Best Elucidaitons Podcasts (2021)

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Elucidations

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Episode 133: Aristotle discusses his philosophy 45:23

13d ago45:23

45:23

This month, Agnes Callard and I talk to Aristotle about his philosophy, including his work on physics, biology, and ethics. Featuring an introduction by our awesome intern, Noadia Steinmetz-Silber! Click here to download Episode 133 of Elucidations. Not everyone is familiar with Aristotle’s work today, but the case could be made that science, polit…

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Elucidations

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Episode 132: Rebecca Valentine discusses queer hackerspaces 46:03

2M ago46:03

46:03

This month, we sit down with Rebecca Valentine (co-founder of Queerious Labs) to talk about anarchism, feminism, tech culture, and creative hacking. Hack this, hack that. What is a hacker, anyway? In pop culture, it’s common to use the term ‘hacker’ as a synonym for ‘cybercriminal’—that is, a person who engages in illegal activity over a computer n…

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Elucidations

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Episode 131: Greg Salmieri discusses egoism and altruism 49:42

4M ago49:42

49:42

This month, Greg Salmieri (University of Texas at Austin) returns for his third appearance on Elucidations, this time to talk about doing right by yourself. What was the last thing you did? The last thing I did was pull a shot of espresso. I wouldn’t say I made coffee as an end in itself, even though I love the taste of the roast I just used. If I …

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Elucidations

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Episode 130: Jessica Tizzard discusses weakness of the will 36:02

5M ago36:02

36:02

This month, Long Dang and I sit down to talk to Jessica Tizzard (University of Connecticut, Storrs) about weakness of the will. You’re at a party hosted by a close friend. It’s been three hours since you got there, and the evening thus far has been chock full of scintillating conversation, a fun round of Charades followed by Assassins, first rate c…

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Elucidations

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Episode 129: Nethanel Lipshitz discusses discrimination 51:11

7M ago51:11

51:11

This month, Ben Andrew and I are joined by Nethanel Lipshitz (Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University) to talk about discrimination. If someone treats me unequally--that is, if they give other people a relative advantage but not me--am I the victim of discrimination? Our guest says yes. That is enough for me to count as having been discriminated a…

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Elucidations

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Episode 128: Melissa Fusco discusses free choice permission 41:25

8M ago41:25

41:25

One of the foundational ideas behind philosophical logic is that when you say something, that has further implications beyond the single thing you said. Like, if I think ‘every single frog is green’ and ‘Fran is a frog’, then I am committed to thinking that Fran is green. I don't have to have actually thought to myself or said out loud that Fran is…

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Elucidations

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Episode 127 - Nic Koziolek discusses self-knowledge 40:49

9M ago40:49

40:49

In this episode, Nic Koziolek (Washington University in St. Louis) returns to talk to me and Nora Bradford about self-consciousness. Self-consciousness, as philosophers use the term, is a word for when you know something about one of your own mental states. Like when I really enjoy some pizza and note that I'm enjoying it. Someone else might ask me…

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Elucidations

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Episode 126 - Listener Q&A with Agnes Callard and Ben Callard 47:54

10M ago47:54

47:54

Three philosophers. Eight head-scratchers. 50 minutes. In this episode, Agnes Callard, Ben Callard and I respond to the world's most awesome listener-recorded questions. A lot of people have the impression that philosophy is, first and foremost, an enterprise in which college professor types read books that no one can understand, then issue a respo…

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Elucidations

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Episode 125: James Koppel discusses counterfactual inference and automated explanation 38:53

1y ago38:53

38:53

Episode link here. In this episode, James Koppel (MIT, James Koppel Coaching) joins me and Dominick Reo to talk about how we can write software to help identify the causes of disasters. These days, there's often a tendency to think of software primarily as a venue for frivolous pleasures. Maybe there's a new app that's really good at hooking me up …

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Elucidations

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Elucidations Episode 124: Graham Priest discusses Buddhist political philosophy 40:59

1y ago40:59

40:59

Episode link here: https://elucidations.now.sh/posts/episode-124/ In this episode, Graham Priest returns to discuss Buddhist political philosophy with me and Henry Curtis. (Last month, we talked with him about Buddhist metaphysics.) Last month, we discussed the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism: that suffering happens, that this suffering is (partially…

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Elucidations

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Episode 123: Graham Priest discusses Buddhist metaphysics 48:01

1y ago48:01

48:01

In this episode, Matt Teichman and Henry Curtis talk to Graham Priest (CUNY Graduate Center) about the philosophical foundations of Buddhism. Buddhism isn't just a religion--it's an entire family of philosophical traditions that took root all over the Asian continent for thousands of years. The historical Buddha articulated views in what we conside…

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Elucidations

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Episode 122: Frithjof Bergmann and David Helmbold discuss new work, new culture 39:36

