Philosophy Talk
Episodes
Marcus Aurelius
26 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Marcus Aurelius was a 2nd century Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher. He is most famous for his Meditations, which was written as a private guide to ...
Daniel Dennett Retrospective
19 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In April 2024, we lost one of the greatest American philosophers of our time—Daniel Dennett. Known for his brilliant mind and controversial views, h...
The 2026 Dionysus Awards
12 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
With the Oscars dust settled, it’s time to think about what movies of the past year challenged our assumptions and made us think about things in new...
Hobbes and the Ideal Citizen
05 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Seventeenth century philosopher Thomas Hobbes believed that without government to control our worst impulses, life would be ‘solitary, poor, nasty, ...
How to Do Things With Your Mind
29 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We all engage in mental actions of various kinds, whether it’s planning the coming week, trying to remember the lyrics of a song, or imagining what ...
Wise Woman: Nísia Floresta
22 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Nísia Floresta was a 19th-century writer and translator known as “the Brazilian Mary Wollstonecraft.” She published the first book on women’s r...
What Is Addiction?
15 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
People who are addicted to substances display a puzzling behavior: they keep using even when it causes harm and distress to them and the people in the...
Who Speaks For You?
08 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/who-speaks-you.People often speak on behalf of others, like the concerned citizen who stands up for their nei...
Wise Woman: Mary Wollstonecraft
01 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Wollstonecraft is often labeled as a “liberal feminist” because of her concern for women’s rights and conceptions of freedom. But that labe...
Schopenhauer: Living Your Worst Life
22 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) is considered one of the great European philosophers of the nineteenth century. His most famous work, The World as W...
Can Money Buy Well-being?
15 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Governments and central banks set economic policies that affect us all. But how do those policies influence our quality of life? And how can that qual...
Logic For Everyone
08 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Logic may seem like a dry, abstract discipline that only the nerdiest of philosophers study. After all, logic textbooks are full of weird symbols and ...
Wise Woman: Anna Julia Cooper
01 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Born into slavery in the nineteenth century, Anna Julia Cooper received a classical education, attended the Sorbonne, and became the fourth African Am...
Diogenes and the Honest Life
25 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Diogenes of Sinope was a famous—or infamous—4th-century BCE Greek philosopher. Reportedly, he lived in a jar, performed many bodily functions in p...
Civil Disobedience
18 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King all engaged in civil disobedience, and are widely admired for doing so. But how can democratic society funct...
William James
11 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/william-james.William James is one of the great American philosophers, historically important as a philosophe...
Why Is the World So Weird?
04 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/why-world-so-weird.Quantum mechanics, mathematics, human consciousness…. whichever way you slice it, the un...
The Examined Year: 2025
26 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/the-examined-year-2025.What happened over the past year that challenged our assumptions and made us think abo...
Mind Sharing
21 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/mind-sharing.Mind reading might sound like the stuff of science fiction. But in philosophy and psychology, mi...
Shakespeare's Outsiders
12 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/shakespeares-outsiders.Over 400 years after his death, Shakespeare is still widely regarded as the greatest d...
Im Yunjidang
07 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/im-yunjidang.18th-century Korean philosopher Im Yunjidang was the first Confucian to argue for women’s equa...
Narrative and the Meaning of Life
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Humans are uniquely storytelling creatures who can narrate the events of their own lives. Some argue that our lives derive meaning from our ability to...
Gilbert Ryle and the Map of the Mind
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) was a British philosopher of mind and language best known for his book The Concept of Mind. He developed a novel argument aga...
Making and Breaking Habits
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We often hear that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” The idea seems to be that long-standing habits are too entrenched to change. But...
Robert Musil and Life as Experiment
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Musil (1880-1942) was an Austrian novelist, famous for The Man Without Qualities. Set in Austria just before the start of World War I, it featu...
Schopenhauer: Living Your Worst Life
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) is considered one of the great European philosophers of the nineteenth century. His most famous work, The World as ...
