Within Reason

Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code alexoconnor at www.huel.com/alexoconnor (Minimum $50 purchase).For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack.Adam Neely is an American bassist, YouTuber, and jazz musician based in New York City. His YouTube content includes Q&A videos, vlogs about performing music, and video essays about online music culture. As a musician, he performs with groups including the electro-jazz duo Sungazer and the instrumental band Aberdeen.Watch Adam's video on Suno here.TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - Music and Philosophy5:17 - Can You Cheat in Music?9:07 - What is Suno?25:20 - Can You Use AI Musically?32:21 - Is AI Just the New Sampling?38:40 - AI and Inclusivity46:21 - Is Music Becoming Narcissistic?57:26 - Does Great Art Require Ego?01:07:04 - Are AI Music Tools Inevitable?01:22:55 - How Would Adam Improve Suno?01:35:44 - Are We Removing the Humanity From Music?01:44:18 - Is Jazz the Blueprint? - CONNECTMy Website: https://www.alexoconnor.comSOCIAL LINKS:Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cosmicskepticFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/cosmicskepticInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/cosmicskepticTikTok: @CosmicSkeptic - CONTACTBusiness email: contact@alexoconnor.comBrand enquiries: David@modernstoa.co

Get all sides of every story and be better informed at https://ground.news/AlexOC - subscribe for 40% off unlimited access.For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack: https://www.alexoconnor.com.Jonny Thomson is a philosopher and the founder of PhilosophyMinis . He is on the Executive Board for the British Philosophy Association and is a staff writer at Big Think.Get Jonny's upcoming book, The Art of Enough: The Ancient Epicurean Philosophy of Finding – and Keeping – HappinessTIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Are Epicureans Selfish?05:30 - Why Epicureanism?10:31 - Who Was Epicurus?16:42 - Godless But Not Atheistic23:21 - Epicurus’ Metaphysics27:24 - Why Focus on Pleasure?35:29 - Epicureanism vs Utilitarianism48:59 - What About Immoral Pleasures?53:02 - Could AI be Epicurean?01:00:50 - The Experience Machine01:10:59 - Why Epicurus Didn’t Like Sex01:16:21 - Are Influencers Watering Down Ancient Philosophy?01:20:06 - Are You In Control of Your Happiness?01:26:33 - Epicureanism vs Stoicism01:32:36 - Epicurus on Death01:36:42 - Do We Have a Happiness Crisis? - CONNECTMy Website: https://www.alexoconnor.comSOCIAL LINKS:Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cosmicskepticFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/cosmicskepticInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/cosmicskepticTikTok: @CosmicSkepticThe Within Reason Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/within-reason/id1458675168 - CONTACTBusiness email: contact@alexoconnor.comBrand enquiries: David@modernstoa.co

Get all sides of every story and be better informed at https://ground.news/AlexOC - subscribe for 40% off unlimited access.For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack.

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Nate Soares is an American artificial intelligence author and researcher known for his work on existential risk from AI. In 2014, Soares co-authored a paper that introduced the term AI alignment, the challenge of making increasingly capable AI’s behave as intended. Nate is the president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, a research nonprofit based in Berkeley, California.

Get the book, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All. - TIMESTAMPS00:00 - Is This an Exaggeration?04:31 - What Is Unique About the Threat of AI?11:28 - What is Superintelligence?21:25 - From Chess Computers to Murderous Machines27:52 - What Really Drives AI Systems?44:29 - Evidence AI Is Already Turning Against Us56:03 - How We Are Helping AI Take Over01:01:21 - Why Would AI Seek Power or Control?01:07:42 - Some Worst-Case AI Scenarios01:18:38 - What Do We Do About This Now?01:32:53 - How Has AI Changed in the Last Six Months? - CONNECTMy Website: https://www.alexoconnor.comSOCIAL LINKS:Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cosmicskepticFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/cosmicskepticInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/cosmicskepticTikTok: @CosmicSkeptic - CONTACTBusiness email: contact@alexoconnor.comBrand enquiries: David@modernstoa.co

Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code alexoconnor at https://huel.com/alexoconnor (Minimum $50 purchase).For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack.Anil Seth is a British neuroscientist and professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. A proponent of materialist explanations of consciousness, he is currently amongst the most cited scholars on the topics of neuroscience and cognitive science globally.Read Anil's essay, "The Mythology of Conscious AI". - TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - The Difference Between Intelligence and Consciousness

03:55 - What’s Stopping the Replication of Consciousness in AI?

17:01 - Can You Separate What the Brain Is From What It Does?

22:20 - Is Conscious Experience Just Predictions From the Brain?

26:48 - Why Do We Project Consciousness Onto LLMs?

37:27 - Can Consciousness Exist Without a Body?

42:25 - Why We Liken the Brain to a Computer

52:11 - Is There An Evolutionary Reason For Consciousness?

56:29 - Studying Unconscious Perception?

1:01:21 - Is Consciousness Unified? Split-Brain Patients

1:15:10 - Attention and Consciousness

1:19:04 - What Would a Conscious Chatbot Even Look Like?

1:25:13 - Consciousness as a Controlled Hallucination

1:34:19 - Do Scientists Actually Study “Consciousness” At All?

- CONNECT

My Website: https://www.alexoconnor.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cosmicskeptic

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cosmicskeptic

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/cosmicskeptic

TikTok: @CosmicSkeptic

- CONTACT

Business email: contact@alexoconnor.com

Brand enquiries: David@modernstoa.co

Get all sides of every story and be better informed at https://ground.news/AlexOC - subscribe for 40% off unlimited access.For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack: https://www.alexoconnor.com.-John Lennox is a Northern Irish mathematician, bioethicist, and Christian apologist originally from Northern Ireland. He has written many books on religion, ethics, the relationship between science and God, and has had public debates with atheists including Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. -

Exclusive discount: Listeners to my show can get 30% Off John Lennox’s autobiography, My Story when shopping directly from his publishers. Visit https://spckpublishing.co.uk/my-story and enter AOC30 at checkout to get 30% off.  - TIMESTAMPS00:00 - How Pressure Can Produce the Best Work02:29 - Does the Incarnation Make Sense?06:22 - John’s Richard Dawkins Debate14:39 - What Did the New Atheists Get Wrong About God?26:21 - Science Cannot Explain Everything31:22 - What Did the New Atheists Get Right?35:18 - Why Does God Hide From So Many People?44:36 - Why Does God Allow Arbitrary Suffering?56:25 - Is Faith “Belief Without Evidence”?1:00:33 - How Could God Punish a Mere Lack of Faith?1:08:14 - How Christopher Hitchens Agreed with Jesus1:13:03 - Does Christianity Cause Evil?

Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code alexoconnor at https://huel.com/alexoconnor (Minimum $50 purchase).For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack: https://www.alexoconnor.com.Galen Strawson is a British analytic philosopher and literary critic who works primarily on philosophy of mind, metaphysics, John Locke, David Hume, Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Nietzsche.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Is Radical Emergence Possible?08:15 - Can Physics Describe Consciousness?12:01 - Is Everything Made of Consciousness?18:34 - Why Are People Resistant to Panpsychism?21:19 - Can Experience Alone Tell Us What Consciousness Is?23:50 - Does Consciousness Require Complexity?29:03 - Panpsychism vs Idealism: What’s the Difference?36:08 - The Combination Problem40:03 - What is the “Self”?43:16 - Do We Even Need to Explain Consciousness?48:25 - Is Consciousness a Scientific or Philosophical Question?53:25 - Is It Possible for AI to Become Conscious?

