Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Philosophical inquiries • Scientific exploration • Consciousness and cognition • Artificial intelligence • Evolution and religion • Cosmology and the universe • Ethics and morality • Human nature and society
This podcast, "Closer To Truth," immerses its audience in deep intellectual explorations with leading thinkers from various disciplines. It tackles profound questions concerning the cosmos, life, consciousness, and the very nature of existence, drawing on a rich tapestry of scientific, philosophical, and religious insights. Themes such as the evolution of life and consciousness, the mysteries of artificial intelligence, and the boundaries of scientific understanding are recurrent across episodes. This podcast frequently examines the intersection of science and religion, probing the compatibility or tension between evolutionary science and religious belief. Consciousness, another pivotal theme, is dissected from multiple angles, including near-death experiences, dualism, and the extended mind theory, often with an eye towards its implications for artificial intelligence and the future of human-AI interaction.
Listeners can expect discussions on the origins and destiny of the universe, the concept of multiverses, and the implications of a fine-tuned cosmos, alongside philosophical inquiries into the nature of time, free will, and morality. The series also contemplates the possibility of extraterrestrial life and its impact on religious worldviews. Contributors weigh in on the social and ethical dimensions of contemporary technologies like AI, debating their influence on human nature, society, and truth. The podcast does not shy away from confronting ultimate questions about existence, purpose, and whether there are limits to what science can reveal. Across its episodes, "Closer To Truth" invites its audience to grapple with the unknown, encouraging a thoughtful consideration of what it means to be human in a complex, often paradoxical universe.
Episodes:
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Can We Explore Transcendence Via Art and Mind?
2025-Sep-10
27 minutes
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Can Philosophy Discern Sex and Gender?
2025-Sep-03
27 minutes
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Can Near-Death Experiences Affect Consciousness Theories?
2025-Aug-27
28 minutes
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Evolution vs. Religion: Anything New?
2025-Aug-20
27 minutes
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Clément Vidal on Life's Biggest Questions
2025-Aug-13
89 minutes
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How did Cognition and Emotion Evolve?
2025-Aug-06
27 minutes
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Mark Bailey on AI: Consciousness, Dangers, and Morality
2025-Jul-30
42 minutes
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What is Human Nature?
2025-Jul-23
27 minutes
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Julia Mossbridge on AI: Is There a Soul in the Machine?
2025-Jul-16
47 minutes
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How do Reductionism and Emergence Dance?
2025-Jul-09
27 minutes
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James Hughes on AI Consciousness: Buddhism & Posthuman Futures
2025-Jul-02
46 minutes
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What are Units or Levels of Selection?
2025-Jun-25
27 minutes
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Zoltan Istvan on AI: Transhumanism and Deepfakes
2025-Jun-18
52 minutes
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How Can Philosophy Probe Evolutionary Biology?
2025-Jun-11
27 minutes
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Chris French on the Science of Weird Shit
2025-Jun-04
84 minutes
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What Would Alien Life & Intelligences Mean?
2025-May-28
27 minutes
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Jonathan Schooler on the Psychology of Artificial Intelligence
2025-May-21
23 minutes
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Joseph Corabi: Could Superintelligent AI Defeat Itself?
2025-May-16
79 minutes
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Eastern Traditions: What are Ultimate Existence and Essence?
2025-May-14
27 minutes
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Zorana Pringle on the Science of Creativity & Decision-Making
2025-May-07
65 minutes
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Can Dualism Explain Consciousness?
2025-Apr-30
27 minutes
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Robin Hanson on the Age of AI and Large Language Models
2025-Apr-25
46 minutes
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Terry Sejnowski on ChatGPT and the Future of AI
2025-Apr-22
81 minutes
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What is the Philosophy of Scientific Breakthroughs?
2025-Apr-15
27 minutes
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Aspects of Consciousness
2025-Apr-09
37 minutes
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What is Extended Mind?
2025-Apr-02
27 minutes
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Does a Fine-Tuned Universe Lead to God?
2025-Mar-26
27 minutes
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Annaka Harria on Consciousness and the Cosmos
2025-Mar-19
93 minutes
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Do Human Brains Have Free Will?
2025-Mar-12
27 minutes
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Janna Levin on Cosmology: Black Holes, the Big Bang, and More
2025-Mar-05
73 minutes
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Implications of Cosmology?
2025-Feb-26
27 minutes
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Philip Goff and Helen De Cruz on Finding (and Losing) Their Religion
2025-Feb-19
74 minutes
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Why Explore Consciousness and Cosmos?
2025-Feb-12
27 minutes
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Nathan Lents on The Sexual Evolution
2025-Feb-05
89 minutes
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The Ultimate Questions of Existence
2025-Jan-29
27 minutes
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Why is the Quantum So Strange?
2025-Jan-22
27 minutes
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Richard Swinburne on Evil, Atonement, and Evidence Against God
2025-Jan-15
89 minutes
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Robert Lawrence Kuhn on "A Landscape of Consciousness"
2025-Jan-08
54 minutes
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How is God the Creator?
2024-Dec-25
27 minutes
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What's Real About Time?
