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This Week’s Episode

25 May 2025

True Contradictions

If you want to tell the truth, you shouldn’t contradict yourself—that’s just common sense. A suspect who was home on the night of the crime can’t...



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Recent Episodes

18 May 2025

Mary Midgley

Mary Midgley became one of the best known public intellectuals in the UK, and was one of the first philosophers to talk about climate change. Though...

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11 May 2025

The Power of Prediction

You’re standing at the top of a mountain, surveying the vast landscape below. The information your senses take in flows to your brain, which...

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04 May 2025

Derek Parfit and Your Future Self

The works of Derek Parfit (1942-2017) have had a profound influence on how philosophers understand rational decision-making, ethics, and personal...

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This Month’s Playlist

Our NEH Funding Was Canceled

In early April, our grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the "Wise Women" series was terminated by the current administration. This decision means that $38,000 that was promised to us has disappeared, leaving us in a very precarious position. Click on the image to find out more and how you can help.


Coming Up

01 June 2025

Can Art Save Us?

The world is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis, and we urgently need good ways to address it. Courageous politicians would help, of course, as might scientific innovations. But how much of the problem is a failure of imagination? Could the arts help us see our way out of the problem?
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The Blog @ Philosophers' Corner

09 May 2025

Against Scientism

Mary Midgley was one of the UK's most prominent public intellectuals. She wrote and spoke prolifically about the value of the humanities, about environmentalism, and about science—though she was also a vocal critic of scientism, the idea that science can explain everything.
21 April 2025

Letter of the Law, Spirit of the Law

Every law has a letter and a spirit. The letter of the law says “don't drive faster than 65,” but everyone knows that really means 70. In fact, if everyone around you is doing 70, it can be unsafe to go under 65. The spirit of the law is not to enforce some precise speed but to keep everyone safe.
08 April 2025

The Philosopher-Novelist

Iris Murdoch was one of the "Oxford Quartet" of moral philosophers. Most famous for her novels like "The Bell," "The Black Prince," and "The Sea, The Sea" (which won the Booker Prize in 1978), Murdoch also made hugely important contributions to moral philosophy.

Featured Shows

Identity Politics

09 March 2015
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Edward Snowden and the Ethics of Whistleblowing

12 October 2016
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Democracy in Crisis

12 October 2016
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Separation of Powers

12 October 2016
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About Us

Philosophy Talk is a nationally-syndicated public radio program and podcast hosted by Stanford professors Josh Landy and Ray Briggs. Known as “the program that questions everything—except your intelligence” Philosophy Talk challenges listeners to question their assumptions and to think about things in new ways. After two decades on the air, we have produced more than 550 episodes on a wide range of topics, from timeless philosophical questions about the ultimate nature of things to contemporary social and political issues, as well as our most fundamental beliefs about science, morality, and the human condition. We approach these topics with clarity, depth, and humor, inviting listeners to join engaging conversations with scholars from all over the globe.  

 

Philosophy Talk is produced by KALW 91.7FM on behalf of Stanford University, as part of its Public Humanities Initiative.

 

 

The Team

Philosophy Talk celebrates the value of the examined life.

Josh Landy

Co-host

Josh Landy is the Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French, Professor of Comparative Literature, and co-director of the Literature and Philosophy Initiative at Stanford University. He joined the Philosophy Talk team as co-host in 2017 when John Perry retired from the show. Among many publications, he is the author of Philosophy as Fiction: Self, Deception, and Knowledge in Proust, How to Do Things with Fictions, and Marcel Proust: A Very Short Introduction.

Ray Briggs

Co-host

Ray Briggs is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. Their research explores how formal models can help us reason better about practical and theoretical matters; they are particularly interested in decision theory, measurement theory, and the philosophy of probability. In addition to over 20 philosophy articles, Ray has published two poetry collections and been nominated for a Pushcart.

