The Uncommon Wisdom Podcast

In this episode, Liz and I discuss the rationality of faith, reasons and evidence for the existence of God, whether Pascal’s Wager is a bad bet, and many other interesting topics.

Liz Jackson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Ryerson University. Her main philosophical interests are in epistemology and philosophy of religion. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame

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In this episode, Bryan and I discuss why voters are largely uninformed and irrational, the signaling theory of higher education, the case for open borders, and the role and value of failure in life.

Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University, and bestselling author of The Myth of the Rational Voter, The Case Against Education, and Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration.

In this episode, Chris and I discuss labor markets as markets, profit and wage motives, labor shortages, the plausibility of Universal Basic Income (UBI), and many other labor related topics. This is an especially relevant episode given the current economic climate.

Chris M. Kaiser is a research assistant working on labor issues at a thinktank in Washington D.C.

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Prof. Freiman and I discuss the importance of elections, whether one can complain if they didn’t vote, the (dis)value of political participation, free-riding in a democracy, the fact that so many voters are poorly informed, and much more.

Prof. Christopher Freiman is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the College of William & Mary. He is the author, most recently, of Why It’s OK to Ignore Politics (Routledge).

Prof. Boettke and I discussed Austrian economics, the nature of incentives and why they matter, what philosophers and economists can learn from each other, whether free markets can hold as the West loses faith in them, and a whole lot more.

Peter Boettke is a University Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University, the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism, and the Director of the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Prof. Cowen and I had an interview on topics ranging from economic growth as a moral imperative, the nature of UFOs, whether rent seeking is a drain on the economy, and whether Plato, pumpkin spice, and the Founding Fathers are overrated, why we should (or shouldn’t) care about chess, and how to think about failure, among other topics.

Tyler Cowen is the Holbert L. Harris chair in economics at George Mason University, Faculty Director at the Mercatus Center, and co-author of the popular blog Marginal Revolution.

Prof. Westra and I discuss his decision to become a philosopher, why gut feelings can be a better approach to decision-making than weighing pros and cons, why people are bad at predicting what they will want in the future, the nature of social mind reading, the reliability of moral character attributions to friends and loved ones, and many much.

Evan Westra is a postdoctoral fellow at York University. He works on a number of topics in the philosophy of cognitive science and moral psychology, particularly issues in the theory of mind, character judgment, and the psychology of social norms. He received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Maryland.

In this episode, Prof. Jaworski and I discuss the relationship between business and ethics, the ethical scope of the marketplace, and various objections to the practice of paying people for blood plasma—a market that undoubtedly saves numerous lives.

Peter Jaworski is an Associate Teaching Professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He specializes in business and medical ethics, and holds a doctorate in philosophy from Bowling Green State University.

In this episode, Dr. Bhattacharya and I discuss various aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic: the differences between the Alpha and Delta strains, whether vaccine policy is more about paternalism than public health, the efficacy of both mask wearing and the vaccines, the vulnerability of (especially young) children to the virus, and much more.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is Professor of Medicine at Stanford Medical School, Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economics Research, and Professor, by Courtesy, of Economics. He holds an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Economics, both from Stanford University.

In this episode, Prof. Miller and I discuss the value of good character, the empirical evidence showing that most of us are morally mediocre (not too good; not too bad), what steps we can take to develop better character, whether developing it bumps us against diminishing marginal returns, and to what extent, if any, religious folks tend to have better character than secular folks. Most of the discussion was based on his excellent 2018 book, The Character Gap (Oxford University Press).

Prof. Christian Miller is the A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forrest University. His research is primarily in contemporary ethics and philosophy of religion.