• Episode 43: Can You Learn Anything Important from Somebody Else?
    Mar 8 2024

    Eric and his temporary co-host, Tao Ruspoli (filmmaker, co-founder of the Bombay Beach Biennale) delve deep into what it is to teach and to learn... and they ask, "Can you learn anything really important from somebody else?"

    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 1 min
  • Episode 42: Are There Human Beings Worthy of Worship? With Geoff Dyer
    Feb 29 2024

    Tao and Eric are joined by author Geoff Dyer to question whether certain individuals are worthy of worship. Dyer’s many books include But Beautiful (about jazz), the novel Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi and, most recently, The Last Days of Roger Federer. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Science and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, his books have been translated into twenty-four languages. He is currently a Writer in Residence at USC. A new book Homework (a memoir) will be published in spring 2025 by FSG in the US and Canongate in the UK.


    Eric and Tao interrogate Geoff about his apparent adoration of Bob Dylan. A lively conversation ensues....

    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 1 min
  • Episode 41: Is Entertainment a Seductive Lie?
    Feb 23 2024

    Eric Kaplan and Tao Ruspoli ask about how entertainment may or may not be "true". Tao substitutes for Taylor for the next several episodes. We've also just introduced video to the podcast! Let us know what you think.

    Show more Show less
    54 mins
  • Episode 40: Is Food Art?
    Feb 11 2024

    This week Julia Moskin, Pulitzer Prize winning food reporter for the New York Times, joins Eric and Taylor to ask whether food is (or can be) art, and how it manages to do that while also just being yummy. Should great food taste like nothing you’ve ever tasted before or should it taste like the best ever version of its ingredients? Is culinary quality subjective or objective? Why do critics write reviews? Tune in and find out.

    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Episode 15: Is There Any Such Thing as the Self?
    Feb 6 2024

    Another chestnut. Am I a self? Am I myself? Am I yourself? And if there is no such thing as the self, do I not exist? The Buddha and David Hume thought so – were they right? Join Taylor and Eric as they explore the conceptual labyrinth that is ourselves.

    Show more Show less
    49 mins
  • Episode 12: Are We Our Bodies?
    Jan 30 2024

    A command performance of a classic. Are we our bodies? Do we have sould? Do we have minds? Do haircuts diminish our true selves? Can our selves be hit by a bus or uploaded onto The Cloud? The French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty's body could’t be with us for this episode, but he joins us in spirit to tell us why we only meet people in the flesh.

    Show more Show less
    49 mins
  • Episode 39: Is Faith Good?
    Jan 22 2024

    Can we build a meaningful life on the shifting sands of irrational belief? Or if we refuse to make an infinite commitment, are we wasting our life, dog-paddling in a weak tea without hope or meaning? Is faith necessary or insane – or both? This week Eric and Taylor record their first ever episode before a live studio audience, namely the annual meeting of the American Society for Existential Phenomenology in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Tao Ruspoli, Iain Thomson, Mark Wrathall, Patricia and John Benner, Kaitlyn Creasy, Justin White, and B. Scot Rousse huddle together with them and ask, Is faith good? Tune in and find out. 

    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Episode 8: Do We Need Other People?
    Jan 15 2024

    Another command performance. (Okay, rerun.) Are we utterly dependent on others or should we look inward and try to be true to ourselves? Can we do both? Or neither? This week Eric and Taylor look to Ralph Waldo Emerson for some help with this deeply unsettling question.

    Show more Show less
    54 mins