Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Micah Zarin Podcast
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Why Everyone Is LARPing Now (w/ Simon Critchley) | 02 Jul 2026 | 01:28:27 | |
In this episode I sat down with philosopher Simon Critchley, professor at the New School for Social Research and author of Mysticism, alongside my co-host Denis Calos. We got into what it means to live a mystical life, why growing up is the abdication of ecstasy, whether AI-generated music can be art, why suffering might be the precondition for making anything good, and why everyone wants to be the type of person who reads Nietzsche without actually reading Nietzsche. Also soccer, Suno, the Beatles, and me attempting German. If you like this kind of thing, I write longer essays on philosophy and consciousness on my Substack: https://substack.com/@micahzarin Subscribe for more long-form conversations with philosophers, scientists, and people thinking seriously about hard problems. CHAPTERS Music licensed through Soundstripe. | |||
| Will AI Ever Be Creative? (w/ Amy Kind) | 19 Jun 2026 | 01:06:14 | |
00:00 What makes something creative | |||
| Arguing With a Logician About Reality (w/ Graham Priest) | 06 May 2026 | 01:06:41 | |
Graham Priest | |||
| Why Gen Z Can’t Connect (w/ Max Lippmann) | 22 Apr 2026 | 00:54:06 | |
00:00 Intro + phone ban and distraction | |||
| Wrestling with Justice (Part 1) | Ep. 4 | Elite Ball Knowledge Philosophy | 05 Oct 2025 | 00:31:10 | |
In this conversation, Micah, Omar, and Esat discuss their personal backgrounds, aspirations, and views on various societal issues. They explore the right to self-defense, the polarization in society, and critique the education system. The discussion also delves into freedom of speech, the role of government in regulating businesses, and the implications of wealth distribution, particularly concerning billionaires. The conversation emphasizes the importance of civility in debates and the responsibility to advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves.
The right to self-defense is seen as innate but should have limitations.
Polarization in society is exacerbated by a two-party system.
Education should encourage diverse perspectives and critical thinking.
Freedom of speech is essential for a healthy society.
Censorship can stifle important discussions and ideas.
Billionaires should use their wealth to help others.
The government has a role in regulating businesses for public good.
Civility in debates is crucial for understanding differing viewpoints. | |||
| Neurodiversity, Abstraction, and Predictive Minds | Anders Sandberg Conversation | 15 Mar 2026 | 01:33:51 | |
Why do some people think so differently from everyone else? In this conversation, I talk with Anders Sandberg about how the brain learns to see, why abstraction comes more naturally to some people than others, how attention and inhibition shape personality, what neurodiversity actually changes, and why insight so often fails to transform a life. We also get into predictive processing, psychedelics, mysticism, creativity, academia, and the strange process of becoming yourself.
Anders is a researcher, futurist, and one of the most genuinely wide ranging thinkers I’ve spoken with. This ended up being a conversation about minds, learning, temperament, and what it means to explore the world without getting trapped in a single framework.
0:00 Ideas
2:28 Neuroscience
15:36 Development
23:18 Impulsivity
25:30 Neurodivergence
31:02 Optimism
46:28 Toddlers
49:54 Psychedelics & Mysticisim
1:20:00 Life | |||
| What Makes an Experience Yours? | Michael Huemer | 23 Feb 2026 | 00:53:18 | |
Michael Huemer is a philosophy professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, author of The Problem of Political Authority and Skepticism and the Veil of Perception.We talk about phenomenal conservatism, anarcho-capitalism, whether AI could be conscious, what makes an experience belong to someone, and whether your dog has concepts.
0:00 How Huemer forms his beliefs
0:45 Phenomenal conservatism
3:36 Descartes and radical doubt
5:04 Anarcho-capitalism
24:21 AI — net positive or net negative?
25:57 Could AI be conscious?
28:19 Where does consciousness start?
36:09 Is the mind the only teleological thing?
42:28 Can you have experience without a self?
50:45 Do animals have concepts?
52:30 Advice for 17-year-olds | |||
| Middle Ground With a Conservativve (w/ Brandon Illizarov) | Ep. 6 | Elite Ball Knowledge Philosophy | 19 Feb 2026 | 01:28:41 | |
Can Objective Truth Survive 2025? A leftist (Micah) and a conservative (Brandon Ilizarov) go head-to-head on faith, Gaza, capitalism, diets, college admissions, “cancel culture,” and whether logic still means anything in an algorithmic world. It’s raw, fast, and (sometimes) uncomfortable—exactly how grown-up conversations should be.
Websites Mentioned:
https://www.trackaipac.com/
https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/
WATCH if you like: Sam Harris vs Peterson, Lex Fridman debates, Triggernometry, Coleman Hughes, Destiny.
⚠️ Content notes: war, politics, mental health, diet/health claims.
SUBSCRIBE + COMMENT: Do you think objective truth still exists? Drop TRUTH or VIBES below and tell us why.
