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Coming Up on Philosophy Talk

Minds and Matter

Everything that seems to have a mind also has a body made of flesh and blood.

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28 May 2023

Can Art Save Us?

The world is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis, and we urgently need good ways to address it. Courageous politicians would help, of course...
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This Month’s Playlist

Gender Pride

June is Pride Month, and we've got a new episode inspired by co-host Ray Briggs' new book on Gender which will air later this month. In the meantime, we've put together some episodes from the archive in which the philosophers and their guests think deep about gender, sexuality, and other related issues. Click on the image above to start listening!

The Blog @ Philosophers' Corner

28 May 2023

Art as Climate Action

Fascism is on the rise, new infectious diseases keep cropping up, and we’re on the verge of environmental collapse: how on earth could art possibly save us? The arts are may be nice distraction, but if we want to be actually saved, surely what we need are better leaders, better policies, and people...
21 May 2023

This Blog Post Is False

If I say, "I’m lying right now," I'm telling you I'm lying, so if I am actually lying the sentence is true—in which case I'm not lying. But if I am telling the truth, that means I'm lying. So either way, I'm both lying and telling the truth—and that's true contradiction.
25 April 2023

The Brain as Prediction Machine

Our minds are amazing prediction machines—and sometimes they can even make their predictions come true! Does reading that strike you as something out of “The Secret”—like if you believe in something hard enough, you're going to "manifest" it, and it will drop down out of the heavens and into your...

Upcoming Shows

11 June 2023

The Rhetoric of Big Tech

Big tech is known for its "disruption" of established industries and changing fundamental aspects of our lives from shopping and delivery to...

18 June 2023

What Is Gender?

Gender is a controversial topic these days, but people can't seem to agree about what gender is. Is it an inner identity, a biological fact, or an...

25 June 2023

Summer Reading List 2023

What books should thoughtful people be reading this summer? Josh and Ray talk to the authors and editors of new and recent books as they compile...

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Recent Shows

21 May 2023

True Contradictions

If you want to tell the truth, you shouldn’t contradict yourself—that’s just common sense. A suspect who was home on the night of the crime can’t...

14 May 2023

Are We All to Blame?

It’s easy to identify the pressing issues facing our world today, but it’s much more difficult to assign responsibility for them. Often the blame is...

07 May 2023

Kierkegaard

Philosophy usually suggests a striving for rationality and objectivity. But the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard advocated subjectivity and the...

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Featured Shows

Identity Politics

09 March 2015
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Edward Snowden and the Ethics of Whistleblowing

12 October 2016
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Democracy in Crisis

12 October 2016
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Separation of Powers

12 October 2016
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About Us

Philosophy Talk is a nationally-syndicated public radio program and podcast hosted by Stanford professors Josh Landy and Ray Briggs. Known as “the program that questions everything—except your intelligence” Philosophy Talk challenges listeners to question their assumptions and to think about things in new ways. After two decades on the air, we have produced more than 550 episodes on a wide range of topics, from timeless philosophical questions about the ultimate nature of things to contemporary social and political issues, as well as our most fundamental beliefs about science, morality, and the human condition. We approach these topics with clarity, depth, and humor, inviting listeners to join engaging conversations with scholars from all over the globe.  

 

Philosophy Talk is produced by KALW 91.7FM on behalf of Stanford University, as part of its Public Humanities Initiative.

 

 

The Team

Philosophy Talk celebrates the value of the examined life.

Josh Landy

Co-host

Josh Landy is the Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French, Professor of Comparative Literature, and co-director of the Literature and Philosophy Initiative at Stanford University. He joined the Philosophy Talk team as co-host in 2017 when John Perry retired from the show. Among many other publications, he is the author of Philosophy as Fiction: Self, Deception, and Knowledge in Proust and How to Do Things with Fictions. He is currently writing a second book on Proust for Oxford’s Very Short Introductions series.

