RSam Podcast
Rahul Samaranayake
Philosophy & Theory | AI & CogSci
Episodes
Mentioned books
May 13, 2026 • 2h 1min
The Problem with “Spiritual but Not Religious” (w/ Tony of 1Dime)
Tony Chamas is a political theorist, commentator and author of the forthcoming book "Freedom to Change Nothing: The Spectrum of Managed Democracy and What Makes the US Different." Chamas is also a video essayist known for his YouTube channel, 1Dime and his podcast, 1Dime Radio. His notable videos include The Deficit Myth and China's Cultural Revolution: The Full Story (Documentary).You can find more of Tony's work at https://www.youtube.com/@1DimeRadio and 1dimereview.substack.comWatch it on YouTube here.RSam Podcast #92--------------------------------------- Please consider financially supporting my work (ONLY if you have the means). Patreon: https://patreon.com/trsam?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLinkSubstack: https://rsampod.substack.com---------------------------------------{Podcast}YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RahulSamSubstack: https://rsampod.substack.com/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ryEqjut4r6SMtfxLdM1LeSFP: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rahul-samaranayake Website: https://rahulsam.me/ {Social Media}https://substack.com/@trsam/https://www.instagram.com/name_is_rahul/https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-samaranayake-981a9315b/https://twitter.com/trsam97Find reference links at https://cliff-salad-4e8.notion.site/Tony-Chamas-Questions-Notes-32896d43c59b81adbd7fceca85ed22ed?source=copy_link---------------------------------------If the ideas I discuss in this podcast evoke your interest, consider visiting https://theunhappyman.substack.com/--------------------------------------- Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statutes that might otherwise be infringing. If you are or represent the copyright owner of materials used in this video and have a problem with the use of the related material, please email me at trahulsam@gmail.com, and we can sort it out.Thank you.
9 snips
Apr 15, 2026 • 1h 15min
Where Did Analytic Philosophy Go Wrong? (w/ Alicia Juarrero)
Alicia Juarrero, philosopher and complexity theorist studying context‑sensitive dynamical systems, offers a lively tour of why context and top‑down causation matter. She critiques positivist assumptions, explains constraints and multiple realizability, connects neural nets and emergent semantics, and probes AI, agency, thermodynamics, perception, and social values in complex systems.
Feb 7, 2026 • 1h 29min
Graham Harman & Matthew David Segall: OOO vs. Process Philosophy
Matthew David Segall, a process philosopher focused on Whiteheadian thought and consciousness studies, and Graham Harman, a founding figure of object-oriented ontology known for metaphysics of objects, debate metaphysics. They discuss Whitehead versus Kant, flat ontology and object-relation tensions, discreteness versus continuity, concrescence and withdrawal, and the scope of pan-experiential views.
Jan 24, 2026 • 1h 40min
Graham Priest: Logic, Contradiction, Dialetheism and Hegel
Graham Priest is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at The Graduate Centre, City University of New York, Boyce Gibson Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne, and International Research Fellow at the Ruhr University of Bochum. Prof Priest has published far and wide, spanning metaphysics, philosophical logic, the history of philosophy, and Asian philosophy, but is best known for his analysis of logical paradoxes, development of dialetheism, paraconsistent logic and defence of there being true contradictions. His scholarship includes over 300 journal articles and numerous books, such as In Contradiction (2006), Non-Classical Logic (2008) and perhaps his most popular book outside of academia, Oxford University's Logic: A Very Short Introduction (2001). In this episode, we discuss self-referential paradoxes, dialetheism and Hegel.You can find more of Prof Priest's work at https://grahampriest.net/, https://www.gc.cuny.edu/people/graham-priest and https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/6650-graham-priest.Watch it on YouTube here.RSam Podcast #89--------------------------------------- Please consider financially supporting my work (ONLY if you have the means). Patreon: https://patreon.com/trsam?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLinkSubstack: https://rsampod.substack.com---------------------------------------{Podcast}YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RahulSamSubstack: https://rsampod.substack.com/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ryEqjut4r6SMtfxLdM1LeSFP: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rahul-samaranayake Website: https://rahulsam.me/ {Social Media}https://substack.com/@trsam/https://www.instagram.com/name_is_rahul/https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-samaranayake-981a9315b/https://twitter.com/trsam97Find reference links at https://cliff-salad-4e8.notion.site/Graham-Priest-Questions-Notes-2d896d43c59b806dbf79ef1bd0bcc3fd?source=copy_link---------------------------------------If the ideas I discuss in this podcast evoke your interest, consider visiting https://theunhappyman.substack.com/--------------------------------------- Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statutes that might otherwise be infringing. If you are or represent the copyright owner of materials used in this video and have a problem with the use of the related material, please email me at trahulsam@gmail.com, and we can sort it out.Thank you.
