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A Million Little Gods: A podcast on the consolation of uncertainty. It's about being of two—or more—minds about things and being okay with that. Hosted by Aaron Gowen of the Institute for English and American Studies at the University of Hamburg. amillionlittlegods.comThemes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ philosophy of uncertainty and selfhood • race as social/scientific category; genetics, eugenics • linguistics and meaning-making • science, statistics, Bayesian modeling, machine learning • moral judgment in culture • political history, religion and modern ideologiesThis podcast mixes philosophical inquiry, cultural criticism, linguistics, and narrative audio essay in a style that leans into ambiguity rather than settling questions cleanly. Across its seasons (“Books”), it returns to big, slippery topics—what it means to be a self, how consciousness and subjective experience fit into (or resist) scientific explanation, and how people live with competing frameworks for truth, value, and meaning.
A major throughline is the examination of categories: how humans carve the world into “things,” how those classifications gain power through language and institutions, and what happens when categories are treated as natural facts. A substantial portion of the show digs into the concept of race, approaching it through philosophy of science, history of genetics and eugenics, statistics, and public policy, with attention to how scientific tools like modeling, Bayesian reasoning, and machine learning can clarify questions while also importing assumptions and biases.
The podcast also ranges into moral judgment and cultural change—how audiences reinterpret art as norms shift, and where moral priorities come from. Another recurring interest is the tension between material explanations and spiritual or metaphysical ones, including extended engagement with intellectual history (e.g., Enlightenment empiricism, Hegel and Marx, Catholic thought and Thomism) as a way to think about modern politics, labor, and ideology.
Interviews with scholars, journalists, and other experts sit alongside sound-designed, literary episodes that foreground voice, rhetoric, and the medium itself. Overall, listeners can expect long-form reflection that links abstract theory to lived social realities, often by tracing how ideas evolve, collide, and organize collective life.
