Terrifying Questions

Can something meaningful lie beyond (or beneath) the expressive powers of language? Tune in this week to see if Eric and Taylor can (or can’t) shed some light on this unsettling question by putting words together to form sentences. Søren Kierkegaard, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Miller Williams, and Wallace Stevens make cameo appearances.

Eric and Taylor talk about death and whether we ought be afraid of it. In this episode Taylor speaks partly from personal experience because a few years ago he had a mild brush with death. He did not die, however, which he and Eric agree was a good thing. They also agree that death is, if nothing else, uncanny.

Have we forgotten what it means to be? Is the history of being a history of our becoming oblivious to it? Does being even have a history? Taylor and Eric discuss these terrible, wondrous, “rich and strange” subjects in anticipation of the publication of Taylor's forthcoming book, Heidegger and the History of Being.

Are we puny and wretched or divine and transcendent? Or are we both? According to the great French mathematician, inventor, and religious thinker Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), yes. This week Eric and Taylor contemplate Pascal's proto-existentialist account of the human condition and its possible relevance to Taoism, evolution, AI, language, and (maybe) the religious practices of elephants.

Was Nietzsche a fascist? Does liking Nietzsche make you a fascist? If the bully boy heralds of MAGA are present-day fascists, does that make them latter-day Nietzscheans? Join Eric and Taylor as they distinguish several varieties of chest-thumping, bluster, and skepticism about truth. And as Nietzsche himself said, “If this podcast episode does not kill you, it will make you stronger.”

Did you ever want something and not want it, or love somebody and also hate them? If you did, does that mean there are two different things inside you and they are having a war? Or are there three? This week Eric and Taylor look at the idea of internal conflict, internal peace, what it all means, and what if anything can be done about it. They also reply to two letters from nonimaginary listeners.

Are we still living in a cave? In this sequel episode Eric and Taylor contemplate what might happen if you got out of Plato’s cave. Would the sun blind you? And if you tried to convince the other prisoners to escape, would they kill you? Also this week, replies to some letters from listeners.

Are computers becoming so supersmart that they might supersede all human intelligence and eat us for lunch? Or is the very idea of “machine intelligence” a sad blend of conceptual confusion, willful ignorance, magical thinking, and financial opportunism? If you’re not sure (and if you can’t get an LLM to give you a straight answer), have a listen and get back in touch with your humanity.

Are ordinary experience and everyday life hopelessly benighted and delusional, a realm of shadows, full of spectacle and drama but signifying nothing? This week Eric and Taylor descend into the most famous four pages in the history of Western philosophy: Plato’s allegory of the cave. Tune in and overcome your fear of truth, wisdom, and the beautiful.

This week Julia Moskin, Pulitzer Prize winning food reporter for the New York Times, joins Eric and Taylor to ask whether food is (or can be) art, and how it manages to do that while also just being yummy. Should great food taste like nothing you’ve ever tasted before or should it taste like the best ever version of its ingredients? Is culinary quality subjective or objective? Why do critics write...

Some things are obviously horribly bad and wrong. Is it possible to make them right? Do some people deserve satisfaction while others deserve punishment or mercy? When juries deliver verdicts and judges impose sentences, are they speaking the truth or just fumbling in the dark and settling on the least bad outcome? This week Taylor and Eric reflect on the possibility, the impossibility, and the ne...

Do we owe it to anyone (even ourselves) to be thin? Is being thin always healthier, sexier, better looking, or somehow more praiseworthy? Is it easier to be a great philosopher or to get into heaven if you’re thin? This week Eric and Taylor are joined by philosopher Kate Manne, whose new book examines diet culture and fatphobia. The truth, as it often does, might surprise you. 

Does the lure of fame and fortune necessarily get in the way of making great music? Or is it okay to make some fun ear candy as a way of putting food on the table? This week Taylor and Eric chat about artistic integrity and the temptations of popularity and money with singer, songwriter, philosopher, violinist, and attorney at law, Andrew Choi – also known by musical  nom de plume,  St Lenox. As a...