WHAT WE ARGUE ABOUT
• God, deathbed conversions, and meaning (religion vs “art is my god”)
• Gaza/Israel ethics, “anti-war but pro-human,” and precision vs collateral
• Capitalism’s incentives: GLP-1/Ozempic, insulin, shrimp-on-a-treadmill and why weird science matters
• Diet wars: carnivore/raw milk vs vegan/GMOs, “plant defense chemicals,” bioavailability
• Climate change and why culture, not Congress, moves people
• Cancel culture, forgiveness, and admitting you were wrong
• Grades, SATs, “test-optional,” race vs class, and what diversity actually means
• Utilitarianism: drowning child, bed nets, and when logic leads somewhere insane
• Voting-rights hot take: IQ tests vs better civic education
• Conspiracies & skepticism: pagers, JFK, MLK, Epstein, Google/ChatGPT warping our reasoning
#EliteBallKnowledge #Philosophy #ObjectiveTruth #Debate #LeftVsRight #Gaza #Utilitarianism #FreeSpeech #Education #Admissions #GLP1 #Vegan #Carnivore #RawMilk #Climate #AIPAC #Conspiracy #CancelCulture #AI #Google | |||
| Is Culture Fake? (w/ Todd McGowan) | 16 Apr 2026 | 01:08:10 | |
Recommended watch - https://youtu.be/K1kxCBvExsU?si=nQbYKDq1n0X_-mDf
Todd McGowan returns to the podcast for a conversation about Lacan, language, desire, culture, AI, and the mental health crisis. We talk about the master signifier, the sinthome, why subjectivity emerges where language fails, why people desire things that do not make them happy, and why social media seems engineered to intensify anxiety, guilt, and psychic fragmentation. We also get into race, culture, identity, purity politics, trans subjectivity, domestication, and whether large language models could ever truly desire anything or become subjects in the psychoanalytic sense. Somewhere in there, we also discuss Hegel, Star Wars, Michael Phelps, and more.
00:00 – Intro / Todd McGowan returns
00:52 – What is the sinthome? (Lacan + Joyce)
04:50 – What is the master signifier?
07:01 – Cultural appropriation and instability of culture
09:19 – Why culture isn’t “owned” (and why it’s always oppressive)
12:27 – Is all culture oppressive?
13:40 – Race, pride, and why race doesn’t “exist” biologically
16:58 – Should you be proud of intelligence?
17:39 – Language, abstraction, and why clarity can confuse
19:20 – Israel, Zionism, and what people actually mean
22:06 – Why race is a product of racism
23:00 – Signifier vs signified vs referent
27:15 – Naming, identity, and why your name isn’t “you”
30:34 – Subjectivity = where language fails
32:27 – What is the subject? (Kant, Hegel, Freud)
35:05 – How desire forms (and why it resists authority)
37:35 – Why you can’t know your own unconscious
38:45 – LLMs, language, and meaning
40:22 – Can AI be a subject?
43:40 – Does AI have desire?
46:39 – Can anything exist without desire? (animals vs humans)
48:54 – Domestication and “neuroticizing” pets
49:02 – Trans identity, biology, and desire
52:17 – Desire as collision between body and language
55:21 – Why desire ≠ what you want
57:24 – Michael Phelps, success, and emptiness
58:23 – The mental health crisis (social media + superego)
1:00:00 – Attention spans and students post-social media
1:02:21 – Purity culture, canceling, and moral signaling
1:03:08 – Hegel’s “beautiful soul”
1:04:27 – Is politics replacing religion?
1:04:58 – Loss of public space / third spaces
1:06:24 – When should you push back vs ignore people?
1:07:33 – Life advice: thinking dialectically | |||
| What is mathematics, really? | Paolo Aluffi | 23 Feb 2026 | 00:35:41 | |
Paolo Aluffi, author of Algebra: Chapter 0 and professor at Florida State University, sits down to talk about what it actually means to do mathematics, and why most people have never seen the real thing.
00:00 — What does a mathematician actually do?
01:43 — How Algebra: Chapter 0 came to be
03:05 — The three types of students in every math class
07:39 — How Paolo got into mathematics
09:24 — If not math, then music
11:19 — What makes a mathematical structure "natural"?
12:40 — Grothendieck and the bridge between geometry and number theory
16:17 — The rising sea
19:02 — "If mathematics is hard, it's probably wrong"
20:01 — Are we early in the history of mathematics?
20:45 — The four color theorem and mathematical maturity
22:10 — Elliptic curves and the limits of intuition
24:19 — Does the world run on logic?
24:51 — How human intuition solves unsolvable combinatorial problems
29:32 — Is mathematics discovered or invented?
32:50 — Pure math vs applied math — and why Riemann never thought about GPS | |||
| Can You Choose Your Beliefs? (w/ Mike Titelbaum) | 26 Mar 2026 | 01:05:50 | |
Mike Titelbaum is a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison whose work focuses on epistemology, especially Bayesian epistemology, probability, and how we form rational beliefs under uncertainty. His research explores how evidence should guide belief, how confidence levels change over time, and how people should respond to disagreement. He’s also the author of Quitting Certainties, a book that examines the limits of certainty and how rational thinking actually works in real life.
