Dilemma Podcast

You know that strange nagging restlessness that you feel in your core? That difficulty focusing on what's in front of you? That flittering from one path to another to another in the hopes of finally feeling your purpose? That deep dissatisfaction with the ignorance we have about the deepest existential questions of life? This episode is about that restlessness. Benjamin Storey (along with his wife...

Do we underestimate the ability of High Schoolers to tackle complex politically charged existential and moral philosophy problems with nuance, intelligence, and compassion? I hope this episode will convince you that we absolutely do. Jay has served as a judge for the High School Ethics Bowl for six years. In this episode he speaks with 5 students who participated this year on the view of the world...

Quantum mechanics, mathematical robustness, dream state deja vu oddities... these are all things that one would expect to find in a simulated world. Wait, so are we in a simulation? Author, investor, and video game pioneer Rizwan Virk joins Jay for a deep conversation taking on the Simulation Theory first made famous by Nick Bostrom. They strike gold when the conversation shifts to the philosophic...

What kind of environmental and individual factors lead to the proliferation of conspiracy theories? Jay is joined by co-authors and researchers Hugo Drochen and Annemarie S Walter to discuss their paper "Conspiracy Thinking in Europe and America: A Comparative Study" . Jay opens by telling his personal story of flirtation with conspiracy and pays homage to a good friend who recently took his own l...

Have artificial intelligence fears been overblown? Are we glossing over the much more pressing issue of weaponized quantum computing? Or are these tandem problems? What the heck is a computer anyway and what would make one "quantum"? Jay discusses these issues and more with philosopher, consultant, and co-Founder of the QC Ethics Initiative (QCEthics.org) Sean Holland. In the open, three famous ru...

Michael Scott Moore was held captive by pirates in Somalia for 977. He recounts what philosophies and psychological tactics got him through the experience while he and Jay ponder the moral dilemma of whether or not to pay ransoms to criminals and terrorists. Discussed in this episode: stoicism, a message from the Pope, living with guilt and gratitude, the elasticity of the human mind, and the loos...

On the using of the word "coup" to describe the events in Washington on Jan 6 2021. Subscribe to Jay's low key email reminders to keep up with when he writes something new, releases something new, appears as a guest on something, plans a live event, or has an urgent book or film recommendation at whatjaythinks.com

Seth Andrews was a Christian Radio host in Tulsa Oklahoma before he began his intellectual journey to atheism. Jay and Seth discuss the philosophies underpinning the religious worldview and how it continues to inform our political landscape. Jay lays out exactly what the title of this episode means with the help of his favorite Richard Feynman clip. Subscribe to Jay's low key email reminders to ke...

Why do we avoid intimacy when we know it is the deepest need we have? Scott Barry Kaufman is an author, psychologist, and podcast host. His latest book "Transcend" continues the work of Abraham Maslow who introduced the hierarchy of needs. Jay and Scott discuss: peak experience, 1st order and 2nd order desires, the danger of gurus, the vulnerability of intimacy, the higher grumbles, utopias, and m...

Are the kids alright? Sigal Ben-Porath and Jay discuss the thorny issues of free speech on college campus by first traversing some philosophical groundwork offered by Hannah Arendt. Together they explore what speech is "beyond the pale", "a waste of time", "too dangerous", or simply disingenuous cover for nefarious politics. Ultimately, the questions of what kinds of responsibilities educational (...

Jay and his mom Sally talk about old age, being thankful in a strange year, and the lessons they're learning from COVID. Video posted on YouTube: https://youtu.be/oeboanFZOG8 Happy Thanksgiving from Dilemma Subscribe to Jay's low key email reminders to keep up with when he writes something new, releases something new, appears as a guest on something, plans a live event, or has an urgent book or fi...

Did Charles Darwin discover something much more fundamental than the origin of species? A defense and exploration of the field of memetics with Professor Susan Blackmore. Jay and Susan make their way through the common confusions, problems, and good and bad questions to ask about memetics. Subscribe to Jay's low key email reminders to keep up with when he writes something new, releases something n...

Jay goes down the dark paths that might lie ahead spurred by the 2020 US election with Mike Selinker. Mike is an award winning game designer and game theorist who writes frequently about politics. What are the historical analogies that could warn us and help us steer clear of the dangers? This episode follows the format of Mike's viral essay "A wargame designer defines our four possible civil wars...

A look at the philosophical side of sports and what we can learn about human behavior in the time of COVID altered stadiums. Jay speaks with veteran sports writer Jon Wertheim as they focus in a particular chapter from his book Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won all about "home field advantage" and what exactly caused home teams to win so much... bef...

What do you NOT want to know? Jay is joined by the prolific and influential behavior economist Cass Sunstein for a conversation about his latest book: Too Much Information. Discussed in this episode: The Garden of Eden, Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Accept metrics, the social media habit, the right to know vs the consequences of information, the usefulness of informing one's vote, the focu...

Jay tackles the age old question of philosophically defining art with the incredible street artist SWOON (Caledonia Curry). Together they wonder, can machines make art? Swoon's recent piece: The Medea https://swoonstudio.org/#/the-canyon/ Subscribe to Jay's low key email reminders to keep up with when he writes something new, releases something new, appears as a guest on something, plans a live ev...

David Goldberger was raised as a proud Jew. In 1977, he was working as a civil liberties attorney for the ACLU in Illinois when a Neo-Nazi named Frank Collin knocked on his door claiming his first amendment rights were being violated. In this episode David Goldberger revisits the famous Supreme Court case, National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie.   Jay and David tease out the...

Chloe Valdary, Coleman Hughes, and Jay Shapiro consider the analogies and lessons of Marvel's Black Panther . Discussed in this episode: tensions with policing, Black Lives Matter, the original Black Panther movement of the 60's, the differing philosophies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, and the eternal task of the superhero to resist our darkest impulses.  This conversation was reco...

In part 2 of this conversation, Keith Frankish and Jay talk about the implications of the illusionists view of mind and consciousness. They forecast the moral, social, and political fallout of a world which would embrace illusionism while lamenting the confused state of conversations being exported to the public on this subject. Jay recalls a depressing experience in Iceland with a Buddhist monk i...

“Illusionists deny that experiences have phenomenal properties and focus on explaining why they seem to have them” In part 1 of this 2 part interview Jay discusses what exactly is meant by this statement from renowned philosopher of mind and author Keith Frankish . What part of our conscious experience, if any, is real and demands an explanation? Does the idea of a philosophical zombie make any se...

An urgent episode about a genocide unfolding in China. Rahima Mahmut is the U.K. Project Director, World Uyghur Congress. https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/ Crowdfunding link here: h ttps://www.gofundme.com/f/stop-Uyghur-genocide www.stopuyghurgenocide.org.uk Study about the global supply chains stained with Uyghur slave labor: Uyghurs for Sale   https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale PB...

Are virtual worlds any different than real worlds? A mother is reunited with her deceased daughter in virtual reality for a South Korean TV show . Jay Shapiro speaks with Associate Professor and author Candi Cann about the ways in which technology is intersecting with death and grief rituals. Professor Cann's book on the subject is available here . Find a bonus conversation with Adelle Archer, the...

What does travel mean? Why has formal philosophy largely ignored the question? Just how strange is it to release a book on travel in the time of a global lock down and what exactly is the world missing right now? Jay introduces Frank Jackson's famous "Mary's Room" thought experiment to consider the notion of experience vs imagination in the context of travel. Jay and Emily swap travel stories of g...

We often hear about racism, sexism, classism, and other familiar kinds of discrimination. But there is a bias which might dwarf them all, discrimination against unattractive people. Jay Shapiro speaks with philosopher, author, and researcher Francesca Minerva on the topic of "Lookism" and introduces John Rawls' famous "Veil of Ignorance" thought experiment to consider just how challenging this typ...

International law scholar and professor William Burke-White speaks with Jay Shapiro during the ongoing global COVID19 crises. They discuss the philosophical foundations of international law, why globalism needs to re-brand itself to be more "local", the legal process of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the apparent absence of the United Nations in this pandemic, the rapidly changing role...