MeaningofLife.tv

Travis's new book, Superhero Ethics ... The Incredible Hulk and the dangers of individualism ... Why Wolverine embodies honor and integrity ... Batman vs. Spider-Man, dueling reactions to our tragic universe ... Family tragedies in the lives of Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker ... Why adults should take comic books seriously ...

John’s personal history with punk rock ... Why was punk more political in the UK than in NYC? ... The far reach of capitalism into counterculture ... How the NYC punk scene fizzled out ... The early importance of record shops and FM radio stations ... Punk and suburban oppression ... Is punk dead or perennially youthful? ... John: Gender expression is the new embodiment of the punk ethos ...

Stuart’s early interest in the deepest questions in philosophy and science ... How a premonition of his daughter’s tragic death shaped Stuart’s ideas about consciousness ... Telepathy, nonlocality, and decoherence: making sense of inexplicable experiences ... “Enablement,” Stuart’s concept of a creative, unpredictable causality ... John on the connection between emotional experiences and intellectual views ... John and Stuart look to the future with cautious optimism ... A brief addendum on spoon bending ...

Footprints of consciousness in the brain ... Information and consciousness ... The “Jennifer Aniston neuron” ... Integrated Information Theory and panpsychism ... John and Christof disagree about the limits of science ... A paradigm explosion in the science of consciousness ... Implanting brain chips to compete with AI ...

What is the “G” factor in human intelligence? ... Fortunately for Scott and Bob, intelligence is about more than mentally rotating 3D objects ... What Psych 101 classes get wrong about Abraham Maslow’s “self-actualization” ... Is there a right way to self-actualize? ... What is personality? ... How self-actualized is Bob? He took Scott’s test to find out. ... The “Dark Triad” (and why we need a little darkness) ... Gender differences in narcissism ...

Father Michael's 22 years as a Carthusian Monk ... The contemplative tradition in Christianity ... How Zen captivated Father Michael ... Do Buddhist and Hindu mystics experience the same thing? ... Zen's influence on Father Michael’s theology ... God, creation, and evolution ... What insights does Christianity add to Buddhism? ... Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's influence on Father Michael ...

What distinguishes “action” from simple motor movement? ... Can animals take deliberate action? ... Why narrative has a place in science and physics ... Biology, evolution, and the emergence of action ... Why does Massimo want a beer? ... Dan: The “free will problem” is ill-formed ... How the evolution of language brought meaning to human behavior ... Massimo and Dan's latest projects ...

Sabine's new book, Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray ... Sabine: There’s no reason to think the four fundamental forces can be unified ... What "beauty" means to a physicist ... The weirdness of the Higgs Boson ... Must there be an explanation for the fundamental forces? ... Sabine: Multiverse theory isn't science ... What Sabine wants physicists to be doing instead of chasing beauty ...

A social theory based on natural selection ... "This whole gender thing that’s blown up in the last 10 years..." ... Women, men, and intelligence ... Could evolutionary psychology explain honor killings? ... “The older I get, the more I turn to prayer and meditation” ... Robert’s recurring problem with spite ...

The prescience of theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ... Teilhard's synthesizing of the "above" and the "ahead" ... John: The creation of humans is not the universe's climax ... John: God is "not yet" ... Science and faith as different layers of explanation ... Searching for God in a scientific age ... Why John rejects perennialism ... Questions from the live audience ...