Knowledge in Crisis: The Podcast

The Unconscious Mind (Part 1) A conscious thought rarely lasts. The instant your attention moves on, where does it go? Béatrice Longuenesse would argue: into memory, and from there into the workings of a mind you cannot directly inspect. The unconscious is at work every day, organizing our perceptual information and giving our conscious mind the sense and reason it needs to navigate the world. But...

Pseudoscience is everywhere: from astrology, to flat earth theory and homeopathy. But what about the murkier cases? Psychoanalysis (at least, according to Karl Popper!) and anti-aging claims appear to be grounded in science, yet when you look closer, can their claims actually hold up to proper scientific scrutiny? And what happens when a theory, like creationism, doesn't even try — simply ignoring...

Every parent knows the moment. You give an explanation, and back comes the follow-up: but why? It turns out, that relentless childhood question contains more value than we know. Explanations are how we make sense of the world — connecting causes to effects, tracing events back to their origins. But is that really all they are? And does every question actually have an answer, or are some things jus...

What does it really mean to create a machine that thinks? Postdoctoral Researcher Audrey Powers (University of Vienna) speaks with philosophers Tim Crane and Simon Rippon (Central European University) to unpack the concept of Artificial General Intelligence — what it is, whether it exists, and whether it ever could. From programming, neural networks and reinforcement learning to questions of consc...

In this episode, we ask whether academic philosophy is facing a crisis of knowledge — and what that might mean for science. What does objectivity really mean today? Is it a timeless ideal, or a set of established standards shaped by particular perspectives? If we all speak from our own positionality, can we ever be truly objective? Our guest Sophie Veigl (University of Vienna) explores the idea th...

What do our emotions actually tell us about the world? In this episode, we explore emotions from a philosophical perspective—and why they matter for knowledge. Emotions are rapid evaluations of events around us, shaping what we notice, what we care about, and how we respond. They reveal what is important to us and offer a form of evaluative knowledge about the world and ourselves. But emotions are...

What do we give our attention to—and why does it matter? Our second episode explores attention from moral, political, philosophical and personal dimensions. Elusive and ever-shifting, attention shapes what we notice—but also what we miss. From propaganda and distractions to the difference between "loving" and "irritating" attention in our relationships, philosophers Cathy Mason, Paulina Sliwa, and...

From JFK to 9/11 and QAnon, we all recognize the stories — but why do they come about in the first place? Are conspiracy theories simply attempts to make sense of big, chaotic events?
Or do they reveal something deeper, like growing distrust in authorities? This week, philosophers Cathy Mason and Fabio Lampert talk to Keith Harris (Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Vienna) and take us deep...