Lost in Thought

I sat down with my dear friend and housemate Oliver and had a conversation on the eve of my departure from London. We reflected on fond memories as housemates and friends in London. We spoke about the importance of being playful and telling stories. We spoke about what this time of radical change means for our world. Also, Oliver is a professional storyteller, so naturally, I made him tell a story...

In this episode, which is actually ripped from a video I made for YouTube, I talk about French Philosopher Michel Foucault. Foucault is the Daddy of all things to do with power. I examine the relationship between power and knowledge (discourses). Then, I talk about 'expert discourses' - why do we trust medicine? Why do we (or don't we) have faith in legal/punitive systems? Finally, I look at Fouca...

Today I interviewed the most important person in my life - my Mum. She's in London at the moment so we took a break from the lonely and chilly clouds and had a chat. We spoke about her experience of migrating from Macedonia. We spoke about the experiences of racism and exclusion that she faced as a Macedonian in Melbourne. We also spoke about both our experiences with mental health, namely, anxiet...

Today I spoke with Dr. Maria Alvarez, Head of the Philosophy Department of King's College London. Maria's philosophy interrogates the question of agency: what are we, how are we shaped by the world, what does it mean to be shaped by the world etc. We spoke about what it means to be a thing that has decisions to make and has those decisions are influenced by the world around us. We also spoke about...

Hi it's me. Today I spoke with Ed Fornieles and Omsk Social Club, two artists whose work principally focuses on Role Play (LARP) and embodied experiences. We spoke about the importance of experiencing things as a mechanism to understand oneself and the world around us. We also spoke about what it means to 'be', and how we can explore this question through role play and through the roles we play in...

Here is a re-run of an interview myself and my friend Liam did with Peter Singer, probably the most influential philosopher of the 21st century. We did the interview in late 2018.  Topics include ethics, uh, ethics, and then how to make good fried potatoes. I'm not joking. Seriously, though, we spoke about AI, climate change, whether cars should be programmed to be utilitarians, and how to stay in...

I'm back for the second time in under a week. Can you believe it? I can't. So, to turn to the more important question, are you even real? Am I even real? Can I know that you experience things the way I do? Can I imagine what it's like for you to have a mind? These are the kinds of questions I speak about in this episode. It's really cool. It's a real challenge for philosophers (including myself (i...

Today I had an incredible conversation with Sanjay, a Reader in Artificial Intelligence at King's College London. We spoke about privacy, Surveillance Capitalism, I went on a rant about how I think Google (yeah! f*** you google!) are taking away my personhood, and Sanjay explained what kinds of things we will have to think about when making AI more and more sophisticated. For example, should we ma...

Australia is burning and so should the consciences of so many. Today I had a conversation (with myself) about how to talk to people who want to eat meat because it tastes good, people who don't care about future generations, people who don't believe they can make a difference etc. I also talk about hedonism. I ask how we should engage with people who don't believe in things which (at this stage) s...

2019 is nearly gone. Nearly. Good riddance, no? All drama aside, in this episode I talk about how I think about the past, present, and future. How are we to think about 2020 in a way that doesn't crush us? Is that even possible? I don't really know. I talk about what it's like being a self-destructive-over-ambitious-self-sabotaging perfectionist who regularly feels crushed by the past, disengaged...

Today I had a conversation with my friend Mina. Mina was raised in the Yorkshire and now lives in London. Like me, Mina is mixed race - she is half Thai // half English. Unlike me, Mina works for an advertising company and thus no longer possess a soul. We spoke about what it's like selling your soul to an advertising company. We also spoke about what it's like growing up mixed race in a world tha...

This episode explores upsetting themes include mental health, trauma and suicide. One hour and fifteen minutes of me talking about my experience as someone who was diagnosed and has struggled with a Depressive Disorder a while ago. I am someone who has been challenged and crippled by serious episodes of depression for most of my adult-post-pubescent life. I don't want to feel ashamed for feeling t...

If you have ever felt like you aren't able to make a big lifestyle change because it isn't within your power, this podcast will do wonderful things for you. Today I spoke with a really cool guy. His name is Dr. Jonathan Gingerich. He has studied at pretty much every elite University ever (Harvard, UCLA, Georgetown etc). Now, you might be thinking: sure, those are some good Universities, but why sh...

This is the most challenging and important episode that I've done so far. What is unique about this episode is the way it deals with conflict. Sometimes, among my friends, there is a tendency to 'cancel' people for crossing boundaries. The person who I interviewed, Ralph, crossed a very sensitive boundary in the interview; I was made to feel silenced on the topics of Colonialism and Race. However,...

Here it is. Finally. Here is the long awaited, critically acclaimed, profoundly esteemed, highly regarded and tastefully requested first episode of the On Being mini-series. The On Being series aims to distil and investigate questions of what it means 'to be'. How cool is the art for the episode? Thanks @fkncoco! In this episode, I talk about the Philosophy of Being (duh...). I set out the paramet...

Today I spoke with Pia (@piacattapan), an influencer and model from Melbourne who now lives in London. Pia shared her experience as someone who has significant influence over a large online audience, as someone who has a curated online identity, as someone whose appearance has been commodified to advance the interests of companies and as someone who has to regularly consider the "fine line" betwee...

This is a pretty funny episode. I made some important announcements and I also read out a funny short story that I wrote. The story is based on something that happened to me earlier this week. I suppose it's up to you to decide how much is fact and how much is fiction. Back to those announcements:I made a website. Go and explore it - www.aleks.coYou can now support the podcast. I rambled on about...

Today I had a chat with my dear friend Grant. Also, sorry it's been so long since I released an episode. I've been distracted for nearly three months now. Anyway, Grant and I met under maybe the most miraculous circumstances ever (someone thought I was Grant for half a year). In the interview we spoke about really cool things. One of the coolest things we spoke about was love. But, we also spoke a...

The boys from Good Morning came and spoke with me today. Stefan and Liam talk to me about their friendship, what works and what doesn't in terms of creating music, and their experience with performance anxiety and touring. We speak about what if feels like to present an honest and raw part of ourselves to the public. We speak about the internal confusion that follows when experiences with depressi...

Where should we draw the line in terms of what we can say in public? Where should we draw the line in terms of what academics can research and teach? What can students and young people to do protect Freedom of Speech when it is challenged? In my fourth interview, I explore these questions with Professor Adrienne Stone of the Melbourne Law school. Adrienne is an expert on topics of Freedom of Speec...

Steph is my housemate. I wanted to interview someone who I had shared experiences and spaces with, who could empathise with my experience as the child of an Arab father, and who knew how to navigate the interview format so as to elicit insights from me that I may not have felt comfortable exploring with someone else. For a bit of background on Steph, she studied psychology and anthropology, curren...

L. A. Paul is a Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science from Yale University. Laurie (or, 'L') and I talk about her recent work on the 'Transformative Experience'. The Transformative Experience interrogates the question of whether we can make 'informed decisions' about things that we have not yet experienced. (For example, can I know that I want to visit city A if I have not yet visited city...

Madison is an activist, poet, producer and writer from Melbourne. She has been published in places like VICE, The Guardian and SBS. Madison and I spoke about our experiences in Melbourne as people of colour, as people raised by migrant parents, as people who sometimes felt as though they existed on the outside. We spoke about cancel culture and social media and their shortcomings. We also spoke ab...

So, what even is 'Aleks Listens'? Aleks Listens will be an interview-based and semi-autobiographical podcast through which I hope to be able to answer questions that have bugged me for a long time. After having spent much time trying to answer these questions myself, I turn to experts and friends to help me find clarity. I will also see what's going on inside me every now and then. The questions t...