Philip Pullman is one of England's most cherished and celebrated writers. Author of the popular His Dark Materials series of books (later adapted into a film, The Golden Compass (2007), and a 2019 HBO/BBC drama series), his novels are dripping with philosophical and religious themes.Get Philip Pullman's Books here.

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TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - C.S. Lewis Tells Filthy Lies5:12 - Childhood Innocence is Overrated10:09 - Religion in Philip’s Novels21:26 - How to Improve the Story of Jesus and the Gospels27:43 - The Connection Between Music and Fiction36:24 - Books vs Movies43:38 - Consciousness in The Book of Dust50:05 - Should Novelists Go Back and Update Their Books?56:11 - The Omniscient Narrator1:00:12 - How Movies Changed Novels1:05:49 - Why Subtitles Are So Popular Now1:10:56 - The Role of Philosophy in Philip’s Novels1:13:27 - Philip’s Writing Process1:20:11 - The Fear of AI in Creative Industries

Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code alexoconnor at https://huel.com/alexoconnor (Minimum $50 purchase).For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack.Graham Tomlin is a British theologian, author and former Church of England bishop.LINKS:Get Graham's book, Blaise Pascal: The Man Who Made the Modern WorldGraham's organisation, Seen and Unseen TIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Can Blaise Pascal Be Categorised?03:05 - Who Was Blaise Pascal?11:12 - Pascal’s First Conversion17:19 - Pascal’s “Night of Fire”21:59 - Did Pascal Reject Reason?31:45 - Pascal’s War With Descartes42:31 - Did Pascal Invent the Bus?45:42 - The Heart Has Its Reasons, Of Which Reason Knows Nothing50:03 - How Pascal Invented Probability Theory52:29 - Pascal’s Wager1:15:35 - The Pensées1:18:30 - Pascal’s “Two Minds”1:22:39 - The Importance of Boredom1:26:58 - Why Should Atheists Read Pascal?1:31:34 - What Would Graham Ask Pascal?

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Thomas Metzinger is a German philosopher and Professor Emeritus of theoretical philosophy at the University of Mainz. His primary research areas include philosophy of mind, philosophy of neuroscience, and applied ethics, particularly focusing on neurotechnology, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.

Get The Elephant and the Blind: The Experience of Pure Consciousness: Philosophy, Science, and 500+ Experiential Reports

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 - The Minimal Phenomenal Experience Project

11:34 - Is MPE New Age Meditation?

17:07 - Collecting Reports of Pure Consciousness

25:48 - Lucid Deep Sleep - Thomas’ Experience

32:19 - Does Consciousness Require Complexity?

39:29 - The Power of Meditation

45:32 - Is Meditation Always a Positive Experience?

53:13 - Is a MPE Actually an Experience?

01:11:21 - Your Brain is Not Telling You the Truth

01:20:08 - Analysing Minimal Conscious Experiences

01:27:26 - Is Meditative Enlightenment Unethical?

01:32:37 - Western Ignorance of Eastern Tradition

01:40:13 - “Coming Home”

01:44:29 - The Political Implications of MPE

01:52:40 - Should Ketamine Be Legalised?

Matthew Cobb is a British zoologist and Emeritus professor of zoology at the University of Manchester.

Get his book, The Idea of the Brain: A HistoryCloser to Truth's Map of Consciousness: loc.closertotruth.com/mapTIMESTAMPS:0:00 The Heart or the Head?4:13 Medicine in the Ancient World12:25 Why Don’t We Accept Evidence?18:34 From Ancient to Modern Understanding29:29 When Did We Reach a Consensus on the Brain?37:41 Electricity in the Brain39:58 Our Metaphors for the Brain44:15 Is the Brain Segmented or Whole?01:05:20 Why is Speech Governed by the Left Hemisphere?01:18:55 Why is the Brain Split Into Two Hemispheres?01:23:06 Where in the Brain Does Consciousness Originate?01:32:46 The Ladybug Robot01:35:08 Back to Consciousness01:45:27 What is a Neuron?01:56:04 Why is Smell Connected to Memory So Strongly?02:02:14 Do London Cab Drivers Have Larger Hippocampi?02:10:11 The Limits of MRI and CT Scans02:19:24 Will We Ever Be Able to See Consciousness in the Brain?

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- VIDEO NOTES

Adam Aleksic, known online as Etymology Nerd, is an American linguist and content creator who produces videos exploring the origins of words. He began exploring word origins in 2016 through his blog. Aleksic studied at Harvard University, where he gained attention for his educational TikTok videos on linguistics and language in 2023. In 2025, he published Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language.

- LINKS

Buy "Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language": https://amzn.to/3NcOLpw

- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 – Will Social Media End Local Languages?

7:49 – Why Does Language Change?

15:11 – What Is Algospeak?

22:33 – We Worship Our Phones

27:36 – Upcoming Slang to Invest In

33:26 – Online Slang That Never Quite Caught On

38:48 – Introducing Adam to British Slang

47:13 – The Origins of Language

57:22 – Punctuation in Text Messaging

1:06:24 – The Latin Mass and Hocus Pocus

1:13:44 – The Message of Algospeak

- CONNECT

My Website: https://www.alexoconnor.com

SOCIAL LINKS:

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cosmicskeptic

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cosmicskeptic

Instagram:http://www.instagram.com/cosmicskeptic

TikTok: @CosmicSkeptic

The Within Reason Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/within-reason/id1458675168

- CONTACT

Business email: contact@alexoconnor.comBrand enquiries: David@modernstoa.co

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Get all sides of every story and be better informed at https://ground.news/AlexOC - subscribe for 40% off unlimited access.

Come to my UK tour, tickets still available for Cambridge and Newcastle: https://www.livenation.co.uk/alex-o-connor-tickets-adp1641612.

For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack: https://www.alexoconnor.com.

Sam Harris is a neuroscientist, philosopher, New York Times best-selling author, host of the Making Sense podcast, and creator of the Waking Up meditation app.

Buy the Waking Up book here.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 – Tour

00:32 – Is ‘Spirituality’ a Dirty Word?

04:26 – Why Take Reflective Knowledge Seriously?

29:11 – What Is the Self?

47:04 – Why Are There Distinct Selves?

1:01:22 – The Two Hemispheres of the Brain

1:06:47 – The Problem of Emergence

1:18:41 – What’s the Minimal Amount of Consciousness?

1:34:09 – Is AI Lying to Us About Consciousness?

1:39:15 – What Is the Present?

Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code alexoconnor at https://huel.com/alexoconnor (Minimum $50 purchase).

Come to my UK tour: https://www.livenation.co.uk/alex-o-connor-tickets-adp1641612.

For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack: https://www.alexoconnor.com.

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Swami Sarvapriyananda is a Hindu monk belonging to the Ramakrishna Order. He is the current resident Swami and Minister in Charge, of the Vedanta Society of New York.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 – Tour

00:32 – An Intro to Hinduism and Advaita Vedanta

14:31 – What Are the Upanishads

22:08 – Where Do the Vedas (Scripture) Come From?

29:02 – What Does “Upanishad” Mean?

34:36 – What Do the Upanishads Teach Us?

47:07 – What Is Brahman, or Ultimate Existence?

1:02:52 – What Is the True Nature of Consciousness?

1:08:15 – Non-Dualism in Advaita Vedanta

1:18:34 – Why Isn’t There Just One Big Consciousness?

1:29:06 – What Is the Self?

