Naked Humanity

What are the impacts of technology on our health, wellness, and efforts to live a good life? Stefani chats with philosopher of cognition and technology Chris Burr to probe the depths of our relationships with technology, focusing on smartphones and social media. They chat data mining, news feeds, user consent, and the ways in which our relationships with each other, the world, and ourselves are rapidly changing.

Philosophy was once the source of our world’s best solace. It was the source of our best advice, our best systems of meaning and beauty, and our best inspirations. Today it is an academic discipline that has all but disappeared from public conversation about  the stuff that matters most: who we are, what we should value, how to live our best lives. In some ways philosophy has really died, and with tragic consequences. Today Stefani maps some factors that contributed to this death, and the carnage left in its wake.

Ever get the advice to just “find yourself”? In this fascinating podcast Stefani chats with scholar Amod Lele about how Western society romanticizes individualism. Why are we obsessed with being unique, and are there more or less healthy ways to do it? To explore these ideas they dive deep into the relationship Being Yourself has with capitalism, with cultural appropriation, and with identity politics. Also discussed are transgender rights, the Budddhist notion of selfhood, Frozen, and Monty Python.

Most people understand that we are easily manipulated by fear. But just how far does this reach? How pervasive is fear in today’s world, and how does it affect our politics, relationships, and personal strength and resilience? In this episode Stefani traces the history of fear, the relationship between fear and evil, and the way in which our society has become religiously obsessed--to a dangerous degree--with the need to sanitize the world and keep everybody safe.

How do words affect you? How does grammar and punctuation affect you? It does a whole lot more than you might think. In today’s episode, specialist in English literature and affect theory Samantha Morse explores how language is subconsciously felt and causes us to feel and believe things we might not even know we’re feeling and believing. Stefani and Samantha also discuss the anatomy of a tweet, Stefani’s own manipulation of language, and how concerns about the power of political rhetoric have been alive since the beginning of literacy.

Science may be imperfect, but it’s honestly pretty great. Why do so many people hate and distrust it, then? In this episode Stefani gets to the bottom of it by exploring 1) how science often threatens people’s worldviews and emotional stability, and 2) how the West became a world that so distrusts its once cherished institutions.

We can hardly trust  anything anymore. We can’t trust our banks, our media, our governments. But what about science? Even though it has its problems, science has remained more trustworthy than other institutions. Why? In this episode, member of the British Royal Academy and expert social scientist Harry Collins teaches us what’s special about science and how it has the potential to be the glue that holds our fraying democracy together.

You might THINK that objectivity exists and that you rationally find your way to truth with the powers of pure reason, but in this episode Stefani demonstrates why that’s false. Philosopher David Hume hinted at this reality a few hundred years ago, but it wasn’t until very recently that neuroscientists have begun to explore how deeply intertwined thoughts and emotions are. Why do we believe what we believe? Because knowing is a feeling.

Why do we believe in Gods? Why is belief in supernatural deities found universally around the world? This is a question that has baffled scientists and scholars for centuries. Dr. Connor Wood comes on today’s podcast to discuss some of today’s hottest theories and to fill us in on what might be the missing piece of the puzzle.

Building on conversations with recent guests, Stefani argues that there are two different kinds of self-esteem. One has the power to melt our societies to the ground; the other has the power to lift us up and progress with hope into the future. Which kind of self-esteem do you have?