Increments

#39 - The Enigma of Reason

April 27th, 2022  |  1 hr 1 min

bias, cognitive biases, evolution, psychology, rationality, reason

A discussion of The Enigma of Reason by Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber.

#38 (C&R Series, Ch. 2) - Wittgenstein vs Popper

March 8th, 2022  |  1 hr 3 mins

conjectures and refutations, philosophical problems, popper, wittgenstein, wittgenstein's poker

What made Wittgenstein so angry with Popper that he threatened him with a poker? We analyze Chapter 2 of C&R to find out.

#37 - Montessori Education w/ Matt Bateman

February 16th, 2022  |  1 hr 21 mins

child development, childhood, education, education reform, maria montessori, work

We're joined by Matt Bateman, the director of the Montessori think tank Montessorium, to talk all things education.

#36 - Analyzing Effective Altruism as a Social Movement

January 26th, 2022  |  56 mins 15 secs

core values, cults, effective altruism, groupthink, social movements

Vaden and Ben debate Effective Altruism and provocatively ask "Is EA a cult?" and come up with a resounding... Kinda. Maybe. It's hard to say.

#35 - Climate Change III: Fossil Fuels

November 29th, 2021  |  47 mins 48 secs

climate change, energy, energy transitions, fossil fuels, peak oil, shale gas revolution, vaclav smil

A dive into the science and politics of fossil fuels, guided by the inimitable Vaclav Smil.

#34 - Climate Change II: Growth, Degrowth, Reactions, Responses

November 9th, 2021  |  55 mins 3 secs

apocalypticism, climate change, degrowth, economic growth, optimism, specialization, trade

Round two of climate change! We talk about the degrowth movement, why economic growth is good for wellbeing, and respond to some of the criticism we received in the previous episode.

#33 (C&R Series, Ch. 3) - Instrumentalism and Essentialism

October 25th, 2021  |  40 mins 10 secs

essentialism, instrumentalism, language, politics, progress

We discuss Popper's delicious criticism of two dominant approaches to knowledge in physics and philosophy departments: instrumentalism and essentialism.

#32 - Climate Change I: Initial Thought-Crimes

October 5th, 2021  |  51 mins

alarmism, climate change, environmentalism, nuclear energy, renewables

We dip our toes into the heated (heating?) waters of the climate debate. Sorry Greta.

#31 - The Fall of the Weinstein Republic

September 14th, 2021  |  54 mins 51 secs

animal suffering, physics, secular guru, tim nguyen, weinstein

We had a semi-serious conversation about environmentalism in store for you, but we got trapped by the WIN (Weinsteinian institutional narrative). Like a black hole, the epic meltdown of Weinstein's and the confrontation with Tim Nguyen -- apparently the only adult in the room -- pulled us in, and we couldn't avoid talking about it.

#30 - Let's all just have a good cry (w/ Christofer Lövgren)

August 30th, 2021  |  1 hr 39 mins

community, criticism, crying, david deutsch, free will, labels

Christofer Lövgren joins us for a wide ranging discussion on community, criticism, and crying.

#29 - Some Scattered Thoughts on Superforecasting

August 16th, 2021  |  45 mins 20 secs

good judgement project, philip tetlock, politics, probability, superforecasting

We discuss Philip Tetlock's work on Superforecasting.

#28 (C&R Series, Ch. 9) - Why is Logic Applicable to Reality?

July 19th, 2021  |  1 hr 1 min

arithmetic, logic, philosophy of mathematics, rules of inference

We discuss Chapter 9 of Conjectures and Refutations: Why are the Calculi of Logic and Arithmetic Applicable to Reality?

#27 - A Conversation with Marianne

June 28th, 2021  |  2 hrs 1 min

activism, police, politics, race, social media

Marianne recounts her summer. That's all we'll say for now.

#26 - Moral Philosophy Cage Match (with Dan Hageman)

June 8th, 2021  |  1 hr 33 mins

cluelessness, derek parfit, meta-ethics, thought experiments, wild animal suffering

Dan Hageman joins us to celebrate our completely fair treatment of Derek Parfit, to utterly agree with our use of thought experiments, and to deem us the world's most renown meta-ethicists.

#25 - Mathematical Explanation with Mark Colyvan

May 24th, 2021  |  2 hrs 7 mins

counterfactual, explanation, logic, philosophy of mathematics, probability, thought experiments

We're joined by professor Mark Colyvan to talk about the philosophy of mathematics, logic, and thought experiments.

#24 - Popper's Three Worlds

May 11th, 2021  |  1 hr 13 mins

abstractions, explanation, logic, popper, reality