Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
In this informal bite-sized podcast, we'll talk about a range of ideas found in Indian philosophy, along with their connections to the modern day. Your host is a philosopher who reads Sanskrit texts and thinks about how the modern and premodern are intertwined.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Indian philosophy via Sanskrit texts • Nyāya reasoning, debate, skepticism, materialism • karma, mantra, dharma loanwords • Buddhism: Nāgārjuna, Śāntideva, compassion • language/meaning, ritual commands • medicine, contagion, expertise, COVID-19 • cross-cultural links with Chinese, Western, feminist thoughtThis podcast offers short, informal discussions of ideas from Indian philosophy, especially as found in Sanskrit texts, and links them to contemporary questions and everyday concepts. Across the episodes, the host explores how premodern philosophical traditions such as Nyāya, Buddhism, Jainism, Mīmāṃsā, and later aesthetic and literary theory analyze reasoning, language, and human experience, often using modern examples from popular culture, politics, and current events to clarify the stakes.
A major thread is epistemology and argumentation: how people know things, when inference succeeds or fails, what makes someone a reliable authority, and how debate can go wrong through ambiguity and other errors. Another recurring focus is philosophy of language—figurative speech, mantra, and the question of whether certain utterances have meaning or function in other ways—alongside attention to Sanskrit-to-English loanwords and how their meanings shift when they enter modern discourse.
The show also draws connections across intellectual traditions and eras, including comparisons with Chinese philosophy, engagements with contemporary analytic metaphysics and feminist philosophy, and reflections on cross-cultural conceptions of philosophy as a human practice. Several conversations bring classical Indian thinkers into dialogue with modern ethical and practical concerns, including medicine, disease, technology, social conflict, compassion, and the nature of craving and emotion. Overall, listeners can expect a mix of solo explanations and interview-style episodes that use historical sources to illuminate present-day problems of understanding, interpretation, and living.
| Episodes: |
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S3 E4: Christine Tan 2026-Apr-11 16 minutes |
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S4 E3: Mantra 2023-Dec-11 29 minutes |
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Announcement - Season 4 Episode 3 2023-Mar-03 1 minute |
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S4 E1: Karma 2023-Jan-06 34 minutes |
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S4 Teaser 2022-Dec-16 1 minute |
S3 E10: Tom Davies2022-Jun-16 14 minutes |
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S3 E9: Robin Zheng 2022-Jun-01 15 minutes |
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S3 E8: Cathay Liu 2022-May-15 15 minutes |
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S3 E7: Neil Mehta 2022-May-01 16 minutes |
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S3 E6: Matt Walker 2022-Apr-14 15 minutes |
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S3 E5: Jay Garfield 2022-Apr-01 14 minutes |
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S3 E3: Kathryn Muyskens 2022-Mar-01 11 minutes |
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S3 E2: Andrew Bailey 2022-Feb-14 16 minutes |
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S3 E1: Bryan Van Norden 2022-Jan-30 15 minutes |
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Much Ado about Religion: Part 2 2021-Jan-31 16 minutes |
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Episode 9: Much Ado about Religion, Part 1 2021-Jan-15 12 minutes |
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Episode 8: Equivocating and other ways to lose 2021-Jan-01 10 minutes |
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Season 2 Announcement 2020-Dec-30 1 minute |
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Announcement about Episode 4 2020-Oct-16 3 minutes |
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Knowing 2020-Sep-18 14 minutes |
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Announcement: Season One Ending 2020-Jun-04 1 minute |
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Episode 8: Binging 2020-May-29 14 minutes |
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Episode 7: Craving 2020-May-15 17 minutes |
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Episode 6: Expertise 2020-May-01 16 minutes |
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Teaser: Episode 6 2020-Apr-24 less than a minute |
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Episode 5: Contagion (part two) 2020-Apr-17 15 minutes |
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Episode 4: Contagion (part one) 2020-Apr-03 16 minutes |
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Announcement: Opening up the "phone lines" 2020-Mar-28 1 minute |
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Episode 3: Reclining 2020-Mar-27 16 minutes |
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Episode 2.1: Disease and debate 2020-Mar-20 13 minutes |
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Episode 2: The Man 2020-Mar-13 15 minutes |