Blakey Vermuele

Co-host

Blakey Vermeule is the Albert Guérard Professor of Literature in the English department at Stanford, and she lectures in the Philosophy and Literature program. She teaches and writes about evolutionary moral psychology and ethics from the 17th century to the present. She has written three books on topics related to moral psychology and is finishing a long project on mind science in the age of behavioral economics.

Debra Satz

Co-host

Debra Satz is the Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society at Stanford University and dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences. She is a political philosopher whose work addresses contemporary public policy debates. In addition to authoring many articles and co-editing books, she is the author of Why Some Things Should Not be for Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets and co-author of Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy and Public Policy.

John Perry

Co-founder and Co-host

John Perry is the Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Stanford University, and a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at University of California Riverside. He is author of over 100 articles and books on the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind. He received a Jean Nicod Prize (France), a Humboldt Prize (Germany), and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1983, he co-founded Stanford's Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) and served as its director. He also wrote the internet’s most popular essay on procrastination.

Ken Taylor

Co-founder and Co-host

Ken Taylor (1954-2019) was the co-founder of Philosophy Talk and its co-host for almost fifteen years. He was the Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University and director of Stanford's interdisciplinary program in Symbolic Systems. His work lies at the intersection of the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind, with an occasional foray into the history of philosophy. He is the author of many books and articles, including Truth and Meaning, Reference and the Rational Mind, and Referring to the World. 

Laura Maguire

Director of Research

Laura Maguire is Philosophy Talk's Director of Research and an occassional co-host. She hails from Dublin, Ireland, but has called the Bay Area home for decades. After graduating with distinction at Trinity College Dublin, she earned her PhD in Philosophy at Stanford University. She has taught in Stanford's Philosophy Department, Introduction to the Humanities program, and Structured Liberal Education program.

Devon Strolovitch

Senior Producer

Born and raised in Montreal, Devon studied medieval Judeo-Portuguese manuscripts and earned a PhD in Linguistics from Cornell University before pursuing radio professionally. Since then he has been the primary studio producer for Philosophy Talk, while also contributing as a writer, editor, occasional Roving Philosophical Reporter, and manager of the program's day-to-day operations.

Merle Kessler

Sixty-Second Philosopher

Merle Kessler is a writer, humorist, and performer, best known perhaps by his pen name, Ian Shoales. As Ian Shoales he has been churning out cranky yet strangely humorous commentaries since 1979. First heard on NPR's All Things Considered, he has been featured on Morning Edition, ABC's Nightline, and the online magazine, Salon. In addition, his pieces have been published in the New York Times, LA Times, the San Francisco Examiner, USA Today, the Washington Post, and the Minneapolis Tribune, among other publications.

Holly J. McDede

Roving Philosophical Reporter

Holly J. McDede is the criminal justice reporter for KALW public radio in San Francisco. She studied Creative Writing and Literature at the University of East Anglia in Norfolk, England, where she wrote her dissertation on Don Quixote and a radio drama about public radio. She also works as an editor and producer at KCBS radio, sometimes very late at night when it’s difficult not to ponder life’s existential questions.

Shereen Adel

Roving Philosophical Reporter

Shereen Adel is a former literature student turned radio producer. She came to the Philosophy Talk team after joining KALW's newsroom as a producer on Crosscurrents and fell in love with reporting on how philosophical ideas take shape in practical applications. In addition to her work with Philosophy Talk, she still works behind the scenes in the KALW newsroom and manages the station's radio training programs for adults.

Sarah Lai Stirland

Roving Philosophical Reporter

Sarah Lai Stirland is a freelance writer and producer, a graduate of Medill at Northwestern University, and the Director of Digital Community at broadband.money. She's a 2020 alumna of KALW's Audio Academy and co-teaches and edits KALW's tbh podcast with fellow Roving Philosophical Reporter Holly J. McDede.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Greatness then, is not an act, but a habit” ― Aristotle

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!” ― J.R.R. Tolkien

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!” ― Dr. Seuss

“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.” ― Plato

“Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.” ― Isaac Asimov, Foundation

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