Ray Briggs

Co-host

Ray Briggs is a Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University. Their research explores how formal models can help us reason better about practical and theoretical matters; they are particularly interested in decision theory, measurement theory, and the philosophy of probability. In addition to over 20 philosophy articles, Ray has published two poetry collections and been nominated for a Pushcart.

Blakey Vermuele

Co-host

Blakey Vermeule is the Albert Guérard Professor of Literature in the English department at Stanford, and she lectures in the Philosophy and Literature program. She teaches and writes about evolutionary moral psychology and ethics from the 17th century to the present. She has written three books on topics related to moral psychology and is finishing a long project on mind science in the age of behavioral economics.

Debra Satz

Co-host

Debra Satz is the Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society at Stanford University and dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences. She is a political philosopher whose work addresses contemporary public policy debates. In addition to authoring many articles and co-editing books, she is the author of Why Some Things Should Not be for Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets and co-author of Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy and Public Policy.

John Perry

Co-founder and Co-host

John Perry is the Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Stanford University, and a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at University of California Riverside. He is author of over 100 articles and books on the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind. He received a Jean Nicod Prize (France), a Humboldt Prize (Germany), and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1983, he co-founded Stanford's Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) and served as its director. He also wrote the internet’s most popular essay on procrastination.

Ken Taylor

Co-founder and Co-host

Ken Taylor (1954-2019) was the co-founder of Philosophy Talk and its co-host for almost fifteen years. He was the Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University and director of Stanford's interdisciplinary program in Symbolic Systems. 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. 

Laura Maguire

Director of Research

Laura Maguire is Philosophy Talk's Director of Research and an occassional co-host. She hails from Dublin, Ireland, but has called the Bay Area home for decades. After graduating with distinction at Trinity College Dublin, she earned her PhD in Philosophy at Stanford University. She has taught in Stanford's Philosophy Department, Introduction to the Humanities program, and Structured Liberal Education program.

Devon Strolovitch

Senior Producer

Born and raised in Montreal, Devon studied medieval Judeo-Portuguese manuscripts and earned a PhD in Linguistics from Cornell University before pursuing radio professionally. Since then he has been the primary studio producer for Philosophy Talk, while also contributing as a writer, editor, occasional Roving Philosophical Reporter, and manager of the program's day-to-day operations.

Merle Kessler

Sixty-Second Philosopher

Merle Kessler is a writer, humorist, and performer, best known perhaps by his pen name, Ian Shoales. As Ian Shoales he has 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 online magazine, Salon. 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.

Holly J. McDede

Roving Philosophical Reporter

Holly J. McDede is the criminal justice reporter for KALW public radio in San Francisco. She studied Creative Writing and Literature at the University of East Anglia in Norfolk, England, where she wrote her dissertation on Don Quixote and a radio drama about public radio. She also works as an editor and producer at KCBS radio, sometimes very late at night when it’s difficult not to ponder life’s existential questions.

Shereen Adel

Roving Philosophical Reporter

Shereen Adel is a former literature student turned radio producer. She came to the Philosophy Talk team after joining KALW's newsroom as a producer on Crosscurrents and fell in love with reporting on how philosophical ideas take shape in practical applications. In addition to her work with Philosophy Talk, she still works behind the scenes in the KALW newsroom and manages the station's radio training programs for adults.

Sarah Lai Stirland

Roving Philosophical Reporter

Sarah Lai Stirland is a freelance writer and producer, a graduate of Medill at Northwestern University, and the Director of Digital Community at broadband.money. She's a 2020 alumna of KALW's Audio Academy and co-teaches and edits KALW's tbh podcast with fellow Roving Philosophical Reporter Holly J. McDede.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Greatness then, is not an act, but a habit” ― Aristotle

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!” ― J.R.R. Tolkien

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!” ― Dr. Seuss

“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.” ― Plato

“Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.” ― Isaac Asimov, Foundation

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