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PODCAST

Polymath

Daniel Aaron Levy

Bringing academic research to the general public to make everyone a Polymath! In this show, we explore interesting topics and social issues with no agendas or opinions: just evidence. Polymath is about giving reliable wisdom; countering misinformation; and empowering you to detect BS. Each episode integrates multiple sciences and experts" perspectives to give you well-rounded answers: and shows you how to find these answers yourself. Polymath is all about encouraging real critical thinking. For

education

All Episodes

00:33:05

Episode 41 - What Actually is Neoliberalism? An...

Polymath ·

2025/10/05

Neoliberalism is a word which you may not have heard of- but its power probably affects every part of your life. Neoliberalism = liberal democracy (generally seen as good) + free market economics; but what does that really mean? What are the consequences of neoliberalism? How does it affect economies, societies, politics, and people? This is one of the single most important questions out there right now, because for voters to make a better world for themselves they need to know what ideologies

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00:18:58

Episode 40 - The Science of Stress: Everything You...

Polymath ·

2025/09/28

Stress! We all feel it as a normal part of life, and you may be feeling it right now. But what actually IS it? Where in the brain does it come from? How does it link to the body? What are the effects of it? And how can we get rid of it?We'll be looking at all this stuff and more this episode, so tune in and enjoy

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00:11:23

Episode 39 - How Many Genders Are There? Sex and...

Polymath ·

2025/09/21

How many genders are there- probably one of the most hotly debated topics right now. Everywhere you look, people bombard you with their opinions and political biases- but you deserve something better. Because the question of how many genders there are is something we've actually known already for years; it's just tucked away in the academic literatures of biology and sociology where online influencers never bother to look. And it's actually shockingly simple- once you understand the

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00:19:39

Episode 38 - What Actually is Anarchism? An Objective...

Polymath ·

2025/09/14

Anarchism! It's one of the most famous and hotly debated words out there- but what actually is it? More specifically- what do anarchists want? Is it a world with no rules? Has anarchism ever been tried? How does the economy work? Is anarchism democratic? What, essentially, does anarchism REALLY stand for?There's so much misinformation on anarchism online, but you deserve a video that isn't just some guy ranting about his own political beliefs. My 'agenda' is always only to give

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00:31:19

Episode 37 - Are Life and the Universe Inherently...

Polymath ·

2025/09/07

Is suffering built in? Is the universe a purposeless void? Or is negativity a product of human actions? Most importantly- how do we make life better for ourselves?Welcome back to Polymath! This episode explores all these deep questions; but as usual, it's not just a 'hot take' from some rando online. Rather, I want to delve into a fascinating scholarly debate on all this by two thinkers- Steven Pinker and Eckhart Tolle (yes, those are their real names!). Along the way, we'll be

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00:18:47

Episode 36 - How Influencers Are Lying to You: A...

Polymath ·

2025/06/01

You open your phone and start scrolling. What do you see? In music, media, and adverts what is it that people keep talking about? Foreign cars, designer brands, and cash; but why? Materialism is the belief that wealth and conspicuous consumption (i.e. buying things so other people can see them) will make people think better of you- and that it'll make you happy. The flipside is that people who don't do this aren't worth listening to and can be dismissed. Materialism, in short, is the

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01:10:28

Episode 35 - What Actually is Islamism? An Objective...

Polymath ·

2025/05/25

What does it mean to be an Islamist and what do they want? What distinguishes Islamism from Islam? And is Islamism violent? What is terrorism itself? Or jihadism and fundamentalism?In this episode, we'll be answering all these questions and much more. Islamism is currently a politically charged topic, but as always on Polymath this video is free of opinions, biases, or political agendas. The only purpose of this video is to use real academic scholarship and political science to analyse this ideology

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00:25:52

Episode 34 - Religion's Role in Society: A...

Polymath ·

2025/05/18

What 'should' the role of religion in society be?The West and the Middle East have very different attitudes to religion and it's place in society: the former generally removes it from politics, the latter doesn't. The West is more economically developed and has higher HDIs than the Middle East; despite the fact that until a few centuries ago, Western Europe was a backwater compared to the thriving and sophisticated civilisations of the Middle East.But are these two variables-

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00:19:51

Episode 33 - The 'Hard Problem' of Consciousness: The...

Polymath ·

2025/05/11

Even the biggest NPC you know can still feel happiness, sadness, pain, disgust, and love. But why? Why have we evolved to feel things, rather than just process information and compute responses? Why is it that no matter how much you could learn about neurobiology, you could never deduce what it feels like to see the colour blue? What is a mind anyway? What is it made of? How does it relate to the body? Is there more to the universe than just energy and matter? And who- or what- has consciousness

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00:52:13

Episode 32 - Mental Illness Explained: A Proper,...

