Within Reason

Graham Tomlin, British theologian, author and former bishop, guides us through Blaise Pascal’s strange brilliance. He traces Pascal’s child prodigy feats, his scientific discoveries and invention of probability, his Jansenist spiritual turn and dramatic “Night of Fire.” Short, lively takes explore Pascal’s clash with Descartes, the wager, and why boredom shapes belief.

Thomas Metzinger, German philosopher and consciousness researcher, explores minimal phenomenal experience and pure awareness. He discusses studying stripped-down states, survey-driven phenomenology, meditation and lucid deep sleep reports. Conversations cover ethical, cultural, and scientific implications of researching consciousness and how these rare states inform our understanding of selfhood.

Matthew Cobb, British zoologist and Emeritus Professor of Zoology, offers a brisk mini-bio and frames his book on the brain's history. He sketches ancient heart-versus-brain ideas, how metaphors from hydraulics to telegraphs shaped thinking, the rise of localization debates, split-brain surprises, and the ongoing search for neural correlates of consciousness.

Adam Aleksic (Etymology Nerd), a linguist and author of Algospeak, explores how algorithms reshape slang and communication. He discusses algospeak and euphemisms, platform-driven word trends, why some slang fades fast, differences between YouTube and TikTok language, and whether AI models are changing how we use words. Short, sharp dives into language, culture, and the tech that molds them.

Sam Harris, neuroscientist, philosopher, and meditation teacher behind the Waking Up app, joins to explore secular spirituality. He discusses why reflective, first-person knowledge matters. He talks about meditation, the illusion of a separate self, split-brain insights, the hard problem of consciousness, minimal conscious experience, and risks of AI claiming consciousness.

Swami Sarvapriyananda, a Ramakrishna Order Hindu monk and Vedanta teacher, explains Advaita Vedanta and the Upanishads. Short, clear segments cover Brahman as existence-consciousness-bliss, analogies like gold and dream, and why one consciousness appears as many. Practical self-inquiry and the ego-as-reflector model are also explored.

Joe Schmid, a Princeton philosophy PhD student and creator of Majesty of Reason, tackles popular atheist slogans with clarity. He questions catchy lines about evidence, who created God, science versus religion, and whether absence of evidence counts. Short, sharp conversations probe the limits of one-liners and explore nuanced theistic responses without settling the debates.

John Sellars, Reader in philosophy and Stoicism scholar, offers crisp expertise on ancient thought. He traces Stoic origins and eras. He unpacks Stoic logic vs Aristotle, their empiricist theory of knowledge, and materialism centered on pneuma. He explains logos, Stoic pantheism, cosmology, incorporeals, and how Stoic ethics treats virtue, preferred indifferents, fate, and moral testing.

Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist and philosopher of science, explains where scientific explanation stops and why some facts may be brute. He explores the multiverse and fine-tuning, the nature of physical laws, emergence and what counts as real higher-level objects. He also discusses consciousness on a physicalist view and what evidence could make him change his mind.

David Bentley Hart, a prominent philosopher and theologian, dives deep into the concept of 'All Things are Full of Gods.' He explores the contrast between pre-modern animism and mechanistic views, critiques the limits of science in understanding consciousness, and challenges the materialistic worldview. Hart argues against reductionist perspectives on consciousness, emphasizing its intentionality and the individuality of selves. He also discusses the brain's role shaped by mind and offers intriguing insights into existence beyond death.