Loading...

PODCAST

Philosophy For Our Times

Philosophy for our Times is a free philosophy podcast bringing you the latest talks and debates from the world’s leading thinkers. We host weekly episodes on today’s biggest ideas in news, society, culture, politics, science and arts. Subscribe today to never miss an episode.

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

00:53:06

The Beautiful World | Nicholas Humphrey

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/10/06

Are homo sapiens the only organisms capable of creating and experiencing beauty? Can we find beauty in God? Why do we see the hand of an Artist in the Natural, if God does not exist? Beauty is one of the most fundamental truths of the world. Everyone can understand it, but why? Where does evolution come from and what is its benefit to humanity? Nicholas Humphrey argues that our attraction to the beautiful is primarily a psychological phenomena, that we have used to train ourselves throughout

en

00:22:19

Permissivism and Irrelevant Influences | Miriam...

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/09/29

What does it mean for rationality to be ‘permissive’? Is rationality more limited than we would like to admit? Does the idea that ‘truth is the aim of belief’ still stand?The concept of irrelevant influences has long been troubling for philosophers, despite the fact that rationality does not require us to renounce any of our beliefs. Miriam Schoenfield argues that permissivism, a framework where more than one rational conclusion can be reached from a given set of evidence, can help us to accept and

en

00:45:49

Rehumanising science | Carlo Rovelli - Part 2

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/09/22

What makes humans different from nature? What do Confucianism and Daoism have to do with physics? Is science too realist?In part 2 of our interview with Carlo Rovelli, we help unpick the history of the philosophy of science. From uncovering how millennia old Chinese philosophers were debating Enlightenment philosophical principles, to finding whether the self and consciousness are functionally identical, Rovelli's argument finds a home in a single statement: we must rehumanise science.Theoretical

en

00:37:02

Taking down the cultural elite | Catherine Liu

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/09/08

What is managerialism? Why is the meritocracy sliding into technocracy? Does suffering make us seem more pure?We tend to think that today’s progressive politics advances equality through moral awareness and identity. But Catherine Liu argues that it has been captured by the professional managerial class, which replaces material redistribution with virtue signalling and cultural status. In this interview, Liu examines how universities, identity politics and trauma culture can obscure class struggle

en

00:44:10

The future of the right | Sohrab Ahmari, Gawain...

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/08/11

Sohrab Ahmari, Gawain Towler, Rachel Maclean and Mark Littlewood discuss whether what it means to be 'right-wing' has fundamentally changed.

en

00:35:10

Love is more than magic | Alain de Botton

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/08/04

Alain de Botton discusses the philosophy behind who we love, exploring Freud, the Ancient Greeks and voyeurs.

en

00:21:45

The mind is not a machine | Iain McGilchrist

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/07/21

Iain McGilchrist argues that to understand mind and matter, we need to restore the right hemisphere to its rightful primacy and move beyond matieralism.

en

00:26:25

Anxiety and the soul's itch | Sarah Wilson

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/07/14

Social philosopher Sarah Wilson explores what anxiety - or the 'soul's itch' - can tell us about living life more meaningfully.

en

00:22:54

Truth, beauty and other misconceptions | Lisa Randall

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/07/07

Physicist Lisa Randall discusses the allure and dangers of equating beautiful advances with scientific achievement.

en

00:32:46

The world after liberalism | Maurice Glasman & Sohrab...

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/06/30

Maurice Glasman and Sohrab Amari discuss whether we are witnessing the end of liberalism, and if so, what will follow it.

en

00:30:25

Why artists shouldn't fear AI | Jaron Lanier

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/06/23

Jaron Lanier, a visionary computer scientists, composer and futurist, explores what art and creativity will look like in the AI age.

en

00:28:24

The return of idealism | James Tartaglia

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/06/09

Philosopher James Tartaglia explores the idealist view of consciousness in which experience is divided into the phenomenal and the transcendent.

en

00:40:42

Who's afraid of gender? | Judith Butler

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/05/19

Why has gender identity become such a controversial talking point?

en

00:14:22

Human perception is imagination | Nadine Dijkstra

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/05/12

Nadine Dijkstra is a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Neurology at UCL. Her research in Imaging Neuroscience explores how the brain generates mental images and differentiates them from actual perception. Utilizing neuroimaging, psychophysics, machine learning, and computational modeling, Dijkstra addresses fundamental questions about the overlap between perception and imagery.Recently, Dijkstra has been leading the Imagine Reality Lab at UCL's Department of Imaging Neuroscience, focusing

en

00:30:16

The brain filters consciousness | Alex Gomez-Marin

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/05/05

Neuroscientist and theoretical physicist Àlex Gómez-Marín argues that the brain may not produce consciousness, but instead may filter or permit it.

en

00:45:23

Overcoming evolution | Subrina Smith, Keith Frankish,...

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/04/28

Subrena Smith, Keith Frankish and Simon Baron-Cohen debate whether it is evolution or culture which dictates how we behave

en

01:26:10

Slavoj Žižek on quantum history and the end of the past

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/04/21

Slavoj Žižek explores how quantum mechanics challenges our understanding of the past, arguing that reality’s inherent incompleteness reshapes how we think about history, politics, and power today.

en

00:48:36

How they ruined philosophy | Babette Babich, Genia...

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/04/14

Three philosophers debate the state of modern philosophy

en

00:46:43

Crisis in the academy | Yaron Brook, Eric Kaufmann,...

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/03/31

Yaron Brook, Catherine Liu, and Eric Kaufmann debate whether universities have lost their purpose amid concerns over academic freedom, value, and rising costs, and consider whether education and research should be radically reformed or replaced.

en

00:25:56

Why the neoclassical philosophy of economics is...

Philosophy For Our Times ·

2026/03/24

Join political economist Abby Innes as she argues that treating society as a closed systemto be controlled and regulated ignores man's unrelenting capacity for new ideas and technologies.

en

451 results

Similar Podcasts

وجوه من الـظل

Medi1 Podcast

She"s in the Weeds - Pop Culture and The Female Experience

Sam and Hollis - Millennial Women with...

Avec philosophie

France Culture

National Day Spotlight | Presented By National Day Calendar

National Day Calendar

Not Aspirational with Hannah Aaron Brown

Hannah Aaron Brown