1y ago39:36

39:36

In this episode, Frithjof Bergmann and David Helmbold make the case for a different approach to working in the modern world. A lot of us experience our day to day work as a 'mild disease'--not terrible, not excruciating, but also not our #1 choice about how to spend weekdays. Instead, they argue, a person's work should be the best part of their lif…

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Elucidations

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Episode 121: Aaron Ben Ze'ev discusses the arc of love 41:47

1+ y ago41:47

41:47

In this episode, Matt Teichman and Julia Liu talk to Aaron Ben Ze'ev (University of Haifa) about lifelong romantic love. What is love? Is it just a private feeling that each individual person experiences, or is it something that crucially involves multiple people? Our guest argues that although it is primarily a feeling, it is also something that e…

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Elucidations

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Episode 120: Robin Dembroff on going beyond the gender binary 32:32

1+ y ago32:32

32:32

Ever wonder what 'gender non-binary' means? Don't worry--Robin Dembroff (Yale University) is here to walk us through the relevant terminology, along with the everyday moral issues that are tied up with the gender concepts we use. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 119: Stephanie Kapusta discusses misgendering 45:00

1+ y ago45:00

45:00

In this episode, our guest argues that in addition to ordinary individual cases of misgendering, in which one person gets another person's gender wrong when they address them, there's a broader sense of the term. In the broader sense, a philosophical account of what gender is can also misgender people. How? The idea is that in signing yourself up f…

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Elucidations

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Episode 118: Tyler Cowen discusses Stubborn Attachments 52:54

1+ y ago52:54

52:54

In this episode, Tyler Cowen lays out an interesting normative ethical theory according to which we should be utilitarians, but with a twist: we should be utilitarians who care just as much about the humans of the future as we care about people now. Re-emphasizing our commitment to future people, he argues, has the effect of allowing us to embrace …

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Elucidations

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Episode 117: Brian L. Frye says to plagiarize this podcast 38:21

1+ y ago38:21

38:21

In this episode, Brian L. Frye (University of Kentucky) argues that we should think more carefully about our moral reaction to instances of plagiarism. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 116: Tommy Curry discusses black male studies 59:23

1+ y ago59:23

59:23

In this episode, Tommy Curry argues that if we really want to understand gender-based oppression, we have to look at how black men have been targeted for it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 115: Katherine Ritchie discusses social groups 40:04

2y ago40:04

40:04

In this episode, Katherine Ritchie (CUNY Graduate Center, City College) lays out what it means to belong to a social group, and what kind of thing a social group is. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 114: Sally Haslanger discusses ideology 40:49

2y ago40:49

40:49

What is the nature of a person's political outlook? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 113: Tom Pashby discusses quantum mechanics 35:46

2y ago35:46

35:46

In this episode, Tom Pashby explains how quantum physics is different from theories that came before, and runs through some of the ways that philosophers and physicists have tried to make intuitive sense of this challenging framework. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 112: Myisha Cherry discusses the skill of conversation 43:47

2y ago43:47

43:47

In this episode, Myisha Cherry argues that having a productive conversation with someone often involves explicitly laying out each person's background experiences and expectations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 111: Greg Kobele discusses mathematical linguistics 41:08

2y ago41:08

41:08

In this episode, Greg Kobele discusses how abstract mathematics can be useful for arriving at a unified theory of what patterns a person has mastery over when they can speak a language. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 110: Chike Jeffers discusses the social and political philosophy of W.E.B. Du Bois 37:04

2+ y ago37:04

37:04

What is the best way forward for a group of people fairly recently freed from slavery? Booker T. Washington emphasized economic enfranchisement, whereas W.E.B. Du Bois thought it was necessary to achieve political enfranchisement alongside economic enfranchisement. Join us as our guest discusses how threads from this 100-year-old debate persist in …

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Elucidations

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Episode 109: Bonus Episode with Matt Teichman and Toby Buckle 47:39

2+ y ago47:39

47:39

Bonus episode! In this joint edition of Elucidations and the Political Philosophy Podcast, Matt Teichman and Toby Buckle sit down and have a freeform conversation about why we do podcasts, the nature of moral disagreement, and the existence of political divides. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.…

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Elucidations

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Episode 108: Mariam Thalos discusses freedom 36:06

2+ y ago36:06

36:06

What do you think of yourself as? A musician? A mother? A political organizer? In this episode, our guest argues that your ability to act and reason freely is premised on your ability to shape and sometimes even invent the labels you apply to yourself. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.…

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Elucidations

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Episode 107: Linda Martín Alcoff discusses identity and history 50:07

2+ y ago50:07

50:07

In this episode, Linda Martín Alcoff discusses the subtle ways that things like your race, gender, sexual orientation, and class can influence your life. She argues that the best way to understand that kind of influence is by looking to the history of the relevant social group. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.…

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Elucidations

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Episode 106: R. A. Briggs discusses gender 37:29

3y ago37:29

37:29

In this episode, R. A. Briggs discusses some complexities underlying our use of the terms 'man' and 'woman.' See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 105: R. A. Briggs discusses epistemic decision theory 37:00

