Embrace The Void
Society & Culture
About
Welcome friends, to a podcast for a darker timeline. Maybe the darkest of all timelines. Definitely not one of the good timelines. Maybe it’s always been a dark timeline, maybe the Hadron collider screwed us over. Science may never know. What we do know is that we live in the void. The void, a place where a chittering mass of void crabs can infest a person suit and win the presidency. The void, a place where we're just clever enough to know that climate change is happening, but not quite clever enough to do anything about it. The void seems terrible and cruel, but it loves you, in its own ironic way.
Episodes
- Spirituality and Belonging with Kat Ford
My guest this week is Dr. Kathryn Ford, a postdoctoral research fellow at Brunel University where she’s currently working on a project called Spirits and Sources which focuses on issues around belonging among spiritual folks. We discuss th…
- Epistemic Injustice with Aidan McGlynn
My guest this week is Aidan McGlynn, a senior lecturer in philosophy at University of Edinburgh and author of the book Epistemic Injustice: An Introduction. We discuss the various facets of epistemic injustice, the impact it has on people'…
- Secular Leadership with Darrel Ray
My guest this week is Darrel Ray, an organizational psychologist and founder of Recovering from Religion, the Secular Therapy Project, and the Institute for Secular Leadership. Darrel has a new leadership course aimed at helping secular co…
- AI Consciousness with Matthew Sheffield
My guest this week is Matthew Sheffield, a writer, producer, and media entrepreneur. He hosts The Theory of Change podcast on The Flux network and when he’s not writing about our current political chaos he’s working away at an equally hard…
- Lottocracy with Alex Guerrero
My guest this week is Alex Guerrero, a professor of philosophy at the Rutgers University and author of the book Lottocracy: Democracy without Elections. We talk through the major problems with democracy and how a lottocracy might avoid the…
- The Score with C. Thi Nguyen
My returning guest this week is C. Thi Nguyen, a professor of philosophy at the University of Utah, and author of the new book The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game. We discuss the nature of games, why it's problematic to bui…
- Liberal Socialism with Matt McManus
My guest this week is Matt McManus, an assistant professor in Political Science at Spelman College, and author of The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism. We discuss his new book and why both liberalism and socialism are essential to mov…
- Did the Science Wars Take Place? with William Gillis
My guest this week is anarchist activist William Gillis, author of the book Did the Science Wars Take Place? The Political and Ethical Stakes of Radical Realism. We cover the many flavors of anti-realism Gillis lays out in his book, and wh…
- 40k Philosophy with Liam Kofi Bright
My returning guest this week is the most pleasant of bureaucrats ever to serve the the blood god, associate professor of philosophy at the London school of economics and political science Liam Kofi Bright. Folks might not know this, but wh…
- Autism and Humanism with Alastair Lichten
My guest this week is Alastair Lichten (@humanistdad.bsky.social), a humanist organizer who is particularly interested in the intersection of neurodivergence and secularism. We discuss the theory that being autistic or neurodivergent makes…
- Secular Student Alliance with Kevin Bolling
My guest this week is Kevin Bolling, executive director of the Secular Student Alliance, the largest organization in the country representing secular and nonreligious students. We discuss how things are going on the youth secular organizin…
- Misguided with Matthew Facciani
My guest this week is Matthew Facciani (@matthewfacciani.bsky.social), a social scientist at Notre Dame and author of the recent book Misguided: Where Misinformation Starts, How it Spreads, and What to Do about It. We discuss all three to…
- Reconsidering Anti-wokeness with Jonathan Church
My returning guest this week is Jonathan Church (@jondavidchurch.bsky.social), a chartered financial analyst, and author of books like Reinventing Racism: Why White Fragility is the Wrong way to think about racial inequality, and Virtue i…
- The Science of Revenge with James Kimmel Jr.
