In this episode, hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols discuss Thomas Nagel's 1974 essay "What Is It Like To Be a Bat?" How did materialism, for centuries the tool of radical thinkers, become the philosophy of the status quo? And why was this philosophical essay about the possibility of understanding other minds—or any minds—so crucial for contemporary thinkers?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices