Conversations with Coleman

My guest today is David Chalmers. David is a professor of philosophy and neuroscience at NYU and the co-director of NYU Centre for Mind, Brain and Consciousness. David just released a new book called "Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy", which we discuss in this episode. We also discuss whether we're living in a simulation, the progress that's been made in virtual reality, whe...

My guest today is Jacob Mchangama. Jacob is a lawyer and writer based in Denmark. He's the founder of Justitia, a think tank focused on human rights and freedom of speech. Jacob is also the producer and narrator of the excellent podcast called Clear and Present Danger. Jacob and I discuss his brilliant new book: Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media. We talk about the Danish cartoon...

My guest today is Briahna Joy Gray. Briahna was the national press secretary for Bernie Sanders and his 2020 campaign. Before that, she was a columnist and Senior Politics Editor at The Intercept. Her work has also appeared in many other outlets like Rolling Stone magazine, Current Affairs, New York Magazine, and The Guardian. Briahna currently hosts the Bad Faith Podcast, which I hope to go on so...

My guest today is Cathy Young. Cathy is one of my favorite journalists around today. She is a writer at The Bulwark and also a cultural studies fellow at the Cato Institute, a columnist for Newsday, and a contributing editor to Reason. Cathy, who was born in Moscow and came to the United States with her family in 1980, is also the author of the books; Growing Up in Moscow: Memories of a Soviet Gir...

My guest today is Matthew Yglesias. As many of you may know, Matt was the co-founder of Vox, along with Ezra Klein, who I had on the show last year. Matt is also a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and writes The Slow Boring blog and newsletter on substack.  In this episode, Matt talks about why he left Vox for substack and we discuss Matt's book "One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger"...

My guest today is Ashley Rindsberg. Ashley is an American novelist and journalist now based in Israel. His book is The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times's Misreporting, Distortions and Fabrications Radically Alter History. We discuss the little-known history of major errors made by the New York Times. We also talk about the concept of authority, what makes the times different from other pap...

My guest today is Jeffrey Maurer. Jeffrey has been a comedy writer, a speechwriter, and a stand-up comic. He was the senior writer for John Oliver's show Last Week Tonight. Jeffrey is now a substack writer and his substack is called I might be wrong.  In this episode, we talk about the rise of political comedy in America, how political polarisation has changed American television, the problem of p...

My guest today is Dr. Zubin Damania aka ZDoggMD. Zubin is a USCF Stanford-trained internal medicine doctor and founder of Turntable Health, an innovative primary care clinic. He was also a hospitalist for many years and now hosts the podcast "The ZDoggMD Show"  Zubin and I talk about the differences between mainstream western medicine and alternative medicines, the politicization of COVID informat...

My guest today is Matt Taibbi. Matt is a writer, journalist, and podcaster. He's a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and co-host of the "Useful Idiots" Podcast. He won the National Magazine Award in 2008 and is the author of many books, including The Great Derangement, Griftopia, and Hate Inc.  In this episode, Matt and I talk about the Substack revolution, the paternalism in public health mess...

My guest today is Renee DiResta. Renee is the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory. She led a multi-year investigation into the IRA, Russia's fake news factory, and she's advised Congress. She's also an ideas contributor at Wired and The Atlantic.  In this episode, we talk about the difference between misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda. We talk about public h...

My guest today is Rob Reich. Rob is a political science and philosophy professor at Stanford University. He is the Director of Stanford's McCoy Centre for Ethics and Society and Associate Director of Stanford's Institute for Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence. Rob is also the author of "Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better", and the co-author of "System Er...

My guest today is Emily Oster. Emily is a Professor of Economics at Brown University and the author of "Expecting Better", "Crib Sheet" and "The Family Firm". She has a Ph. D. in Economics from Harvard and prior to teaching at Brown, she was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  This episode is all about children and families. We discuss the surprising truth about...

