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PODCAST

Closer To Truth

Closer To Truth

Closer To Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions in Cosmos, Life, Consciousness, and Meaning. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Seek your own answers.

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All Episodes

27:10

Eastern Traditions: What are Ultimate Existence and...

Closer To Truth ·

2025/05/14

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls: https://shorturl.at/OnyRq How do Buddhism, Chinese traditions, and Hinduism address the ultimate essence of all things, the ground of being? What are transcendence, oneness, interconnectivity, ineffability? Compare Dao in Daoism to Brahman in Hinduism. Compare Wu in Daoism with Emptiness in Buddhism. Does God fit in? Featuring interviews with Swami Sarvapriyananda, Swami

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01:05:03

Zorana Pringle on the Science of Creativity &...

Closer To Truth ·

2025/05/07

Make a tax-deductible donation of any amount to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions: https://shorturl.at/OnyRqAnyone who has ever participated in a brainstorming session will know that most of us do not lack ideas. Yet, many people never breathe life into these ideas. To turn inspiration into real achievement, you must decide to act—and then decide to act again and again, despite obstacles, until your thoughts take shape and come to life. In Pringle's new book,

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27:01

Can Dualism Explain Consciousness?

Closer To Truth ·

2025/04/30

Donate to Closer To Truth and help us keep our content free and without paywalls.Dualism claims reality has two parts, a physical and a nonphysical (mental or spiritual), both equally real. Dualism is believed by most people but rejected by most philosophers and scientists. Featuring interviews with Yujin Nagasawa, Richard Swinburne, Jaron Lanier, Bede Rundle, and Peter Forrest. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel here.

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46:23

Robin Hanson on the Age of AI and Large Language Models

Closer To Truth ·

2025/04/25

Innovative economist Robin Hanson discusses the age of artificial intelligence, decision making and predictive markets, astrobiology, and AI consciousness.Robin Hanson is an author, economist, and associate professor of economics at George Mason University and a former research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. His bestselling book, The Elephant in the Brain, is on sale now. This interview was made possible by MindFest 2025: "Sentience, Autonomy, and the Future

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01:21:03

Terry Sejnowski on ChatGPT and the Future of AI

Closer To Truth ·

2025/04/22

Contribute what you can to help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls. Terry Sejnowski offers a nuanced exploration of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and what their future holds. How should we go about understanding LLMs? Do these language models truly understand what they are saying? Or is it possible that what appears to be intelligence in LLMs may be a mirror that merely reflects the intelligence of the interviewer? In this

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27:16

What is the Philosophy of Scientific Breakthroughs?

Closer To Truth ·

2025/04/15

Help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls with a tax-deductible donation of any amount/To explore scientific Breakthroughs is to find theories or discoveries that challenge conventional wisdom, change patterns of thought, provide novel frameworks for research. What is the deep essence or general nature of scientific breakthroughs? This episode features interviews with Paul Davies, David Wallace, Jim Holt, David Chalmers, and John

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37:56

Women in Philosophy: Aspects of Consciousness

Closer To Truth ·

2025/04/09

Consider supporting Closer To Truth in our quest to explore life's deepest questions by making a donation of any amount.We offer distinctive approaches to consciousness including cognitive science, phenomenology, and even the implications of aesthetics like fiction and films. We observe the richness of consciousness studies.v This episode features interviews with Judith Wolfe, Stacie Friend, Elisabeth Schellekens, and Zorana Pringle.

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27:10

What is Extended Mind?

Closer To Truth ·

2025/04/02

Donate to Closer To Truth and help us keep our content free and without paywalls.What is extended mind? How does the mind work? It’s not obvious. Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? What is extended mind? What is embodied mind? Featuring interviews with David Chalmers, Andy Clark, and Raymond Tallis.

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27:17

Does a Fine-Tuned Universe Lead to God?

Closer To Truth ·

2025/03/26

Donate to Closer To Truth and help us keep our content free and without paywalls.We human beings sit roughly midway between atoms and galaxies, and both must be so perfectly structured for us to exist. It's called "fine tuning" and it's all so breathtakingly precise that it cries out for explanation. To some, fine-tuning leads to God. To others, there are non-supernatural explanations. Featuring interviews with Robin Collins, Victor Stenger, Ernan McMullin, and Michio Kaku.

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01:33:24

Annaka Harria on Consciousness and the Cosmos

Closer To Truth ·

2025/03/19

In a follow-up to her seminal book, "Conscious", Annaka Harris' new audio original documentary offers beginners and experts alike a chance to unravel some of humankind’s most enduring puzzles. Where "Conscious"presents new questions about felt experience, Lights On seeks to find the answers.Lights On: How Understanding Consciousness Helps Us Understand the Universe is available for purchase now. Annaka Harris is the New York Times bestselling author of "Conscious: A Brief Guide to the

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27:02

Do Human Brains Have Free Will?

