Professor Robert Sapolsky is a Professor of Biology, Neurology, and Surgery at Stanford University. He is the author of multiple books, including A Primate’s Memoir, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, Behave, and Determined. Professor Kevin Mitchell is a Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin, whose research concerns the relationship between the wiring of the brain and the human faculties. His books include Innate and Free Agents. Today’s debate was about whether the empirical literature in the biological sciences allows us to make progress on the free will debate. Convers ..read more

Noam Chomsky has been described as "the father of modern linguistics". He is one of the leading public intellectuals of the world, having authored over 100 books. Chomsky has made seminal contributions to multiple fields, including Linguistics, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science. At the moment, he is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Conversation Outline:  00:00 Intro  00:37 How did you manage to be so productive?  01:07 What got you introduced to Linguistics and Philosophy?  02:47 What were courses like Syntax back in the day ..read more

Simon Blackburn is a Fellow of the British Academy. He is a Professor of Philosophy at Trinity College, University of Cambridge who is well known for his contribution to meta-ethics (where he defends quasi-realism) and for his excellent introductory books (such as 'Think' or 'Being Good'). Outline of the conversation: 00:10 What motivated you to write 'Think'? 02:00 What is the role of Philosophy? 04:10 Progress in Philosophy 07:18 Remarks on the notion of Truth 09:27 Deflationism about Truth 14:15 The Correspondence Theory of Truth and problems with Facts 17:40 Is there anything wrong with a ..read more

Professor A.C. Grayling is one of the most prolific philosophers and public intellectuals. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Master of the New College of the Humanities and a Supernumerary Fellow of St. Anne’s College, Oxford. He made important contributions to Analytic Philosophy, primarily in Epistemology, Metaphysics and Philosophical Logic. Prof. Grayling wrote more than 40 books, including The God Argument, The History of Philosophy and The Frontiers of Knowledge.  Conversation Outline:  00:00 Introduction 00:46 How did you get into Philosophy? 03:23 What was yo ..read more

Professor William Lane Craig is a world-renowned theologian and philosopher of religion. He authored dozens of books on these topics, including The Kalām Cosmological Argument (1979), God Over All (2016), The Atonement (2018), In Quest of the Historical Adam (2021) and many others. Besides his academic scholarship, Professor Craig is internationally known for his debates with various academic and popular atheists such as Christopher Hitchens, Lawrence Krauss, Sam Harris, Peter Millican, Arif Ahmed and many others. You can find more details about Prof. Craig’s works on his public website: http ..read more

Tim Crane is a world leading philosopher whose areas of research gravitate towards the study of the mind. His book, The Mechanical Mind, has introduced thousands of people to the central ideas which unite Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science. He is currently the Head of Department at the Central European University, having previously been the Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. Conversation outline: 00:00 The problem of mental representation 10:38 Can a computer think? Is the Turing Test satisfactory? 14:15 Can a robot think? 18:3 ..read more

Joel David Hamkins is an American Mathematician who is currently Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford. He is well known for his important contributions in the fields of Mathematical Logic, Set Theory and Philosophy of Mathematics. Moreover, he is very popular in the mathematical community for being the highest rated user on MathOverflow. Outline of the conversation: 00:00 Podcast Introduction 00:50 MathOverflow and books in progress 04:08 Mathphobia 05:58 What is mathematics and what sets it apart? 08:06 Is mathematics invented or discovered (more at 54:28) 09:24 How is it the case ..read more

Ed Cooke is a Grandmaster of Memory and the CEO and co-founder of Memrise, one of the most used Language Learning apps in the world. He was also a main character in the international bestseller “Moonwalking with Einstein”. He graduated with a first-class degree in Psychology and Philosophy from the University of Oxford and today we are discussing various memory related issues, briefly described in the following timestamps: 00:00 Memrise introduction 00:39 Grandmaster of Memory and memory feats 01:40 How long have you been into the art of memory? 02:48 Did your memory skills benefit your life ..read more

Thomas Cormen is a world-renowned Computer Scientist, famous for co-writing the indispensable 'Introduction to Algorithms' textbook. He is currently a professor at Dartmouth College and former Chairman of the Dartmouth College Department of Computer Science. In 2013 he wrote a wonderful algorithmic book aimed at nonexperts which is entitled 'Algorithms Unlocked'. Professor Cormen also is well-known online for being Top Writer on Quora on numerous years, most recently in 2018. He is a great communicator of Computer Science and I hope you will enjoy the following conversation! 00:00 Intro 00:16 ..read more

Professor Kai von Fintel is a world-leading linguist (Section Head at MIT) who is well known for his contributions to Semantics, an academic fields which sits at the intersection of many disciplines which is typically concerned with the meaning of linguistic expressions. He is the co-founder of the open access journal Semantics & Pragmatics. You can find more about his work on his website: https://www.kaivonfintel.org  Conversation Outline:  00:00 Introduction 00:18 What is special about language?  03:31 How did we (as a species) get linguistic abilities? 05:24 What do peo ..read more