PODCAST

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast

Spencer Case

Philosophical excursions into interesting, and often controversial, topics. Hosted by Spencer Case.

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

71:10

AI Dangers (The Dark Side of Technology, Part 3)

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2025/12/04

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Full professor of philosophy at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and sometimes David Cross impersonator Ryan Jenkins returns to Micro-Digressions to discuss the dangers of AI. The conversation covers such matters as the AI-alignment problem and why Chat GPT can't be horny.

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59:19

What is Hate Speech?

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2025/11/25

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mark Oppenheimer from Brain in a Vat discusses controversies surrounding hate speech in South Africa.

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81:53

Philosophical Horrors

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2025/10/24

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Philosophers J.P. Andrew, Mark Oppenheimer, Jason Werbeloff, Nicholas Delon, and Jason Brennan discuss their worst philosophical nightmares.

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66:13

On Moderates and Extremists

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2025/09/16

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Marcus Arvan returns to MD to talk about his new book, Why It's Ok to be a Moderate, which you can find here: Amazon.com: Why It's OK to Be a Moderate: 9781032613864: Arvan, Marcus: Books

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82:22

What is Wokeness?

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2025/08/15

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Nathan Cofnas joins Spencer Case to discuss the nature of the political ideology/movement known as "wokeness." Cofnas argues that wokeness follows from accepting environmental differences combined with post-Christian morality. Case partly agrees with this analysis, but places greater emphasis on moral egalitarianism than empirical egalitarianism. Both interlocutors agree that wokeness isn't going away anytime soon, despite wishful thinking to the...

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57:24

Conundrums of Academic Freedom

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2025/07/23

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Oliver Traldi challenges the standard conservative model of academic freedom in his article, "Defusing Academic Freedom." Link here: Defusing Academic Freedom Spencer and Oliver discuss. Topics include: does the university have a univocal purpose? Does a truth norm really justify academic freedom as it's ordinarily understood and practiced.

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91:40

"You're Under Arrest!" On Ethical Policing

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2025/06/22

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Jake Monaghan joins Spencer to discuss his new book, Ethical Policing. The discussion covers such questions as: what makes policing legitimate? What sorts of considerations undermine that legitimacy? How can police appropriately balance order and respect for individual freedom in a non-ideal world?

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94:09

Better Arguments for the Existence of God

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2025/05/19

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Matthew Adelstein returns to Micro-Digressions to talk about the arguments for the existence of God at the top of his tier list. You can find his complete ranking of arguments for God's existence here: Arguments For God Tier-list - by Bentham's Bulldog

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66:09

Free Will and Responsibility: Huemer vs. Kershnar

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2025/03/28

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mike Huemer and His Offensiveness Steve Kershnar join Spencer to discuss free will and moral responsibility.

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92:07

Not-So-Great Arguments for the Existence of God

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2025/02/24

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Matthew Adelstein, the prolific young writer who posts at "Bentham's Bulldog" on Substack, has recently attracted attention for a tier ranking of philosophical arguments for the existence of God. Matthew and Spencer discuss the arguments at the bottom of his list, ascending from arguments that get an "F" to one in the C tier.

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81:26

The Virtuous Gamer

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2025/01/20

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode!Sarah Malanowski and Nicholas Baima join Spencer Case to discuss their book Why it's Ok to be a Gamer. They cover common objections to gaming, such as the claim that gaming is addictive and violent games promote violence. They also consider ways that video games can promote friendships and cultivate virtue. Finally, they debate the supposed vice of being a "tryhard."

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91:06

Rant-a-thon 2024! (Part 2)

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2024/12/26

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode!Featuring rants by Matt Lutz (on a priori knowledge and the politicization of the university) Travis Timmerman (on the film "Megalopolis") Spencer Case (on the depraved adulation of Luigi Mangione) and Ben Burgis (on the hypocrisy of "heterodox" liberals on Palestine).

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72:31

Rant-a-thon 2024! (Part 1)

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2024/12/20

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode!Featuring rants from Matthew Adelstein (on shrimp welfare), Mark Oppenheimer (on missing the golden age of universities), Craig White (on the folly and immorality of American involvement in Ukraine) David Baker (on the wrongness of peacetime conscription) and Jason Werbeloff (on common misconceptions about AI).

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73:56

Progressive Myths about Sex and Gender

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2024/11/28

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode!Michael Huemer returns to the podcast to discuss more of the issues in his self-published book, Progressive Myths (which you can buy on Amazon for a mere $12.50). Mike and Spencer discuss the gender pay gap, the claim that women don't lie about sexual assault, and the sex-gender distinction.

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111:18

Progressive Myths

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2024/10/20

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode!Michael Huemer returns Micro-Digressions to discuss his new self-published book, Progressive Myths, which you can purchase here for a mere $12.50:Progressive Myths: Huemer, Michael: 9798332272073: Amazon.com: BooksDiscussed here: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and George Floyd cases, as well as some of the general patterns of police violence; the science of climate change and masking (compared with what activists say about these thing...

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85:49

Nuclear War, Part 2

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2024/09/25

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode!Dave Baker returns to Micro-Digressions to finish the discussion of nuclear weapons. Topics this time include the development of the hydrogen bomb, the problems with developing missile defense systems, and nuclear proliferation.

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92:24

Nuclear War

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2024/08/17

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode!Is the possession of nuclear weapons morally justified? Was it a mistake to invent them to begin with? Dave Baker joins Spencer to discuss these and other questions about nuclear war. (Correction: Joseph Stalin died in 1953, not 1952).

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91:54

Come on, man! Debating the Joe Biden presidency

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2024/07/20

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode!You may have heard that there's an election going on in the U.S. A big one in fact. This episode is a debate about the records of one of the candidates, Joe Biden. Matt Lutz, noted error theorist and Biden enthusiast, returns to the podcast to argue that Americans are insufficiently appreciative of Biden's performance on the economy and foreign policy. Spencer provides pushback on Biden's various student loan repayment schemes and immigration.Erra...

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84:29

Consciousness and the self

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2024/06/18

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode!Mike Huemer rejoins Spencer to discuss the nature of consciousness. They consider the reasons for thinking that consciousness can't be physical and some prominent physicalist rejoinders to dualist arguments. Here's a link to Mike's excellent "Fake Nous" substack:Fake Noûs | Michael Huemer | Substack

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80:20

Death and Immortality (Thinking About Death Part 2)

Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast ·

2024/05/22

Come for Spencer's funeral home jokes; stay for the unanticipated discussion of the movie Her. Travis Timmerman and Spencer Case resume their discussion about death. This time they talk about annihilationism, the idea that being annihilated is an intrinsically bad thing for the annihilated person, as well as popular arguments that immortality would be a bad thing for creatures like us.

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