1:36:30 – Are Brahman and Atman the Same Thing?

1:45:25 – What Does ‘God’ Mean in Hinduism?

1:49:07 – Does Hinduism Believe Other Religions Are Incorrect?

Get all sides of every story and be better informed at https://ground.news/AlexOC - subscribe for 40% off unlimited access.

Get tickets to my UK tour here.

For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack.

Joe Schmid is a PhD student in philosophy at Princeton University and creator of the Majesty of Reason YouTube channel. He graduated with a B.A. in philosophy from Purdue University in 2022. He has published articles in metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of time, and the author of books including "Existential Inertia and Classical Theistic Proofs".

Felipe Leon’s 200 arguments for atheism: https://exapologist.blogspot.com/2023/03/200-or-so-arguments-for-atheism.html

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Tour

00:32 – Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence

07:50 – There Is No Evidence for God

25:27 – Who Created God?

49:44 – Science Flies You to the Moon, Religion Flies You into Buildings

01:02:33 – Your Location Determines Your Religion

01:28:33 – Claims Are Not Evidence

01:32:50 – You Can’t Prove a Negative

01:38:35 – What Can Be Asserted Without Evidence Can Be Dismissed Without Evidence

01:43:51 – Faith Is Belief Without Evidence

01:54:59 – Religion Makes Good People Do Bad Things

01:55:32 – Absence of Evidence Is Evidence of Absence

01:56:31 – Theism Is Unfalsifiable

02:01:03 – Science Books Would Come Back, Religions Would Not

02:12:58 – Evolution Disproves God

Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code alexoconnor at https://huel.com/alexoconnor (Minimum $50 purchase).

Come to my tour in February: https://www.livenation.co.uk/alex-o-connor-tickets-adp1641612.

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- VIDEO NOTES

John Sellars is a Reader in philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London, a visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and a Member of Wolfson College, Oxford. His books include Lessons in Stoicism, The Fourfold Remedy, Aristotle and his work has been translated into over a dozen languages.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Tour

00:32 – Did Socrates Found Stoicism?

08:03 – The Three Eras of Stoicism

17:50 – Stoic Logic

26:19 – Empiricism: How the Stoics Got Knowledge

34:33 – Materialism: Only Physical Things Exist

43:00 – How Reason Fundamentally Animates the Universe

48:43 – Did the Stoics Believe in God?

59:37 – Do the Stoics Contradict Themselves?

01:08:17 – Stoic Ethics

01:24:24 – How Did the Stoics Deal With Evil?

01:36:32 – Can You Choose Your Outcome If Everything Is Determined?

Get all sides of every story and be better informed at https://ground.news/AlexOC - subscribe for 40% off unlimited access.

Come to my UK tour: https://www.livenation.co.uk/alex-o-connor-tickets-adp1641612.

For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack: https://www.alexoconnor.com.

Sean Michael Carroll is an American theoretical physicist who specializes in quantum mechanics, cosmology, and the philosophy of science.

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 – Tour

0:32 – Can Science Alone Explain the Universe?

6:08 – The Principle of Sufficient Reason

10:07 – What Are the Laws of Physics?

18:22 – The Fine-Tuning Argument

32:39 – Does the Multiverse Undermine Morality?

36:29 – Free Will and the Multiverse

42:24 – What Is Emergence?

56:21 – What “Stuff” Do Materialists Believe In?

1:02:41 – How Does Consciousness Work on Materialism?

1:17:31 – What Could Move Sean Away from Materialism?

Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code alexoconnor - https://huel.com/alexoconnor (Minimum $50 purchase).

Come to my tour in February, click here for tickets.

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 – Intro

0:32 – Are All Things Full of Gods?

8:51 – Subjectivity and the Scientific Third Person

18:56 – What is the Materialistic Worldview?

28:45 – Consciousness of the Gaps?

38:21 – What’s Wrong with Emergence?

1:00:18 – Why Panpsychism is False

1:10:25 – Is There a Fundamental Unit of Consciousness?

1:23:08 – Why Are There Individual Selves?

1:27:43 – What’s Special About the Brain?

1:40:35 – Where Does the Self Go After Death?

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For tickets to my UK tour, click here.

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Rhett McLaughlin is a comedian best known for creating the internet’s most-watched daily talk show, Good Mythical Morning‬, alongside Link Neal. The pair also host a weekly podcast, ‪Ear Biscuits‬.

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Timestamps:

0:00 – Tour

0:32 – Did Rhett Break Christianity on Easter Sunday?

6:15 – What About Christianity Needs Rethinking?

12:16 – Christians Should Embrace Faith

23:39 – Christians Should Stop Relying on Evidence

37:01 – Christians Should Stop Relying on Philosophy

49:05 – Christians Should Embrace Truth

55:15 – Why Do Christians Resist Evolution?

1:02:55 – Are Alex and Rhett About to Convert to Christianity?

1:07:49 – Christians Should Embrace Jesus

1:34:30 – Rhett’s New Channel

Graham Oppy is Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean of Research at Monash University. An Australian philosopher of religion, he is often considered one of the most thoughtful and important academic atheists in the world.

Buy his book, Arguing About Gods, here.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Tour

00:31 - The First Cause Argument

14:14 - Can There be an Infinite Regress?

30:46 - The Modal Fatalism Objection

36:08 - The Kalam Cosmological Argument

51:12 - The Fine Tuning Argument

1:06:15 - The Multiverse

1:10:01 - Are the Constants of the Universe Just Necessary?1:15:37 - Was the Hole Designed for the Puddle?

1:20:20 - Anselm’s Ontological Argument

1:33:59 - The Modal Ontological Argument

1:38:23 - Closing

Get tickets for my UK tour here.

Alain de Botton is the creator of The School of Life. A Swiss-born British author and public speaker, his books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasising philosophy's relevance to everyday life.

John Nelson earned a PhD in New Testament and Christian Origins from the University of Edinburgh in 2023. He writes for the Substack Behind the Gospels.

His thesis is the first book-length study of Jesus' physical appearance in the Gospels. He runs a weekly Substack called "Behind the Gospels" which aims to make Biblical studies accessible to all.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Was Jesus Really Born on Christmas Day?

2:51 - Are the Birth Narratives Attempts at History?

6:34 - Where Was Jesus Actually Born?

16:19 - Were the Birth Narratives Added Later?

20:53 - Was Mary Really a Virgin?

32:57 - Why Does Nobody Else Mention the Virgin Birth?

37:39 - Was Jesus a Product of Adultery? 

42:22 - Was Jesus Born in a Manger?

48:07 - Who Are the Magi?

54:04 - Was the Star Really a Star?

01:00:03 - Did Herod Really Order a Slaughter of Infants?

01:05:09 - Is the Christmas Story Anti-Imperial?

01:09:04 - How Would Jewish Readers Interpret the Christmas Narratives?

01:13:13 - Are Christmas Trees a Pagan Idol?

01:16:12 - John’s Book and the Upcoming Tour

Timestamps

0:00 - 1,778,795 Q&A
0:24 - How Are You?
5:12 - If You Could Choose Your Date of Birth, When Would It Be?
9:36 - Survival Tips From Bear Grylls?
10:21 - How Do You Remember so Much Stuff?
15:24 - What is Your Dream Podcast?
17:01 - Doesn’t Consciousness Just… Emerge?
29:26 - If You Clean a Vaccum, Are You a Vaccum Cleaner?
35:41 - Is Water Wet?
37:26 - How Many Holes Are In a Straw?
40:55 - Is a Hot Dog a Sandwich?
42:28 - Do You Edit Everything By Yourself?
43:23 - What Would It Be Like to Observe a Contradiction?
43:33 - Which Philosophical Concepts are Often Misunderstood?
50:29 - When I Changed My Mind Mid-Debate
01:01:49 - Would You Tour?

