MeaningofLife.tv

What is metaphysics, and did it get derailed? ... The desire to live in a universe that “makes sense” ... How the human lifespan limits our scope of understanding ... Why we’re drawn to metaphysical questions ... Why younger generations are choosing the supernatural and spiritual over traditional religion ... Metaphysics as a means of organizing the sublime ... Is the feeling of awe older than humanity itself? ... The uncertain future of metaphysics ...

What's the philosophical status of materialism? ... Gideon’s views about math lead him to reject materialism ... Does the existence of consciousness disprove materialism? ... Taking the simulation hypothesis seriously ... How lucky are we to be alive right now? ... Teleology and moral realism ...

Dan's new book, The Unchartered Body: A New Textbook of Medicine ... How Dan’s intrepid grandmother brought him to Eastern medicine ... Explaining Eastern medicine to a skeptic ... Embryology and the importance of “connectedness” within a body ... What is “chi,” exactly? ... Where Western medicine falls short ... What placebo research proves (and doesn’t prove) about acupuncture ... What does the acupuncture needle do? ... Dan’s recommended lifestyle changes for systemic health ...

John’s book on Trump and evangelical Christians, Believe Me ... What becomes of uncontacted peoples who never hear the gospel? ... How nostalgia shapes evangelical thought ... Why is abortion central to evangelical political advocacy? ... What kind of evangelicals elected Trump? ... President Trump, the modern King Cyrus? ... Was Jimmy Carter a bad president because he was a good Christian? ... Should Democrats try to win over evangelicals in 2020? ...

Lindsay, a Golden Globe–winning movie producer, discusses the Academy Awards ... Lindsay's experience working on This Is Spinal Tap ... The psychology of a great film ending ... Why there's no sequel to When Harry Met Sally ... Art vs. craft in screenwriting ... Should movies be moral? ... Is a male conscience different from a female conscience? ... A film that sounds like it's great vs. one that actually is ...

Why Oliver quit law school ... Is it professionally risky to express heterodox views in philosophy? ... Philosophy as handmaiden to progressive politics ... Dan’s essay on philosophy’s abuse of the harm principle ... The chicken-or-egg question of students or faculty ... Is leftism corrupting scholarship? ... What politics can learn from the field of philosophy ... The irony of a leftist discipline that exploits labor ...

Alice's new book, Why We Dream ... All the wrong ways we used to think about dreams ... The unusual discovery of REM sleep ... When scientists thought dreams were a paranormal gateway ... Alice describes participating in a "dream group" ... What do events in dreams really mean? ... Why do we have nightmares? ... How to get started with lucid dreaming ...

John, a theologian and philosopher, explains postmodern Christianity ... Why postmodernism is not "linguistic idealism" ... Religion's tendency to literalize ... What Paul Tillich and Jacques Derrida thought about "the unconditional" ... John: The Scriptures present a poetic, topsy-turvy vision of life ... Where do our aspirations come from (if anywhere)? ... Have art, literature, and social activism replaced religion? ... Is there a link between the unconditional and Buddhism's "unconditioned"? ...

Deirdre McCloskey’s personal experience with mind, body, and gender ... Are there female and male psyches? ... How traditional liberalism guides Deirdre’s personal philosophy ... Why Deirdre describes herself as a postmodernist ... Liberalism, capitalism, and Marx ... Understanding the global turn to populism ...

Could evolution be conscious? ... Teleology vs. teleonomy ... A purposeful universe is possible, sure—but is it likely? ... The trouble with Stephen Jay Gould’s views on the evolution of complexity ... It’s “like something” to be an individual human. Could it be like something to be a society? ... The news from epigenetics: Heredity works in weirder ways than we knew ...