Robinson's Podcast

Ian Hutchinson is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering in he Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT. He works in both plasma physics and nuclear physics and also writes on the philosophy of science and the compatibility of Christianity and science. In this episode, Ian and Robinson begin by discussing his work in plasma and nuclear phy...

Jonathan Shedler is Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco and a faculty member at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. He is a psychologist and psychotherapist. In this episode, Robinson and Jonathan discuss the clinical side of psychoanalytic theory. They begin by describing just how different contemporary...

Tal Ben-Shahar did his undergraduate and graduate work at Harvard, where he later lectured on positive psychology and taught the most popular course in the university’s history. He is now a speaker and writer who focuses on happiness. In this episode, Robinson and Tal discuss the field of Happiness Studies, which Tal has been developing for half a decade. They discuss the origin of happiness studi...

Donald Hoffman is Professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, where he also has joint appointments in the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and the School of Computer Science. Don has worked on a number of problems in his career, including human facial attractiveness, the mind-body problem, the evolution of p...

Jeremi Suri holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is Professor of History in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Jeremi’s selection of topics in his work is sprawling, but he writes largely on modern and contemporary politics and foreign policy. In this episode, Robinson and Jeremi discus...

Clara Sousa-Silva is a professor of physics at Bard College, where she is a quantum astrochemist and molecular astrophysicist. The focus of Clara’s work is on investigating the interaction of particular molecules with light so that they can be detected on exoplanets, where, in addition to giving us atmospheric information, these chemicals may indicate the existence of life. In this episode, Robins...

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. In this episode, Robinson and Richard discuss his criticisms of capitalism. They begin with why mainstream economists dismiss Marx and then move on to the basics of economics, the problems of our capitalist sys...

Michael Strevens is Professor of Philosophy at New York University, where he works across the philosophy of science and the philosophical applications of cognitive science. In this episode, Robinson and Michael talk about his recent book, The Knowledge Machine, which explores how irrationality shaped the Scientific Revolution. Along the way, they discuss the great debate over the nature of the sci...

Bas van Fraassen is the McCosh Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University and a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University. In addition to being one of the most recognized philosophers of science working today—he received the Philosophy of Science Association’s inaugural Hempel Award—he has also worked in epistemology and logic. In this episode, Bas and R...

Jay McClelland is Lucie Stern Professor in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University, where he is also Director of the Center for Mind, Brain, Computation and Technology. Along with other towering figures like Geoffrey Hinton, Jay is considered one of the fathers of artificial intelligence. In this episode, Robinson and Jay discuss some of his main interests in and contributions to the f...

Paul Boghossian is Silver Professor of Philosophy at New York University, where he is also Chair of the Philosophy Department. Paul has worked in a wide variety of areas within philosophy, including epistemology and the philosophy of language, mind, and logic respectively. Robinson and Paul discuss the sociological relationship between physics and philosophy, the Sokal Hoax, philosophy in public l...

David Pizarro is Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. While he teaches and publicly discusses a wide variety of material in the discipline, his primary research interest is in moral judgment. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss some of the conceptual underpinnings of moral psychology before turning to the research on praise, blame, social cognition, and the relationship between d...

Julian Barbour is a physicist working in the foundations of physics and quantum gravity, with a special interest in time and the history of science. In this episode, Julian and Robinson discuss thermodynamics and the arrows of time, including a new theory of time developed by Julian and his collaborators, which is laid out in his book, The Janus Point: A New Theory of Time. If you’re interested in...

Simon Blackburn was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge and Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. This is Simon’s second appearance on the show. In episode 68, Simon and Robinson discussed metaethics and moral realism.  In this episode, they talk about his latest books, Lust and Mirror, Mirror, with special attentio...

Mark Solms is professor of Neuropsychology at the Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cape Town. He is also a psychoanalyst, and while Mark’s early research focused on the brain mechanisms of sleep and dreaming, he is currently working on the neural correlates of consciousness and affect. In this episode, Robinson and Mark talk about his new book The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source...

Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University, and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. He was also the guest for Robinson’s Podcast #109 on psychoanalysis, wokeness, racism, and a hundred other topics. Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural...

Dr. Anna Lembke received her undergraduate degree in Humanities from Yale University and and her medical degree from Stanford University. She is currently Professor and Medical Director of Addiction Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also Program Director of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. I...

Massimo Pigliucci is K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York, where he specializes in both ancient philosophy and the philosophy of science. In addition to a doctorate in philosophy, Massimo has a PhD in evolutionary biology. In this episode, Robinson and Massimo discuss the vast landscape between science on the one hand and pseudoscience on the other, covering how th...

Craig Callender is Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Institute for Practical Ethics at UC San Diego. Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. Craig and Tim are leading philosophers of science and physics. Craig also appeared on episode 73, in which he and Robinson discussed pseudoscience and consp...

Eric Helms is an AUT Research Fellow at the Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand (Auckland University of Technology) in the Strength & Conditioning and Sports Physiology and Nutrition research groups. He is also the Director and Chief Science Officer of 3DMJ, an organization devoted to strength training and education centered around the same, a competitive bodybuilder, co-host of...

David Spiegel is Willson Professor of Medicine and Associate Chair of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. He did his undergraduate work at Yale and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. David is highly regarded as one of the most creative psychiatrists in the field, and has worked on a wide array of topics within the discipline. In this episode, Robinson and David discus...

Victor Davis Hanson is a renowned classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Among numerous other awards, Victor was presented the National Humanities Medal in 2007. In this episode, Robinson and Victor discuss his latest book, The Dying Ci...

Avi Loeb is Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science in the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University, and former chair of the department. Before joining Harvard he spent fifteen years working in theoretical astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is also the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation, the Founding Director of the Black Hole Initiative at Har...

Daniel Kahneman is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Public Policy at Princeton University. He won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002 for joint work with Amos Tversky in which they revealed the biases and heuristics with which humans operate, thereby deviating from the rationality presumed by economic theory at the time. Among this and many other awards, Danny was also given the Presi...

Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University, and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. He and Robinson discuss a great many things, including the role of psychoanalysis in the cultural criticism of wokeness, the relationship between truth, science,...