Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Naturalistic philosophy and critiques of analytic methods • Consciousness science and evolution (Darwin, agency, panpsychism) • Animal minds, cognition, sentience, welfare • Ethics of enhancement, AI, genetics, effective altruism, nihilism • Evolutionary theory topics (multicellularity, natural selection)
This podcast centers on Dr. Walter Veit’s work at the intersection of philosophy and the sciences, with a strong emphasis on “naturalistic” approaches that treat philosophical questions as continuous with empirical research. Across episodes, Veit presents essays, lectures, and interviews that revisit core debates in contemporary philosophy—especially disagreements about method in analytic philosophy, the role of conceptual analysis, and whether philosophical inquiry should lean more heavily on psychology, linguistics, and the life sciences.
A major thread concerns consciousness: what it is, how (and whether) it can be explained scientifically, and how evolutionary theory—particularly Darwinian thinking—should shape consciousness research. Related discussions explore animal minds and sentience, including how researchers infer subjective experience from behavior and neuroscience, where to draw boundaries of sentience across species (including birds and invertebrates), and how findings about cognition and emotion connect to animal welfare and human practices such as captivity, farming, and zoos.
The show also ranges into ethics and social philosophy, with recurring attention to effective altruism, moral psychology, and questions about meaning and nihilism. Another cluster of episodes examines enhancement technologies and bioethics, including cognitive enhancement, inequality, genetic engineering, and feminist perspectives on technology. Interviews with philosophers and scientists broaden these themes to topics like free will and agency, epigenetics, scientific bias and censorship, and the evolution of complex biological organization such as multicellularity.
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Episodes:
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A Flaw of Analytic Philosophy
2026-Feb-13
12 minutes
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What to do with a meaningless life?
2026-Feb-19
6 minutes
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Why Effective Altruists (And Everyone Else) Should Become Nihilists
2026-Feb-03
11 minutes
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What’s it like being a raven or a crow?
2026-Feb-02
7 minutes
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Panpsychism is a New Form of Creationism
2026-Jan-26
9 minutes
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What is consciousness?
2026-Jan-12
8 minutes
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Possums and the Evolution of Consciousness
2025-Dec-31
8 minutes
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Why Consciousness Science Needs Darwin
2025-Dec-30
8 minutes
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#46 - Scaffolding Natural Selection (Part 2)
2025-Jun-19
64 minutes
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#45 - Scaffolding Natural Selection (Part 1)
2025-Jun-10
21 minutes
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#44 - Feminism and Enhancement
2025-May-22
40 minutes
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#43 - Recognizing the Diversity of Cognitive Enhancements
2025-May-21
18 minutes
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#42 - ESEB Talk: Evolution of Multicellularity
2024-Nov-20
13 minutes
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#41 - Eric Schliesser: On Synthetic Philosophy
2024-Nov-19
68 minutes
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#40 - Cory Clark: Is there Political Bias and Censorship in Science?
2024-Nov-18
85 minutes
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#39 - Why is Health?
2024-Nov-17
15 minutes
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#38 - Elizabeth Paul: Animal Consciousness and Welfare
2024-Nov-16
94 minutes
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#37 - Carolyn A Ristau: A Biography of Donald Griffin - Discoverer of Bat Echolocation
2024-Nov-15
88 minutes
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#36 - Toward an Ethological Science of Animal Consciousness
2024-Nov-14
19 minutes
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#35 - Guest Podcast Sentientist Conversations "Animal Consciousness"
2024-Nov-13
108 minutes
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#34 - Guest Podcast Episode: The NonSequitur Show Genetic Engineering Dr Sy Garte & Walter Veit
2024-Nov-12
83 minutes
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#33 - Guest Podcast Sentientist Conversations "Maybe moral systems are harmful!" + Deleted Scenes
2024-Nov-11
95 minutes
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#32 - AI Conversation: A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness
2024-Oct-05
9 minutes
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#31 - AI Discussion: Procreative Beneficence and Genetic Enhancement
2024-Oct-02
12 minutes
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#30 - Modeling Morality - PART 2
2024-Oct-02
21 minutes
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#29 - Modeling Morality - PART 1
2024-Sep-30
36 minutes
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#28 - Peter Singer: Retirement, Effective Altruism, Animal Rights, Zoos
2024-Sep-07
65 minutes
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#27 - MA by Research in Philosophy at the University of Reading
2024-Aug-28
29 minutes
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#26 - Evolution of multicellularity: cheating done right - PART 2
2024-Aug-28
27 minutes
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#25 - Evolution of multicellularity: cheating done right - PART 1
2024-May-20
42 minutes
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#24 - Existential Nihilism: The Only Really Serious Philosophical Problem
2024-May-15
67 minutes
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#23 - Daniel C. Dennett Tribute
2024-Apr-23
17 minutes
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#22 - Cognitive Enhancement and the Threat of Inequality
2024-Apr-09
44 minutes
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#21 - Eric Helms: Is Bodybuilding a Sport?
2024-Apr-05
85 minutes
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#20 - Drawing the boundaries of animal sentience
2024-Mar-30
14 minutes
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#19 - Matti Wilks: On the Psychology of Moral Motivations and Effective Altruism
2024-Mar-13
64 minutes
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#18 - Improving Invertebrate Welfare
2024-Mar-03
14 minutes
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#17 - Alex Rosenberg: On Science, Philosophy, and Meaning
2024-Feb-22
55 minutes
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#16 - Modeling Morality
2024-Feb-14
70 minutes
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#15 - Nicola Clayton: Animal Cognition, Magic, Corvids, Dance, Embodiment
2024-Feb-07
58 minutes
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#14 - Enhancement Technologies and Inequality
2024-Jan-29
20 minutes
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#13 - Richard Yetter Chappell: Why Not Effective Altruism?
2024-Jan-19
79 minutes
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#12 - Procreative Beneficence and Genetic Enhancement
2024-Jan-14
60 minutes
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#11 - Kristin Andrews: Animal Minds, Animal Culture, Orangutans, Philosophy
2024-Jan-09
68 minutes
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#10 - Princeton Panel on the Ethics of AI in Farming
2024-Jan-04
33 minutes
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#9 - Princeton: Artificial intelligence, animal welfare, and the ethics of smart farming
2023-Dec-29
41 minutes
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#8 - Kevin Mitchell: Free Will, Evolution of Agency, Control, Consciousness
2023-Dec-23
71 minutes
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#7 - Dalai Lama Conference in India: Animal Consciousness
2023-Dec-18
47 minutes
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#6 - Eva Jablonka: Epigenetics, Evolution, Consciousness, Israel and Palestine
2023-Dec-12
93 minutes
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#5 - Chapter 1 of A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness
2023-Dec-05
79 minutes
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#4 - Preview for A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness
2023-Nov-29
40 minutes
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#3 - Heather Browning: Zookeeping, Philosophy, Sentience, Animal Welfare, and AI
2023-Nov-25
73 minutes
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#2 - Why start a podcast?
2023-Nov-22
5 minutes
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#1 - Daniel C. Dennett: Consciousness, AI, Free Will, Evolution, & Religion
2023-Nov-15
81 minutes
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