My guest this week is James Kimmel Jr., a Yale Psychiatry lecturer, lawyer, and founder of the Yale Collaborative for Motive Control Studies. He has a new book out, The Science of Revenge, that overlaps heavily with my own work on luckpill…
- Race, Time, and Utopia with William Paris
My returning guest this week is William Paris, an Assistant Professor in the department of philosophy at University of Toronto, as well as one of the cohosts on the wonderful What’s Left of Philosophy Podcast. He’s got a wonderful new book…
- Disbelief with Will Gervais
My returning guest this week is Will Gervais (@willgervais.com), a professor who studies evolutionary and cultural psychology at the Centre for Culture and Evolution at Brunel University London. He recently published a book called Disbeli…
- Trans Activism in Atheism/Secularism with Arden Hart
My guest this week is Arden Hart (@theardenhart.bsky.social), host, producer, and editor of The Line on YouTube, a call-in show that focuses on issues around atheism and social justice. She recently gave an excellent talk about transphobia…
- Incel Identity with Mark Marveggio
My guest this week is Mark Marveggio (@unluckywanderer.bsky.social), a PhD candidate in Psychology at the University of Adelaide and co-lead author on a paper called Fatalism, Evolution, and Interpersonal Attractiveness: Psychological Theo…
- The spiral of Joe Mercola with Jonathan Jarry
My guest this week is Jonathan Jarry (@jonathanjarry.bsky.social), a science communicator at McGill Office for Science and Society. We discuss his recent expose on how Joe Mercola, millionaire friend of RFK Jr., is completely enthralled to…
- Luckpilled Q and A 300th Episode Extravaganza!
My guest this week is Sarah Tulien (@sarahtulien.bsky.social), executive director of the Creator Accountability Network and together we tackle all the best questions and patron names a show could possibly hope for. Music by GW Rodriguez Ed…
- Shorsey and Modern Masculinity with Ursa Wright
My guest this week is Ursa Wright, my giant C Captain and co-host from Philosophers in Space. We discuss the sophisticated masterpiece that is Shorsey and how it can help us work through the current discourse around meaning making for men…
- The Know Rogan Experience with Marsh and Cecil
My guests this week are the hosts of the new podcast The Know Rogan Experience, Cecil Cicirello and Michael Marshal. We discuss their backgrounds in skepticism, their goal with starting a podcast about Rogan, and why Rogan is particularly…
- Biology and Bigotry with Ed Buckner
My guest this week is Ed Buckner, a secular organizer, former president of American Atheists. Ed is the author of the book In Freedom We Trust: An Atheist Guide to Religious Liberty, as well as the Substack blog Letters to a Free Country,…
- Trans Activism in Secular Spaces with Kat Grant
My guest this week is Kat Grant a Wisconsin based attorney, activist, legal educator, and author of the new blog TransingBoundaries, which focuses on the intersections of law, politics, religion, and queerness. Kat recently finished up an…
- A Disease of Affluence with Toby Buckle
Back to our normal format with returning guest Toby Buckle of the Political Philosophy Podcast. We discuss his recent Liberal Currents article "A Disease of Affluence", where he argues that MAGA is a result of lack of precarity rather than…
- Luckpilled Chapter Four: Pedagogy of Luck
Episode five of our luckpilled series! We discuss the final chapter of my dissertation on pedagogy of luck. We work through the old pedagogy of luck and how it crashes the educational commons, before discussing how to do luckpilling genera…
- Luckpilled Chapter Three: Politics of Luck
Episode four of my luckpilling series, where I'm once again joined by Sarah Tulien, executive director of the Creator Accountability Network. We discuss chapter three of my dissertation, which covers the politics of luck, particularly the…
- Luckpilled Chapter Two: Psychology of Luck
Episode three of my luckpilling series, where I'm once again joined by Sarah Tulien, executive director of the Creator Accountability Network. We discuss chapter two of my dissertation, which covers the psychology of luck, particularly the…
- Luckpilled Chapter One: Philosophy of Luck
Episode two of my luckpilling series, where I'm once again joined by Sarah Tulien, executive director of the Creator Accountability Network. We discuss chapter one of my dissertation, which covers the philosophy of luck, particularly why t…
- Luckpilled: A New Pedagogy of Luck Introduction
Hi friends! As promised, I'm back from "sabbathical" with a (five?) part series on my dissertation. Accompanying me in this journey is Sarah Tulien, executive director of the Creator Accountability Network. She's here to save me from the h…
- Understanding and Countering Fascist Movements with Joan Braune
My guest this week is Joan Braune, a Lecturer in Philosophy at Gonzaga University. We discuss her recently published book Understanding and Countering Fascist Movements: From Void to Hope, which seems increasingly relevant by the day, so e…
- Round We Dance with Mark Green
