Closer To Truth

How did the universe begin—and what determines the laws of physics we observe?

In this conversation, Thomas Hertog discusses On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking’s Final Theory, presenting a new approach to cosmology developed through years of collaboration with Stephen Hawking. Exploring quantum cosmology, the multiverse, fine-tuning, and the “no-boundary”...

Can virtual worlds be genuinely real?

In this conversation, David Chalmers explores the philosophical implications of virtual reality, simulation theory, and digital existence. Discussing themes from his book Reality+, Chalmers examines whether we could be living in a simulation, whether virtual worlds can contain real meaning and value, and how emerging digital realities challenge ...

In this conversation, Anil Seth discusses a new scientific approach to consciousness — moving beyond the traditional “hard problem” toward explaining the actual properties of conscious experience. Robert Lawrence Kuhn and Seth explore phenomenology, neural correlates of consciousness, predictive perception, conscious selfhood, and why measuring consciousness may be essential for understand...

Why do we need philosophy to understand evolution?

Robert Lawrence Kuhn explores the philosophy of evolutionary biology — not just how evolution works, but what its core concepts really mean. Through conversations with Elliott Sober, Richard Dawkins, Samir Okasha, John Dupré, Dennis Noble, and Michael Ruse, this episode examines natural selection, common ancestry, challenges t...

What if the boundaries between you and every other conscious being are an illusion? Philosopher Arnold Zuboff makes the case for Universalism — the radical view that first-person immediacy, not any particular body or origin, is what makes an experience yours. And if that's right, then you exist wherever consciousness exists. Arnold Zuboff is an American philosopher known for his work on personal identity, consciousness, and ...

Philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein introduces the idea of the “mattering instinct”—the deep human drive to see our lives as significant. In this conversation, she explores how our longing to matter may arise from the very material reality we often try to transcend.

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is an award-winning philosopher, writer, and public intellectual. She is the author of 10 books of acclaimed fiction a...

What might intelligence become—not just in centuries, but across millions or even billions of years?

Robert explores the deepest questions about the far future of intelligence in the universe. While we often think in terms of decades, extending our perspective to vast cosmic timescales challenges our assumptions about meaning, purpose, and what may ultimately be real. If the future holds clues, how far can we reasonably specu...

We may be creating something a million times smarter than all of humanity combined — and we have no plan for what happens next. AI safety pioneer Roman Yampolskiy lays out the risks, the arguments, and whether any solution exists. Roman V. Yampolskiy is a tenured Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Louisville's Speed School of Engineering, where he founded and directs the Cyber Security Lab. Widely ...

Is the world we experience truly real, or is it more like a dream we haven't yet woken up from? Michael James, a leading scholar and translator of the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, explores how Ramana's philosophy challenges our most basic assumptions about the self, the world, and the nature of reality. Michael James has spent nearly 50 years studying, practicing, and translating the works of Sri Ramana Maharshi. He studied ...

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I like arguments about God, whether based on science, philosophy or personal experience. I like to push and to be pushed, explore the possible existence of a Creator. I must also consider defeaters of God.

Featuring interviews with Rebecca Goldstein, Ian Barbour, John Polkinghorne, Robin Collins, Anthony Gra...

Explicitness is one of the fundamental mysteries in which our lives are wrapped. Our capacity, as conscious subjects, to make things explicit, so that what-is presents itself as “that-it-is” or “that-it-is-the-case” is at the heart of the mystery of human being. Philosopher Raymond Tallis explores how explicitness connects with fundamental ontological, metaphysical, and epistemological questions.

Tallis' la...

Almost all religions use art in their sacred spaces and many use art forms in their worship rituals. Certainly, there is powerful social cohesion at work. Can cross-religion communications in art, largely nonverbal, work to enhance similarities and mitigate differences among religions that, at least superficially, have significant differences? Can art be a much-needed unifier? Featuring interviews with Oludamini Ogunnaike, Jamal El...

Oxford physicist Vlatko Vedral seeks to shatter complacency in modern physics and show why five revolutionary experiments in quantum physics promise to open the gates separating us from a true understanding of the universe. They may sound very strange—one essentially involves entangling a human with Schrödinger’s cat—but they lay bare elements of our theories that are particularly problematic, such as the widespre...