Tent Talks

In this episode of Tent Talks, I speak with Dr. Philip Goff, who is a professor of philosophy at Durham University.  Professor Goff’s research focuses on the philosophy of consciousness and the question of how to integrate consciousness into our scientific worldview.  In recent years, Professor Goff has become one of the leading proponents of a position called panpsychism, which holds that consciousness is fundamental and a ubiquitous feature of the physical world.  Here, I speak with Professor Goff about panpsychism and his preferred version of the view, which holds that the universe itself is conscious.  Check out Professor Goff’s website here: https://www.philipgoffphilosophy.com. ; Buy his most recent book here: https://www.amazon.com/Galileos-Error-Foundations-Science-Consciousness-ebook/dp/B07KNVQ6H5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3MUTKEVE6FAS8&keywords=galileo%27s+error&qid=1582922559&sprefix=galileo%2Caps%2C148&sr=8-1 ;

In this episode of Tent Talks, I speak with Zori Lane and Gino De Angelis, who are the leaders of the University of Connecticut chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America.  We discuss many topics, including socialism versus capitalism, the concept of ‘fully automated luxury communism’, healthcare, the 2020 presidential election, and cancel culture.

In this episode of Tent Talks, I speak with Professor Evan Perkoski. Dr. Perkoski is a professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut whose research focuses on terrorism and insurgency. Topics discussed include: terrorist technological innovations (e.g. suicide bombings, sarin gas attacks, aerial hijackings, cyberattacks), domestic terrorism, the logic of strategic nonviolence, the fragmentation of armed groups, Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, and US foreign policy in the Middle East.  Check out more of Professor Perkoski’s work at the following link: https://www.evanperkoski.com/.

In this episode of Tent Talks, I speak with Professor Charles Lansing about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.  Dr. Lansing is an associate professor of history at the University of Connecticut.  His research focuses on Germany in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially the Third Reich and the postwar German states, the Holocaust, European intellectual and social history, European imperialism and colonialism, and education in modern Europe.  Check out Professor Lansing’s website here: https://history.uconn.edu/faculty-by-name/charles-b-lansing/. Buy his last book here (entitled From Nazism to Communism: German Schoolteachers under Two Dictatorships): https://www.amazon.com/Nazism-Communism-Schoolteachers-Dictatorships-Historical/dp/0674050533/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=charles+lansing&qid=1581460452&s=books&sr=1-1 

In this episode of Tent Talks, I speak with Dr. C Thi Nguyen, who is an associate Professor of Philosophy at Utah Valley University. Dr. Nguyen and I discuss work that he has conducted in social epistemology. Topics covered include the hyper specialization problem, the concept of a cognitive island, the distinction between filter bubbles and echo chambers, the nature of trust, and moral outrage porn. Read Professor Nguyen’s work at the following link: https://objectionable.net/philosophy/

Follow him on twitter here: https://twitter.com/add_hawk?lang=en

This is a solo episode in which I talk about internet meme culture. In the episode, I discuss the origin of the ‘meme’ concept, the increasing role that memes are playing in political discourse, and the absurdist nature of contemporary memes.

In this episode of Tent Talks, I speak with Dr. Michael Patrick Lynch, who is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut. Among other things, Professor Lynch is the author and editor of ten books and director of the Humanities Institute at the University of Connecticut. His research concerns truth, democracy, public discourse and the ethics of technology. His work has either appeared in or been profiled in magazines such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Wired. In this episode, I speak to Professor Lynch about his most recent book entitled Know-It-All Society: Truth and Arrogance in Political Culture. Buy the book here:

https://www.amazon.com/Know-All-Society-Arrogance-Political/dp/1631493612

Check out Professor Lynch’s TED talk and a New York Times article of his at the following links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDjM5lw8OYo

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/opinion/fake-news.html  

In this episode of Tent Talks, I speak with Dr. David Pizarro, who is a professor of psychology at Cornell University, and cohost of the popular podcast, Very Bad Wizards. In this episode, Professor Pizarro and I talk about his podcast, his work on moral judgment, disgust sensitivity and trustworthiness, and the art of rap and beat making.

Check out Professor Pizarro’s work at the following link: http://www.peezer.net/

Listen to the Very Bad Wizards podcast here: https://verybadwizards.fireside.fm/

In this episode of Tent Talks, I speak with Dr. Rowan Lockwood. Dr. Lockwood is currently Professor and Chair of the Geology Department at the College of William & Mary, having received her BA from Yale University and PhD from the University of Chicago. Professor Lockwood is a Paleontologist whose research seeks to understand how extinction and environmental change influence the evolution and ecology of fossil marine invertebrates. Here, Dr. Lockwood and I have a wide ranging discussion about dinosaurs, before talking about some of the research she has conducted on extinction events. Check out some of Professor Lockwood’s research at the following link: https://www.wm.edu/as/geology/people/faculty/lockwood_r.php