Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

It is common to refer to philosophy as "a series of footnotes to Plato." But in the original quote, Alfred North Whitehead was more careful: he limited his characterization to "the European philosophical tradition." There are other traditions, both ancient and ongoing: Chinese philosophy, Indian philosophy, Africana philosophy, and various indigenous philosophies. For the most part, these do not get nearly as much attention in European and American schools as the European tradition does. Bryan Van Norden argues for expanding philosophy's geographical scope, to the benefit of philosophy in general. Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/06/23/319-bryan-van-norden-on-philosophy-from-the-rest-of-the-world/ [https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/06/23/319-bryan-van-norden-on-philosophy-from-the-rest-of-the-world/] Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll]. Bryan Van Norden received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford University. He is currently James Monroe Taylor Chair in Philosophy at Vassar College and Chair Professor in the School of Philosophy at Wuhan University. Among his books [https://www.bryanvannorden.com/new-page] are Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy and Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto. He is a recipient of Fulbright, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Mellon fellowships. * Web site [https://www.bryanvannorden.com/] * Vassar web page [https://www.vassar.edu/faculty/brvannorden] * PhilPeople profile [https://philpeople.org/profiles/bryan-van-norden] * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_W._Van_Norden] * Amazon author page [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Bryan-W.-Van-Norden/author/B001HMYZT2] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

Economics is seeing an upsurge in the importance of controlled, reproducible empirical studies. One area where this has had a great impact is on development economics, which studies the economies of low- and middle-income societies. Edward Miguel has been at the forefront of both the revolution in empirical methods, and in applying those techniques to alleviating poverty in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/06/16/318-edward-miguel-on-the-developing-practice-of-development-economics/ [https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/06/16/318-edward-miguel-on-the-developing-practice-of-development-economics/] Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll]. Edward Miguel received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard university. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Economics and Oxfam Professor in Environmental and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also Faculty co-Director of the Center for Effective Global Action [http://cega.berkeley.edu/] and a Faculty Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Among his awards are the Frisch Medal of the Econometric Society, the Kenneth Arrow Prize of the International Health Economics Association, and multiple teaching awards. * Web site [http://emiguel.econ.berkeley.edu/] * Berkeley web page [https://econ.berkeley.edu/profile/edward-miguel] * Google Scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=okJiGugAAAAJ&hl=en] * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Miguel] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

The human brain is extremely complicated, but decades of careful neuroscientific research have revealed quite a bit about how it works, including how certain genes affect particular brain behaviors. Nevertheless, this progress has not led to quite as much improvement in the treatment of brain disorders as we might expect. I talk with neuroscientist Nicole Rust about why this is and how to improve the situation, as discussed in her new book Elusive Cures [https://www.nicolecrust.com/elusive-cures]. Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/06/09/317-nicole-rust-on-why-neuroscience-hasnt-solved-brain-disorders/ [https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/06/09/317-nicole-rust-on-why-neuroscience-hasnt-solved-brain-disorders/] Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll]. Nicole C. Rust received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from New York University. She is currently a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a contributing editor at The Transmitter [https://www.thetransmitter.org/] and an editor at BrainFacts.org [http://brainfacts.org/]. Among her awards are the Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences. * Web site [https://www.nicolecrust.com/] * UPenn web page [https://psychology.sas.upenn.edu/people/nicole-rust] * Google Scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=W8l_RCwAAAAJ&hl=en] * Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_C._Rust] * Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/nicolecrust.bsky.social] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

Welcome to the June 2025 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll] (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy! Blog post with AMA questions and transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/06/02/ama-june-2025/ [https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/06/02/ama-june-2025/] Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll]. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].

Einstein's general theory of relativity, plus some reasonable assumptions about the universe and what it's made of, has a remarkable implication: that as we trace cosmic evolution into the far past, we ultimately hit a singularity of infinite density and curvature, the Big Bang. Did that really happen? Einstein's theory is classical, after all, and the world is quantum. And whose to say what assumptions are reasonable? Niayesh Afshordi and Phil Halper have written a new book, Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins [https://nafshordi.com/2024/10/19/battle-of-the-big-bang-new-tales-of-our-cosmic-origins/], that surveys all of the mind-bending possibilities. Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/05/26/316-niayesh-afshordi-and-phil-halper-on-the-big-bang-and-before/ [https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/05/26/316-niayesh-afshordi-and-phil-halper-on-the-big-bang-and-before/] Support Mindscape on Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll]. Niayesh Afshordi received a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Princeton University. He is currently a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Waterloo, and associate faculty in the cosmology and gravitation group at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. * Web site [https://nafshordi.com/] * Perimeter web page [https://perimeterinstitute.ca/people/niayesh-afshordi] * Waterloo web page [https://uwaterloo.ca/physics-astronomy/profile/nafshord] * Google scholar publications [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xWZGFlEAAAAJ&hl=en] Phil Halper is a science communicator and a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. His astronomy images have been featured in major media outlets including The Washington Post, the BBC, and The Guardian, and he has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals. * YouTube channel (Skydivephil) [https://www.youtube.com/@PhilHalper1] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy [https://art19.com/privacy] and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info [https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info].