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Can sport survive AI?
Elite sport is traditionally a celebration of the human, but for how much longer? We watch in awe as athletes perform feats of skill, strength and endurance, and experience the high drama of triumph…
Purity, filth and 'promiscuous defecators': why we're weird about poo
Why are we so repelled yet fascinated by bodily waste? Today we're talking purity, pollution, colonial sanitation regimes, medicine and public health, and how they've been shaped by our deeply…
Bad faith and 'just asking questions'
There's a certain kind of question that raises suspicion as to the motives of the person asking it. 'Was the Holocaust really as bad as historians have made out?' 'Is there really a scientific…
'Natural' disasters and climate justice
To call the effects of a fire, flood or cyclone these days a 'natural' disaster only tells part of the story, as climate change makes us realise that vulnerability to harm is often the result of…
Where am I? Buddhist philosophy and the self
Behind the familiar Buddhist doctrine that "there is no self" lies a centuries-long tradition of dispute and disagreement. Reductionists believe that the self is no more than a bundle of sense…
Common sense vs reason: when philosophy gets weird
There are certain things about the world that we think we know for sure, and yet philosophical reason tells us cannot be true. Can you fly? are you real? is the world a hallucination? The answers…
Adam Smith, economics and moral philosophy
Scottish philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) is often described as an arch capitalist, the "father of modern economics" - and at a glance it's easy to see why. His Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes…
Can AIs be friends?
Artificial intelligence is beginning to revolutionise many aspects of human existence - but how does it rate on friendship? The question is less theoretical than it seems: media reports of people…
Kant and religion
It's often claimed that the Enlightenment was a time when Europeans awoke from their superstitious slumber, discovered rationality, got started on science and threw religion in the bin. But a…
Speech acts and AI
Speech acts - utterances that have the power to make things happen in the world - are increasingly being created by AI, especially in certain workplaces where it's not uncommon to receive orders and…
'Being a burden' and assisted dying
Caring for a terminally ill person can place huge pressure - financial, emotional, physical - on the caregivers, who are often family members. And it's not uncommon at the end of life for someone for…
Sincerity, irony and metamodernism
The supposed evils of postmodern culture have been endlessly catalogued: moral relativism, the loss of shared values, ironic detachment, a pathological aversion to sincerity, and all rooted in a…
Is it time to get rid of legal gender status?
Most of us have Male or Female registered on our birth certificates - but what does this certification mean, in terms of its effect on our lives? There are many other things about us that have at…
Medieval Jewish philosophy and the lessons of history
We secular moderns sometimes make the assumption that philosophy is what you do when you're interested in the Big Questions of human existence, but not interested in religious answers. But the…
The reluctant feminist: Clara Zetkin and International Women's Day
Clara Zetkin (1857-1933) is widely celebrated as the founder of International Women's Day, yet she saw herself first and foremost as a socialist revolutionary. Far from embracing the mainstream…
Move fast, break everything: Nick Land and accelerationism
Nick Land is one of the more interesting contemporary philosophers, and one of the most disturbing. This week we're talking with the author of a new book that sets out Land's ideas, from cybernetic…
Can 'planetary civics' save us from techno-catastrophe?
Most of us are a little anxious these days - and for good reason, as advances in technology and the rising intensity of climate change are set to cause massive upheavals on our planet. But this week…
Racism and racial regimes
It's a well-rehearsed argument that systemic, structural racism has more significant bearing on the lives and opportunities of racialised minorities than the attitudes of individual racists. But…
Do we still love art?
There has never been as much art around as there is today - digital tools are incredibly cheap, artistic production and distribution can bypass the traditional institutional gatekeepers of galleries,…
Who am I? Individual and collective identity
The question of identity, and whether each of us is best understood as an individual or a member of a collective, has vexed philosophers for centuries. This week we're getting into it with a thinker…
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Philosopher's Zone has published 242 episodes since October 2021, covering topics in Philosophy, Society & Culture.
Philosopher's Zone is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 31m.
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