Closer To Truth

Closer To Truth

Closer To Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions in Cosmos, Life, Consciousness, and Meaning. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Seek your own answers.

Episodes

October 1, 2025 27 mins

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.

 

Global Philosophy of Religion seeks diverse views and fresh ways of thinking from different religions/traditions about Ultimate Questions: God, consciousness, person/self, evil/suffering, afterlife/reincarnation, world to come. It does not avoid hard differences; it celebrates them.

 

Featuring interviews ...

Mark as Played
September 24, 2025 42 mins

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.

 

Physicist and computer scientist Stephen Wolfram explores how simple rules can generate complex realities, offering a bold new vision of fundamental physics and the structure of the universe. Additionally, from the foundations of cellular automata to the discovery of surprising patterns in nature, Wolfram ...

Mark as Played
September 17, 2025 27 mins

If you enjoy our content, consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.

 

Humanity’s future is now framed by artificial intelligence (AI) and increasing interventions in the body to enhance features and functions. This is transhumanism. Considering the stakes, and the dangers, a philosophical perspective is imperative.

 

Featuring interviews with...

Mark as Played
Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.     What is the three-way relationship among mind, art, and transcendence? What is it about art that can elicit the sense of transcendence, going beyond the self, bursting the constraining bonds of semantic language? What is it about transcendence that it can be expressed by art? What in fact is transcendenc...
Mark as Played
September 3, 2025 27 mins
Make a donation of any amount to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions.   Sexual questions abound. What is “normal” sexual behavior in light of diverse sexual variations? LGBTQ+ issues? Is sex in animal models relevant for human sexuality? A philosophical perspective can provide clarity.   Featuring interviews with Nathan Lents, Joshua Swamidass, Rachell Powell, Lisa Lloyd, and Quayshawn Spencer.   W...
Mark as Played

Contribute what you can to support Closer To Truth and keep our content free without the need for paywalls.

 

Many people believe that out-of-the-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs) are real. We do not assess the evidence and arguments, pro or con. We do explore what OBEs and NDEs would mean, if real, for theories of consciousness.

 

This episode features interviews with Bernardo Kastrup, Etzel Cardeña, Àlex ...

Mark as Played
August 20, 2025 27 mins

Contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.

 

Two kinds of questions probe evolution vs. religion. The first explores discrepancies, even contradictions, between the science of evolution and the beliefs of religion. The second examines how religion itself evolved.

 

Featuring interviews with Richard Dawkins, Michael Ruse, Alexander Rosenberg, Helen ...

Mark as Played

Contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions.

 

Clement Vidal, philosopher of science and astrobiologist, discusses the idea of something rather than nothing, differing religious worldviews, fine tuning and metaphysics, and more.

 

Watch more CTT Chats here.

 

Dr. Clément Vidal is a philosopher with a background in logic and cognitive sciences. He is co-director of the 'Evo Devo U...

Mark as Played
August 6, 2025 27 mins

Contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions.

 

What can evolution reveal about the developmental history of thinking and feeling? How did cognition and emotion (affect) co-develop over evolutionary time? Can evolution help solve the mystery of consciousness?

 

Featuring interviews with Peter Godfrey-Smith, S. Joshua Swamidass, Rachell Powell, Denis Noble, Terrence Deacon, Paul E....

Mark as Played

Make a contribution of any amount to help Closer To Truth continue exploring life's deepest questions.

 

Dr. Mark Bailey writes about the intersection between artificial intelligence, complexity, and national security. He is an associate professor at the National Intelligence University, where he is the Department Chair for Cyber Intelligence and Data Science, as well as the Director of the Data Science Intelligence Center.

 

This ...

Mark as Played
July 23, 2025 27 mins
What is “human” nature? While human beings are animals, we believe we are special, radically different from other animals. Why? What traits are unique to humans? Are we sure? How to explore human nature from an evolutionary perspective?     Featuring interviews with Quayshawn Spencer, Alexander Rosenberg, Massimo Pigliucci, Rachell Powell, Helen De Cruz, Paul E. Griffiths, and John Dupré.   Make a donation to Closer To Truth to h...
Mark as Played

Donate any amount to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.

 

How do we define a soul? Can AI become consciousness? Julia Mossbridge discusses these questions along with the main trends in parapsychology, transpersonal psychology, and ESP research over the last decade.

 

Dr. Julia Mossbridge is an American cognitive neuroscientist, author, and educator who works on excep...

Mark as Played
Contribute what you can to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.   Two big ideas in biology: the evolution of species via mutation, fitness and natural selection; and the embryological development of individuals, from fertilized egg to whole organisms. How do these two big ideas—“Evo-Dev,” as it’s called—relate? What novel ideas emerge?   Featuring interviews with Denis Noble, Richa...
Mark as Played

James Hughes Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and a bioethicist and sociologist who serves as the Associate Provost for Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning for the University of Massachusetts Boston. He holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago, where he also taught bioethics at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Dr. Hughes is author ...

Mark as Played

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.

 

While evolution is how life on earth came to be, where does the evolution occur? At what level of the hierarchy of life—from genes to individuals to groups to species—does evolution work its selection magic? Is it multilevel?

 

Featuring interviews with Richard Dawkins, Lisa Lloyd, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Pau...

Mark as Played

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.

 

How will AI-generated deepfakes reshape truth, trust, and society? Can AI someday merge with human consciousness? Futurist Zoltan Istvan explores the disruptive power of synthetic media—from political deception to personal identity—and what it means for the future of ethics, law, and reality itself.

 

Zolt...

Mark as Played

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls: https://shorturl.at/OnyRq

 

Explore evolution—its scope and depth. How did life on earth come to be as it is, and how did humans come to be as we are? What are the deep principles driving evolution? What are evolution’s challenges and open questions?

 

Featuring interviews with Elliott Sober, Richard Dawkins...

Mark as Played

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.

 

Chris French discusses his latest book, The Science of Weird Shit, where he convincingly debunks ESP, communicating with the dead, and alien abduction claims, among other phenomena. All the while, however, French maintains that our belief in such phenomena is neither ridiculous nor trivial; if anything, su...

Mark as Played

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.

 

What could life be as we don’t know it? Three transitions in astrobiology. Non-life to life. Life to intelligent life. Intelligent life to technological civilization. For alien life, would Darwinian evolution hold? Fermi’s Paradox is profound: with at least 10 22 planets in the known universe, we find no e...

Mark as Played

Jonathan Schooler is an American psychologist and Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who researches various topics that intersect aspects of both cognitive psychology and philosophy such as: Belief in free will, meta-awareness, mindfulness, mind-Wandering, memory, creativity, and emotion. Schooler is also known for his sometimes controversial research on topic...

Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    Stuff You Should Know

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    Dateline NBC

    Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

    The Joe Rogan Experience

    The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

    On Purpose with Jay Shetty

    I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

    The Bobby Bones Show

    Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.