Wandering Thoughts

In this episode, Mr Alfie Kohn and I explore why rewards can backfire just as punishment can. We discuss intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, why grades, praise, bonuses, and incentive systems can undermine genuine interest, and why rewards and punishments are ultimately two forms of control. Mr Alfie explains how parents can move away from conditional acceptance and towards working with children t...

In this episode, Professor Sugata Mitra and I explore how education could change in a world shaped by the internet and artificial intelligence. We discuss his famous Hole in the Wall experiment, self-organised learning environments, and why groups of children can often teach themselves when they have access to technology, questions, and one another. Professor Mitra explains why the teacher’s role...

In this episode, Professor Gill Livingston and I explore dementia: what it is, why it develops, and what can be done to reduce risk and support people living with it. We discuss Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, amyloid plaques, tau tangles, cognitive reserve, and why diagnosis can be complex. Professor Livingston explains the major modifiable risk factors for dementia, including smoking, al...

In this episode, Professor Anthony Pagden and I explore empire, colonialism, nationalism, and the political history of Europe. We discuss what an empire is, why empires expand, and how colonialism and imperialism differ from one another. Professor Pagden explains how nationalism emerged from the decline of larger imperial structures, why political identities remain fragile, and how these questions...

In this episode, Professor Karl Friston and I explore the free energy principle: what it is, why it matters, and how it connects to neuroscience, consciousness, evolution, and artificial intelligence. We discuss Markov blankets, self-organisation, prediction error, active inference, and why living systems can be understood as trying to minimise surprise. Professor Friston explains how action, perc...

In this episode, Professor Steven Nadler and I explore the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza: his views on God, nature, free will, religion, and the good life. We discuss why Spinoza identified God with Nature, why this made him such a controversial figure, and whether he should be considered an atheist. Professor Nadler explains why Spinoza denied free will, yet still believed that human beings can be...

In this episode, Prof. Reza Shadmehr and I discuss how the brain predicts the future and why prediction may be one of its most fundamental functions. We explore the cerebellum, its evolutionary origins, and its role in movement, learning, error correction, and social behaviour. Prof. Shadmehr explains how ideas from engineering, robotics, and optimal control theory have shaped modern neuroscience,...

In this episode, Prof. David Poeppel and I discuss the Dual Stream Model of Language and how the brain processes speech. We explore the roles of the dorsal and ventral language pathways, the concept of efference copy, neural oscillations, and brain-stimulation techniques such as TMS. We also discuss neural sampling rates and neuroimaging methods such as EEG and MEG. Prof. Poeppel explains spatial,...

In this episode, Dr. Nolen Gertz and I discuss nihilism, technology, meaning, and the modern human condition. We explore the difference between passive and active nihilism, and how technology can make distraction and escapism easier, pushing us away from confronting reality and deeper questions of meaning. We also discuss Heidegger’s philosophy of technology, existentialism, AI, religion, and the...

In this episode, Gordon Guyatt & I discuss evidence-based medicine, a term and movement he helped create and develop. We explore what evidence-based medicine actually means, the hierarchy of evidence, randomised controlled trials, bias in research, and how evidence can be systematically summarised to improve clinical decision-making. We also discuss the origins and evolution of evidence-based...

In this episode, Prof. Allan Basbaum and I discuss the neuroscience of pain and humanity’s attempts to discover a drug beyond morphine that is effective but with minimal side effects. We talk about nociceptors, pain pathways, and different types of pain, alongside recent developments in drug design and emerging imaging technologies. We end the podcast with Prof. Allan’s advice for young aspiring s...

In this episode, Michael Eleftheriou and I explore how to achieve deep, genuine understanding and what it truly means to learn effectively beyond memorisation and mechanical procedure. We discuss Michael’s 4-step model for effective learning — order, structure, procedure, and depth — and why modern education often rewards shallow repetition instead of curiosity, creativity, and understanding. We e...