Hank Green (@hankschannel) is one of YouTube's most beloved creators. One half of vlogbrothers, he is also the co-creator and host of SciShow and Crash Course.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Where Are All the Aliens?
8:08 - What Makes Humans So Special?
17:22 - Has the US Lost its Cultural Identity?
29:34 - Martin Luther Wrong About God?
36:30 - Is the World an Illusion?
46:54 - Should We Believe Our Illusions?
53:58 - How Objective is Science?
59:41 - Does Science Explain Anything?
01:11:10 - Could We Explain Cold to an Alien?
1:22:03 - The Hard Problem of Consciousness
01:27:44 - Will Computers Ever Become Conscious?
01:35:58 - Do You Have Two Brains?
01:42:30 - Should We Be Worried About TikTok?
1:49:08 - Hank’s Video Ideas
01:59:39 - What’s it Like Meeting Your Old Heroes?
2:05:51 - Being a YouTuber

Michael Stevens is the creator of Vsauce, one of YouTube's most popular channels. Alongside Hannah Fry he hosts the newly-launched podcast The Rest is Science.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Does Anything Really Exist?
10:32 - Is Michael a Mereological Nihilist?
19:42 - Are Philosophers Overcomplicating Function Behaviour?
25:24 - Do “You” Really Exist?
41:57 - Free Will and the Bicameral Mind Theory
50:09 - Why the Future Isn’t Changing Like It Used To
59:11 - The Scientific Mystery of Torque?
01:17:46 - Consciousness

Timestamps

0:00 - What Existential Risks Does AI Pose?8:57 - How AI Systems Lie to Us26:04 - Why We Should Be Worried About AI33:28 - What Does It Mean for AI System to “Want” Something?43:41 - AI Weapons and Nuclear Warfare48:57 - Where Should We Focus Our Resources?53:35 - What Policies Should We Enact?

Philip Goff is a British author, panpsychist philosopher, and professor at Durham University whose research focuses on philosophy of mind and consciousness. Specifically, how consciousness can be part of the scientific worldview.

Buy Philip's books here.

- Timestamps

0:00 - Why Philip Became Religious

07:13 - Panpsychism and the Fine-Tuning Argument

18:46 - Why God’s Power is Limited

30:10 - The Problem of Suffering

42:53 - Non-Western Religious Positions

48:34 - What is the Role of Jesus in This?

57:35 - “Why Aren’t You Just a Hindu?”

01:02:23 - What is the Point in the Crucifixion?

01:09:41 - The Beautiful Uncertainty of Religion

Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code alexoconnor at https://huel.com/alexoconnor (Minimum $75 purchase).

William MacAskill is a Scottish philosopher and author, as well as one of the originators of the effective altruism movement. Get his book. What We Owe the Future, here.

0:00 – The World Isn’t Ready for AGI

9:12 – What Does AGI

Doomsday Look Like?

16:13 – Alignment is Not Enough

19:28 – How AGI Could Cause Government Coups

27:14 – Why Isn’t There More Widespread Panic?

33:55 – What Can We Do?

40:11 – If We Stop, China Won’t

47:43 – What is Currently Being Done to Regulate AGI Growth

51:03 – The Problem of “Value Lock-in”

01:05:03 – Is Inaction a Form of Action?

01:08:47 – Should Effective Altruists Focus on AGI?

Bernardo Kastrup is a Dutch philosopher and computer scientist recognised for his contributions to consciousness studies, notably through his formulation of analytic idealism—a variant of metaphysical idealism rooted in the analytic tradition.

Buy his books here.

Timestamps:

0:00 - What is the World Really Made Of?
7:11 - Qualities vs Quantities
9:45 - Can Materialism Explain Anything?
25:06 - Is There More Than What We Perceive?
33:57 - Can We Exist Without a Brain?
42:15 - What is Personhood?
48:35 - Consciousness is not the Self
54:46 - Why is Mental Activity Localised?
01:10:39 - Why Panpsychism Doesn’t Make Sense
01:22:20 - Distinguishing Idealism and Panpsychism
01:32:20 - Are There Distinctions Between Material Objects?
01:39:14 - The Illusion of the Self
01:46:16 - The Biggest Misunderstanding of Analytical Idealism

Bear Grylls is a British adventurer, writer, television presenter and former SAS trooper who is also a survival expert. Widely known for his television series Man vs. Wild, he was also appointed as The Scout Association’s youngest-ever Chief Scout of the United Kingdom and Overseas Territories at the age of 35. His new book, The Greatest Story Ever Told, is a retelling of the life of Jesus through the eyes of five Gospel characters: Mary the mother of Jesus, Thomas, Peter, John, and Mary Magdalene.

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 - Retelling Christianity in the First Person
12:36 - Faith and Doubt Come Together
16:46 - Did Bear’s Research Cause Doubt or Faith?
28:01 - Reconciling the Differences Between the Gospels
39:50 - On Not Putting Words in Jesus’ Mouth
48:59 - Where Alex’s Interest in the Gospels Began
55:24 - Travelling Back to the Time of Jesus: Where Would You Go?

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Andrew Mark Henry is a scholar of religious studies. His research focus is early Christianity and late Roman religion. He earned his PhD at Boston University.His YouTube channel is "Religion for Breakfast", find it here.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Was Jesus a Magician?

3:35 - The Origins of ‘Magic’

10:02 - Celsus, Christianity’s Earliest Critic

16:35 - The Wise Magi

19:59 - Did Jesus Use a Wand?

30:22 - Curses, Rituals, and Magical Formulas

40:43 - What Kind of “Magus” Was Jesus?

43:52 - Was Jesus a Freelance Ritual Expert?

48:34 - Charisma and the Origin of Exorcism

53:03 - Grimoires: The Magic of the Written Word

01:08:40 - The Religion Department

Dr. Qureshi-Hurst is a Philosopher of Religion and Science at the University of Cambridge. Her work focuses on the relationship between physics—and time in particular—and theology. Her forthcoming book, Decoding the Cosmos: God, Physics, and the Search for Deeper Explanation, explores this relationship in depth.

Improve your focus with Brain FM with 30 days free: https://www.brain.fm/withinreason.

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 - Does the Bible Predict the Big Bang?2:37 - Scientists and Theologians10:18 - Where Did Biblical Literalism Come From?17:31 - How Does Science Conflict with Theology?23:47 - Does God Experience Time?29:27 - The A, B and C Series of Time38:38 - Timeless God, Timed Universe42:52 - Christianity and the End of the Universe48:35 - Intelligent Design and Modern Science55:58 - Is Biblical Literalism a Plausible Reading?58:32 - Why Emily is an Atheist

Ben Thomas is @Sisyphus55, a YouTuber creating videos about philosophy, existentialism, nihilism, absurdism, and meaning. His new book, So You're Having an Existential Crisis: a Roadmap for Lost Souls, is available now.

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Candida Moss is a historian of Christianity and author of The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom.

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Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code alexoconnor at https://huel.com/alexoconnor (Minimum $75 purchase).

Robert Greene is an American author of books on strategy, power, and seduction. He has written seven international bestsellers, including The 48 Laws of Power. He is working on a book about the concept of the sublime, and speaks today about its relation to near-death experiences, dreaming, consciousness, and religious belief. Buy his books here.

