Closer To Truth

Why is Mathematics True and Beautiful?

Does mathematics have two transcendent attributes: truth and beauty? What makes math true? What makes math beautiful? Are there different kinds of mathematical existence? How can math combine idealized perfection and explanatory simplicity?
 
Featuring interviews with Robbert Dijkgraaf, Edward Witten, Max Tegmark, Sabine Hossenfelder, and Jim Holt.
 
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Can We Survive Death?

Do I disappear at death? My body? Sure, it's gone. But my awareness? Does my consciousness end forever? What could be more frightening! Is there any hope here?
 
Featuring interviews with Charles Tart, Richard Swinburne, Robert Park, James Tabor, and Keith Ward.
 
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Can Art Probe Creativity?

Creativity generates art. How to discern the creative process in order to inform the nature of art? Conversely, how to discern art in order to inform the nature of the creative process?
 
Featuring interviews with Aaron Rosen, Antonius Roberts, Alfonse Borysewicz, Murray Watts, and Carl Plantinga.
 
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What Makes Brains Conscious?

Everything I know -- everything! -- comes from my brain. Consciousness, our private sense of inner awareness, is the one big question to which we might find answers.
 
Featuring interviews with Arnold Scheibel, John Mazziotta, Christof Koch, Joseph LeDoux, and Stephen Chorover.
 
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Dan Dennett on the Mysteries of the Mind

Philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett discusses his new memoir, I've Been Thinking, about the dominant themes of twentieth-century philosophy and cognitive science—including language, evolution, logic, religion, free will, consciousness, and AI.
 
Dennett's book, I've Been Thinking, is available for purchase now.
 
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Will Kinney on Cosmic Inflation and the Beginning of the Universe

Cosmologist and physics professor Will Kinney discusses his latest book, An Infinity of Worlds: Cosmic Inflation and the Beginning of the Universe. Kinney considers what happened before the primordial fire of the Big Bang. What is the origin of structure in the cosmos? Can we come to terms with the possibility that our entire observable universe is one of infinitely many, forever hidden from our view?
 
Will Kinney is a professor in the department of physics at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York. His areas of expertise are cosmology, dark matter, astronomy, black holes, and gravitational waves.
 
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The Marvels of Space-Time

Einstein showed that space and time are essentially the same thing-a single entity, space-time. But space and time seem so radically different. How could space and time be literally the same thing?
 
Featuring interviews with Max Tegmark, J. Gott, Juan Maldacena, Fotini Markopoulou, and John Leslie.
 
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Samuel Lebens on Jewish Philosophy

In honor of Rosh Hashanah, this week's podcast presents the arguments for, and against, the existence of God in Judaic history. From pogroms to the Holocaust, how to deal with the Problem of Evil — with respect to the existence of God and attributes of God? From a Jewish Orthodox perspective, do all religions worship the same God?
Samuel Lebens is an academic philosopher and an ordained Orthodox rabbi, having studied at various Israeli Rabbinical schools. He is an associate Professor in the philosophy department at the University of Haifa and co-founder of the Association for the Philosophy of Judaism.

What Exists?

What exists? Lots of things exist. But what’s truly fundamental? The challenge is to discern the minimum number of basic categories that explains the entirety of existence.
 
Featuring interviews with Sean Carroll, David Wallace, David Chalmers, and Don Page.
 
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What Are Dreams About?

Throughout history, dreams have fascinated and mystified. Messages from God? Images of the subconscious? Much about dreams is myth. What's real?
 
Featuring interviews with Robert Stickgold, Deirdre Barrett, Christopher Isham, and Patrick McNamara.
 
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