Episode 109: Bonus Episode with Matt Teichman and Toby Buckle
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Why did Matt and Toby start a joint bonus episode and what do they hope to explore?
Hey, Matt Tugman here from Elucidations. This is a bonus episode that we're releasing as a joint episode with the Political Philosophy Podcast, which is hosted by Toby Buckle. And this time rather than our usual topic based interview, it's more of a free flowing conversation between me and Toby Buckle about Various big picture topics in moral philosophy, touching a tiny bit on political stuff. Anyway, it's a little bit different from what we usually do, so I hope you enjoy it. Take care.
Well, are you interviewing me or my interview? So let's just start here. Matt, uh you've been doing this way longer than me right now. Um this is what, your fifth, sixth year of podcasting?
Oh, longer than that. I've been recording episodes of my podcast for about ten years. And we launched nine years ago. That's amazing. What
So I've listened to quite a bit of yours. I don't think I've ever got your origin story. Who's the joker to your your Batman, as it were? Like how did you get started in this? What what was the impetus?
Hm. I think the impetus was I was listening to a lot of podcasts and radio programs that really inspired me. Peter Adamson didn't have the History of Philosophy podcast yet at the time, but he appeared frequently on the BBC program in our time, and a lot of the episodes he did on uh Avicenna were hugely helpful to me as I was just beginning my graduate study of philosophy. And I just thought it was amazing that you could sit in the shower uh which you would be doing anyway and learn all this cool stuff without it taking any extra time 'cause time was like the one thing I didn't have. But I like I found secret extra time tucked away here and there in which I could learn stuff. And I wanted to be able to like provide that experience for other people too.
Mine's uh washing the dishes.
Right, washing the dishes, another great example.
That is a key podcasting time. So
you're never gonna like get out of having to wash the dishes, even if you have a dishwasher.
No.
You know, and you can like learn for you know, in a way for free, right? W in in free in the sense that it's doesn't take time.
Right. And also generally doesn't cost money. So you must have got in before the sort of so called quote unquote podcast boom, because I still feel like by the time I started this was such a thing and everybody had a podcast and I i it wasn't like such a novel thing to do anymore. You must have got in before this had really been mainstreamed.
Yeah, I kind of feel like it in a way it still isn't mainstream, i in the sense that there are so many people you meet on the street who have no idea what a podcast even is. But I guess it is mainstream in the sense that there are a number of podcast companies now that are paying people full time salaries with benefits and they're economically sustainable, and I don't think that was really true when I started in general. And another thing that's different now is that a lot of podcasts are through are are distributed and marketed through a podcast network. And I don't think there were any podcast networks when I started. At least uh they weren't as ubiquitous as they are now. A lot of people think now that
In order to even get any listeners you have to be on a network, which I think is probably not true. But that is something that people are now saying and they weren't saying it ten years ago.
Yeah, I'll say that that one isn't true. I started, I just did the standard thing of you know get it up on iTunes and SoundCloud and get a Twitter feed and whatever. And I've found listeners without getting any sponsorship or network or or anything like that. Yeah,
totally. I w I had you in mind as a counterexample when I said that.
Yeah, I mean I don't know like how prolific I am, but yeah, we get a few. So let's start here is what do we think we're doing when we do public philosophy? 'Cause we had just had a conversation before coming on air where we sort of disavowed the understanding that most people have of this as like bringing the elite learning of scholars to the masses.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why did Matt and Toby start a joint bonus episode and what do they hope to explore?
0:00–5:24
2
How did Matt’s early podcast experiences shape his view of public philosophy?
5:24–11:47
3
What role do podcast networks play today versus when the hosts first began?
11:47–18:58
4
What do the hosts see as the core purpose of doing public philosophy?
18:58–25:01
5
How does the discussion of the “Intellectual Dark Web” illustrate listeners’ craving for deep, sustained dialogue?
25:01–30:49
6
What moral divides emerge when the death‑penalty case is examined?
30:49–36:36
7
Why do the hosts argue that the default moral stance is “don’t kill” and how is it justified?
36:36–44:14
8
How do the hosts view human nature as changeable yet anchored by enduring moral constants?
44:14–47:24
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Elucidations
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Episode 156: Oliver Traldi discusses political expertise
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Episode 154: Greg Salmieri discusses free speech, "cancel culture," and "academic freedom"
Episode 153: Sam Enright discusses lifelong learning
Epsiode 152: Luca Gattoni-Celli discusses the housing crisis