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John Cottingham (born 1943) is an English philosopher. The focus of his research has been early-modern philosophy (especially Descartes), the philosophy of religion and moral philosophy. He is a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Reading, Professorial Research Fellow at Heythrop College, University of London, and Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. He is also a current Visiting Professor to the Philosophy Department at King's College, London.

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Brant Pitre is an American New Testament scholar and Distinguished Research Professor of Scripture at the Augustine Institute. He has written extensively on the historical Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Paul the Apostle, the origin of the Eucharist, and the canonical Gospels. His book, Jesus and Divine Christology, is available here.

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Jim Al-Khalili is an Iraqi-British theoretical physicist and science populariser. He is professor of theoretical physics and chair in the public engagement in science at the University of Surrey.

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Joe Folley runs the YouTube channel Unsolicited Advice. He graduated from Cambridge University in 202with an MPhil in Philosophy, specialising in logic.

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 - What is Logic?
5:04 - Aristotelian vs Stoic Logic
12:47 - How Logic Provides Clarity
18:42 Ambiguities in Logical Language
29:07 - Validity vs Soundness in a Logical Argument
39:40 Why Anything Follows From a Contradiction
47:42 - The Law of Non-Contradiction
56:27 - What is Truth and Falsity in Logic?
58:36 - Does Your Mum Know You’re Gay?
1:05:05 What is Fuzzy Logic?
01:08:14 - What is Modal Logic?
01:13:40 - Informal Rules of Logic
01:29:15 - Resources to Learn About Logic

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Dan McClellan is an American biblical scholar and author of The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) About Scripture’s Most Controversial Issues.

Timestamps:

0:00 Why Does God Say “We”?
14:36 Does God Create the Universe From Nothing?
28:43 Is This Explained By The Trinity?
34:32 Is There Only One God?
47:39 Fake Idols or Gods?
1:02:50 How English Translations Mislead Us Into Monotheism
01:11:02 The Elevation of YHWH to God of the Universe
1:20:36 Polytheism in the New Testament
01:24:14 The Strongest Case For Monotheism in the Old Testament

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Peter Godfrey-Smith is an Australian philosopher of science and writer, who is currently Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. Buy his books here.

Timestamps:

0:00 How Many Times Has the Brain Independently Evolved? 4:36 What is a Nervous System? 7:12 The Differences Between the Human and Animal Brains 13:40 What Does an Octopus Brain Look Like? 25:21 What is it Like to be an Octopus? 35:48 Are the Mind and Body Distinct? 42:46 Panpsychism: Is Everything Conscious? 55:53 How Do Experiences Combine Into One Consciousness? 01:05:08 Which Animals Feel Pain? What is it Like? 01:16:51 Should We Make Shrimp Farming an Ethical Priority? 01:29:22 Animal Science and Animal Foods 01:35:59 The Ethics of Killing Animals 01:52:13 Are Octopuses Playful?

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Niayesh Afshordi is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo. Phil Halper is a science communicator and YouTuber. Together, they have authored a book called "Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins", an overview of the state of modern cosmology on the nature of the big bang.

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Simon Blackburn is well-known both as a writer of popular philosophy introductions (like Think), and also a significant figure in non-cognitivist meta-ethics, having invented the term “quasi-realism” to describe his moral philosophy.

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Sabine Hossenfelder is a German theoretical physicist, author, science communicator, and YouTuber. She is the author of Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions.

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Rick Alan Ross is an American deprogrammer, cult specialist, and founder and executive director of the non-profit Cult Education Institute. Frequently appearing in the news and other media, discussing groups some consider cults. Ross has intervened in more than 500 deprogramming cases in various countries. (Wikipedia) Get Rick's book, "Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out" here.

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Helen Bond is Professor of Christian Origins at the New College, University of Edinburgh, and former head of the School of Divinity there. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In 2023, she co-authored a book with Joan Taylor called Women Remembered: Jesus’ Female Disciples. Watch the documentary version here.

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Sheehan Quirke is The Cultural Tutor. A writer on history, art, and architecture with millions of followers, he is also the author of the forthcoming The Cultural Tutor: Forty-Nine Lessons You Wish You’d Learned at School, which is currently available for preorder here.

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David Pakman is an American progressive political commentator and host of  @thedavidpakmanshow .

Buy David's book, The Echo Machine here

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Marcus du Sautoy is a British mathematician, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, Fellow of New College, Oxford and author of popular mathematics and popular science books. Buy Blueprints: How Mathematics Shapes Creativity here.

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Dale Allison is an American historian and Christian theologian. His areas of expertise include the historical Jesus, the Gospel of Matthew, Second Temple Jewish literature, and the history of the interpretation and reception of the Bible. Allison is the Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary (2013- ). (Wikipedia) By Dale Allison's book, The Resurrection of Jesus, here.

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Diarmaid MacCulloch is an English academic and historian, specialising in ecclesiastical history and the history of Christianity. Since 1995, he has been a fellow of St Cross College, Oxford; he was formerly the senior tutor.

Buy Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity here.

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John Lennox is a Northern Irish mathematician, bioethicist, and Christian apologist originally from Northern Ireland. He has written many books on religion, ethics, the relationship between science and God, and has had public debates with atheists including Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

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Annaka Harris is an American writer. Her work touches on neuroscience, meditation, philosophy of mind and consciousness. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind.

Get Annaka Harris’ documentary Lights On here.

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Rhett McLaughlin is a comedian best known for creating the internet’s most-watched daily talk show, Good Mythical Morning along side Link Neal; their award-winning weekly podcast The pair also host a weekly podcast, Ear Biscuits; and the instant #1 New York Times bestseller Rhett & Link’s Book of Mythicality.

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David Deutsch is a British physicist at the University of Oxford, often described as the "father of quantum computing". He is a visiting professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation in the Clarendon Laboratory of the University of Oxford. (Wikipedia)

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Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, director of its centre for theoretical physics, and the chairman of the World Science Festival. He is best known for his work on string theory, especially in his book “The Elegant Universe”, which turns 25 this year.

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For episode 100 of Within Reason, I'm joined by Joe Folley, from the YouTube Channel "Unsolicited Advice", to tackle a completely arbitrary and ridiculous tournament of thinkers, each of whom are to some degree relevant to the show. Joe graduated from Cambridge University with an MPhil in Philosophy, specialising in logic, in 2023.

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Penn Badgley is an actor best known for his roles in Netflix’s You and the popular drama series Gossip Girl. He is less known as a podcaster and member of the Baháʼí Faith, a religion which teaches that there is a historical unity between major world religions and their prophets, having itself developed out of a branch of Twelver Shia Islam in the 19th century.

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Kipp Davis (‪@DrKippDavis‬) is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway, where he specialises in the assignment and reconstruction of fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls and their interpretation. (Google Books)

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a set of ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period. They were discovered over a period of 10 years, between 1946 and 1956, at the Qumran Caves near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, the Dead Sea Scrolls include the oldest surviving manuscripts of entire books later included in the biblical canons, including deuterocanonical manuscripts from late Second Temple Judaism and extrabiblical books. At the same time, they cast new light on the emergence of Christianity and of Rabbinic Judaism. (Wikipedia)

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A Q&A to celebrate hitting 1.25 million subscribers on YouTube.

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James Frank McGrath is the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University. He is the author of two books on John the Baptist: "John of History, Baptist of Faith: The Quest for the Historical Baptiser", and "Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist".