3y ago37:00

37:00

How do we tell what the best strategies for changing our beliefs on the basis of new evidence might be? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 104: Seth Yalcin discusses the question-sensitivity of belief 38:53

3y ago38:53

38:53

In this episode, Seth Yalcin argues that every belief we have is implicitly framed as the answer to a question, and that at different times we're considering different questions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 103: Brian Leiter explains why we should think about Marx 50:54

3+ y ago50:54

50:54

In this episode, we talk to Brian Leiter about why the writings of Karl Marx are helpful for understanding the current situation of the working and middle class in America, the 2016 Presidential election, and related topics! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 102: Josh Knobe discusses the true self 33:20

3+ y ago33:20

33:20

In this episode, Josh Knobe discusses a series of experiments that try to tease out what we implicitly assume about who a person really is, deep down. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 101: Miranda Fricker discusses blame and forgiveness 49:32

3+ y ago49:32

49:32

In this episode, Miranda Fricker argues that the purpose of blaming someone is to communicate to them your sense of why what they did was wrong. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 100: Agnes Callard discusses aspiration 49:02

3+ y ago49:02

49:02

In this episode, Agnes Callard explains why she thinks aspiration is the process of moving from one set of values to a new set of values in the way you live your life. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 99: Steven Nadler discusses Spinoza on freedom 39:22

3+ y ago39:22

39:22

In this episode, Steven Nadler discusses Benedict de Spinoza's unique reason-centric conception of what it is to live a good life and be free. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 98: Jennifer Lackey discusses credibility 32:08

4y ago32:08

32:08

In this episode, Jennifer Lackey discusses both how you can get things factually wrong and do something morally wrong by trusting people more than they deserve to be trusted. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 97: Meghan Sullivan discusses time biases 55:54

4y ago55:54

55:54

In this episode, Meghan Sullivan argues that if it's irrational to sacrifice long-term benefits for short-term gain, then it's also irrational to prefer for bad experiences to have already happened. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 96: Nic Koziolek discusses the role of belief in reasoning 41:20

4y ago41:20

41:20

In this episode, Nic Koziolek offers an account of what thought, belief, and reasoning are in terms of what knowledge is. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 95: Zed Adams discusses the genealogy of color 32:59

4y ago32:59

32:59

In this episode, Zed Adams argues that philosophers are in an irresolvable debate about whether colors are real because they inherited multiple conflicting conceptions of what color is from previous generations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 94: Zsofia Zvolenszky discusses fictional names 36:26

4y ago36:26

36:26

In this episode, Zsofia Zvolenszky argues that names like 'Harry Potter' or 'Princess Leia' stand for non-concrete human-made artifacts. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 93: Barry Lam discusses obligations after death 41:35

4y ago41:35

41:35

In this episode, Barry Lam examines our common assumption that we should prioritize honoring the wishes of dead people. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 92: Kristie Dotson discusses epistemic oppression 43:53

4+ y ago43:53

43:53

In this episode, Kristie Dotson discusses how imbalances in the way we share information with each other reflect broader power imbalances between social groups. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 91: Paolo Santorio discusses counterfactuals 35:10

4+ y ago35:10

35:10

In this episode, Paolo Santorio argues that to explain what statements like 'If A were, then B would be' mean, we need to understand them as statements about causal networks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 90: Ásta Sveinsdóttir discusses social construction 29:09

4+ y ago29:09

29:09

In this episode, our guest argues that we confer social statuses on each other by treating each other has having different obligations and entitlements. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 89: John Collins discusses language universals 41:01

4+ y ago41:01

41:01

In this episode, John Collins discusses the philosophical significance of Noam Chomsky's theory of universal grammar, along with some of the scientific evidence for it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 88: Kent Bach discusses jumping to conclusions and knowing when to think twice 30:13

4+ y ago30:13

30:13

In this episode, Kent Bach discusses the importance of subconscious processes that underlie ordinary, everyday reasoning. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 87: Susanna Schellenberg discusses perceptual particularity 31:13

4+ y ago31:13

31:13

In this episode, Susanna Schellenberg argues that hallucination involves the very same ability as ordinary visual experience--it's just that the ability goes wrong. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 86: Daniel Smyth discusses photographs and their vicissitudes 46:24

4+ y ago46:24

46:24

In this episode, Daniel Smyth discusses the vast amount of background knowledge that goes into interpreting a photograph. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 85: Bryce Huebner discusses race and cognitive science 35:19

4+ y ago35:19

35:19

In this episode, Bryce Huebner argues that our implicit racial biases are shaped by the physical environments we inhabit. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Elucidations

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Episode 84: Amanda Greene discusses the legitimacy of democracy 43:10

5y ago43:10

43:10

In this episode, Amanda Greene argues that democracy is the form of government that most reliably leads to long-term stability and acceptance. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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