Terrifying Questions

Did you ever want something and not want it, or love somebody and also hate them? If you did, does that mean there are two different things inside you and they are having a war? Or are there three? This week Eric and Taylor look at the idea of internal conflict, internal peace, what it all means, and what if anything can be done about it. They also reply to two letters from nonimaginary listeners.

Are we still living in a cave? In this sequel episode Eric and Taylor contemplate what might happen if you got out of Plato’s cave. Would the sun blind you? And if you tried to convince the other prisoners to escape, would they kill you? Also this week, replies to some letters from listeners.

Are computers becoming so supersmart that they might supersede all human intelligence and eat us for lunch? Or is the very idea of “machine intelligence” a sad blend of conceptual confusion, willful ignorance, magical thinking, and financial opportunism? If you’re not sure (and if you can’t get an LLM to give you a straight answer), have a listen and get back in touch with your humanity.

Are ordinary experience and everyday life hopelessly benighted and delusional, a realm of shadows, full of spectacle and drama but signifying nothing? This week Eric and Taylor descend into the most famous four pages in the history of Western philosophy: Plato’s allegory of the cave. Tune in and overcome your fear of truth, wisdom, and the beautiful.

Eric and his temporary co-host, Tao Ruspoli (filmmaker, co-founder of the Bombay Beach Biennale) delve deep into what it is to teach and to learn... and they ask, "Can you learn anything really important from somebody else?"

Eric Kaplan and Tao Ruspoli ask about how entertainment may or may not be "true". Tao substitutes for Taylor for the next several episodes. We've also just introduced video to the podcast! Let us know what you think.

This week Julia Moskin, Pulitzer Prize winning food reporter for the New York Times, joins Eric and Taylor to ask whether food is (or can be) art, and how it manages to do that while also just being yummy. Should great food taste like nothing you’ve ever tasted before or should it taste like the best ever version of its ingredients? Is culinary quality subjective or objective? Why do critics write reviews? Tune in and find out.

Another chestnut. Am I a self? Am I myself? Am I yourself? And if there is no such thing as the self, do I not exist? The Buddha and David Hume thought so – were they right? Join Taylor and Eric as they explore the conceptual labyrinth that is ourselves.

A command performance of a classic. Are we our bodies? Do we have sould? Do we have minds? Do haircuts diminish our true selves? Can our selves be hit by a bus or uploaded onto The Cloud? The French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty's body could’t be with us for this episode, but he joins us in spirit to tell us why we only meet people in the flesh.

Another command performance. (Okay, rerun.) Are we utterly dependent on others or should we look inward and try to be true to ourselves? Can we do both? Or neither? This week Eric and Taylor look to Ralph Waldo Emerson for some help with this deeply unsettling question.

Some things are obviously horribly bad and wrong. Is it possible to make them right? Do some people deserve satisfaction while others deserve punishment or mercy? When juries deliver verdicts and judges impose sentences, are they speaking the truth or just fumbling in the dark and settling on the least bad outcome? This week Taylor and Eric reflect on the possibility, the impossibility, and the necessity of justice. 

Do we owe it to anyone (even ourselves) to be thin? Is being thin always healthier, sexier, better looking, or somehow more praiseworthy? Is it easier to be a great philosopher or to get into heaven if you’re thin? This week Eric and Taylor are joined by philosopher Kate Manne, whose new book examines diet culture and fatphobia. The truth, as it often does, might surprise you. 

This week Taylor is grading mountains (mountains, I tell you) of student essays. We are proud therefore to offer you a “command performance” (rerun) of this terrifying yet edifying episode on the perennial problem of free will. Is it an illusion? Are we puppets? When we think we are thinking (or acting) freely, are we actually just cogs in a heartless, meaningless, deterministic cosmic machine? Listen and find out.