2024-Dec-18
27 minutes
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Arguments Against God?
2024-Dec-11
27 minutes
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What is the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe?
2024-Dec-04
27 minutes
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Solutions to the Mind-Body Problem?
2024-Nov-27
27 minutes
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Sara Imari Walker on Physics, Emergence, and Life on Other Planets
2024-Nov-20
83 minutes
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Richard Dawkins on Evolution, Atheism, and Aliens
2024-Nov-13
67 minutes
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Would Intelligent Aliens Undermine God?
2024-Nov-06
27 minutes
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Greg Epstein on Technology, Morality, and Religion
2024-Oct-30
65 minutes
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How do Breakthroughs Happen in Physics?
2024-Oct-23
27 minutes
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What's Beyond Physics?
2024-Oct-16
27 minutes
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Is Race Real?
2024-Oct-09
26 minutes
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What are the Limits of Science?
2024-Oct-02
26 minutes
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What is the Far Future of the Universe?
2024-Sep-25
27 minutes
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David Papineau on Consciousness, Physics, & the Mind-Body Problem
2024-Sep-18
74 minutes
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How Do Human Brains Think and Feel?
2024-Sep-11
27 minutes
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Is Consciousness Ultimate Reality?
2024-Aug-28
26 minutes
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Does the Cosmos Provide Meaning?
2024-Aug-21
27 minutes
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What is God?
2024-Aug-14
27 minutes
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Or Graur on the Big Bang and the Physics of Galaxies
2024-Aug-07
63 minutes
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Can We Survive Death?
2024-Jul-31
26 minutes
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Does Philosophy Help Science?
2024-Jul-24
27 minutes
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Is Human Consciousness Special?
2024-Jul-17
27 minutes
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Ned Block on Perception, Cognition, and Consciousness
2024-Jul-10
78 minutes
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Are Plants Sentient?
2024-Jul-03
47 minutes
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Are Suffering and Ritual Vital?
2024-Jun-26
27 minutes
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Why is There Anything at All?
2024-Jun-19
27 minutes
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Brian Swimme on Consciousness, Cultural Evolution, and the Noosphere
2024-Jun-12
42 minutes
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What is Evolutionary Developmental Biology?
2024-Jun-05
27 minutes
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Eastern Traditions: What is the Human Person?
2024-May-29
26 minutes
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Sean Carroll on Physics, the Multiverse, and Quantum Mechanics
2024-May-24
58 minutes
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What are Scientific Breakthroughs in Biology?
2024-May-15
27 minutes
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Why are Black Holes so Astonishing?
2024-May-08
26 minutes
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Anna Abraham on the Neuroscience of the Creative Brain
2024-May-01
71 minutes
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Robert Wright on Evolution and the Future of Humanity
2024-Apr-24
57 minutes
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Eastern Traditions: What is World? What is Reality?
2024-Apr-17
27 minutes
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Nick Bostrom on Superintelligence and the Future of AI
2024-Apr-10
71 minutes
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Paul Thagard on AI, Animal Consciousness, and Human Intelligence
2024-Apr-03
72 minutes
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Helen De Cruz on What Makes Life Worth Living
2024-Mar-27
57 minutes
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Why Philosophy of Biology?
2024-Mar-20
27 minutes
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Marcelo Gleiser on Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience
2024-Mar-13
73 minutes
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Does Consciousness Require a Radical Explanation?
2024-Mar-06
26 minutes
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What Does the “Unreasonable Effectiveness” of Mathematics Mean?
2024-Feb-28
27 minutes
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Carlo Rovelli on White Holes
2024-Feb-21
77 minutes
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Ilia Delio on Evolution, Quantum Physics, and Neuroscience in Theology
2024-Feb-14
47 minutes
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Can Mathematics Explain Biology?
2024-Feb-07
26 minutes
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Roger Penrose: Mathematics & What Exists
2024-Jan-24
27 minutes
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Is Mathematics Invented or Discovered?
2024-Jan-16
26 minutes
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What is the Deep Meaning of Probability?
2024-Jan-10
26 minutes
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Martin Rees on Cosmology and Existential Risk
2024-Jan-03
43 minutes
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When Brains Go Bad
2023-Dec-27
26 minutes
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Jesus as God: A Philosophical Inquiry
2023-Dec-20
26 minutes
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Freeman Dyson: From Physics to the Far Future
2023-Dec-13
27 minutes
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How Does the Subconscious Affect Us?
2023-Dec-06
26 minutes
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What Are Breakthroughs in Mathematics?
2023-Nov-29
27 minutes
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Terrence Deacon on the Noosphere
2023-Nov-22
51 minutes
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Philip Goff on the Purpose of the Universe
2023-Nov-08
75 minutes
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Why is Mathematics True and Beautiful?
2023-Nov-01
26 minutes
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Can We Survive Death?
2023-Oct-25
27 minutes
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Can Art Probe Creativity?
2023-Oct-18
26 minutes
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What Makes Brains Conscious?
2023-Oct-11
26 minutes
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Dan Dennett on the Mysteries of the Mind
2023-Oct-04
81 minutes
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