Polymath ·

2025/05/04

Mental illness: what is it, who has it, and is it even real? Let's find out!Everyone is talking about mental illness these days. The transcending of stigma is good, but it's led to a massive explosion of misinformation- and in some cases, plain lies- online. You switch on a screen and get bombarded with thousands of people all giving their takes, their opinions, their guesses, their ideas. But when it comes to something like mental illness, people's 'opinions' aren't good

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00:30:33

Episode 31 - Personality Explained: What Makes You You

Polymath ·

2025/04/27

Why are you the way that you are?No, I'm not quoting your parents, I'm asking a profound scientific question. What makes you psychologically distinct from other people? Are there meaningful personality differences caused by age, gender, nationality, politics, health, and religiosity? What are they? Let's explore!And as always with Polymath, this is not a video where I shower you with opinions or guesses. We will examining reliable, scientific info from personality psychology, and always

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00:23:17

Episode 30 - What Actually is Fascism? An Objective...

Polymath ·

2025/04/20

We've all heard of it- what is it?What do fascists want? What do they believe? What makes fascism different from other ideologies? And what makes fascism so violent?We'll be answering all these questions and more- and we'll be doing it properly. None of this episode is my opinion, or a 'hot take', or guesses. All of this is reliable, academic information from political science, political philosophy, political psychology, and modern history, all integrated together to give you the

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00:22:10

Episode 29 - Systemic Sexism: Is it Real, and How...

Polymath ·

2025/04/13

Why do female, educated US university staff rate female job applicants as less competent and less likely to get hired? It's probably not that they're misogynist: let's go a little deeper.This is a 20 minute compression of a colossal psychological and sociological journey spanning 3 hours: Episode 25 of Polymath. In this 20 minute video, we strip away our society to its core and scientifically analyse its norms, structures, and beliefs. What does it mean to be a man? To be a woman? To be a human

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00:19:55

Episode 28 - What Actually is Liberalism? An...

Polymath ·

2025/04/06

Why did every society from the dawn of civilisation until the 1800s feel comfortable with slavery? In fact, what's the purpose of civilisation in the first place? What makes a good society? What is 'good' itself?'Liberalism' shouldn't be conflated with being a 'liberal': this sociopolitical philosophy is in fact the foundation of Western politics/morality, and has been called the dominant ideology in world history. It is in fact arguably one of the most important things ever to happen to humanity,

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00:44:23

Episode 27 - Do You Have Free Will?

Polymath ·

2025/03/30

If God is real, would He be able to tell with 100% accuracy what you will do in exactly ten years' time? Is your future behaviour already all mapped out by the unconscious machinations of your brain? And where in the brain might free will come from? You can choose to do what you want; but you can't choose what you want. Can a robot truly choose what they want? Can a cat? What about a worm?On today's episode, we'll be exploring the vast scientific and philosophical debate about

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00:20:57

Episode 26 - What 'Left Wing' and 'Right Wing'...

Polymath ·

2025/03/23

They're terms we've all heard, but what actually are they? What do the left/the right want? What is leftism and what is rightism? Are you left, right, or in the middle?We'll be answering all these questions and more today, giving you objective information from lots of different disciplines for a well-rounded answer that fits snugly into 20 minutes.Introducing the first episode of Polymath Bites, a new format I'm introducing on this channel. These will still address an interesting topic from a

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03:00:49

Episode 25 - 'Systemic Discrimination' and How it...

Polymath ·

2025/03/16

Systemic discrimination 😍✨ what's that all about? And is it even real?The idea of systemic discrimination is a politically charged subject, and the Internet is full of people throwing their opinions at you about this. How about some objectivity? This episode is a colossal, three hour journey through the science of Social Identity Theory, which then applies the insights from this to looking at marginalised groups.This video isnota 'hot take': it is a massive integration of psychology and sociology,

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01:39:14

Episode 24 - How the World (and Your Own Mind) Works:...

Polymath ·

2025/03/09

'I don't want to f*ck Social Identity Theory...but it is beautiful.'(Wo)man is a social animal: we spend a lot of our time with- or thinking about- other people. But in fact the dynamics of what happens when individuals get together in groups is so vastly important that it shapes the entire world: it shapes our societies, our politics, our cultures, our friend groups, our day to day lives, and- in a hundred different ways- our very selves. No single theory can capture everything about how the world

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00:50:39

The State of Women's Rights and Treatment in the...

Polymath ·

2025/03/01

Hello everybody, this isn't in fact a normal Polymath episode but is a talk I did being interviewed by the @livglobalrelief podcast! It's a fascinating and important podcast about social-humanitarian issues going on around the world right now, and the Spotify link is https://open.spotify.com/show/3fiZdPwaJcIhwxcygBa8bX?si=dfe66237c40a4088 Thanks a lot Erin for having me on!This talk is all about the status of women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, stretching from Morocco to Iran

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01:02:07

'Kill Anything That Moves': The Ubiquity of U.S. War...

Polymath ·

2025/02/23

‘maybe… 1200 to 1500 [civilians] a month, easy. If I am only 10% right, and believe me it’s lots more, then I am trying to tell you about 120-150 murders, or a My Lay [sic] every month'-Anonymous Sergeant to General Westmoreland, 1970, referring to 'Operation Speedy Express'. Nothing was done.This is not an episode of Polymath.CONTENT WARNING: This video contains very graphic descriptions of physical and sexual violence, as well as descriptions of gross brutality and injustice.This video

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