Henri Bergson and the Flow of Time
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Many people think of time as a series of events, like successive frames in a movie. But French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) argued that this ...
The Value of Music
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From classical concerts to commercial jingles, music fills our lives every day. But philosophers disagree about what exactly music is and why it’s v...
Private Lives
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cultural attitudes towards privacy seem to be in conflict. On the one hand, we are concerned about corporations getting their hands on or selling our ...
Philippa Foot
15 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Philippa Foot originally formulated the famous thought experiment, the Trolley Problem. Despite the vast industry of “trolleyology” it inspired, F...
Mary Midgley
18 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Midgley became one of the best known public intellectuals in the UK, and was one of the first philosophers to talk about climate change. Though s...
Are Rules Meant to Be Broken?
27 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rules exist for a reason: they tell us what to expect, they help us coordinate our actions, and they stop us from exploiting one another. But isn̵...
Iris Murdoch
13 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Iris Murdoch may be best known for her works of fiction, but her philosophical contributions were equally significant. A moral realist influenced by P...
Judith Jarvis Thomson
16 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Judith Jarvis Thomson is best known for arguing that abortion is morally permissible, even granting the fetus the status of person. Her colorful thoug...
The 2025 Dionysus Awards
02 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What movies of the past year challenged your assumptions and made you think about things in new ways? Josh and guest co-host Jeremy Sabol present our ...
The Philosophical Worlds of Borges
16 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Argentinian writer Jorge Luís Borges wrote some of the world’s most brilliant, mind-bending, and philosophical stories. Drawing on sources from Eur...
Alan Turing and the Limits of Computation
09 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Alan Turing was a 20th-Century English mathematician and cryptologist who is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science. In 19...
How to Create Virtuous Leaders
19 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ancient philosophers like Socrates and Plato believed that an education focused on developing good character could create virtuous leaders who work fo...
Elizabeth Anscombe
13 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Elizabeth Anscombe made hugely influential contributions to contemporary action theory, moral theory, and philosophy of mind. She also famously protes...
The Examined Year: 2024
29 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What happened over the past year that challenged our assumptions and made us think about things in new ways? Josh and Ray talk to philosophers and mor...
Crisis and Creativity in Mayan Mythology
15 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Popol Vuh, written in 1702, was based on a Mayan oral tradition encompassing creation myths, history, and cosmology. These stories were written in...
What’s So Special About Humans?
01 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Human beings share the planet with many different organisms with vastly diverse ways of life. We like to think we’re a higher form of intelligen...
Emma Goldman
17 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Activist and anarchist philosopher Emma Goldman fought for human liberation in every realm of life. While she opposed the women’s suffrage movem...
Simone Weil
27 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil was also an activist whose goal was to elevate the lower classes. But she was opposed to the kind of revol...
Anna Julia Cooper
06 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Born into slavery in the nineteenth century, Anna Julia Cooper received a classical education, attended the Sorbonne, and became the fourth African Am...
Marx and Morality
22 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Karl Marx famously attempted to explain our social, political, and economic systems in terms of class conflict. While he never explicitly states that ...
How to Do Things With Your Mind
08 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We all engage in mental actions of various kinds, whether it’s planning the coming week, trying to remember the lyrics of a song, or imagining what ...
Hildegard von Bingen
25 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hildegard von Bingen was a 12th century mystic, polymath, and composer whose work spanned visionary theology, philosophy, cosmology, medicine, botany,...
Who Speaks For You?
21 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
People often speak on behalf of others, like the concerned citizen who stands up for their neighbors at a city council meeting, or the activist who de...
Nísia Floresta
07 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nísia Floresta was a 19th-century writer and translator known as “the Brazilian Mary Wollstonecraft.” She published the first book on women’s r...
