Conversations with Peter Boghossian

I love science fiction (fantasy's a distant second), but reading fiction always gnaws at me with guilt. That changed after talking with Clay Greene, Assistant Professor of Literature at the University of Austin (UATX).

Clay dismantled my doubts, proving literature is far more than an escape. It is ammunition for the War. By helping me reflect on some of my favorites, Joe Haldeman's The Forever War and Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and ...

James Klug and I had wide-ranging conversation at the Center for Inquiry in Los Angeles. James is behind some of the most viral clips that expose ideological inconsistencies on the left and right, though these have targeted inconsistencies across the political spectrum, including the...

Carlos Carvalho, President of the University of Austin (UATX), recently told me, "UATX is Navy Seals training for the mind". It's no surprise, then, that when I ask 19-year-old UATX student Merrick Meardon difficult philosophical questions, he was more than capable of sustaining a high level of discourse about concepts of "abiding significance". (Hat tip to the late philosopher Dan Dennett who popularized this phrase.)

Merrick and ...

Young people are having less sex. There are a lot of speculations as to why, e.g., digital distractions, increasing mental health issues, delayed independence and increased economic pressure, rising autism rates, changing cultural norms, etc., but ultimately, we don't really know why.

Helping me unpack these issues is none other than Rikki Schlott, best-selling author, New York Post columnist, and friend of the show. Rikki is writi...

Should you fuck your first cousin? This most idiotic of questions now directly confronts us at scale. Instead of talking about myriads of other problems society faces, we are reduced to have a conversation about inbreeding. Why? Because this is standard practice among millions of people immigrating to Western countries. Dr. Colin Wright and I discuss inbreeding and its prevalence in different societies.

Dr. Colin Wright is an evolu...

"Corey Feldman vs. The World" is the best documentary I've ever seen. It's a candid glimpse into how fame corrupts, twists, and damages one's perception of reality.

Corey Feldman (born in 1971) is an American actor and "musician" who was once uber-famous. He rose to fame as one of the most prominent child stars of the '80s, forming the iconic duo "The Two Coreys" with Corey Haim. His blockbuster coming-of-age and adventure films in...

Adam Szetela finished his Ph.D. in the Department of Literatures in English at Cornell University. Before Cornell, he was a visiting fellow in the Program on the Study of Capitalism at Harvard University. He is the author of That Book Is Dangerous! How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing. In this episode, Adam and I discuss t...

Hamza Andreas Tzortzis is an Islamic apologist and the founder and CEO of Sapience Institute.

Hamza and I only scratched the surface of this conversation about Islam. The goal was not to solve theological, political, metaphysical, or divisive social issues in 60 minutes. The goal was to introduce you, the audience, to what and how one thoughtful, controversial, and highly educated Muslim who has devoted his life to Islam thinks abo...

At the Comedy Cellar in NYC, in a basement crammed with 180 seekers of unvarnished truth, Coleman Hughes, Dov Davidoff, and I laughed and philosophized. We didn't show up to pamper fragile egos or flash virtue badges; we plunged into the messy underbelly of sexuality, identity, and the existential void that's stranding men (esp. young men) in a swamp of self-doubt, feminization, and cultural derangement.

Watch this episode on YouTu...

In this conversation, Mia Hughes and I discuss transgender procedures and the language and obfuscation that allows them to occur (especially on children). We also discuss insane stories that she has uncovered while researching transgender issues.

I found this conversation with Mia Hughes fascinating and deeply disturbing. This is the fourth conversation I've had with Mia and the second Spectrum Street Epistemology we've done togeth...