AMA | June 2026
episode
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
3h 58m
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 3 months ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What insights does Sean Carroll share about marketing and podcasting?
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Hello, everyone. Welcome to the June 2026 Ask Me Anything edition of the Mindscape podcast. I'm your host, Sean Carroll. So I don't know whether this is percling into other parts of the world. Probably it is. But here in the United States, one of the many, many news stories going on, it's a news rich environment these days. You have to at least say that. One of the many stories is that senior officials, senior elite officials, Members of our governing classes, both literally in government and in industry, have been picking fights with the Pope, with our new Pope, Pope Leo XIV. He's an American Pope from Chicago. First ever American pope. But he's liberal in various of his inclinations. Not 100% so. Like, you know, there's always going to be the case that the pope is Catholic, right?
The pope is going to agree with a lot of parts of doctrine that the Catholic Church likes to promulgate. And some of those will not quite count as liberal. Some will. It's all very confusing. And it's all constructed by human beings, not actually given by God. But so be it. The pope has been pushing back. on various aspects of modern technology and governance. You know, he has noticed that you should be nice to immigrants as part of what Jesus preaches in the New Testament, in the Gospels. And yet, there are people who claim to be following Jesus' teachings who are not really very kind to immigrants. So he says those things, and that riles people up. Most recently, he put out an encyclical that questions some aspects of artificial intelligence and the possible worries about dehumanization and not taking the soul seriously enough.
And I haven't read the encyclical, I have to say, but it seems that there's a lot of good stuff in there, a lot of thoughtful things.
What recent news involving Pope Leo XIV is mentioned?
You know, the Pope and I are not going to agree on everything, but I can still respect—I have people on the podcast who I don't agree with, but I still respect as thinkers. And as far as I can tell— The Pope seems like someone who is a respectable thinker, who actually is not just going through the motions, but really taking things seriously and trying to do some good in various ways. So that gave me the idea. Why don't we have the Pope on the Mindscape podcast? I think that Pope Leo would make a good podcast guest. After all, we are both alumni of Villanova University. You know, he's an Augustinian. The Augustinians are the order that is in charge of Villanova. And he was a math and statistics major back when he was an undergraduate, as well as being from the U.S.
And I think that there would be a wonderful conversation to be had about science and religion and AI and the human spirit and things like that. Sadly, and I never do this, so I'm leaving this for a very offhanded intro to the AMA, I have no way of getting in touch with the pope. I was talking with a fellow Villanovan just earlier today, which is what gave me the idea, but they don't have any connection to the Pope either. So if anyone out there in podcast land knows how I can get in touch with the Pope to invite him on the podcast, I would love to do that. As long as he's willing to talk for an hour over the internet then or in person for that matter. I think we would have a wonderful conversation about philosophy and religion and science and a whole bunch of interesting things.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What insights does Sean Carroll share about marketing and podcasting?
0:00–2:34
2
What recent news involving Pope Leo XIV is mentioned?
2:34–11:31
3
How does Sean Carroll view the Pope's encyclical on AI?
11:31–24:21
4
What is Sean Carroll's perspective on podcast guest suggestions?
24:21–1:58:55
5
What are the limitations of technological advances based on current physics?
1:58:55–1:59:39
6
How do aliens potentially communicate with us?
1:59:39–2:01:16
7
What are the implications of the notwithstanding clause in Canada's constitution?
2:01:16–2:03:08
8
How does Sean Carroll view the future of democracy and governance?
2:03:08–3:58:08
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
367 | Jared Diamond on the Course of History and the Role of leaders
366 | Jim Al-Khalili on Time, Quantum, Biology, and Cosmology
365 | Vitor Cardoso on Why Black Holes Are Special
364 | Stuart Firestein on How Science Relies on Ignorance and Failure
363 | Chandra Sripada on How LLMs and Humans are Cognitive Cousins
Mindscape Ask Me Anything, Sean Carroll | August 2026