Daniel Dennett Retrospective
30 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In April 2024, we lost one of the greatest American philosophers of our time—Daniel Dennett. Known for his brilliant mind and controversial views, h...
Summer Reading List 2024
09 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Looking for some deep dives into pop culture this summer? Josh and Ray talk to Sandra Laugier from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, autho...
(Late) Summer Reading List 2024
09 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Looking for some deep dives into pop culture this summer? Josh and Ray talk to Sandra Laugier from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, autho...
Logic For Everyone
26 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Logic may seem like a dry, abstract discipline that only the nerdiest of philosophers study. After all, logic textbooks are full of weird symbols and ...
Mary Wollstonecraft
12 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Wollstonecraft is often labeled as a “liberal feminist” because of her concern for women’s rights and conceptions of freedom. But that labe...
Why Is the World So Weird?
28 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Quantum mechanics, mathematics, human consciousness…. whichever way you slice it, the universe is weird. How can our conscious minds be made fro...
Shakespeare’s Outsiders
14 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over 400 years after his death, Shakespeare is still widely regarded as the greatest dramatist of all time. His many plays tackle questions about powe...
Mind Sharing
31 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mind reading might sound like the stuff of science fiction. But in philosophy and psychology, mind reading is something that human beings do whenever ...
Margaret Cavendish
24 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Margaret Cavendish was a writer of poetry, philosophy, polemics, histories, plays, and utopian fiction. She employed many different genres as a way to...
The 2024 Dionysus Awards
10 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What movies of the past year challenged your assumptions and made you think about things in new ways? Josh and guest co-host Jeremy Sabol present our ...
Im Yunjidang
25 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
18th-century Korean philosopher Im Yunjidang was the first Confucian to argue for women’s equality in matters of morality and to claim that women, j...
Can A.I. Help Us Understand Babies?
04 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence is everywhere in our day-to-day lives and our interactions with the world. And it’s made impressive progress at a variet...
20th Anniversary Quiz Night
28 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Philosophy Talk made its radio debut on August 20, 2003 with a live pilot on KALW San Francisco and weekly broadcasts beginning in January 2004. To ce...
American Futures (Ken Taylor Memorial Episode)
31 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Ken Taylor passed away, he was working on a manuscript titled Farewell to the Republic We Once Dreamed of. Was Ken right to think the American ex...
Impossible Worlds
17 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Philosophers often speculate about possible worlds: ways that things could be. Some of them also believe in impossible worlds: ways that things couldn...
In Awe of Wonder
03 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Descartes said that the purpose of wonderment is “to enable us to learn and retain in our memory things of which we were formerly unaware.” He als...
Mary Astell
19 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Astell (1666–1731) was an English philosopher and writer who advocated for equal rights for women. While she described marriage as a type of “...
Zhuangzi: Being One with Ten Thousand Things
05 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Zhuangzi, the 4th-century BCE Chinese philosopher, was arguably the most important figure in Taoism. He believed that a person’s ideal relationship ...
Elisabeth of Bohemia
22 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia is best known for her correspondence with René Descartes. In her letters, she articulated a devastating critique of hi...
Can Architecture Be Political?
08 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s common to judge a piece of architecture based on its functional and aesthetic values, and how the two might complement or compete with one othe...
Are We Living in a Simulation?
17 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
With rapid advances in Virtual Reality technology and the like, it’s now possible for us to become absorbed in completely made-up worlds. We might w...
Weird Wants
20 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Philosophers from Aquinas to Anscombe have claimed that wanting something means seeing the good in it. Even if what you want is bad overall, like proc...
Making a Better World
13 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Some philosophers think that morality boils down to one idea: we should make the world better for everyone. But who counts in “everyone”—...
Hypatia of Alexandria
23 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hypatia of Alexandria, late antiquity public figure and scholar, made significant contributions to mathematics, philosophy, and astronomy. Her embrace...
Mexican Philosophy
09 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From early feminist Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz to existentialist Emilio Uranga, from Indigenous thought to theorists of aesthetic utopia, Mexican phil...
