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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

27:18

How do Reductionism and Emergence Dance?

Closer To Truth ·

2025/07/09

Contribute what you can to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.Two big ideas in biology: the evolution of species via mutation, fitness and natural selection; and the embryological development of individuals, from fertilized egg to whole organisms. How do these two big ideas—“Evo-Dev,” as it’s called—relate? What novel ideas emerge? Featuring interviews with Denis Noble, Richard Dawkins, Alexander Rosenberg, Philip Kitcher, Alan C. Love, and

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46:54

James Hughes on AI Consciousness: Buddhism &...

Closer To Truth ·

2025/07/02

James Hughes Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and a bioethicist and sociologist who serves as the Associate Provost for Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning for the University of Massachusetts Boston. He holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago, where he also taught bioethics at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Dr. Hughes is author of Citizen Cyborg and co-editor of Surviving the Machine Age.Watch

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27:11

What are Units or Levels of Selection?

Closer To Truth ·

2025/06/25

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.While evolution is how life on earth came to be, where does the evolution occur? At what level of the hierarchy of life—from genes to individuals to groups to species—does evolution work its selection magic? Is it multilevel? Featuring interviews with Richard Dawkins, Lisa Lloyd, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Paul Griffiths, Elliott Sober, and Samir Okasha.

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52:08

Zoltan Istvan on AI: Transhumanism and Deepfakes

Closer To Truth ·

2025/06/18

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.How will AI-generated deepfakes reshape truth, trust, and society? Can AI someday merge with human consciousness? Futurist Zoltan Istvan explores the disruptive power of synthetic media—from political deception to personal identity—and what it means for the future of ethics, law, and reality itself. Zoltan Istvan Gyurko, professionally known as Zoltan Istvan, is an

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27:02

How Can Philosophy Probe Evolutionary Biology?

Closer To Truth ·

2025/06/11

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/OnyRqExplore evolution—its scope and depth. How did life on earth come to be as it is, and how did humans come to be as we are? What are the deep principles driving evolution? What are evolution’s challenges and open questions? Featuring interviews with Elliott Sober, Richard Dawkins, Samir Okasha, John Dupré, Denis Noble, and Michael Ruse. Episode

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01:24:36

Chris French on the Science of Weird Shit

Closer To Truth ·

2025/06/04

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.Chris French discusses his latest book, The Science of Weird Shit, where he convincingly debunks ESP, communicating with the dead, and alien abduction claims, among other phenomena. All the while, however, French maintains that our belief in such phenomena is neither ridiculous nor trivial; if anything, such claims can tell us a great deal about the human mind if we pay

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27:16

What Would Alien Life & Intelligences Mean?

Closer To Truth ·

2025/05/28

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world's deepest questions without the need for paywalls.What could life be as we don’t know it? Three transitions in astrobiology. Non-life to life. Life to intelligent life. Intelligent life to technological civilization. For alien life, would Darwinian evolution hold? Fermi’s Paradox is profound: with at least 10 22 planets in the known universe, we find no evidence of alien life, anywhere, much less alien intelligence. Is

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23:25

Jonathan Schooler on the Psychology of Artificial...

Closer To Truth ·

2025/05/21

Jonathan Schooler is an American psychologist and Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who researches various topics that intersect aspects of both cognitive psychology and philosophy such as: Belief in free will, meta-awareness, mindfulness, mind-Wandering, memory, creativity, and emotion. Schooler is also known for his sometimes controversial research on topics such as Anomalous Cognition and the decline effect.This

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01:19:50

Joseph Corabi: Could Superintelligent AI Defeat Itself?

Closer To Truth ·

2025/05/16

Can superintelligent AI destroy humanity—or will it collapse under its own philosophical doubts? Professor Joseph Corabi, Chair of Philosophy at Saint Joseph’s University, joins Robert Lawrence Kuhn at MindFest 2025 to explore the limits of artificial intelligence, consciousness, and the metaphysics of mind.Drawing from his presentation, "A Collapsing Superintelligent AI?", Corabi argues that future AI—however advanced—may become paralyzed by skeptical challenges that human minds navigate through

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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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304 results

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