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Dan McClellan is an American public scholar of the Bible and religion. His forthcoming book, "The Bible Says So", is available here.

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Adam Aleksic is a linguist known online as "The Etymology Nerd". His educational videos are watched regularly by millions. His forthcoming book "Algospeak" is currently available for preorder.

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Bart Ehrman is a New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. Get Bart Ehrman's new course, The Dark Side of Christmas (affiliate link).

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Filip Holm is the creator and host of "Lets Talk Religion", a YouTube channel which aims to educate on the subject of religion from an academic perspective.

He joins the show to discuss Sufism, which can broadly be defined as the mystical tradition within Islam.

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Rainn Wilson is the actor and comedian best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the The Office (US), for which he received three consecutive Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

He is also the host of ‪‪Soul Boom‬, a podcast discussing spirituality, and authored a book of the same name exploring how we can use spiritual tools to help solve some of life's problems.

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Sheehan Quirke is the Cultural Tutor, a writer with 1.7 million followers on X. His work on art, history, and architecture is some of the most widely-enjoyed in the world. He writes a newsletter called the Areopagus.

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born Dutch-American writer, activist and former politician. Once an advocate for the new atheist movement, she last year announced her conversion to Christianity.

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Cliffe and Stuart Knechtle run the extremely popular online Christian ministry ‪'Give Me an Answer'‬. In this episode they discuss troubling passages in the Old Testament, New Testament sexism, Job, doubting Thomas, the unforgivable sin (blaspheming the Holy Spirit), and more.

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Steven Bonnell II, known online as Destiny, is an American live streamer and political commentator. He joins me to talk about Trump, Kamala, Biden, Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, Mark Zuckerberg, Voter ID, immigration, demographic change, and who to vote for in the upcoming election.

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Magnify is a YouTube channel of mostly short-form content, covering interesting details across history, linguistics, and religion.

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David Nutt is an English neuropsychopharmacologist specialising in the research of drugs that affect the brain and conditions such as addiction, anxiety, and sleep. He was the UK Government's chief advisor on drug policy. He was fired in 2009 after criticising the Government's approach to drug harms.

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Justin Sledge is currently a part-time professor of philosophy and religion at several institutions in the Metro-Detroit area and a popular local educator. His YouTube channel is "Esoterica".

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oe Folley runs the YouTube channel Unsolicited Advice. he graduated from Cambridge University with an MPhil in Philosophy, specialising in logic, in 2023.

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Nick Bostrom is a philosopher known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, whole brain emulation, and superintelligence risks. His recent book, Deep Utopia, explores what might happen if we get AI development right.

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Thank you for 850,000 subscribers!

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Elaine Pagels is an American historian of religion. She is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Pagels has conducted extensive research into early Christianity and Gnosticism.

Buy "The Origin of Satan" by Elaine Pagels here.

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Rory Sutherland is a British advertising executive, and vice chairman of the Ogilvy & Mather group of companies. His book, Alchemy, is available here.

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Bart Ehrman is a New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He was one of the first people in the world to see the rediscovered manuscript of the Gospel of Judas, when he was asked by National Geographic to join a small team of experts who verified its authenticity.

Study Bart Ehrman's courses and support the show at https://www.bartehrman.com/alex

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Jonathan Pageau is a French-Canadian icon carver, YouTuber and public speaker on symbolism, religion and the Orthodox faith.

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Steven Bonnell II is a popular American political streamer known online as Destiny.

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David Wolpe is an American rabbi, and Visiting Scholar at Harvard Divinity School. He was named the most influential Rabbi in America by Newsweek in 2012.

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Joe Schmid is a PhD student in philosophy at Princeton University. He graduated with a B.A. in philosophy from Purdue University in 2022. He has published articles in metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of time, and the author of books including "Existential Inertia and Classical Theistic Proofs". He runs the YouTube channel, "Majesty of Reason".

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John Nelson holds a PhD in Biblical Studies from the University of Edinburgh. His thesis is the first book-length study of Jesus' physical appearance in the Gospels. He runs a weekly Substack called "Behind the Gospels" which aims to make Biblical studies accessible to all.

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Joe Folley is the creator of the YouTube channel "Unsolicited Advice" which creates short, digestible philosophical videos on a wide range of topics. He joins me today to discuss nihilism: its history, its meaning, and its significance in philosophy.

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Steven West is the host of "Philosophize This!" one of the world's most popular philosophy podcasts. Listen to it here.

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Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, writer, and former Oxford literary scholar. McGilchrist came to prominence after the publication of his book The Master and His Emissary, subtitled The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.

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Andrew Mark Henry is a scholar of religious studies. His research focus is early Christianity and late Roman religion. He earned his PhD at Boston University. His YouTube channel is "Religion for Breakfast".

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Elaine Pagels is an American historian of religion. She is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Pagels has conducted extensive research into early Christianity and Gnosticism.

See me speak at Level Up in Atlanta this June: http://levelupconferences.org/

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Coleman Hughes is an American writer and podcast host. He is the author of "The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America".

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Justin Sledge is currently a part-time professor of philosophy and religion at several institutions in the Metro-Detroit area and a popular local educator. His YouTube channel is "Esoterica".

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Rory Stewart is a former UK Government minister, MP, and deputy governor in Iraq following the western invasion. He walked on foot for two years across Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal in 2002. He was a private tutor to both Prince William and Prince Harry. He now co-hosts The Rest is Politics with Alastair Campbell, one of the UK's most popular shows.

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A.C. Grayling is a British philosopher and author. In 2011 he founded and became the first Master of New College of the Humanities, an independent undergraduate college in London. Buy "Who Owns the Moon?" here.

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Thank you all for 750,000 subscribers on YouTube!

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Sam Harris is a neuroscientist, philosopher, New York Times best-selling author, host of Making Sense, and creator of Waking Up.

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Carlo Rovelli, an Italian theoretical physicist, is known mainly for his contributions to research in the field of quantum gravity. He is the author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and White Holes, amongst other works.

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William Lane Craig is a Christian philosopher and public speaker, who today makes his third appearance on Within Reason. We discuss why Richard Dawkins refuses to debate him, and whether Old Testament slaughter can be justified.

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Michael Knowles is an American conservative Catholic political commentator and media host. He has worked for the Daily Wire since 2016.

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David Deutsch is a British physicist at the University of Oxford. He is a visiting professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation in the Clarendon Laboratory of the University of Oxford. (Wikipedia.)

Buy David Deutsch's book, The Beginning of Infinity

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Susan Neiman is an American moral philosopher, cultural commentator, and essayist. She is the author of "Left is Not Woke", available here.

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Robert Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinology researcher and author. He is a professor of biology, neurology, neurological sciences, and neurosurgery at Stanford University.

He is the author of "Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will", which you can purchase here.

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Sheehan Quirke is known online as the Cultural Tutor. With over 1.6 million followers on X, he writes daily threads about art, architecture, and history.

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Jason Brennan is an American philosopher and business professo at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

Brennan writes about democratic theory, the ethics of voting, competence and power, freedom, and the moral foundations of commercial society. (Wikipedia.) He speaks in this episode about the faults and flaws of democracy, and why people are often not as good as voting as they think they are.

Buy "Against Democracy" (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/3HBA5df

Buy "Democracy: A Guided Tour": https://amzn.to/3udeuF2

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Jonathan Pageau is a French Canadian icon carver, public speaker and YouTuber exploring the symbolic patterns that underlie our experience of the world, how these patterns emerge and come together, manifesting in religion, art and in popular culture. He's also the editor of the Orthodox Arts Journal and host of the Symbolic World blog and podcast.

