Philosophy Talk Starters
Episodes
The End of the Starters
01 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Full episodes are now to free to listen at philosophytalk.org, so this feed will no longer be updated. You can subscribe to receive full episodes at h...
Schopenhauer: Living Your Worst Life
22 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/schopenhauer-living-your-worst-life.Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) is considered one of the great European...
Can Money Buy Well-being?
15 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/can-money-buy-well-being.Governments and central banks set economic policies that affect us all. But how do t...
Logic For Everyone
08 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/logic-everyone. Logic may seem like a dry, abstract discipline that only the nerdiest of philosophers st...
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
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/diogenes-and-the-honest-life.Diogenes of Sinope was a famous—or infamous—4th-century BCE Greek philosophe...
Civil Disobedience
18 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/civil-disobedience/.Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King all engaged in civil disobedience, and are widely...
William James
11 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/william-james. William James is a great figure, historically important as a philosopher (pragmatism and radic...
Why Is the World So Weird?
07 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
28 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
14 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...
Wise Women: 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...
Gilbert Ryle and the Map of the Mind
30 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/gilbert-ryle.Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) was a British philosopher of mind and language best known for his book ...
Can A.I. Help Us Understand Babies?
23 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/can-ai-help-us-understand-babies.Artificial intelligence is everywhere in our day-to-day lives and our intera...
Wise Women: Margaret Cavendish
16 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/margaret-cavendish.Margaret Cavendish was a writer of poetry, philosophy, polemics, histories, plays, and uto...
Narrative and the Meaning of Life
09 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/narrative-and-the-meaning-of-life.Humans are uniquely storytelling creatures who can narrate the events of th...
Impossible Worlds
02 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Impossible Worlds
Wise Women: Mary Astell
26 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/mary-astell.Mary Astell (1666–1731) was an English philosopher and writer who advocated for equal rights fo...
In Awe of Wonder
19 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/awe-wonder.Descartes said that the purpose of wonderment is “to enable us to learn and retain in our memory...
Making and Breaking Habits
12 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/making-and-breaking-habits.We often hear that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” The idea seems t...
Wise Women: Elisabeth of Bohemia
05 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/elisabeth-bohemia.Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia is best known for her correspondence with René Descartes. In...
Zhuangzi: Being One With Ten Thousand Things
28 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/zhuangzi.Zhuangzi, the 4th-century BCE Chinese philosopher, was arguably the most important figure in Taoism....
Robert Musil and Life as Experiment
21 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/robert-musil.Robert Musil (1880-1942) was an Austrian novelist, famous for The Man Without Qualities. Set in ...
Wise Women: Hildegard von Bingen
14 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/hildegard-of-bingen.Hildegard von Bingen was a 12th century mystic, polymath, and composer whose work spanned...
Can Architecture Be Political?
07 Sep 2025
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...
Henri Bergson and the Flow of Time
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/henri-bergson-and-the-flow-of-time.Many people think of time as a series of events, like successive frames in...
Are We Living in a Simulation?
24 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/are-we-living-simulation. With rapid advances in Virtual Reality technology and the like, it’s now poss...
Wise Women: Hypatia of Alexandria
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/hypatia-alexandria. Hypatia of Alexandria, late antiquity public figure and scholar, made significant contrib...
The Value of Music
10 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/what-is-music.From classical concerts to commercial jingles, music fills our lives every day. But philosopher...
James Baldwin and Social Justice
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/james-baldwin-and-social-justice. Sometimes, we struggle to tell the truth—especially when it’s the truth...
572: Weird Wants
27 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/weird-wants. Philosophers from Aquinas to Anscombe have claimed that wanting something means seeing the good ...
607: The 2025 Dionysus Awards
20 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/2025-dionysus-awards. What movies of the past year challenged your assumptions and made you think about thing...
Schopenhauer—Living Your Worst Life
13 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/schopenhauer-living-your-worst-life. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) is considered one of the great Europea...
571: Making a Better World
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/making-better-world. Some philosophers think that morality boils down to one idea: we should make the world b...
613: Private Lives
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/private-lives. Cultural attitudes towards privacy seem to be in conflict. On the one hand, we are concer...
569: Mexican Philosophy
22 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/mexican-philosophy. From early feminist Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz to existentialist Emilio Uranga, from Indigen...
612: Philippa Foot
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/philippa-foot. Philippa Foot invented the thought experiment that famously became known as the Trolley P...
