Micro-Digressions: A Philosophy Podcast

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mark Schroeder, a professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California and author of many books, joins Spencer to talk about his new book, When Things Get Personal . One of the book's key ideas is the signal/noise distinction. Roughly, this amounts to the distinction between what truly reflects on a person and what reflects on externa...

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Honestly, a great episode! After a 5-year Hiatus, Christian Miller returns to the podcast to talk about his new book, The Honesty Crisis , which addresses six ways in which technology undermines the virtue of honesty. Topics include AI student cheating, sermon plagiarism by pastors, and the extent to which the norms of honesty are more flexible in cer...

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Longtime friend Brother Dunstan Enzor -- a monk briefly famous for telling a United Airlines customer service representative "I love you; God bless you; I'll pray for you-- but you have not been helpful" -- joins Spencer to dissect a great work of literature-- John Milton's Paradise Lost . The topics that come up include the nature...

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Before we can think rigorously about whether God exists, we need to know what "God" is supposed to refer to in the first place. That's the theme of this episode. Perry Hendricks, Nevin Climenhaga, and Steve Kershnar join Spencer Case to interrogate the notion of God. Is God defined by a single property such as "the greatest possibl...

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! The great Mike Huemer returns to Micro-Digressions to talk about ways in which the American legal system is morally problematic. Topics include plea bargaining and jury nullification. For more discussion of these topics, see Huemer's book, Justice Before the Law. 

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Craig White, Ben Burgis, and Daniel Kodsi join Spencer Case to discuss--and debate--the Iran War.

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Gordon Barnes joins Spencer to talk about the issues he discusses in his new book,  Applied Epistemology: An Introduction . 

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Eric Wiland joins Spencer to discuss his book, Guided by Voices: Moral Testimony, Advice, and Forging a 'We'. In the ensuing discussion, Eric and Spencer cover a wide range of topics, including how moral testimony can generate moral understanding, what sort of responsibility those who give advice have for the actions of those who act on it,...

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Full professor of philosophy at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and sometimes David Cross impersonator Ryan Jenkins returns to Micro-Digressions to discuss the dangers of AI. The conversation covers such matters as the AI-alignment problem and why Chat GPT can't be horny.

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mark Oppenheimer from Brain in a Vat discusses controversies surrounding hate speech in South Africa.

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Philosophers J.P. Andrew, Mark Oppenheimer, Jason Werbeloff, Nicholas Delon, and Jason Brennan discuss their worst philosophical nightmares.

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Marcus Arvan returns to MD to talk about his new book, Why It's Ok to be a Moderate, which you can find here: Amazon.com: Why It's OK to Be a Moderate: 9781032613864: Arvan, Marcus: Books

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Nathan Cofnas joins Spencer Case to discuss the nature of the political ideology/movement known as "wokeness." Cofnas argues that wokeness follows from accepting environmental differences combined with post-Christian morality. Case partly agrees with this analysis, but places greater emphasis on moral egalitarianism than empirical egalitaria...

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Oliver Traldi challenges the standard conservative model of academic freedom in his article, "Defusing Academic Freedom." Link here: Defusing Academic Freedom Spencer and Oliver discuss. Topics include: does the university have a univocal purpose? Does a truth norm really justify academic freedom as it's ordinarily understood and practi...

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Jake Monaghan joins Spencer to discuss his new book,  Ethical Policing . The discussion covers such questions as: what makes policing legitimate? What sorts of considerations undermine that legitimacy? How can police appropriately balance order and respect for individual freedom in a non-ideal world?

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Matthew Adelstein returns to Micro-Digressions to talk about the arguments for the existence of God at the top of his tier list. You can find his complete ranking of arguments for God's existence here: Arguments For God Tier-list - by Bentham's Bulldog

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Mike Huemer and His Offensiveness Steve Kershnar join Spencer to discuss free will and moral responsibility.

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Matthew Adelstein, the prolific young writer who posts at "Bentham's Bulldog" on Substack, has recently attracted attention for a tier ranking of philosophical arguments for the existence of God. Matthew and Spencer discuss the arguments at the bottom of his list, ascending from arguments that get an "F" to one in the C tier. 

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Sarah Malanowski and Nicholas Baima join Spencer Case to discuss their book Why it's Ok to be a Gamer . They cover common objections to gaming, such as the claim that gaming is addictive and violent games promote violence.  They also consider ways that video games can promote friendships and cultivate virtue. Finally, they debate the supposed vic...

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Featuring rants by Matt Lutz (on a priori knowledge and the politicization of the university) Travis Timmerman (on the film "Megalopolis") Spencer Case (on the depraved adulation of Luigi Mangione) and Ben Burgis (on the hypocrisy of "heterodox" liberals on Palestine).

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Featuring rants from Matthew Adelstein (on shrimp welfare), Mark Oppenheimer (on missing the golden age of universities), Craig White (on the folly and immorality of American involvement in Ukraine) David Baker (on the wrongness of peacetime conscription) and Jason Werbeloff (on common misconceptions about AI).

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Michael Huemer returns to the podcast to discuss more of the issues in his self-published book, Progressive Myths (which you can buy on Amazon for a mere $12.50). Mike and Spencer discuss the gender pay gap, the claim that women don't lie about sexual assault, and the sex-gender distinction.

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Michael Huemer returns Micro-Digressions to discuss his new self-published book, Progressive Myths , which you can purchase here for a mere $12.50: Progressive Myths: Huemer, Michael: 9798332272073: Amazon.com: Books Discussed here: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and George Floyd cases, as well as some of the general patterns of police vi...

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Dave Baker returns to Micro-Digressions to finish the discussion of nuclear weapons. Topics this time include the development of the hydrogen bomb, the problems with developing missile defense systems, and nuclear proliferation.

Tell Spencer your thoughts about this episode! Is the possession of nuclear weapons morally justified? Was it a mistake to invent them to begin with? Dave Baker joins Spencer to discuss these and other questions about nuclear war. (Correction: Joseph Stalin died in 1953, not 1952).