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Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist and author of books including The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion.

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Ben Thomas, better known online as Sisyphus 55, is a philosophy YouTuber with one million subscribers. His videos cover topics including nihilism, existentialism, love, relationships, and political philosophy.

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In this Christmas special of Within Reason, New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman explores the history and narrative of Jesus' birthday, and demonstrates where the accounts seem to contradict.

Get Bart Erhman's courses here.

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Edward Feser is an American Catholic philosopher, and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Pasadena City College in California.

He is the author of "Five Proofs of the Existence of God", and in this episode speaks about one of these: the Aristotelean argument from motion.

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Josh Rasmussen is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Azusa Pacific University, with an expertise in analytic metaphysics. He is author of several books, including Defending the Correspondence Theory of Truth, Necessary Existence, How Reason Can Lead to God, and Is God the Best Explanation of Things . He is also the founder of the Worldview Design YouTube channel, which helps people use reason to address the big questions of life.

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John Vervaeke is an award-winning professor of psychology, cognitive science, and Buddhist psychology at the University of Toronto. He is the creator of a fifty-hour series on YouTube called "Awakening From the Meaning Crisis".

Dr. Vervaeke joins me to discuss why people are struggling to find meaning, how we might solve this problem, and whether death poses a series problem for believing in meaning.

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Graham Oppy is Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean of Research at Monash University, CEO of the Australasian Association of Philosophy, Chief Editor of the Australasian Philosophical Review, Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, and serves on the editorial boards of Philo, Philosopher's Compass, Religious Studies, and Sophia.

He is one of the best known atheist thinkers in academia. You can buy "Atheism: the Basics" here.

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Just Stop Oil are one of the most well-known and thoroughly hated political groups in the UK. You may recognise them as the brand behind stunts such as throwing soup over Van Gogh's Sunflowers, covering the felt of a snooker table at a world championship with orange powder, blocking traffic on busy roads, and, most recently, climbing on stage during a production of Les Misérables in London's West End.

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Peter Hitchens is an author, broadcaster, journalist, and commentator. He writes for The Mail on Sunday. He has published numerous books, including The Abolition of Britain, The Rage Against God, The War We Never Fought and The Phoney Victory.

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Drew McCoy is the creator and host of the YouTube channel Genetically Modified Skeptic. His videos cover topics including atheism, cults, satanism, and Biblical scholarship. In this episode we talk about his recent trip to SatanCon in Boston, Massachusetts, and about what the modern satanism movement is all about.

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Justin Brierley was, for 17 years, the host of "Unbelievable?" on Premier Christian Radio. He is a broadcaster, author, and Christian apologist whose latest book is "The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God: Why new atheism grew old and secular thinkers are considering Christianity again".

Get Justin's book here.

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Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian-born political philosopher and cultural critic. He was described by British literary theorist, Terry Eagleton, as the “most formidably brilliant” recent theorist to have emerged from Continental Europe. (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) To support Within Reason on Patreon, please visit https://www.patreon.com/cosmicskeptic

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Andrew Doyle is a playwright, journalist, and political satirist. He has written for the fictional character Jonathan Pie and created the character Titania McGrath. Doyle joined GB News in 2021, and hosts a weekly show titled Free Speech Nation.

He is the author of The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World

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Carl Robichaud co-leads Longview Philanthropy’s programme on nuclear weapons and existential risk. For over a decade, Carl led grant-making in nuclear security at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a philanthropic fund which grants over $30 million annually to strengthen international peace and security. Carl previously worked with The Century Foundation and the Global Security Institute, where his extensive research spanned arms control, international security policy, and nonproliferation.

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Tanya Marie Luhrmann is an American psychological anthropologist known for her studies of modern-day witches, charismatic Christians, and studies of how culture shapes psychotic, dissociative, and related experiences.

She is the author of How God Becomes Real, which asks what it means to say that a person 'believes' in gods, how and why this kind of belief is so different from mundane beliefs about the normal world, and how these gods become vividly real to some people.

Find Within Reason on YouTube.

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Peter Boghossian is an American philosopher, a founding faculty member at the University of Austin, and coined the term "street epistemology" as a method of helping people to change their minds.

Peter Boghossian's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@drpeterboghossian

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Get Bart Ehrman's course, "Did Jesus Call Himself God?": https://www.bartehrman.com/godman View all of Bart Ehrman's courses: https://www.bartehrman.com/alex To support me on Patreon (thank you): http://www.patreon.com/cosmicskeptic To donate to my PayPal (thank you): http://www.paypal.me/cosmicskeptic

Bart Ehrman is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, including three college textbooks. He has also authored six New York Times bestsellers. (Wikipedia)

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Anil Seth is a professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. He is the author of "Being You: A New Science of Consciousness".

Purchase "Being You: A New Science of Consciousness": https://amzn.to/3NgKD53

Anil Seth's website: https://www.anilseth.com/

The Perception Census: https://perceptioncensus.dreamachine.world/

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Michael Jones is the founder and director of the Christian YouTube channel "Inspiring Philosophy". He has previously debated Alex twice.

Inspiring Philosophy on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5qDet6sa6rODi7t6wfpg8g

Inspiring Philosophy, "Does God Send People to Hell?": https://youtu.be/tiYf6ITgWbk

Michael's debate with Alex on the problem of evil: https://www.youtube.com/live/hNF9bTESZwE?feature=share

Michael's debate with Alex on the moral argument for God: https://youtu.be/9Ulnmb-4v2M

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Steven Kenneth Bonnell II, known online as Destiny, is an American internet personality and political commentator.

Find Destiny on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/DESTINY

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Peter Singer is an Australian moral philosopher often credited as the father of the modern animal rights movement.

Purchase Animal Liberation Now: https://amzn.to/450BB3e

Peter Singer's upcoming speaking tour: New York: https://events.humanitix.com/peter-singer-ny Washington DC: https://events.humanitix.com/peter-singer-washington-dc LA: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/09005E68DC24308C San Fransisco: https://events.humanitix.com/peter-singer-san-francisco London: https://hackneyempire.co.uk/whats-on/peter-singer-animal-liberation-now/ Virtual Event: https://events.humanitix.com/peter-singer-live-stream

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Joshua Bowen is an Assyriologist, YouTuber, and author of the book, "Did the Old Testament Endorse Slavery?"

Links: The Atheist Handbook to the Old Testament: Volume 1: https://t.co/SrcMTKcxS6 Volume 2: https://t.co/RuPDimaomv Did the Old Testament Endorse Slavery?: https://tinyurl.com/3m6prd3h Digital Hammurabi: www.youtube.com/digitalhammurabi Misquoting Jesus Podcast (Bart Ehrman and Megan Lewis): https://www.bartehrman.com/podcast/ Digital Hammurabi: Website: www.digitalhammurabi.com YouTube: www.youtube.com/digitalhammurabi Twitter: www.twitter.com/digi_hammurabi Patreon: www.patreon.com/digitalhammurabi

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Richard Swinburne is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford, and author of a number of books on the philosophy of religion, the soul, and Christianity, amongst other subjects.

To support the podcast, please visit support.withinreasonpodcast.com

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Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium, and one of the most recognisable communicators of science in the world.

His most recent book is Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilisation: https://amzn.to/40Cdkgi (affiliate link)

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Philip Goff is an Associate Professor at Durham University whose research focuses on philosophy of mind and consciousness. He is one of the world's most prominent proponents of "panpsychism", the view that consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous property of the universe.

