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A podcast by Toby Tremlett featuring long-form interviews with philosophers.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Long-form philosopher interviews • ethics and evil • fiction, art, poetry, listening • moral deference and deliberation • democracy, protest, civic duties • long-termism and empathy • knowledge, mind, testimony, self-knowledge • Schopenhauer, Chinese/Daoist comparative philosophyThis podcast features long-form, accessible interviews with philosophers about both their intellectual paths into the discipline and the ideas that sustain their work. Across conversations, the host draws out how philosophical questions arise from lived experience and how different traditions and methods shape inquiry, from the study of canonical figures to comparative approaches that broaden what counts as “philosophy.”
A recurring emphasis is ethics and moral psychology: what it means to call actions or agents evil, how freedom and responsibility relate to wrongdoing, and whether understanding perpetrators risks softening moral judgment. The show also explores how individuals should form moral views—examining the place of deference to experts or authorities, the role of practical deliberation, and why even trained ethicists may fail to act ethically.
Political philosophy and civic life are another throughline, with discussions of what makes a democracy genuinely democratic, challenges to democratic rule, citizens’ duties (including voting), and the justification and limits of protest. Several episodes connect philosophy to the arts and communication, considering how fiction and poetry might disclose aspects of reality, how voice and performance shape ethical relations between speakers and audiences, and how philosophical conversation can be made more collaborative and kind.
Listeners can also expect foundational topics in epistemology and philosophy of mind—such as the difference between knowledge and true belief, testimony and self-knowledge, and why theories about the mind can seem counterintuitive—alongside reflections on the aims and ambition of philosophical practice itself, including the value and limitations of studying the history of philosophy and efforts to address its lack of diversity.