Closer To Truth ·

2025/03/12

Donate to Closer To Truth and help us keep our content free and without paywalls. Free will seems the simplest of notions. Why then is free will so vexing to philosophers? Here's why: no one knows how free will works! Science, seemingly, permits no "gaps" in which free will can operate. This episode features interviews with John Searle, Rodolfo Llinas, Eran Zaidel, Roger Walsh, Mike Merzenich, Henry Stapp, Colin McGinn, and Christof Koch.

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01:13:41

Janna Levin on Cosmology: Black Holes, the Big Bang,...

Closer To Truth ·

2025/03/05

Help Closer To Truth continue exploring the world's biggest questions with a donation of any amount.Astrophysicist and science visionary Janna Levin discusses all things cosmology: black holes, gravitational waves, the James Webb Space Telescope discoveries, early galaxies, and more. Janna J. Levin is a theoretical cosmologist and a professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College. She researches black holes, the cosmology of extra dimensions, and gravitational waves in the shape of

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27:11

Implications of Cosmology?

Closer To Truth ·

2025/02/26

Donate to Closer To Truth and help us keep our content free and without paywalls.The universe is strange and wondrous—dauntingly vast, menacingly violent, infinitely complex. The origin of the universe is equally fascinating. There are explanations, but is there a final explanation? Featuring interviews with Alan H. Guth, Andrei Linde, George F. Smoot III, Robert Spitzer, Jill Tarter, and Douglas Vakoch.

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01:14:45

Philip Goff and Helen De Cruz on Finding (and Losing)...

Closer To Truth ·

2025/02/19

Two notable Closer To Truth contributors—and two good friends—discuss their intellectual and spiritual journeys in what seems to be opposite directions: one toward a form of Christianity and the other away from it.Philip Goff is a British author, idealist philosopher, and professor at Durham University whose research focuses on philosophy of mind and consciousness. Specifically, it focuses on how consciousness can be part of the scientific worldview. He is the author most recently of the

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27:10

Why Explore Consciousness and Cosmos?

Closer To Truth ·

2025/02/12

Donate to Closer To Truth and help us keep our content free and without paywalls.Cosmos and consciousness seem utterly different, the former encompassing the vast universe, the latter emerging from tiny brains. Yet consciousness founds most religions, and some cosmologists speak quietly, profoundly, about consciousness. Featuring interviews with David Chalmers, Alexander Vilenkin, David Brin, Colin McGinn, and Paul Davies.

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01:29:53

Nathan Lents on The Sexual Evolution

Closer To Truth ·

2025/02/05

Make a tax-deductible donation of any amount to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions: https://closertotruth.com/donate/ Evolutionary biologist Nathan Lents argues that many of our supposedly modern ideas about gender and human sexuality are, in fact, deeply rooted in our animal ancestors. In this Chat, Lents discusses his new book, "The Sexual Evolution: How 500 Million Years of Sex, Gender, and Mating Shape Modern Relationships", a fascinating exploration of sexual behavior

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27:17

The Ultimate Questions of Existence

Closer To Truth ·

2025/01/29

Donate to Closer To Truth and help us keep our content free and without paywalls: https://shorturl.at/OnyRq We like pushing boundaries, trying to discern existence, searching the foundations of reality, knowing all that can be known. Overly ambitious? Sophomoric? WeI don't care. We do it anyway. Here are ultimate questions. Featuring interviews with Lawrence Krauss, John Leslie, Max Tegmark, and Paul Davies.

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27:02

Why is the Quantum So Strange?

Closer To Truth ·

2025/01/22

Donate to Closer To Truth and help us keep our content free and without paywalls. What is quantum theory and why is it so strange? To know reality, one must confront the quantum. It is how our world works at the deepest level. What's the quantum? It is bizarre, defying all common sense. Featuring interviews with Wojciech Zurek, Nima Arkani-Hamed, Lee Smolin, and Seth Lloyd.

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01:29:53

Richard Swinburne on Evil, Atonement, and Evidence...

Closer To Truth ·

2025/01/15

Make a donation of any amount to help support Closer To Truth reach new audiences and continue exploring deep questions: https://shorturl.at/OnyRqRobert Lawrence Kuhn sits down with philosopher Richard Swinburne to embark on a retrospective of his views and arguments over his illustrious career. In this episode, they'll explore the problem of evil, atonement, resurrection, and more. Richard Granville Swinburne FBA is an English philosopher. He is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the

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54:38

Robert Lawrence Kuhn on "A Landscape of Consciousness"

Closer To Truth ·

2025/01/08

Support Closer To Truth with a tax-deductible donation of any amount to help us continue exploring in the new year.Closer To Truth host Robert Lawrence Kuhn recently published an extensive new article titled "A Landscape of Consciousness: Toward a taxonomy of explanations and implications". The paper covers the field of consciousness studies in its entirety as well as the consequences of consciousness including artificial intelligence (AI), life after death, and virtual immortality. Read Kuhn's

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