Buy Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness (affiliate link, which supports my work): https://amzn.to/3MTfKnu

To support the Within Reason Podcast financially, please visit support.withinreasonpodcast.com

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David Renton is a barrister and historian. He is the author of "No Free Speech for Fascists", discussing the history of, and the case for, "no-platforming" fascist speakers (and only fascist speakers).

To support the Within Reason Podcast and get early access to episodes, please visit support.withinreasonpodcast.com

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Andrew Mark Henry is a scholar of religion specialising in early Christianity and the religions of the late Roman Empire. He is also the host of "Religion for Breakfast", a YouTube channel with over 600,000 subscribers producing informative videos on a variety of topics related to religion.

Dr. Henry joins host Alex O'Connor to discuss a number of questions: what is religion? Where does it come from? Why is it so ubiquitous?

To support Within Reason, please consider signing up at support.withinreasonpodcast.com

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William Lane Craig is a Christian philosopher, author, and debater. He speaks to host Alex O'Connor about secularism in the US and UK, argument vs emotion in coming to faith in God, and the historical case for the resurrection of Jesus.

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Konstantin Kisin is a satirist, comedian, journalist, and co-host of the Triggernometry Podcast. He recently went viral for a speech delivered at the Oxford Union arguing that "wokeness has gone too far", which has since been viewed over 100,000,000 times across various social media platforms.

Konstantin talks to host Alex O'Connor about the limits of free speech, whether he considers himself to be a conservative or right-wing, and whether there can be a sensible case made for reparations for historical injustices such as slavery.

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Bishop Robert Barron is the bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. His website, WordOnFire.org, reaches millions of people each year, and he is one of the world’s most followed Catholics on social media. Bishop Barron joins host Alex O'Connor to discuss the "crisis of meaning" we might be living through, the reducibility of purpose to evolutionary drives, the conditions for salvation on Christianity, and whether God can be accurately described as analogous to a tyrannical dictator.

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In this episode of the Cosmic Skeptic Podcast, Alex is joined by Joe Schmid, an agnostic, Cameron Bertuzzi, a (then) protestant, and Trent Horn, a catholic, to discuss the problem in detail, and analyse various responses to it.

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Joe Schmid is the owner of the Majesty of Reason YouTube channel, a platform dedicated to the analysis of a variety of philosophical topics. He is the author of "The Majesty of Reason: A Short Guide to Critical Thinking in Philosophy", and in this episode joins Alex to rank eight arguments for the existence of God, and discuss them in depth.

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Drew McCoy is the host of the Genetically Modified Skeptic YouTube channel, which is, with now over 500,000 subscribers, perhaps the largest atheist YouTube channel in the world right now. The last time we collaborated was in 2017, arguing that as well as being false, religion is also mostly harmful. In this podcast we discuss our current views on that subject, and examine how they have changed.

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Ed Winters ("Earthling Ed") is a vegan educator, best-selling author, public speaker and content creator, widely known for his viral debates, speeches, and video essays. Ed was on the Cosmic Skeptic Podcast in 2019, making him the first guest to appear for a second time. He and Alex discuss the definition and nature of veganism, the limits of "practicability", the ethics of unnecessary vegan food, and much more.

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Released on April 1st, this podcast details Alex's conversion to Christianity, a position he defends against the criticisms of Stephen Woodford (Rationality Rules).

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Dr. Alex Hershaft is a Holocaust survivor, animal rights activist, and co-founder and president of the Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM). He has previously had a 30-year career in materials science, and holds a PHD in inorganic chemistry. Dr. Hershaft speaks to Alex about his experiences in the Holocaust, and how they inspired the work he does today.

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Michael J. Sandel is an American political philosopher, and Professor of Government Theory at Harvard University Law School. His public lectures have been viewed by tens of millions of people around the world, including in China, where Sandel was named the "most influential foreign figure of the year". Dr. Sandel talks to Alex about his new book, The Tyranny of Merit, discussing not just whether meritocracy is achievable in practice, but also whether it is even something we should aim for at all, highlighting the wealth of potential damage that meritocracy can affect on a society which embraces it.

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William Lane Craig is an American philosopher and Christian theologian. He holds two PHDs in philosophy and theology, and is a professor of philosophy at both Houston Baptist University and Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. Dr. Craig is arguably the world's most famous Christian apologist, and often cited as its most effective public defender. He has taken part in high-profile debates with Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Anthony Flew, among others. Dr. Craig is the man who gave the kalam cosmological argument its name, and he speaks to Alex in this episode about that argument, and answers a number of objections to it.

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Joey Carbstrong is an Australian animal rights activist and vegan. Formerly a criminal, Joey turned his life around and now campaigns for animals, his views having been widely syndicated across various platforms including national television, radio, and his own highly popular YouTube channel. Joey speaks to Alex about how to advocate for veganism, and whether the forthright methods employed by many activists does more harm than good. Should vegans calm down?

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Professor David Benatar is a South African philosopher, academic and author, and head of the philosophy department at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He is best known for his defence of antinatalism, the view that it is immoral to have children (though more specifically, to bring new sentient beings into existence). Professor Benatar speaks to Alex about the asymmetry of pleasure and pain, and the two debate whether being anti-birth commits one to being pro-death.

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Douglas Murray is a British conservative author and journalist, and associate editor of The Spectator. In 2017 Murray wrote The Strange Death of Europe, taking on the issue of the global immigration crisis, and now he returns with The Madness of Crowds, a book about identitarianism in four areas: 'gay', 'women', 'race' and 'trans'. Douglas speaks to Alex about the logic of reparations and a retributive approach to historical injustice, as well as the nature of gender, and the advocacy tactics of the LGBT community.

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Richard Dawkins is the world-famous evolutionary biologist, New York Times bestselling science writer, emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and previously Oxford University's Professor for Public Understanding of Science. Dawkins rose to prominence after his 1976 publication The Selfish Gene, which introduced the term 'meme' and began a series of highly popular books including the Blind Watchmaker, The God Delusion, and, most recently, Outgrowing God.

Professor Dawkins speaks to Alex about the meaning of atheism, the labelling of children as 'atheists', the evolutionary and social bases of morality, and the usefulness of theology as a discipline.

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Ed Winters, known online as Earthling Ed, is a vegan educator and public speaker, co-founder and co-director of Surge, which founded the annual Official Animal Rights March, producer of the documentary Land of Hope and Glory, and my most requested podcast guest to date.

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Andrew Copson is is Chief Executive of Humanists UK and author of Oxford University Press' Very Short Introduction to Secularism. He speaks to Alex about the meaning of secularism, its distinction from humanism, liberalism and atheism, and how it might be achieved.

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Anthony Magnabosco is the founder and executive director of Street Epistemology International, a non-profit organisation formed to encourage critical thinking and scepticism while providing people around the world with the resources needed to develop and promote Street Epistemology. He speaks to Alex about how to get people to rethink their beliefs and discard of falsities they might hold to.

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Peter Singer is an Australian moral philosopher and author of the seminal Animal Liberation, a book credited with initiating the modern animal rights movement. He speaks to Alex about utilitarianism and how we might apply it to all sentient creatures.

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Justin Brierley is the host of the popular radio show 'Unbelievable?' which platforms debates between Christians and non-Christians. He is the author of 'Unbelievable: Why, After Ten Years of Talking With Atheists, I’m Still a Christian'. He speaks to Alex about his reasons for retaining his faith, and the nature of reason.

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