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PODCAST

Becoming Human

Samuel Loncar, Ph.D.

Becoming Human with the philosopher Samuel Loncar is a show for a species in transition. The show features long-form, solo series that bring scholarly depth and academic insights to today"s most pressing questions around science, religion, technology, and philosophy. Between these long-form, solo series, enjoy Explorations: journeys into time, culture, art, and history, encountering the mystery of the Human in conversations and free-standing episodes. Series 1: Origins, tells the story of the

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

29:14

Halloween, Hawthorne, and the Supernatural

Becoming Human ·

2025/10/31

In this episode, I introduce Nathanial Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter through a discussion of the often skimmed (or totally skipped) introductory chapter, "The Custom House" before my discussion of "Chapter One: The Prison." I read some ghostly passages from introduction directly, which are perfect for Halloween, so you'll get a taste of Hawthorne's own language through my audio.

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56:51

How the Scarlet Letter Tells Us Who We Are: A Poetry...

Becoming Human ·

2025/10/30

You may not think that The Scarlet Letter, a novel set in Puritan America, has much to say about our contemporary crisis around what it means to human, and therefore what it means to be a woman, the plummeting literacy rates, and the ongoing debates about feminism. But, I think, it does. And I will prove it to you in these series. As part of the project, I am recording every chapter of the book with my commentary. As English teacher of many years, this is one the primary ways that I taught my

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25:31

Why Ignorance Rules the World: Socrates, Euthyphro,...

Becoming Human ·

2025/10/17

Ignorance, humanity's greatest enemy, yet also the secret source of wisdom according to Greece's greatest influencer, Socrates, whose ideas went viral, caused a cultural crisis, and led to his prosecution for impiety, disturbing the peace of a social order that refused to ask: what is real knowledge? Shortly before his trial, Socrates encountered an expert in piety, Euthryphro, and asked: what is piety? What is justice? How do we know what something really is? Euthyphro's answer might shock you

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34:37

Christian Wiman on AI, Conciousness, and the Power of...

Becoming Human ·

2025/10/08

The Poetry Peddler podcast is a show celebrating living language as an expression of the human spirit. The show explores poetry’s crucial role in resisting the global language crisis. Each episode invites listeners into a world where language is a vital force of human spirit, freedom, and creativity, featuring original poems, and conversations on the transformative magic of words. This episode features part two of my conversation with Christian Wiman who is the author, editor, or translator of

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20:33

Christian Wiman on the Wonder of the Unknown in Love...

Becoming Human ·

2025/09/28

The Poetry Peddler podcast is a call to revive the living power of language through poetry as a way of life. Hosted by poet and editor Alexandra Barylski, this show explores poetry’s crucial role in resisting the global language crisis. Each episode invites listeners into a world where language is a vital force of human spirit, freedom, and creativity, featuring original poems, and conversations on the transformative magic of words. This inaugural episode features part one of her conversation with

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15:19

Becoming Human Today: Reasons for Hope

Becoming Human ·

2025/09/16

Why bother becoming human? In difficult times, it's easy to lose hope. After 5 years since launching this show with Becoming Human: Origins, I decided it's time for an update. This episode shares some of the impact of the work, its relevance today, and how you can access Becoming Human Origins right now.

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58:58

Who is The Poetry Peddler? An Interview with...

Becoming Human ·

2025/09/05

Who is the Poetry Peddler, and why is poetry so important today? Alexandra Barylski is an award winning poet, editor, and entrepreneur, and longtime producer for the Becoming Human Project. She is launching the Poetry Peddler Podcast, journal, and press, and sat down with me to discuss why editing is a critical skill today, how poetry touches the uncanny dimension of existence, how poetry and philosophy connect, and how practicing poetry as a way of life deepens our receptivity and openness to

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16:58

D.W. Pasulka, Christopher Bledsoe, and the Study of...

Becoming Human ·

2025/08/31

This is a fifteen minute excerpt from my live Becoming Human Academy course, "The Sacred World: An introduction to Religion." In the lecture, I explain why the academic study of religion is important, how it gives us a deep understanding of inclusiveness and ways of interpreting difference that give us compassion, sympathy, and insight. These are some of the great values of the academic study of religion, especially the way it gives us a new scientific approach to context. We need different

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18:33

How to Make Time Sacred: Mircea Eliade's The Sacred...

Becoming Human ·

2025/08/15

What are rituals, and what makes something sacred? Mircea Eliade was a historian of religion, philosopher, and author widely regarded as one of the most influential scholars of religion in the 20th century. His book, The Sacred and the Profane, is a classic introduction to religion that answers these questions. Eliade is known for his scholarly work on Yoga, comparative religion, initiation rituals, hierophanies (sacred appearences), and the sacred logic manifest in our experience of space and time

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01:08:39

How a Celebrity Philosopher Changed History & Why He...

