Serious Inquiries Only

If you've been watching The Vow on HBO (or any number of other cult related shows) you may have been wondering how cults work - why people join, and how cults hang onto their members. There is a lot of psychology behind it, so who better to help break it down than our evo psych expert Lindsey Osterman!

We're doubling our usual Torrez here! Andrew's son Alex, high school debate champ, is here to help us break down the monstrosity that was that presidential debate!

The death of the great RBG is absolutely devastating, and has made the stakes so much higher. In this episode, I talk about what we HAVE to do to keep our democracy. Things aren't good. Toward the end, I get into the arguments over whether RBG should have retired, mainly because in EVERY interaction I've seen online about this, people get a bunch of the factual information wrong. However, the argu...

The new doc 'The Social Dilemma' on Netflix is making quite an impression on people. It tells a riveting story of the harms of social media, and has led to many people deleting their accounts or limiting their usage. But are all the claims backed up by science? Yes and no... If you've got an urge to delete all your accounts, you might want to hear what social psychologist Lindsey Osterman has to s...

It's been a while, but today we've got a science episode! Making her return to the show is Lindsey Osterman, a psychologist who has been studying parasocial relationships. It's already incredibly likely that you take part in some number of parasocial relationships, but now in the time of COVID they're more prevalent and important than ever. Here are the studies Lindsey references! Gabriel et al (2...

I've got thoughts and lots of them. How do we as progressives criticize Democrats without damaging our future? Is someone who thinks the DNC is corrupt more left than I am, or more.. something else? No prison stocks didn't go up because of Kamala Harris. Julian Assange is an absolute crap . And lots more.

Today I'm joined by philosopher Aaron Rabinowitz of Embrace the Void and Philosophers in Space to discuss the some revelations about James Lindsay's organization "New Discourses." If you're a long time listener, you'll remember James Lindsay from this show back when he didn't totally suck. Well he now very much sucks, and to no one's surprise, he's being propped up by right wing Christian National...

Here's part 2 of my discussion with Andrew Torrez of Opening Arguments! This time we focus on (hopefully) wild and unlikely scenarios if Trump refuses to leave office. Find out if any of them scare the expert and always optimistic P. Andrew Torrez, Esquire!

Hey folks, this is one of those unintentional 2-parters! I originally intended to have Andrew on to discuss the scary (and hopefully unlikely?) ways that Trump might try to stay in power even if he lost, but before we even got to that discussion, we go through the ways that Trump and the Republicans are cheating to try to win. Is vote by mail safe? What's the deal with poll-watchers? Those questio...

It's a solo show today. I have a lot of thoughts on two books I've read - White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo and How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. The monopoly example I used I should have credited to Kimberly Jones .

A lot of prominent writers, journalists, thinkers, etc, have signed an open letter about "Cancel Culture." New dad and world's funniest podcaster Eli Bosnick is back on the show to break it down! Here are links we discuss: brilliant New Republic Article ; James Bennet Resigns as New York Times Opinion Editor ; Harper's Editor Fired Over 'Sh*tty Men in Media' Story ; Longtime Deadspin editor fired...

We're joined this week by Brandon J. McKoy! He's the president of the New Jersey Policy Perspective , a think-tank whose focus is policy change to advance economic justice and prosperity. We discuss what #defundthepolice means to different advocacy groups, what it might look like in practice, and what other potential policy might lead to better policing in this country.

The New York Times recently published an Op-Ed by Tom Cotton advocating a severe crackdown on the protests. The piece sparked a giant backlash and even a bit of a civil war within the Times. The Opinion editor officially stepped down. Joining us today is Professor Bryan Van Norden , who has written about why not all opinions deserve to be heard. Much of the justification people use tends to derive...

It has been far, far too long since we've heard from Alix Jules on this show. I can't think of a more perfect guest to help us better understand the mayhem happening around the country right now.

Jamie and I are on to discuss the pandemic, the attacks on abortion rights coming from the right, and Jane Roe's deathbed conversion. Jamie's links: http://yellowhammerfund.org , http://bwhi.org , http://prochoice.org , http://lilithfund.org , http://prochoicetexas.org , http://teafund.org , http://westfund.org

I recently watched Parasite and was so blown away by it that I wanted to do a review/discussion of the film, and fortunately, Jamie was game! I loved it and there is so much to analyze and enjoy, so we hope you enjoy it along with us. We recommend you watch it first!

We've got questions on politics, philosophy, and more! As always, they lead to a spirited debate.

We've got questions on politics, philosophy, and more! As always, they lead to a spirited debate.

Today we bring you something not at all COVID (or politics) related. We recorded a wonderful interview with Skye Cleary back over a month ago, just before the pandemic changed all our lives. We thought it would be a much needed change of pace. Skye is a philosopher who teaches at Columbia University, and is the author of  Existentialism and Romantic Love   (Palgrave Macmillan 2015) and co-editor o...

Jamie is back! We set out to discuss what happened in the primary and have a spirited debate as well. Some things I mentioned: 538 , Vox , Weeds episode.

Joe Biden has been accused of sexual assault by Tara Reade, with the alleged incident taking place in 1993 when she worked for him. In my opinion, there has been a tremendous amount of bad faith in how this has been talked about my many outlets. This story has consumed my brain and I haven't been able to think of anything else for a few days, so I have just felt I had to do my best to lend an obje...

It has been about a year since we talked about the charges against Cardinal Pell for sex crimes against minors, and now he has won on appeal to the highest court in Australia. This sounds like terrible news, but Andrew Torrez and Australian lawyer James Rogers are here to break it down for us! It's an Opening Arguments crossover spectacular!

Jamie and I talk about the pandemic.

It's a solo show! We've got a couple Tuesdays' worth of primary results to discuss, and they aren't good for Bernie Sanders. So why is Bernie doing so much worse than in 2016? According to Amanda Marcotte and others, it's maybe due to sexism. I discuss that and other responses to it. I also talk about some mindset changes I've been having, spurred by how awful Twitter has been in this primary and...

This is a part 2 of 2. We continue the discussion with Gregg Caruso! He is a professor of philosophy at SUNY Corning in New York, honorary professor of philosophy at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and visiting researcher at the University of Aberdeen School of Law in Scotland. His latest book is  Unjust Deserts: Free Will, Punishment, and Criminal Justice (forthcoming). He also debated...