Within Reason

By Alex J O'ConnorSociety & Culture Philosophy

Ranking
28th
on Philosophy
Favorites
410
Followers
Typical duration
93 min
per episode
If it hooks
27%
finish an episode

Based on Podcast App listening data

Within Reason episodes

August 10, 2025 #116 Peter Godfrey Smith - Animal Consciousness: What Can We Know?
Peter Godfrey-Smith is an Australian philosopher of science and writer, who is currently Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. Buy his books here.

Timestamps:
0:00 How Many Times Has the Brain Independently Evolved?
4:36 What is a Nervous System?
7:12 The Differences Between the Human and Animal Brains
13:40 What Does an Octopus Brain Look Like?
25:21 What is it Like to be an Octopus?
35:48 Are the Mind and Body Distinct?
42:46 Panpsychism: Is Everything Conscious?
55:53 How Do Experiences Combine Into One Consciousness?
01:05:08 Which Animals Feel Pain? What is it Like?
01:16:51 Should We Make Shrimp Farming an Ethical Priority?
01:29:22 Animal Science and Animal Foods
01:35:59 The Ethics of Killing Animals
01:52:13 Are Octopuses Playful?

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1 hr 57 min
August 04, 2025 #115 Phil Halper & Niayesh Afshordi - What Came Before The Big Bang?
Niayesh Afshordi is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo. Phil Halper is a science communicator and YouTuber. Together, they have authored a book called "Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins", an overview of the state of modern cosmology on the nature of the big bang.

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2 hr 1 min
July 28, 2025 #114 Simon Blackburn - What is Ethical Emotivism?
Simon Blackburn is well-known both as a writer of popular philosophy introductions (like Think), and also a significant figure in non-cognitivist meta-ethics, having invented the term “quasi-realism” to describe his moral philosophy.

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1 hr 22 min
July 21, 2025 #113 Sabine Hossenfelder - Superdeterminism: Why Are Physicists Scared of It?
Sabine Hossenfelder is a German theoretical physicist, author, science communicator, and YouTuber. She is the author of Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions.

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1 hr 1 min
July 13, 2025 #112 Rick Alan Ross - Do Cult Leaders Believe Their Own Lies?
Rick Alan Ross is an American deprogrammer, cult specialist, and founder and executive director of the non-profit Cult Education Institute. Frequently appearing in the news and other media, discussing groups some consider cults. Ross has intervened in more than 500 deprogramming cases in various countries. (Wikipedia)
Get Rick's book, "Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out" here.

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1 hr 55 min
July 06, 2025 #111 Helen Bond - The Forgotten Female Disciples of Jesus
Helen Bond is Professor of Christian Origins at the New College, University of Edinburgh, and former head of the School of Divinity there. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
In 2023, she co-authored a book with Joan Taylor called Women Remembered: Jesus’ Female Disciples. Watch the documentary version here.

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1 hr 26 min
July 01, 2025 #110 The Cultural Tutor - Why Modern Love Fails and How to Rescue It
Sheehan Quirke is The Cultural Tutor. A writer on history, art, and architecture with millions of followers, he is also the author of the forthcoming The Cultural Tutor: Forty-Nine Lessons You Wish You’d Learned at School, which is currently available for preorder here.

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1 hr 17 min
June 22, 2025 #109 David Pakman - The New Threat Donald Trump Poses to America
David Pakman is an American progressive political commentator and host of @thedavidpakmanshow .

Buy David's book, The Echo Machine here

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1 hr 9 min
June 16, 2025 #108 Marcus du Sautoy - Do Numbers Exist?
Marcus du Sautoy is a British mathematician, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, Fellow of New College, Oxford and author of popular mathematics and popular science books. Buy Blueprints: How Mathematics Shapes Creativity here.

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1 hr 7 min
June 12, 2025 #107 Dale Allison - Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?
Dale Allison is an American historian and Christian theologian. His areas of expertise include the historical Jesus, the Gospel of Matthew, Second Temple Jewish literature, and the history of the interpretation and reception of the Bible. Allison is the Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary (2013- ). (Wikipedia)
By Dale Allison's book, The Resurrection of Jesus, here.

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1 hr 27 min