567: What Is Gender?
08 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/what-gender. Gender is a controversial topic these days, but people can't seem to agree about what gende...
566: Can Art Save Us?
01 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/can-art-save-us. The world is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis, and we urgently need good wa...
565: True Contradictions
25 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/true-contradictions. If you want to tell the truth, you shouldn’t contradict yourself—that’s just ...
611: Mary Midgley
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/mary-midgley. Mary Midgley became one of the best known public intellectuals in the UK, and was one of t...
563: Derek Parfit and Your Future Self
04 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/derek-parfit-and-your-future-self. The works of Derek Parfit (1942-2017) have had a profound influence o...
610: Are Rules Meant to Be Broken?
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/are-rules-meant-be-broken. Rules exist for a reason: they tell us what to expect, they help us coordinat...
609: Iris Murdoch
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/iris-murdoch. Iris Murdoch may be best known for her works of fiction, but her philosophical contributio...
487: Changing Minds on Climate Change
20 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/changing-minds-climate-change. There is consensus among scientists that global warming is real and that ...
562: The Philosophy of Smell
06 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophy-smell. When philosophers think about human perception, they tend to focus on vision and turn ...
556: In Search of Proust's Philosophy
30 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/search-prousts-philosophy. Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time challenges us to think hard about wh...
557: Thinking Like a Conspiracy Theorist
23 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/thinking-conspiracy-theorist. The moon landing was faked! JFK Jr. is still alive! Finland doesn’t exis...
608: Judith Jarvis Thomson
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/judith-jarvis-thomson. Judith Jarvis Thomson is best known for arguing that abortion is morally permissi...
559: Why Trust Science?
09 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/why-trust-science. According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, the number of Amer...
607: The 2025 Dionysus Awards
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/2025-dionysus-awards. What movies of the past year challenged your assumptions and made you think about ...
80: W.E.B. DuBois
23 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/web-du-bois. Sociologist, historian, philosopher, editor, writer, and activist, W.E.B. Du Bois was one o...
606: The Philosophical Worlds of Borges
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/philosophical-worlds-borges. Argentinian writer Jorge Luís Borges wrote some of the world’s most bril...
605: Alan Turing and the Limits of Computation
06 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/alan-turing-and-limits-computation. Alan Turing was a 20th-Century English mathematician and cryptologis...
554: Liberty and Justice For Who?
02 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/liberty-and-justice-who. Many democracies are founded on the ideals of 18th- and 19th-Century British Li...
553: Climate Change and Collective Action
26 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/climate-change-and-collective-action. Catastrophic storms, floods, droughts, and fires are increasing in...
555: How to Create Virtuous Leaders?
19 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/how-create-virtuous-leaders. Ancient philosophers like Socrates and Plato believed that an education foc...
604: Elizabeth Anscombe
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/elizabeth-anscombe. Elizabeth Anscombe made hugely influential contributions to contemporary action theo...
552: Who Owns Culture?
05 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/who-owns-culture. Fashion designers, musicians, and Halloween costume wearers have been accused of engag...
603: The Examined Year—2024
24 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/examined-year-2024. What happened over the past year that challenged our assumptions and made us think a...
550: What Is Political Inequality?
22 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/what-political-inequality. We all know our society is economically unequal: some people have more money ...
602: Crisis and Creativity in Mayan Mythology
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/crisis-and-creativity-mayan-mythology. The Popol Vuh, written in 1702, was based on a Mayan oral traditi...
549: Is Optimism Rational?
08 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/optimism-rational. When the odds are against you, believing in yourself can be a source of strength—bu...
601: What's So Special About Humans?
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/whats-so-special-about-humans. Human beings share the planet with many different organisms with vastly d...
389: Spinoza
24 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/spinoza. Baruch Spinoza was a 17th century Dutch philosopher who laid the foundations for the Enlightenm...
600: Emma Goldman
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/emma-goldman. Activist and anarchist philosopher Emma Goldman fought for human liberation in every realm...
580: American Futures (Ken Taylor Memorial Episode)
03 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/american-futures. When Philosophy Talk co-founder Ken Taylor passed away in 2019, he was working on a ma...
599: Simone Weil
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/simone-weil. French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil was also an activist whose goal was to elevate th...
417: John Dewey and the Ideal of Democracy
20 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/john-dewey. John Dewey is regarded by some as the American philosopher. In the first half of the 20th ce...
545: What Is Ideology?
13 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/what-ideology. Political polarization seems to be deepening, both in the U.S. and around the globe. Some...
598: Anna Julia Cooper
06 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/anna-julia-cooper. Born into slavery in the nineteenth century, Anna Julia Cooper received a classical e...
560: Cancel Culture
29 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/cancel-culture. Revoking support or a platform from someone who is perceived to have behaved badly has r...
597: Marx and Morality
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/marx-and-morality. Karl Marx famously attempted to explain our social, political, and economic systems i...
596: How To Do Things With Your Mind
08 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/how-do-things-your-mind. We all engage in mental actions of various kinds, whether it’s planning the c...
591: Summer Reading List 2024
01 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/summer-reading-list-2024. Looking for some deep dives into pop culture this summer? Josh and Ray talk to...
595: Hildegard von Bingen
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/hildegard-of-bingen. Hildegard von Bingen was a 12th century mystic, polymath, and composer whose work s...
541: #MeToo: Retribution, Accountability, and Justice
18 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/metoo-retribution-accountability-and-justice. The #MeToo movement exposed how pervasive sexual harassmen...
584: The 2024 Dionysus Awards
11 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/2024-dionysus-awards. What movies of the past year challenged your assumptions and made you think about ...
449: James Baldwin and Social Justice
04 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at www.philosophytalk.org/shows/james-baldwin. Sometimes, we struggle to tell the truth -- especially when it's the truth about ourselves. Why d...
105: Karl Popper
28 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/karl-popper. Karl Popper is a landmark figure in the philosophy of science. His notion of "falsifiability" en...
594: Who Speaks For You?
18 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/who-speaks-you. People often speak on behalf of others, like the concerned citizen who stands up for the...
581: 20th Anniversary Quiz Night
14 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/20th-anniversary-quiz-night. Philosophy Talk made its radio debut on August 20, 2003 with a live pilot o...
593: Nísia Floresta
07 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/nisia-floresta. Nísia Floresta was a 19th-century writer and translator known as “the Brazilian Mary ...
592: Daniel Dennett Retrospective
27 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/daniel-dennett-retrospective. In April 2024, we lost one of the greatest American philosophers of our ti...
540: Righteous Rage
16 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/righteous-rage. Stoic philosopher Seneca wrote that anger is a form of madness. Other philosophers share...
539: Marcus Aurelius
02 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/marcus-aurelius. Marcus Aurelius was a 2nd century Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher. He is most famou...
590: Logic For Everyone
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/logic-everyone. Logic may seem like a dry, abstract discipline that only the nerdiest of philosophers st...
532: Akan Philosophy and Personhood
19 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/akan-philosophy. The Akan people of West Africa have developed a system of metaphysics, epistemology, an...
589: Mary Wollstonecraft
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/mary-wollstonecraft. Mary Wollstonecraft is often labeled as a “liberal feminist” because of her con...
588: Why Is the World So Weird?
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/why-world-so-weird. Quantum mechanics, mathematics, human consciousness.... whichever way you slice it, ...
544: What Would Kant Do?
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/what-would-kant-do. German idealist and moral philosopher Immanuel Kant is probably best known for his "...
587: Shakespeare's Outsiders
14 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/shakespeares-outsiders. Over 400 years after his death, Shakespeare is still widely regarded as the grea...
538: Could Robots Be Persons?
07 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/could-robots-be-persons. As we approach the advent of autonomous robots, we must decide how we will dete...
586: Mind Sharing
31 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/mind-sharing. Mind reading might sound like the stuff of science fiction. But in philosophy and psycholo...
585: Margaret Cavendish
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/margaret-cavendish. Margaret Cavendish was a writer of poetry, philosophy, polemics, histories, plays, a...
536: What Can Virtual Reality (Actually) Do?
17 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/what-can-virtual-reality-actually-do. VR transports users into all kinds of different realities, some mo...
535: Should All Ages Be Equal?
03 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/should-all-ages-be-equal. Age determines a lot about your position in society—what activities you can ...
583: Im Yunjidang
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/im-yunjidang. 8th-century Korean philosopher Im Yunjidang was the first Confucian to argue for women’s...
534: The Social Lives of Robots
18 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/social-lives-robots. Machines might surpass humans in terms of computational intelligence, but when it c...