Is the meaning of life a matter of taste? ... Suicidal despair vs. the wonder of existence ... John: We must believe in free will ... The downsides of free will ... Finding meaning in psychedelic experiences ... John's craziest drug trip: "God chewing his fingernails" ...

How Bertrand Russell changed Massimo's life ... Russell's waning influence on philosophy ... The legacy of Russell's "Why I Am Not a Christian" ... How Gilbert Ryle turned Dan away from Platonism ... Category errors and "knowing how" vs. "knowing that" ... Why history is more important in philosophy than in science ...

How Greg became the humanist chaplain at Harvard ... Humanism's core values ... Greg: We have to create meaning for our lives ... Confronting grief and loss in the humanist tradition ... Could humanism ever rival the global religions? ... Why online communities are not enough ...

Why Jerusha doesn't call her path to Islam a "conversion" ... Jerusha: In Islam, science and belief are not in opposition ... Constructing a Muslim feminist theology ... Taqwa, the egalitarian idea of "God consciousness" ... What the Koran says about the salvation of non-Muslims ... Female Muslim scholars are between a rock and a hard place ...

How Dacher became a science adviser for Pixar’s Inside Out ... What science tells us about emotions and their function ... How do you define an emotion? ... The science behind the islands of personality in Inside Out ... Do we remember our emotions accurately? ... The (many) ways your emotions mislead you ...

How Lucy, as Xena, became an icon for gay fans ... Why do we search for meaning? ... Bob tries to solve Lucy's spiritual crisis ... The psychological ups and down of a TV actor ... How Lucy makes herself happy ... Fighting worries about what others think of you ...

The Hindu idea that you are one with the universe ... Moral implications of this idea of oneness ... How different are Hindu and Buddhist philosophy? ... Grappling with the Buddhist doctrine of "emptiness" ... Connecting Hindu belief with the Christian Trinity ... John: No, believers are not all “climbing the same mountain ...

A short history of Wittgenstein’s influence ... Why Wittgenstein causes problems for philosophers ... Where does meaning come from? ... What it is to follow a rule ... The illusion of intrinsic value and meaning ... How Wittgenstein changed our understanding of the mind ...

Maintaining mindfulness when “literally on fire” ... Regaining a meditative practice after severe trauma ... Separating suffering from pain ... How the plane crash made Allan’s life better ... Allan’s transformation from actor to meditation teacher ... Using technology to support a meditation practice ...

The "strong AI thesis": Can a machine think? ... Debating the usefulness of the Turing test ... Could your brain be swapped with a silicon replica? ... Massimo: You'll never be able to upload your consciousness ... Digging into the famous "Chinese room" thought experiment ... Dan: Neuroscience won't solve philosophy of mind puzzles ...