The Dissenter
Ricardo Lopes
My name is Ricardo Lopes, and I’m from Portugal. Thank you for visiting my podcast.
Over the past few years, I have conducted and released more than 900 interviews and talks with experts and academics from a variety of areas and disciplines, ranging from the Arts and Philosophy to the Social Sciences and Biology. You will certainly find a subject of your interest covered here.
New interviews are released on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
Over the past few years, I have conducted and released more than 900 interviews and talks with experts and academics from a variety of areas and disciplines, ranging from the Arts and Philosophy to the Social Sciences and Biology. You will certainly find a subject of your interest covered here.
New interviews are released on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
Episodes
Mentioned books
12 snips
May 11, 2026 • 58min
#1252 David Benatar - The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions
David Benatar, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town and author known for antinatalism, offers a candid philosophical tour. He discusses pessimism versus optimism, the human predicament and whether life has cosmic or terrestrial meaning. Conversations cover suffering, death, transhumanism, and how to respond practically with compassion and moral action.
May 8, 2026 • 1h 15min
#1251 Bradley Hillier-Smith: The Ethics of State Responses to Refugees
Bradley Hillier-Smith, Associate Lecturer at the University of St Andrews and author on migration ethics. He explains a broader view of who counts as a refugee and why containment, detention, and border practices can harm people. He contrasts state-focused and refugee-centered approaches, explores negative and positive duties, and examines when harms might be (or are not) morally justified.
May 7, 2026 • 1h 11min
#1250 Quill Kukla - Sex Beyond "Yes": Pleasure and Agency for Everyone
Quill Kukla, philosopher and author on sexual ethics and disability studies, joins to discuss Sex Beyond “Yes”. They explore sexual agency, pleasure as messy bodily enjoyment, and consensuality as ongoing communication. Conversations cover sexist sex norms, power dynamics, intoxicated encounters, safe words, kink exploration, and supporting agential sex across ages.
May 4, 2026 • 1h 34min
#1249 Melissa Shew: Women and Intellectual Joy
Melissa Shew, Philosophy PhD and teaching-lead at Marquette University, explores what she calls intellectual joy and why women face barriers to it. Short takes on invisible emotional and cognitive labor, bias in evaluations and visibility, the authority and credibility gaps, and practical fixes like amplification and access. Thoughtful, quick snapshots of obstacles and cultural changes that matter for thinkers.
May 1, 2026 • 1h 10min
#1248 Carles Lalueza-Fox - Identity: What DNA Can Tell Us About Ourselves
Carles Lalueza-Fox, director of Barcelona’s Natural Science Museum and paleogeneticist who helped sequence ancient human genomes, joins to explore genetic identity. He discusses human genetic variation, what ancestry tests actually reveal, twins and lookalikes, sex versus gender, kinship and royal endogamy, and why notions of pure populations and race are scientifically flawed.
Apr 30, 2026 • 1h 5min
#1247 Zygmunt Baranski: Dante's Divine Comedy
Zygmunt Baranski, Emeritus Romance Languages professor and noted Dante scholar, guides a deep dive into The Divine Comedy. He explains why Dante called it a commedia. He traces the ordered design of Inferno, the mountain structure of Purgatory and Eden’s role, and the medieval cosmology of Paradiso. He explores Virgil as reason, Beatrice’s transformation, and why nonbelievers still love the poem.
16 snips
Apr 27, 2026 • 1h 28min
#1246 Rivka Weinberg: Does Life Have Meaning?
Rivka Weinberg, philosophy professor and bioethicist who studies birth, death, and meaning. She explores why we ask “What’s the point?” and distinguishes everyday, cosmic, and ultimate kinds of meaning. She discusses how time, effort, suffering, narratives, and memory shape significance. The conversation also tackles nihilism, cosmic value, and how to find meaning amid transience.
13 snips
Apr 24, 2026 • 1h 53min
#1245 Jacob Stegenga - Heart of Science: A Philosophy of Scientific Inquiry
Jacob Stegenga, philosopher of science and medicine and author of Heart of Science, offers a brisk tour of what scientific inquiry is and why justification matters. He discusses common knowledge, consensus formation, and when fast, policy-facing research is defensible. Conversation touches on trust in science, COVID-era debates, demarcation, progress, and how credit should be allocated in research.
Apr 23, 2026 • 1h 24min
#1244 Keegan Tatum: The Psychology of Politics, and the Reactionary Politics of the Conservatives
Keegan Tatum, a YouTuber and TikToker who explores the psychology of politics, joins to map how personality, brain differences, and social forces shape political leanings. He discusses childhood predictors, authoritarianism, gendered trends, the rise of the manosphere, and why academe skews left. Multiple short, lively conversations probe cognitive traits, empathy, and the emotional roots of political alignment.
13 snips
Apr 20, 2026 • 1h 41min
#1243 Jeff McMahan: Antinatalism, Extinctionism, Gene Editing, and Overpopulation
Jeff McMahan, Oxford moral philosopher known for work on the ethics of killing, discusses reproductive ethics. He debates antinatalism and whether lives are worth starting. He examines abortion timing, extinctionism, gene editing versus embryo selection, and when population concerns could create duties to reproduce or not reproduce.
