Philosophy Talk

The program that questions everything

...except your intelligence.

Philosophy Talk is a weekly, one-hour radio series produced by Ben Manilla. The hosts' down-to-earth and no-nonsense approach brings the richness of philosophic thought to everyday subjects. Topics are lofty (Truth, Beauty, Justice), arresting (Terrorism, Intelligent Design, Suicide), and engaging (Baseball, Love, Happiness).

This is not a lecture or a college course, it's philosophy in action! Philosophy Talk is a fun opportunity to explore issues of importance to your audience in a thoughtful, friendly fashion, where thinking is encouraged.

Ken Taylor is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Stanford University.

His work lies at the intersection of the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind, with an occasional foray into the history of philosophy.

He is the author of many books and articles, including Truth and Meaning, Reference and the Rational Mind, and Referring to the World.

John Perry is Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recipient of many honors and awards, including the Nicod and Humboldt Prizes. A popular lecturer, in 1990 he was awarded the Dinkelspiel Award for undergraduate teaching.

He is the author of over 100 articles and books, including A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, Knowledge, Possibility, and Consciousness, and Reference and Reflexivity.

He also has the internet’s most popular essay on procrastination.

Merle Kessler, AKA Ian Shoales, The Sixty Second Philosopher

Merle Kessler is a writer, humorist, and performer, best known perhaps by his pen name, Ian Shoales.

As Ian Shoales he had been churning out cranky yet strangely humorous commentaries since 1979. First heard on NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, he has been featured on MORNING EDITION, ABC's NIGHTLINE, and the on line magazine, Salon. His commentaries also air once a week or so on ABC's overnight news program, WORLD NEWS NOW. In addition, his pieces have been published in the New York Times, LA Times, the San Francisco Examiner, USA Today, the Washington Post, and the Minneapolis Tribune, among other publications.

Kessler is also a founding member of Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre , the legendary yet obscure sketch comedy group, and he co-created, with Dan Coffey, the character of Dr. Science, of Ask Dr. Science. He is the author or co-author of five books. Despite this, he was actively employed in the nineties at various videogame and dot com industries - until everything went ker flooey. He is thrilled to be working in radio again, because it is more fun than anything. As a bonus, on the radio nobody knows if you've shaved or not.

He is married to Amy Kessler, who likes bad movies almost as much as he does. His new performance piece, BROKE, was performed in 2003 at the Marsh, in San Francisco.

Polly Stryker began working as a public radio producer in 1997, while earning a graduate degree in history. She realized that public radio work is remarkably like being a perpetual graduate student, so she stayed. Polly has worked for a variety of news and public affairs programs, including "AirTalk" on KPCC Radio, and "These Days" on KPBS Radio. She considers herself to be a citizen of the world, having grown up in Cairo and having lived in Vienna, Germany, England and Kenya before coming to America. She speaks Arabic and German and can say, "I want a Martini" in Swahili.