The Scientific Worldview

This episode features: -Will AI replace all human jobs? -When will we get artificial general intelligence? -When will we get superintelligence? -What is the chance that a billion people die in a global catastrophe? -What is the chance that humanity goes extinct? -In a world with advanced AI, will life feel meaningless? -Is it possible to clone humans? -Can you upload your mind to a computer? -Why...

This episode features: -Is American society sexist? -Do men hate women? -Are men more likely to commit suicide? -Why are most divorces initiated by women? -Are women discriminated against in university? -Are women held to the same standards as men in the military and law-enforcement? -Do police reduce crime? -Does incarceration reduce crime? -Why does the United States imprison so many people? -Wh...

This episode features: -Did mask mandates help prevent the spread of covid? -Why did the US government engage in censorship during the pandemic? -Does violent media cause violence? -What are the benefits of religion? -Should there be limits on artistic expression? -Why does the truth matter? -What is cancel culture? -Should men be allowed to talk about abortion? -Who decides what counts as "hate s...

This episode features: -Does porn cause sexual assault? -Does porn cause people to have more sex? -Will climate change destroy the world? -Is death bad? -Does death give meaning to life? -Does death give us motivation? -If we were immortal, would life get boring? -Is immortality physically possible? -Why are people attracted to religions, cults, and political ideologies? -Why do so many ideologies...

This episode features: -Should polygamy be legal? -Should you be able to sell your organs? -Should euthanasia be legal? -Is it permissible to sell children? -Is surrogacy wrong? -Does surrogacy harm the child? -Is it acceptable for someone to use surrogacy to have as many children as possible? -Is it ethical to create many embryos and then choose which to implant based on genes? -Should we use gen...

This episode features: -Is there a "moment" of conception? -Are most abortions due to recklessness? -Is the death penalty wrong? -Should we use corporal punishment? -Is solitary confinement ethical? -Is it wrong to kill animals? -Does equality matter? -What is fairness? -Do some people deserve more than others? -Is taxation theft? -Should the government take from the rich and give to the poor? -Sh...

This episode features: -Is suffering always bad? -Is suffering necessary for great art? -Is having kids good or bad? -Would the world be better with more people in it? -Would the world be better off without humanity? -Do we want to be sad sometimes? -What's the point of sports? -Is life mostly suffering? -If we live in a deterministic universe, is anyone responsible for their actions? -Are psychop...

This episode features: -Should transgender women compete in women's sports? -Should we have open borders? -Is it wrong to eat your dog? -When is it OK to break a promise? -When is it OK to lie? -Is it OK to steal if you really need the money? -If somebody wants to become a slave, should they be able to? -Are you obligated to donate to charity? -Do rights exist? -Why are people donating their money...

This episode features: -Should a doctor kill one patient to save five? -Is nationalism good or bad? -Which is more morally valuable, a pig or 1000 squirrels? -Are fish conscious? -Are trees morally valuable? -Should we care about AIs even if they aren't conscious? -Are you obligated to keep a promise you made to a dead person? -Is art valuable even if nobody looks at it? -Is withdrawing life-suppo...

This episode features: -Do animals matter? -Would it be bad if humanity went extinct? -Should you kill one person to save five? -Should you kill your friend to save five strangers? -Does the environment matter? -Why do we care less when more lives are on the line? -Were philosophers from 200 years ago right about everything? -Should you donate to charity? -What are the best charities to donate to?...

This episode features: -Is morality objective? -Does morality come from God? -If God tells you to torture babies, should you do it? -Why are women more likely to be vegan? -Why are men more supportive of war? -Why are introverts more libertarian? -Is everyone evil? -How do people find meaning in their lives? -Why are people so obsessed with politics? -Why care about morality? -Have humans evolved...

This episode features: -Is beauty objective? -What does it mean to have good taste in music? -Are some people better at recognizing beauty? -How do musical preferences change as people age? -Do people tend to like the music that came out when they were young? -Can you predict somebody's musical taste based on their personality? -Is music today better than the music of the past? -Why are people dra...