Becoming Human ·

2025/05/12

How did the most famous philosopher of his time, a darling of the Parisian salons and an internationally renowned philosopher of science, disappear from memory? Dr. Emily Herring, author of Herald of a Restless World: How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People, explains the brilliant insights and legacy of Bergson in this wide-ranging Becoming Human Conversation with Samuel Loncar. The French philosopher Henri Bergson wrote brilliantly about the brain, biology, memory, time, and creativity,

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01:07:26

Kabbalistic Wisdom and the Modern Self-Help Movement:...

Becoming Human ·

2025/04/25

Rabbi Adam Yitzchak Polinovskiy is a well-established coach, specializing in the art of personal and professional transformation. His expertise spans a wide range of areas, including mindset mastery, Kabbalistic wisdom, alignment strategies, and leadership development. In our conversation, we discuss the Kabbalistic background to the modern self-help and personal coaching movement, including figures like Tony Robbins, Reb Adam's personal journey of spiritual transformation, and how to overcome

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06:08

The Age of Spiritual Awakening: Rabbi Simon Jacobson...

Becoming Human ·

2025/04/14

According to Rabbi Simon Jacobson of The Meaningful Life Center, technology is catalyzing a spiritual awakening, making spiritual knowledge the “key commodity of the future.” Rabbi Jacobson is a best-selling author of Towards a More Meaningful Life and reaches hundreds of thousands daily through his YouTube channel. In this far-reaching Becoming Human Conversation, we explore anxiety and “healthy angst,” why religion is declining and spirituality is growing, what the spirit is, why the “messianic

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24:28

How AGI and Superintelligence Enhance Consciousness |...

Becoming Human ·

2025/03/14

Has AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) already arrived? As the race for Superintelligent machines changes the world, how can humans prepare to thrive? Ancient spiritual traditions reveal surprising insights into how philosophy as a spiritual technology can teach us where AI is heading, and what to do about it. Instructor: Dr. Samuel Loncar | Yale University

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24:28

Education for the AI Age: Why Can't People Read as...

Becoming Human ·

2025/02/27

How do we reimagine education for a world of AI? What skills do people need, and why? How can philosophy as a way of life create a shared vision of human flourishing? Instructor: Samuel Loncar, Ph.D. | Yale University

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36:17

Can We Change Our Fate? An Existential Vision for...

Becoming Human ·

2025/02/21

Fate is the power of the unchosen to determine your life. It is real and we all know it, or we would never be frustrated. The key question is: can we overcome our fate? Is fate compatible with freedom? An existential strategy is the only way to overcome the power of fate and avoid being a pawn of your environment and history. To conquer fate, we must pursue a scientific understanding of reality, and overcome our limitations. The result is a life ready for immortality. Long-term planning in

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29:34

Will Superintelligence Complete Science? The Future...

Becoming Human ·

2025/02/03

What happens when AGI, Artificial General Intelligence, appears and solves all the problems in science? Can we know the future of science? Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chapter 6, suggests we can predict future scientific developments based on a deep understanding of the current anomalies in our ideas. Our philosophical ideas of nature can provide an orientation towards future research, giving us a window into the future. What do we see if we look? Series: Notes on Kuhn's

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01:08:48

Can a New Scientific Revolution Explain...

Becoming Human ·

2025/01/31

Three Theses about the Future of Science We are living through the greatest scientific revolution in over two millennia. 2. A new revolution in biology connects to the AI revolution, and a scientific theory of consciousness may finally be on the horizon as a result. 3. Real philosophy should be scientific and thus able to make predictions. I make three predictions about the next 10 years of science. Together, these point towards a new theory of consciousness that is philosophically profound,

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45:36

Can We Have Infinite Energy? Can the Tao Make Us...

Becoming Human ·

2025/01/24

The Tao Te Ching teaches that the Way offers infinite utility, seeming to promise unending energy and life. Is this possible and what, scientifically, might it mean? Exploring Chapter 4 of the Tao Te Ching, I show how the human senses point towards hidden paths of refinement and mysteriously deep sources of energy and insight, all found within the physical body. Tao Te Ching, Ep. 4 Instructor: Samuel Loncar, Ph.D. | Yale University

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14:31

Do Humans Really Exist? Do We Live in a Simulation? |...

Becoming Human ·

2025/01/21

The simulation theory is all around us, putting somehow the meaning of our very existence into question. Do we really exist? What does it mean that we question our own existence? A true philosophy of existence must answer these questions, and explain why we ask them, guiding us towards a more conscious, free, and scientific way of life. This is the purpose of the Becoming Human Project: to realize human Existence. Instructor: Dr. Samuel Loncar | Yale University

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01:04:03

Can Philosophy Make You Powerful? A Vision of Human...

Becoming Human ·

2025/01/17

If you can get one thing you want, what is the one thing that will give you everything else? Is it power, wealth, or wisdom? Philosophy as a spiritual way of life teaches us how to develop our human potential, leading to a radical vision of human enhancement. The idea of number is the first step to understanding the coded Messengers of spiritual traditions and how they guide us to a more scientific and positive way of life. 🙏This video is dedicated to Namagiri with gratitude. Instructor: Dr

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