I'm working on, Neither/Nor. In this episode, Isabela Granic asks about the Buddhis...
Epistolary: Joachim Brackx on Beauty
30 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I spoke with my dear friend Joachim Brackx in a series of voicenotes. We discuss beauty, quality, and aesthetic enjoyment. We re...
Epistolary: Meaningful Living vs Making a Living (Part 3)
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do you balance your life’s purpose, your creative impulse, or your art, with the realities of life? Here are the next five responses I've re...
Epistolary: Meaningful Living vs Making a Living (Part 2)
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do you balance your life’s purpose, your creative impulse, or your art, with the realities of life? Here are the next four responses I've re...
Epistolary: Meaningful Living vs Making a Living (Part 1)
28 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do you balance your life’s purpose, your creative impulse, or your art, with the realities of life? Here are the first seven responses I've ...
Meaningful Living vs Making a Living
22 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do you balance your life’s purpose, your creative impulse, or your art, with the realities of life? Please upload your audio response here: http...
Epistolary: Recourse to the Divine, with Eyal Shay
11 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I spoke to my friend Eyal Shay in a series of voicenotes, recorded over a period of a few months at the start of this year. This episo...
Why We Write and Language Models with Maggie Appleton
05 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is a continuation of the conversation I had with Maggie previously: "The Dark Forest and Generative AI." We discuss why we write, versu...
Crises and revolutions, with Isabela Granic
02 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Part 5 in a series of interviews on the book I'm working on, Neither/Nor. In this episode, Isabela Granic begin the discussion with Wh...
Language and Experience, with Isabela Granic
26 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Part 4 in a series of interviews on the book I'm working on, Neither/Nor. In this episode, Isabela Granic and I discuss how AI technologies ...
AI and Pyrrhonism, with Isabela Granic
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Part 3 in a series of interviews on the book I'm working on, Neither/Nor. In this episode, Isabela Granic and I discuss how AI technologies like ChatG...
Epistolary: Joachim Brackx on Choice, desire, and purpose
07 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I spoke to my friend Joachim Brackx in a series of voicenotes, recorded over a period of a few weeks at the end of last year. See more...
Meditation paths, with Rob Knight
02 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I speak to Rob Knight about approaches to meditation. We discuss the Buddhist traditions, how dependent origination relates to emptine...
A philosophical journey, with Isabela Granic
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Part 2 in a series of interviews on the book I'm working on, Neither/Nor. Isabela Granic and I recap dependent origination and discuss how I encounter...
InterIntellect Fellowship and What I'm Reading
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I was awarded an InterIntellect fellowship! See the announcement here. In this episode, I speak in the Wood about what I'm interested in and why. This...
History versus Physics, with Isabela Granic and Sam Biagetti
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I'm joined by developmental psychologist Isabela Granic and historian Sam Biagetti to discuss the differences between how reasoning is used in experim...
The Dark Forest and Generative AI with Maggie Appleton
04 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We discuss Maggie's recent article The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI, and other issues related to generative models, machine learning, ChatG...
Truth and Emptiness with Jake Orthwein
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I loved having this conversation with Jake. In it, we discuss Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Pyrrhonism, pragmatism, and different theories of truth...
Causality and Conditionality with Isabela Granic
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Part 1 in a series of interviews on the book I'm working on, Neither/Nor. In this episode, Isabela Granic, professor of developmental psychology, inte...
A Discussion of Metaphor
07 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A discussion of metaphor, compression, and perception, with my friend Olga. We recorded this on Twitter spaces, on 28 August 2022. People discussed: M...
A Conversation with David Valerio
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
David and I spoke on Twitter Spaces in July 2022. We discussed Eastern Catholic theology and its parallels with Buddhism. We discuss the origin of the...
Film, beauty, and iridescence
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We discuss Powell & Pressburger films, Wings of Desire which I recorded an episode on, Tolstoy, beauty, iridescence, philosophy, and more.
Meditation, Attention, and Intentionality with Malcolm Ocean
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I had a great conversation with Malcolm Ocean, founder of Complice, an intentionality app that I have used fruitfully since early 2018. Mentioned in t...
Dichotomies and Taoism, with Isabela Granic
06 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This is a discussion from 3 July 2022, with Isabela Granic. We discuss GEMH Lab, dichotomies, Chinese brushpainting, uncertainty and Keats' negative c...
Interview with Sam Biagetti of Historiansplaining
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On 2 July 2022, I hosted this conversation with Sam Biagetti of the excellent Historiansplaining podcast. We discussed Sam's interest in geography and...
Linking Knowledge, with Achim Rothe
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This is a conversation about personal knowledge management that I had with Achim Rothe on 22 June, 2022. We discuss tags, folders, and searching. Sche...
Why We Take Notes, with Achim Rothe
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This is a live conversation I recorded on Twitter Spaces on 16 June 2022, between me (Bryan Kam) and Achim Rothe. We discuss our history of note-takin...
Against Teleology and Abstraction
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This is a live conversation I recorded on Twitter Spaces on 11 January 2022, between me (Bryan Kam), Isabela Granic, Athenian Stranger, and others. We...
Wings of Desire/Love Constant Beyond Death
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is about the universal versus the particular, in film, poetry and prose. There's a new thing, which is that you can now read this epis...
Intention to resume
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From the blog: What I'm up to now. Listen to my first conversation with Achim Rothe (2022-06-16). Listen to my second conversation with Achim Roth...
The Stability-Plasticity Dilemma/Sonnet 122
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mermillod et al.: The Stability-Plasticity Dilemma (2013) Erik Hoel: The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization (2021) Carhart...
Nietzsche's Human, All Too Human, Kuhn, A. C. Graham/Sonnet 95
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
R. J. Hollingdale's 1994 translation of Nietzsche's Human, All Too Human (1878) My piece on the avant-garde Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Scienti...
Thomas Kuhn Lecture: Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice (1973)
01 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I give Kuhn's 1973 lecture "Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice" (1973). There is a PDF of the lecture here. The book he di...
Kuhn interstitial/Yeats' All Things Can Tempt Me
22 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
W. B. Yeats: All Things Can Tempt Me. Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962 book). Thomas Kuhn: "Objectivity, Value Judgment...
Shklovsky/Little Gidding
07 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Viktor Shklovsky and Russian Formalism (wikipedia), and Defamiliarization/ostrananie. My Twitter thread on Shklovsky. Alexandra Berlina's Viktor S...
Althusser/Hardy's At Castle Boterel
27 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Norbert Elias: The Civilizing Process (1939). Richard Wrangham: Two types of aggression in human evolution (2018). Louis Althusser: Ideology and I...
Tao Te Ching/Chuang Tzu/Keats
20 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Tao Te Ching, translated by Derek Lin and Stephen Addiss/Stanley Lombardo A. C. Graham: Chuang-tzǔ: The Inner Chapters Harold D. Roth: A Comp...
Basin & Range/The Air Plant
13 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
John McPhee: Annals of the Former World (1998). Emma Darwin: This is Not a Book About Charles Darwin (2019). Indrė Žliobaitė: On the nature of...