Summer Reading List 2023
25 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What books should thoughtful people read this summer? Josh and Ray talk to the authors and editors of new and recent books as they compile their annua...
What Is Gender?
18 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Gender is a controversial topic these days, but people can’t seem to agree about what gender is. Is it an inner identity, a biological fact, or ...
Can Art Save Us?
28 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The world is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis, and we urgently need good ways to address it. Courageous politicians would help, of course,...
True Contradictions
21 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If you want to tell the truth, you shouldn’t contradict yourself—that’s just common sense. A suspect who was home on the night of the crime can’...
The Power of Prediction
30 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You’re standing at the top of a mountain, surveying the vast landscape below. The information your senses take in flows to your brain, which process...
Derek Parfit and Your Future Self
16 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The works of Derek Parfit (1942-2017) have had a profound influence on how philosophers understand rational decision-making, ethics, and personal iden...
The Philosophy of Smell
26 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When philosophers think about human perception, they tend to focus on vision and turn their noses up at olfaction, the sense of smell. So what insight...
The 2023 Dionysus Awards
05 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What movies of the past year challenged your assumptions and made you think about things in new ways? Josh and guest co-host Jeremy Sabol present our ...
Cancel Culture
19 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Revoking support or a platform from someone who is perceived to have behaved badly has recently been dubbed “cancel culture.” Many complain that t...
Why Trust Science?
22 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, the number of Americans who trust in science is steadily declining. While politiciz...
The Examined Year: 2022
01 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What happened over the last twelve months that challenged our assumptions and made us think about things in new ways? The Year in Developed Nations a...
Thinking Like a Conspiracy Theorist
04 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The moon landing was faked! JFK Jr. is still alive! Finland doesn’t exist! Conspiracy theories of all sorts have been gaining traction, thanks partl...
In Search of Proust’s Philosophy
13 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time challenges us to think hard about what we can know, who we really are, why memory matters, and how we can fin...
Liberty and Justice for Who?
16 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Many democracies are founded on the ideals of 18th- and 19th-Century British Liberalism: the idea that human beings deserve the right to self-governme...
Climate Change and Collective Action
02 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Catastrophic storms, floods, droughts, and fires are increasing in frequency all over the globe, and the polar ice caps are melting twice as fast as i...
Who Owns Culture?
18 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Fashion designers, musicians, and Halloween costume wearers have been accused of engaging in cultural appropriation. In some cases, the alleged approp...
Effective Altruism
28 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Most people agree that it’s good to help others, but philosophers disagree about how much good we need to do, and for whom. Effective altruists ...
What Is Political Inequality?
14 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We all know our society is economically unequal: some people have more money and resources than others. But equality isn’t just a matter of who ...
Is Optimism Rational?
24 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When the odds are against you, believing in yourself can be a source of strength—but it seems to require a cavalier disregard for the evidence. So i...
Summer Reading List: Banned Books Edition
10 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The American Library Association reports that last year 1,597 books were challenged or removed from libraries, schools, and universities, a record hig...
The Changing Face of Antisemitism
19 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Antisemitism is an old problem with roots that reach back to medieval Europe. While earlier forms focused more on religious bigotry, antisemitism in t...
The Scandalous Truth about Memoir
29 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A memoir is a personal narrative written about a pivotal time in the author’s life. While the story is told from a particular perspective, the event...
What Is Ideology?
08 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Political polarization seems to be deepening, both in the U.S. and around the globe. Some believe that the rise of ideology is to blame for growing po...
What Would Kant Do?
17 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
German idealist and moral philosopher Immanuel Kant is probably best known for his “Categorical Imperative,” which says that you should ac...
Why Poetry Matters
10 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Some people say they find poetry impenetrable. Yet readership is increasing: in a 2017 survey, the National Endowment for the Arts found that nearly 1...