What is it like to be a baseball bat?

This episode is a dive into the philosophical approach known as Object Oriented Ontology (OOO) with the author and philosopher Ian Bogost. Ian Bogost is a video game designer, author, and philosopher known for his most recent book Play Anything, but this episode is all about his book Alien Phenomenology: or What is it Like to be a Thing?

Is there any hope for that strained or broken relationship that's become a causality of the political divide? Is common ground found best by going towards our superficial commonalities or in the direction of our deepest existential fears and hopes? Are the toxic business models of social media too much for us to overcome?

Monica Guzman is the blue leaning daughter of two Trump voting Mexican immigrants and is the head of storytelling for Braver Angels - an organization dedicated to healing our partisan divide. She just published a book entitled "I Never Thought of it That Way". If she can't help us, no one can.

This episode also begins with a related special comment and essay from Jay about so-called "Trump Derangement Syndrome" and the current crises in Ukraine.

How many countries are there? 197? 193? 180? It depends who you ask and who is counting. What constitutes a "state"? How does that differ from a "nation"? Why do certain claims of self determined statehood go unrecognized while others are accepted and others are disputed. How do we respond to Putin's actions in Ukraine? How does the diminished and tarnished role of US global leadership affect world stability? Will Europe step up and fill the void? Is China really the threat that we fear they are? Have western democracies and economies become overconfident in a post-Cold War period?

In a conversation which places current headlines in a historical and legal context, Finish International Lawyer and Scholar Tero Lundstedt breaks down the blind spots in international law which continue to haunt the once-believed-to-be-peaceful breakup of the Soviet Union.

Does 2+2 really equal 4? What realm of truth am I in when I speak about my pain? What kind of truth claim is it to speak about the existence of "Poland"? How about the existence of ghosts and gods?

Spencer Greenberg breaks down his taxonomy of truth claims to help us better understand what we and others might be saying when we declare something to be true. He also lays out his personal philosophy of Valuism, a deceptively simple yet illuminating framework that can guide your behavior and focus your mind on what really matters to you.

Spencer's work and his intrinsic values test can all be found here: https://www.clearerthinking.org/

Spencer's essay on the "Seven Realms of Truth" can be found here: https://www.spencergreenberg.com/2019/03/the-7-realms-of-truth-framework/

Is it possible that the default position of libertarianism which has so deeply influenced politics, economics, and philosophy since the enlightenment could produce an ecosystem which stalls our ability to handle the existentially daunting task of freedom? Does the political structure of libertarianism dissolve into a fantasy the moment it encounters a problem of the commons like COVID or climate change? Is a conception of libertarianism as a "freedom from" preferrable to a conception of it as a "freedom to"? Have the economists owned the conversation for too long in this arena? Is a strong-arm government really the biggest threat to individual freedom? Will intentional libertarian blindness maximize a version of our selves that we aren't so proud of? Where does libertarianism end and anarchy begin?

Jay tangles with the editor of Reason Magazine and proud libertarian Nick Gillespie in a 2 hour conversation through the weeds of freedom.

What if much of what we do to our children works directly against what we profess we ultimately want for them?

Alfie Kohn argues that things like homework, grades, systems of praise and punishment, reward and sanction, and generally the enforcement of an atmosphere of fierce competition in education all undermine our stated goals.

So are the goals wrong? Are the goals false? Or is something much more fundamental to society in need of a major rethink?

Alfie Kohn is an accomplished author, speaker, and psychologist who has been advocating for reform in education and parenting for over 25 years. His impressive collection of talks, books, and essays can all be found at https://www.alfiekohn.org/

Is abortion ever morally permissible? Is it always wrong? Are there any morally valid exceptions? Do any if the answers to these questions demand a certain kind of legal limitation? Where and how do we ground any of these contemplations?

In this philosophical dive into the fraught issue of abortion, Jay tangles with Bethel McGrew (Esther O'Reilly) who brings her deeply Christian perspective to the table. Together they look for existential overlap and their deep points of departure.

Referenced in this conversation:

Bethel's Substack

Jay's essay on abortion

Douglas Murray's article

Public Opinion on abortion (Pew)

Statistics on who gets abortions and where (CDC)

You know that strange nagging restlessness that you feel in your core? That difficulty focusing on what's in front of you? That flittering from one path to another to another in the hopes of finally feeling your purpose? That deep dissatisfaction with the ignorance we have about the deepest existential questions of life?

This episode is about that restlessness.

Benjamin Storey (along with his wife and co-author Jenna Silber-Storey) wrote a fantastic book called Why We Are Restless which traces this conversation through four giants of French philosophy - Montaigne, Pascal, Rousseau, and Tocqueville.

Professor Storey joins me for a walk through this topic and how it informs and foretells our modern situation.

You can find out more about the book and what Professor Storey is up to at his website: https://www.jbstorey.com/

Do we underestimate the ability of High Schoolers to tackle complex politically charged existential and moral philosophy problems with nuance, intelligence, and compassion? I hope this episode will convince you that we absolutely do.

Jay has served as a judge for the High School Ethics Bowl for six years. In this episode he speaks with 5 students who participated this year on the view of the world from high school, their favorite and least favorite cases, their future excitement and trepidation, and the endless dilemma of the tension between "making money" and "finding happiness."

To follow along, see the full case list from this year and past years, and get involved directly: https://nhseb.unc.edu/

Quantum mechanics, mathematical robustness, dream state deja vu oddities... these are all things that one would expect to find in a simulated world. Wait, so are we in a simulation?

Author, investor, and video game pioneer Rizwan Virk joins Jay for a deep conversation taking on the Simulation Theory first made famous by Nick Bostrom. They strike gold when the conversation shifts to the philosophical and psychological implications of the theory rather than the truth of the theory itself.