Love & Philosophy
It's reasonable to care. Exploring philosophical, scientific, technological & poetic spaces beyond either/or bounds. From the heart. Deeply researched. Mostly unscripted. Hosted by philosopher and cognitive scientist Andrea Hiott. A project with Making Ways. Buy the book Holding Paradox: The Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness. And join the Substack.
Episodes
Isabella Granic on Liminal Learning, Neither Nor, and Education for Flourishing
Andrea Hiott introduces a guest podcast from Life Itself, Jacob Kishere interviews developmental psychologist Isabella Granic about “education for flourishing” ahead of the Human Transformation in a Time of Metacrisis conference at Harvard. Granic describes shifting from studying anxiety and depression as psychopath...
Beyond Genes, Toward Meaning & Care, But Rigorously
Andrea Hiott hosts British science writer Philip Ball (former Nature editor; trained chemist and physicist) to discuss his book How Life Works and why the popular idea “it’s all in the genes” is untenable. Ball argues biology is shifting beyond mechanistic, bottom-up “blueprint” metaphors toward a view of organisms as open, adapt...
Andrea Hiott in conversation with investor Jenna Nicholas.
Jenna discusses her book The Enlightened Bottom Line and how spirituality, love, and purpose can inform investing and business rather than oppose them. She traces formative experiences from ages 11–14 in a Swiss “Transformation for Peace” program and speaking at Commonwealth Day in Westminster Abbey, including meeting Desmond Tutu, ...
What Marks our Movement through life?
Andrea Hiott interviews A.A. Kostas, a Singapore-based lawyer and writer who runs the Substack Way Markers, blending poetry, fiction, and essays. They discuss how moving through different places shaped his writing and his interest in avoiding simplistic binaries through discernment—first identifying what kind of decision is in front of you—using hiking metaphors of...
B. Scot Rousse (“B”)'s substack, "Without Why," focuses on what it means to be alive in an age of intelligent machines. He is philosopher in residence at Topos Institute and visiting scholar in Philosophy at Berkeley. He also drums in 3 punk bands.
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Andrea Hiott has a conversation with philosopher B. Sco...
The Great Psychology Delusion: Why the Mean Misleads and Pluralism Matters
This is an academic psychology-focused episode with lecturer Marek McGann, whose work spans enactive cognitive science, embodiment, politics, feminist philosophy, and STS. Andrea and Marek discuss his co-authored book The Great Psychology Delusion with Craig Speelman. McGann explains why “delusion” fits psycho...
This is an impromptu bonus episode previewing the NYC premiere of Sophie Fiennes’s documentary film Acting, which follows the celebrated theatre company Cheek by Jowl through their production of Macbeth. Andrea is speaking with her this week in NYC.
Andrea introduces the ideas of director Declan Donnellan, whose book The Actor in the Space (2024) helps us get some insight into the film.
Subjects: the ph...
Holding Paradox Through Serious Play: Can serious play be a portal to wisdom?
This is an episode about puzzles and care. Andrea has a conversation with puzzle maker Jason Robillard (StumpCraft) about how puzzles cultivate new ways of being and seeing, holding paradox by repeatedly joining opposites only to realize they were never quite opposites but mirror-like pieces of a coherent whole. Robillard des...
Facing Reality with Clear Eyes but without Desperation: Scilla Elworthy on Listening with the Heart to Transform Conflict
Three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Scilla Elworthy reflects on 70 years of work with conflict and war, beginning at age 12 after seeing tanks in Budapest and being sent to help concentration camp survivors. She describes how others’ suffering “hit” her heart an...
Janet Levin on Physicalism, Zombies, and Changing Minds
Andrea hosts philosopher Janet Levin, newly retired after 40 years at USC and the department’s first tenure-track woman hire, to discuss a life in analytic philosophy and debates about mind and consciousness. Levin recounts stumbling into philosophy at the University of Chicago with Ted Cohen and later studying at MIT amid figures li...
Love and Philosophy Beyond Dichotomy: Way Making, Care, and a New Season
Andrea Hiott introduces Love and Philosophy Beyond Dichotomy and reflects on how a late-2023 research project became a podcast shaped by the guiding question of “way making”: how we find our way and how our way makes us. Drawing from philosophy, neuroscience, urban planning, ecology, biology, and navigability heuristics, s...
From the archive.
Andrea introduces an archive episode of Love and Philosophy featuring Perry Zurn, provost and associate professor of philosophy at American University about the book Curious Minds, coauthored with Dani Bassett. The intro previews an upcoming season launch with Janet Levin.
In the following conversation, Perry links curiosity to desire and love, arguing love can guide curiosity awa...
From the archive. First aired in Jan of 2025. A conversation about Hegel. Andrea talks with Karen Ng, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. The discussion delves into Hegel's ideas on contradiction, self-consciousness, life, and love, revealing how these notions are intricately intertwined in his work. Karen Ng brings forward her insights from her award-winning book 'Hegel's Concept of...
Love, Science, and the Dynamics of Change: From the Archive
This is a replay of an earlier conversation with Richard Watson (which was already an unpublished conversation we'd had earlier, so there's lots of nesting here). Initially focusing on Universal Darwinism and its limitations, the discussion evolves into a broader examination of alternative mechanisms like learning and mutual transformative c...
Trust, Agency, and the Art of Games with C. Thi Nguyen
Revisting a conversation from late 2023 with philosopher C Thi Nguyen. The discussion delves into the philosophical aspects of games, how they shape our agency, and the profound impact they have on our cognition and perception of reality. Thi explores the intersection of love, trust, and philosophical inquiry, highlighting the intricate ways games infl...
AI, Suffering, Remedy and Love as the voluntary suspension of habitual responses into awareness: This episode is with philosopher and cognitive scientist Thomas Metzinger, a Professor Emeritus at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and a member of the German National Academy Leopoldina. He has worked mainly in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and applied ethics, particularly focusing on neurotechnology, ...
with philosopher Esther Lightcap Meek, Professor of Philosophy emerita at Geneva College, in Western Pennsylvania
exploring from-to fractals, Michael Polanyi, Meek's Indeterminate Future Manifestations, the difference between information and knowledge, epistemological therapy... and all with some laughter and good cheer
Happy holidays! These conversations are part of research: to skip the research ramble, go ...
Maybe memory is a way we communicate with ourselves and the world at various layers, a bridging experience of what we call time and space.
In this episode, Andrea Hiott and Lynn Nadel continue their ongoing talks about memory. This time they explore the intricate workings of the hippocampus, focusing on its role in bridging spatial and temporal gaps. They delve into how memory, navigation, and cognitive maps are i...
Hey everybody. This podcast is about seemingly impossible combinations and this one is the doozy of love and power. It’s about the politics of care. Or love in politics. Can you hold those words at once? Can we? We might be surprised by ourselves.
Jamie Bristow has spent the last fifteen years bringing mindfulness and contemplative practices into the British Parliament, the UN, and halls of...
This episode, hosted by philosopher Andrea Hiott, explores the concept of embracing paradox with Lisa Maroski, author of 'Embracing Paradox, Evolving Language.' The discussion delves into how our language separates concepts, leading to binary thinking, and how questioning and reexamining these linguistic habits can foster a deeper understanding of interconnectedness. Using the metaphor of the Mobius Strip, Lisa e...
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