15 snips
Jan 10, 2026 • 1h 57min
Mechanistic Interpretability and How LLMs Understand
Dr. Matthieu Queloz, a Privatdozent at the University of Bern and author on conceptualization ethics, joins Pierre Beckmann, an AI researcher and PhD student specializing in neuro-symbolic AI. They dive into the philosophy of deep learning, exploring how LLMs represent features and concepts. The duo discusses the advantages of language-centered AI and mechanistic interpretability, emphasizing high-dimensional feature packing and the potential for LLMs to form partial world models. They also examine the social functions of understanding and the need to adapt this concept for AI.
Dec 11, 2025 • 1h 36min
Husserl's Phenomenology and Social Ontology (w/ Dan Zahavi)
Dan Zahavi is a leading phenomenological philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, selfhood, and the philosophy of mind. Currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Copenhagen and director of the Centre for Subjectivity Research, he has been central in renewing and expanding Husserlian phenomenology for a 21st-century audience. In this episode, we discuss subjectivity and intersubjectivity, Husserl's Phenomenology and phenomenological contributions to social ontology.You can find more of Prof Zahavi's work at https://researchprofiles.ku.dk/en/persons/dan-zahavi/Watch it on YouTube here.RSam Podcast #87--------------------------------------- Please consider financially supporting my work (ONLY if you have the means). Patreon: https://patreon.com/trsam?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLinkSubstack: https://rsampod.substack.com---------------------------------------{Podcast}YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RahulSamSubstack: https://rsampod.substack.com/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ryEqjut4r6SMtfxLdM1LeSFP: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rahul-samaranayake Website: https://rahulsam.me/ {Social Media}https://substack.com/@trsam/https://www.instagram.com/name_is_rahul/https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-samaranayake-981a9315b/https://twitter.com/trsam97Find reference links at https://cliff-salad-4e8.notion.site/Dan-Zahavi-Questions-Notes-28a96d43c59b806b8038cbb375984787?source=copy_link{Music Used}"Supapao - Can't Fall In Love" is under a Free To Use YouTube license https://soundcloud.com/supapaoMusic powered by BreakingCopyrightChill Lofi Hiphop - 'Breath' by l33 is under a Free To Use YouTube licenseSoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/nocopyrightlofi/no-copyright-chill-lofi-hiphop-breath-by-l33---------------------------------------If the ideas I discuss in this podcast evoke your interest, consider visiting https://theunhappyman.substack.com/--------------------------------------- Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statutes that might otherwise be infringing. If you are or represent the copyright owner of materials used in this video and have a problem with the use of the related material, please email me at trahulsam@gmail.com, and we can sort it out.Thank you.
Dec 1, 2025 • 2h 13min
Saving Christianity From Itself (w/ Jim Palmer)
Jim Palmer is a philosopher, radical theologian, spiritual director and existential health counsellor. He is the Founder of Center for Non-Religious Spirituality, author of Deconstructionology and has written multiple books such as Inner Anarchy: Dethroning God and Jesus to Save Ourselves and the World and Divine Nobodies: Shedding Religion to Find God. In this episode, we discuss deconstructing and reconstructing Christianity.You can find more of Jim's work at https://substack.com/@jimpalmerauthorThe Center for Non-Religious SpiritualityWatch it on YouTube here.RSam Podcast #86--------------------------------------- Please consider financially supporting my work (ONLY if you have the means). Patreon: https://patreon.com/trsam?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLinkSubstack: https://rsampod.substack.com---------------------------------------{Podcast}YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RahulSamSubstack: https://rsampod.substack.com/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ryEqjut4r6SMtfxLdM1LeSFP: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rahul-samaranayake Website: https://rahulsam.me/ {Social Media}https://substack.com/@trsam/https://www.instagram.com/name_is_rahul/https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-samaranayake-981a9315b/https://twitter.com/trsam97Find reference links at https://cliff-salad-4e8.notion.site/Jim-Palmer-Questions-Notes-28d96d43c59b805faecfe65b23e67a4e?pvs=74{Music Used}"Supapao - Can't Fall In Love" is under a Free To Use YouTube license https://soundcloud.com/supapaoMusic powered by BreakingCopyrightChill Lofi Hiphop - 'Breath' by l33 is under a Free To Use YouTube licenseSoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/nocopyrightlofi/no-copyright-chill-lofi-hiphop-breath-by-l33---------------------------------------If the ideas I discuss in this podcast evoke your interest, consider visiting https://theunhappyman.substack.com/--------------------------------------- Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statutes that might otherwise be infringing. If you are or represent the copyright owner of materials used in this video and have a problem with the use of the related material, please email me at trahulsam@gmail.com, and we can sort it out.Thank you.
