More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/diogenes-and-the-honest-life.

Diogenes of Sinope was a famous—or infamous—4th-century BCE Greek philosopher. Reportedly, he lived in a jar, performed many bodily functions in public, and wandered public spaces with a lit lantern in broad daylight. But what was the broader social critique advanced by Diogenes and his followers? What did they believe was needed for a life of freedom and virtue? And how does Diogenes continue to serve as a symbol of defiance to authority and artificial values? Josh and Ray defer to Inger Kuin from the University of Virginia, author of Diogenes: The Rebellious Life and Revolutionary Philosophy of the Original Cynic.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/civil-disobedience/.

Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King all engaged in civil disobedience, and are widely admired for doing so.  But how can democratic society function if each person’s conscience has to be satisfied for a law to be obeyed?  When is civil disobedience justified?  When is it required?  How does the concept fit with the great ethical and political philosophies?  John and Ken discuss the ethics of protest and punishment with Kimberley Brownlee from the University of Manchester, author of Conscience and Conviction: The Case for Civil Disobedience.

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/william-james. 

William James is a great figure, historically important as a philosopher (pragmatism and radical empiricism), a student of religion (author of the monumental "Varieties of Religious Experience"), and psychology. Ken and John examine the life and ideas of this towering figure with Russell Goodman, a leading scholar of Pragmatism and author of Wittgenstein and William James.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/why-world-so-weird.

Quantum mechanics, mathematics, human consciousness…. whichever way you slice it, the universe is weird. How can our conscious minds be made from unconscious atoms? What should we make of quantum entanglement, or the fact that light can be both a particle and a wave? Why is it that there are exactly as many fractions as there are whole numbers? Josh and Ray raise an eyebrow with Eric Schwitzgebel from UC Riverside, author of The Weirdness of the World.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/the-examined-year-2025.

What happened over the past year that challenged our assumptions and made us think about things in new ways? Josh and Ray talk to philosophers and others about the events and ideas that shaped the last twelve months.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/mind-sharing.

Mind reading might sound like the stuff of science fiction. But in philosophy and psychology, mind reading is something that human beings do whenever we try to guess what another person is thinking. Could it be that people are also natural born mind sharers, unconsciously shaping our behavior to be understood by others? How do we change or exaggerate our actions when others are present? And how can we use these insights to communicate better with our loved ones? Josh and Ray share their mind(s) with Julian Jara-Ettinger, Director of the Computational Social Cognition Lab at Yale University.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/shakespeares-outsiders.

Over 400 years after his death, Shakespeare is still widely regarded as the greatest dramatist of all time. His many plays tackle questions about power, influence, identity, and moral and social status. His characters—be they villains or heroes—are often disdained because of their race, religion, class, disability, or gender. So what do Shakespeare’s plays reveal about identity and status in his time? How might they shed light on who we include and who we exclude today? Could Shakespearian dramas have more in common with modern day soap operas than we think? Ray and guest-host Adrian Daub go inside with David Sterling Brown from Trinity College, author of Shakespeare’s White Others.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/im-yunjidang.

18th-century Korean philosopher Im Yunjidang was the first Confucian to argue for women’s equality in matters of morality and to claim that women, just like men, can be sages. She also argued that it isn’t just what you do that matters morally—it’s also how you decide. So what does it mean to be a sage and how does someone become one? How did Im Yunjidang use traditional Confucian texts to argue for women’s spiritual equality? And what did she think was important when it comes to making difficult moral choices? Josh and Ray explore her life and thought with Hwa Yeong Wang from Duke Kunshan University, editor of Korean Women Philosophers and the Ideal of a Female Sage: The Essential of Writings of Im Yungjidang and Gang Jeongildang.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/gilbert-ryle.

Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) was a British philosopher of mind and language best known for his book The Concept of Mind. He developed a novel argument against Cartesian dualism, which he called “the doctrine of the ghost in the machine”—the idea that our minds and bodies are separate substances. Ryle introduced a new term for the problem with this argument: Descartes was making a “category mistake.” But what exactly is a category mistake, and how bad is it to make one? If Cartesian dualism is false, what is the relationship between our minds and our bodies? And what does it have to do with the distinction between “knowing-how” and “knowing-that”? Josh and Ray turn their minds to Michael Kremer from the University of Chicago.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/can-ai-help-us-understand-babies.

Artificial intelligence is everywhere in our day-to-day lives and our interactions with the world. And it’s made impressive progress at a variety of visual, linguistic, and reasoning tasks. Does this improved performance indicate that computers are thinking, or is it just an engineering artifact? Can it help us understand how children acquire knowledge and develop language skills? Or are humans fundamentally different from machines? Josh and Ray decode the babble with Michael Frank, Professor of Human Biology at Stanford University and Director of the Symbolic Systems Program.