As we step into Season 3 of Conversations with Coleman, here’s a retrospective look into some of the big themes from 2021 and some of my favorite episodes from the last season of the show, while also sharing some thoughts for the upcoming season. Canadian Myocarditis study: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.02.21267156v1.full.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a...

My guest today is Tim Flannery. Tim Flannery is a monologist and paleontologist. He was the chief commissioner of the Australian Climate Commission and Chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council. He was named Australian Humanist of the year in 2005 and Australian of the Year in 2007. He is currently a fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne. Tim is also...

My guest today is Michelle Telfer. Michelle is an Australian Pediatrician and Head of the Gender clinic at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. She's the lead author of the Australian Standards of Care and Treatment Guidelines for trans children, and she is also a former Olympic gymnast.  In this episode, we talk about gender dysphoria, particularly in children and adolescents. We also talk...

My guest today needs no introduction. Joining me in today's episode is John McWhorter.  John has a new book called "Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America". This is an excellent book and I highly recommend you to read it. In this episode, we talk about what "wokeness" is, as John defines it, and whether the woke can be persuaded. We also talk about the progress America has made...

My guest today is Nicquel Terry Ellis. Nicquel is the senior writer for CNN's Race and Equality team. Before that, she was a national correspondent for USA Today covering race inequality and activism. She has also spent six years working in local news with the Detroit News and the Asbury Park Press. I often receive the criticism that I only talk to people like John McWhorter, Sam Harris and Glenn...

My guest today is Bonnie Snyder. Bonnie is an educator with over 20 years of experience in a variety of roles including teacher, counselor, administrator, and professor in both public and private schools. She's a graduate of Harvard University with a Master's Degree in Counseling from Virginia Tech and a Doctorate in Higher education from Penn State. She is also the High school Outreach Fellow at ...

My guest today needs no introduction, so I won't give him one. Today's guest is Steven Pinker, and he has a new book called "Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters." We talk about what rationality is, we talk about rationality's PR problem, whether rationality has increased or decreased over time and how to apply reason to everyday life choices. We also discuss the behavioral...

My guest today is Nicholas Christakis. Nicholas is a physician, a sociologist, and a professor at Yale University. He'll be known to some of you as the professor who kept his composure in front of a mob of students screaming about Halloween costumes back in 2015 or he may be known to you as the author of many books, including "Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social networks and How they sha...

My guest today is Ryan Holiday. Ryan is the best-selling author of many books, including "Trust Me, I'm Lying", "The Obstacle is the Way", "Ego is the Enemy", "The Daily Stoic" which is also the name of his podcast, and his latest book: "Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave". Ryan is also the former Head of Marketing at American Apparel. In this episode, we talk about Ryan's strange career...

My guest today is Andy Norman. Andy is a philosopher and the director of the humanism initiative at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also the founder of CIRCE, the Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative. In this episode, we discuss his new book "Mental immunity: Infectious ideas, Mind parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think." We talk about how bad ideas operate like parasites. We...

My guest today is Kmele Foster. Kmele will be known to many of you as the co-host of The Fifth Column Podcast which is one of my favorite podcasts. He's also the co-founder of a media company called Freethink, and a former co-host of The Independents on Fox Business Network. This episode was sort of a post mortem on two other recent episodes, the one with Christopher Ruffo, and the one with David...

My guest today is Jesse Morton. Jesse has an incredibly interesting life story. He was born in America, converted to Islam as a young adult, became radicalized, and devoted his life to doing everything he could to help Al-Qaeda from America, including creating the very first English language jihadist propaganda magazine, which later famous magazines like Inspire and Dubuque would be modeled after....

My guest today is Professor Abhijit Banerjee. Professor Banerjee is a Nobel Prize-winning economist, an econ professor at MIT, and a co-founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Banerjee and I discussed the difference between empirical work and theoretical work in economics. We talk about Banerjee's Nobel Prize-winning research on alleviating global poverty. We talk about whether immig...