Nov 16, 2025 • 1h 59min
Has AI Killed Education? (w/ Vlasta Sikimić)
"ChatGPT has unravelled the entire academic project", writes James Walsh, in a viral article on NY magazine titled 'Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College.' In this episode, social epistemologist of science and philosopher of education Dr Vlasta Sikimic, in her 4th appearance on the podcast, discusses whether AI and large language models have, in fact, unravelled the entire academic project? And if so, how should we reconceive education? And what remains for the university? You can find more of Dr Sikimić's work at https://vlastasikimic.com/Watch it on YouTube here.RSam Podcast #85--------------------------------------- Please consider financially supporting my work (ONLY if you have the means). Patreon: https://patreon.com/trsam?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLinkSubstack: https://rsampod.substack.com---------------------------------------{Podcast}YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RahulSamSubstack: https://rsampod.substack.com/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ryEqjut4r6SMtfxLdM1LeSFP: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rahul-samaranayake Website: https://rahulsam.me/ {Social Media}https://substack.com/@trsam/https://www.instagram.com/name_is_rahul/https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-samaranayake-981a9315b/https://twitter.com/trsam97Find reference links at https://cliff-salad-4e8.notion.site/Has-AI-Killed-Education-w-Vlasta-Sikimi-24396d43c59b8068b905d52e75fc57ab?source=copy_link{Music Used}"Supapao - Can't Fall In Love" is under a Free To Use YouTube license https://soundcloud.com/supapaoMusic powered by BreakingCopyrightChill Lofi Hiphop - 'Breath' by l33 is under a Free To Use YouTube licenseSoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/nocopyrightlofi/no-copyright-chill-lofi-hiphop-breath-by-l33---------------------------------------If the ideas I discuss in this podcast evoke your interest, consider visiting https://theunhappyman.substack.com/--------------------------------------- Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statutes that might otherwise be infringing. If you are or represent the copyright owner of materials used in this video and have a problem with the use of the related material, please email me at trahulsam@gmail.com, and we can sort it out.Thank you.
12 snips
Nov 1, 2025 • 1h 40min
Mark Solms & John Dall'Aglio: Prospects for a Lacanian Neuropsychoanalysis
Mark Solms, a pioneering neuropsychologist and psychoanalyst, is joined by John Dall'Aglio, a PhD candidate specializing in Lacanian psychoanalysis. They dive into Freud's shift from neuroscience and how new methods revive his vision. John shares his journey merging neuroscience with Lacanian concepts, while Mark explains the nuances of jouissance and symptom ownership. They also discuss the effects of medication on emotions and present a neuropsychoanalytic perspective on psychosis, offering a fresh take on the relationship between neuroscience and psychology.
Oct 17, 2025 • 1h 54min
Daniel Tutt: Who Is A Comrade? Who Is A Friend?
Dr Daniel Tutt is a psychoanalytic Marxist philosopher, writer, teacher, and host of the Emancipations podcast. He is the author of Psychoanalysis and the Politics of the Family: The Crisis of Initiation and How to Read Like a Parasite: Why the Left Got High on Nietzsche, and is working on a book on György Lukács. In addition to his online lectures and talks, he has taught philosophy at George Washington University, Marymount University, and the DC jail. In this episode, we discuss comradeship and the politics of friendship.You can find more of Dr Tutt's work at https://www.youtube.com/@emancipations and https://danieltutt.com/ Watch it on YouTube here.RSam Podcast #83--------------------------------------- Please consider financially supporting my work (ONLY if you have the means). Patreon: https://patreon.com/trsam?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLinkSubstack: https://rsampod.substack.com---------------------------------------{Podcast}YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RahulSamSubstack: https://rsampod.substack.com/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ryEqjut4r6SMtfxLdM1LeSFP: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rahul-samaranayake Website: https://rahulsam.me/ {Social Media}https://substack.com/@trsam/https://www.instagram.com/name_is_rahul/https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-samaranayake-981a9315b/https://twitter.com/trsam97Find reference links at https://cliff-salad-4e8.notion.site/Daniel-Tutt-Questions-Notes-21296d43c59b8018a0f9fef3fc807235?source=copy_link{Music Used}"Supapao - Can't Fall In Love" is under a Free To Use YouTube license https://soundcloud.com/supapaoMusic powered by BreakingCopyrightChill Lofi Hiphop - 'Breath' by l33 is under a Free To Use YouTube licenseSoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/nocopyrightlofi/no-copyright-chill-lofi-hiphop-breath-by-l33---------------------------------------If the ideas I discuss in this podcast evoke your interest, consider visiting https://theunhappyman.substack.com/--------------------------------------- Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statutes that might otherwise be infringing. If you are or represent the copyright owner of materials used in this video and have a problem with the use of the related material, please email me at trahulsam@gmail.com, and we can sort it out.Thank you.