Synesthesia!  A weird thing experienced only by unusual people, or by ordinary people on unusual drugs, or – is it  something everybody has all the time?  Are very low musical notes literally “dark”? Can food sound like something, like hot peppers going “ping” on your tongue? Why does it make sense to call a fork a “zrickrick” and a pillow a “baobwab”? Or does it? In 1688 William Molyneux asked Jo...

Is revenge a dish best served cold, hot, or not at all? Should we all go on a revenge diet, or is it just too tasty? Could hitting back be so much fun that we can’t give it up? Or is the best revenge the serene feeling of being above revenge? Even if we know that vengeance inevitably leads to an endless cycle of vengeance, is it possible to get off the not-so-merry-go-round? How did Athena help th...

Things happen. Sometimes you find a $10 bill. Sometimes a bird craps on your head. Are these events just the meaningless result of previous events or is there a hidden purpose behind everything? Does God’s plan underlie the chaos of experience? Is the idea that something was “meant to be” (or not meant to be) comforting or crippling? And is the idea that everything is possible liberating or paraly...

This week Taylor and Eric are joined by philosopher Kieran Setiya, author of  Life Is Hard,  which they agree it is. It’s especially hard if you think you’re doomed to failure. Are you? Not necessarily. But if you don’t worry about success and failure, are you just going to be swimming in a soup of nothing matters and who cares? Tune in and find out how and why we judge life projects, careers – an...

Is everything we do a kind of performance? Are we always reading from a script? And what makes bad acting bad? Do psychopaths make good actors? Do politicians make good psychopaths? And why do presidential candidates emphasize what they’re saying by pointing with their thumbs? Film and television actor Kevin Sussman joins Taylor and Eric to talk through these disturbing mysteries. 

Were poststructuralist, postmodern, postrespectable French philosophers like Michel Foucault the real masterminds behind identity politics, critical race theory, cultural appropriation, and pumpkin spice latte? Will civilization survive the rampant, unchecked questioning of grand narratives? Join Taylor and Eric as they unravel this bundle of phone cords and contemplate equality, freedom, civility...

Being “judgmental” sounds like something bad, yet refraining from all moral judgment seems pathetic, and also impossible. So, what should we do? Can we be truly compassionate without also being capable of anger, resentment, and maybe some occasional Schadenfreude? This week Eric and Taylor are joined by actor, writer, and television producer Andy Richter, who will help them sort out when it’s okay...

Is there any pain as great as recalling past happiness from present misery? If so, why do we do it? Do we get pleasure from tormenting ourselves about losing something (or someone) we loved? Was Socrates right that living well means learning how to die? Does being comforted too quickly mean we never really cared? And if so, how quick is too quick? Join Eric, Taylor, Dante, Dostoevsky, and William...

Does belief in God lead to intolerance and violence? Is monotheism about the number of gods or is it, as Egyptologist Jan Assmann suggests, about “having no other gods” and stamping out idol worship and superstition? Are secular atheists really just monotheists fighting a holy war against religion? Does monotheism contribute anything good to psychology or politics, and if so, is it worth the price...

What does it mean to be deep? Is profundity something good or is it pretentious and boring? Are there different kinds of deepness? Is shallowness itself a kind of depth? Is it only shallow people who try to sound deep? Are profound utterances dark oceans or plastic mirrors? Join Eric and Taylor on this, their first video episode as they plum the depths of shallowness and skate the surface of the a...

What are monsters? Do they lurk among us? Are some of us monsters? How would we know? What’s really frightening about monsters – that they’re inhuman or that they’re all too human? If a shark could speak, would you climb into its tank to talk to it? And what exactly is so creepy about the dad in  The Shining?  Tune in and get the lowdown about monsters, monstrosity, and human monstrousness. 

What is it to be? We be, and we be jammin’ but what about other things? Is a hole a thing? Or just a lack of dirt?   Unicorns aren’t real, but are they in some other way? Perhaps unicorns are, but don’t exist. But if so, what about non-existent unicorns? What’s their deal? What is the “metaphysics of presence,” and why did it annoy Martin Heidegger? Do all  why  questions have answers? If so, why?...