This episode features: -Is math invented or discovered? -What is truth? -What is reality? -Would intelligent aliens use the same math as us? -Do infants know math? -Do animals know math? -Can you trust your own reasoning? -Why does reasoning work? -Why is math so useful?

This episode features: -Were our ancestors cannibals? -Why did people engage in human sacrifice? -Is slavery still practiced today? -Do we work more than people of the past? -Is the world better than it used to be? -Were our hunter-gatherer ancestors peaceful? -The history of torture -The history of slavery -The history of infanticide -Is school bullying on the rise? -Has the world suicide rate be...

This episode features: -What's wrong with socialism? -Are taxes necessary? -Why are drugs so expensive when they first come out? -Do we need the government to protect the environment? -Why did prohibition fail? -Do politicians understand economics? -Are government bureaucrats lazy? -Are Scandinavian countries socialist? -What is communism? -Why were so many people murdered, tortured, and imprisone...

This episode features:  -Are labor unions bad? -How should we respond to AI generated art? -Why do we use high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar? -Why does the price of everything end with 99? -Why do people tip more than they used to? -Why do so many products have extra fees? ("Service fee", "convenience fee" etc.) -How do department stores trick you into feeling like you're getting a great de...

This episode features: -Is rent control bad? -Should we have a minimum wage? -Why do most economists oppose raising the minimum wage? -Does the minimum wage increase unemployment? -Why are there housing shortages? -Why has housing quality gone down in some cities? -Why isn't new housing being built? -Why don't current homeowners want new housing to be built? -What would happen if it was illegal to...

This episode features: -What causes inflation? -Why doesn't the government just print a bunch of money and give it to people? -Why did two British musicians set one million pounds on fire? -What would happen if we set one trillion dollars on fire? -Why do big businesses treat their employees better than small businesses? -Can we reduce gun violence by buying people's guns from them? -Why did gun v...

This episode features: -Was life better in the 1950s? -Will we run out of natural resources? -Has global inequality been increasing or decreasing? -Are rich people happier? -Why has human life expectancy more than doubled? -Why is the world so rich compared to the past? -Just how rich is the United States? -Why is most news negative? -If population goes up, will that make us richer or poorer? -Wha...

This episode features: -Can posing like Wonder Woman improve your public speaking ability? -Can the future affect the past? -Have scientists found evidence for the existence of psychic powers? -Why is there an average difference in math scores between men and women? -Where do stereotypes come from? -Is psychology politically biased? -Is "growth mindset" real? -Is "priming" real? -Is "stereotype th...

This episode features: -Why are Irish people able to drink milk in adulthood? -Do scientists intentionally produce fake research? -What tricks do scientists use to get the results that they want? -How do new words get invented? -Who decides how a language is spoken? -How does science work? -What percent of studies are trustworthy? -Why do psychology textbooks contain inaccurate information? -Where...

This episode features: -Do celebrity suicides cause people to commit suicide? -Why do we use the QWERTY keyboard? -Why doesn't the United States use the metric system? -Are chimpanzees smarter than children? -How long can a person survive in the wilderness for? -Why did humans take over the planet? -Why do we copy celebrities? -How do marketers prey on our psychology? -Why do people care about the...

This episode features: -Why does the average US wedding cost $30,000? -Does college make you smarter? -Does college build character? -Do you forget most of what you learn in college? -Why does Coca-Cola spend so much money on advertising? -Why don't countries just agree to get rid of their nuclear weapons? -How to get a world-class college education for free -Why do jobs today require more educati...

This episode features: -Who's prettier, liberals or conservatives? -Who's happier, liberals or conservatives? -Why do politicians sometimes intentionally make things worse? -Do we have an innate political instinct? -If most voters are ignorant, how could democracy work? -Is democracy good? -What are the upsides of monarchy? -What causes political gridlock? -How do genes affect politics? -What make...

This episode features: -Is empathy bad? -Is there such thing as "real" altruism? -Why are people altruistic? -How do people decide which charity to donate to? -Why was the Ice Bucket Challenge so successful? -Can you make money by donating to charity? -What is the probability that your vote will determine the outcome of a presidential election? -Do people vote their self-interest? -Do taller polit...