In this episode, Dr. Stephen Hicks and I discuss postmodernism and its relationship to truth, meaning, and culture. We explore what postmodernism really is, its connection to nihilism, and how these ideas shape society from the top down and bottom up. We dive into poststructuralism, Jacques Derrida, and how writing styles reflect the philosophies they are trying to express. We also touch on impres...

In this episode, Prof. Keith Frankish and I discuss illusionism, a theory of consciousness that says we’re mistaken in thinking our experiences have special inner “what-it’s-like” qualities (qualia). We talk about philosophical zombies, artificial consciousness, and whether science can truly account for subjective experience. We also reflect on the idea of God, the future of education, and Prof. F...

In this episode, Kwame Anthony Appiah and I explore identity, race, and culture. Prof. Appiah shares his backstory, growing up in Ghana and eventually living in the UK and the US, and his journey from medicine to philosophy. We discuss the philosophy of language, social ontology, cosmopolitanism, cultural values, race, and nationality, and how to maintain cultural identity while respecting each ot...

In this episode, Hakwan Lau shares his thoughts on the direction the field of consciousness studies is heading. We explore key neuroscience concepts such as blindsight, neural feedback, and information pathways, alongside core ideas like attention and perception, and why philosophy remains a useful tool for defining these terms. The conversation then turns to the growing issue of sensationalism in...

In this episode, Professor Tim Maudlin explains the great rift in physics. He talks about the violation of Bell’s inequality and explains the historical development of general relativity and quantum physics. We explore the collapse of the wave function, non-locality versus locality, and deterministic and non-deterministic theories. He shares his thoughts on free will, compatibilism, string theory,...

Nikos Louka, recently a parliamentary candidate with Direct Democracy Cyprus, joins me to talk about learning, curiosity, and why the education system fails. We explore ideas around self-organization, evolution, trust in human nature, and how open-endedness fosters creativity and innovation. The conversation then moves into the history of the Gagauz people, where we explore ethnic identity, the in...

In this episode, Michael Graziano discusses what consciousness and subjective experience are, followed by his journey toward developing Attention Schema Theory. He explains how the brain builds schematic models, controls internal processes, and how attention evolved, also touching on ADHD and what traits make a being conscious. The conversation then moves to the evolution of consciousness, theory...

In this episode, Dr. Laouris discusses the insights he has gained from systems science and how they apply to other fields such as politics, where he is currently a parliamentary candidate for Direct Democracy Cyprus. We also explore his interdisciplinary journey, the importance of balancing depth with breadth, and the value of trial and error and giving people responsibility. The conversation touc...

In this episode, Professor Axel Cleeremans explains his radical plasticity thesis and talks about implicit learning. We explore how much of our knowledge is unconscious and automatic, and how consciousness may emerge through learning about our own mental processes. We also discuss the role of language, metarepresentation, and memory in developing higher levels of awareness. We consider whether con...

In this episode, 22-year-old parliamentary candidate Ioannis Damianou explains a different form of governance—direct democracy. As a member of the new political party Direct Democracy Cyprus, he discusses how giving people direct influence over decisions could reshape modern politics, and why current systems often fail to represent those affected by them. We then move into education, where he chal...

In this conversation, Professor Barry Loewer discusses laws of nature, probability, and the Mentaculus. He explains the distinction between objective and subjective probability, examines the concept of chance, and engages with the work of David Lewis, and considers why the world exhibits patterns, introducing the Humean mosaic. He outlines the Mentaculus and its origins, and explains entropy and t...

This episode features a conversation with Professor Adrian Moore. We begin with Professor Moore’s background and a discussion of what philosophy and metaphysics are. The conversation then looks at the evolution of modern metaphysics and the distinction between analytic and non-analytic philosophy. We discuss Immanuel Kant and the limits of knowledge, followed by Kurt Gödel, his theorem, and the Go...

In this episode, Genia Schoenbaumsfeld explains the Ethics of Doubt project, which studies the relationship between skepticism and virtue epistemology. We explore how doubt functions in belief formation, including Søren Kierkegaard ’s idea that doubt arises from anxiety, and discuss Ludwig Wittgenstein ’s ideas such as picture theory and language games. We also talk about intellectual courage and...