My guest this week is Mark Green, a professional environmental activist and a member of the atheopagan society council. He’s the author of three books, most recently Round We Dance: Creating Meaning through Seasonal Rituals. We discuss the…
- Moral Antirealism with Lance Bush
My guest this week is Lance Bush, host of the Lance Independent YouTube channel. Lance has a PhD in psychology and an MA in philosophy, with a particular interest in metaethics and experimental philosophy, so you can guess what we're talki…
- Universal Salvationism with RJ
My guest this week is RJ, host of the youtube channel Absolute Optimist. We chatted a year ago about God in a never to be released recording and he reached out recently to let me know his views have changed on the subject. So I invited him…
- Man Bear Discourse with Callie Wright
My guest this week is Callie Wright, cohost of the Philosophers in Space podcast and the only person I want to be parsing bear discourse with. We discuss the recent dust up around the hypothetical "would you prefer to encounter a man or a…
- Street Epistemology with Anthony Magnabosco
My guest this week is Anthony Magnabosco, co-founder of Street Epistemology International. Street Epistemology is an approach to difficult dialogue aimed at helping individuals better understand why they believe what they believe. Anthony…
- What's Left of Meritocracy with Gil Morejón
My guest this week is Gil Morejón, a historian of ideas currently teaching at Grenell college, one of the 4 amazing hosts of the What’s Left of Philosophy? Podcast. We discuss leftist takes on meritocracy, possible alternatives, and the di…
- Debating Moral Realism with Chris Kavanagh
My guest this week is Chris Kavanagh, cohost of Decoding the Gurus and a cognitive anthropologist working at the psychology department at Rikkyo university in Japan. I have him on to discuss a recent episode of theirs about metaethics and…
- Camp Omni with Megan Pike
My guest this week is Megan Pike, director of Camp Omni, formerly Camp West. Megan is a lifetime educator and camp participant. We discuss Camp Omni's developing focus and how the camping world in general is adapting, as well as some pedag…
- The Secular Paradox with Joseph Blankholm
My guest this week is Joseph Blankholm, a religious studies scholar and associate professor at UC Santa Barbara. We discuss his recent book The Secular Paradox, where he unpacks several internal conflicts facing secular community organizer…
- Warhammer 40k and Gamergate with Danny Fortuna
My guest this week is Danny Fortuna, a Warhammer 40k lore master and founder of the Facebook group Warhammer Heresyposting. Danny founded the group as a space for anti-woke 40k fans after he was banned from several other groups over debate…
- Conspiratorial Thinking and Just World Belief with MRX Dentith
My returning guest is M.R.X Dentith, a philosophy professor at BNUZH’s Center for international philosophy, with a focus on conspiracy theories, secrecy, and fake news. They’re also cohost of the podcaster’s guide to the conspiracy and rec…
- AI in Medicine with Bryce Eakin
My guest this week is Bryce Eakin, an AI engineer currently working in the area medical ethics. We discuss the potential risks and benefits of AI in various parts of the medical process and where this technology is likely headed in the nex…
- Embracing the Manosphere with Debbie Ging
My guest this week is Dr. Debbie Ging, Professor of Digital Media and Gender in the School of Communications at Dublin City University. Dr. Ging teaches and researches on gender, sexuality and digital media, with a focus on digital hate, o…
- Professional Surrogacy with Barbie Dangond
My guest this week is Barbie , co-founder of Lift Life Travel and a professional gestational surrogate. We discuss her motivation for helping women experience travel and many parts of the ethics surrounding surrogacy. Convocation: Nietzsch…
- Triangle Freethought Society with Matthew Krevat
My guest this week is Matthew Krevat, a secular and skeptical organizer with Triangle Freethought Society. We discuss his experiences with local organizing and trying to balance the interests of skeptics and atheists within a single group.…
- Possible Worlds and Other Stories with Rachel Handley
My guest this week is Rachel Handley, a teaching fellow in philosophy at Trinity college Dublin, and author of a recent collection of sci-fi short stories entitled Possible Worlds and Other Stories. The book is a fun exercise in multiverse…
- Heavy Metal Philosophy with David Burke
My guest this week is David Burke, a PhD student at Bathe’s Spa University, with a focus on studying the philosophy of heavy metal. He has written on the Neitzchien elements of heavy metal and argues that metal should be taken seriously as…
- Grassroots Secular Organizing with Devon Graham
My guest this week is Devon Graham, one of the Assistant state directors for American Atheists in Florida. We discuss the challenges of secular organizing in deeply red territories and conflicts within movement secularism over the relation…
- GPT-4 Wrap-up with Callie Wright
My guest this week is Callie Wright, host of the Queersplaining podcast and co-host of Philosophers in Space. They humor me while I try to exorcise my GPT demons and work through as many of the arguments about this technology as possible.…