00:00 Introduction to Belief and Evidence
01:32 The Nature of Belief and Evidence
04:40 Philosophical Perspectives on Evidence
07:14 Induction vs. Deduction in Reasoning
09:57 Navigating Uncertainty in Life
13:03 Bayesian Epistemology Explained
15:48 Confidence and Self-Perception
18:27 The Role of Higher Order Confidence
21:26 Disagreement and Epistemic Bubbles
31:37 Exploring Astrology and Epistemic Bubbles
33:50 The Role of Experience in Evidence
36:34 The Uniqueness Thesis in Philosophy
39:12 Challenges to the Uniqueness Thesis
43:20 AI and Bayesian Epistemology
51:41 The Future of Philosophy in the Age of AI | |||
| Make This Place Beautiful (w/ Denis Calos) | Ep. 5 | Elite Ball Knowledge Philosophy | 05 Oct 2025 | 01:10:00 | |
In this conversation, Micah and Denis delve into various philosophical themes, exploring the nature of existence, the role of education in fostering creativity, and the impact of capitalism on society. They discuss the complexities of human experience, the implications of wealth and power, and the challenges posed by modern ideologies. The dialogue emphasizes the need for a more nuanced understanding of these topics, moving beyond simplistic binaries to appreciate the intricacies of life. In this engaging conversation, Micah and Denis explore a variety of themes including the significance of favorite words, the impact of music and media on personal growth, and the philosophical insights derived from literature. They reflect on their childhood experiences, the role of parents in shaping perspectives, and the interconnectedness of philosophy with various disciplines. The discussion highlights how art and media can influence thought processes and the importance of fostering a sense of wonder in children. | |||
| Reality Is a Prediction (w/ Karl Friston) | 19 Jun 2026 | 01:42:24 | |
Karl Friston — the world’s most-cited neuroscientist and architect of the Free Energy Principle — joins me for a conversation about how brains make sense of reality, why we seek uncertainty, what beauty is, why psychedelics dissolve our usual models of the world, etc | |||
| Should a Vampire Starve to Death? (w/ Spencer Case) | 19 Mar 2026 | 00:48:19 | |
Spencer Case is a philosopher specializing in moral realism, ethics, and political philosophy. He’s the author of Why It’s OK to Be Patriotic and has published extensively on the relationship between epistemic and moral reasons.
We talked about whether morality is something real or something we made up, his argument that if we have reasons to believe things then we have moral reasons too, why the error theorist position collapses under its own logic, whether ethical veganism is as airtight as philosophers claim, Peter Singer’s drowning child argument and why Singer himself softened his conclusion, whether doing philosophy is morally justified when you could be doing something more directly useful, mathematical realism and what the trillionth digit of pi tells us about discovery, moving from Mormonism to atheism to hopeful agnosticism, and why you should see your own views as a lifelong draft you never stop revising.
0:00 Hook
0:24 From Epistemic Reasons to Moral Reasons
6:34 Are Moral Truths the Same Type of Thing as Factual Truths?
7:36 Mathematical Realism and the Language of Discovery
15:34 The Case for Ethical Veganism
22:45 Vampires, Puppies, and Weird Thought Experiments
31:55 Are Philosophers Intellectually Honest?
37:12 Is Doing Philosophy Morally Wrong?
40:30 Life Isn’t Meant to Be Minmaxed
43:45 Mormon to Atheist to Hopeful Agnostic
46:29 Spencer’s Advice | |||
| Why This Harvard Student Quit Computer Science (w/ Michael Cai) | Ep. 2 | Elite Ball Knowledge | 08 Aug 2025 | 00:48:28 | |
What happens when your dream major turns out to be nothing like you imagined? In this episode of Elite Ball Knowledge, I talk with Michael Cai, a Harvard student who recently switched from computer science and linguistics to neuroscience.
We dive into why he left CS, how idealism gets crushed by the tech industry, and the weird ethics of attention economies and AI slop. From populism to philosophy, generational burnout to post-capitalist meaning, this one spirals fast—but never aimlessly. If you’ve ever questioned whether you’re studying the right thing, whether tech is saving the world or just running it, or why so many brilliant people still feel completely lost—this episode is for you.
Topics include:
– Why people leave computer science
– Free market ethics and tech dystopias
– Philosophy as a survival skill
– Populism and generational alienation
– Mental health, apathy, and the myth of meaning
– Harvard vs the idea of Harvard | |||
| Is Looksmaxing Rational? (w/ Dan Demetriou) | 04 Apr 2026 | 01:09:17 | |
My Substack: https://substack.com/@micahzarin
Dan's website: https://www.dandemetriou.com/
Dan's paper "Virgin vs. Chad: On Enforced Monogamy as a Solution to the Incel Problem": https://philpapers.org/rec/DEMVVC
Dan's ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel-Demetriou
References mentioned:
Bowling Alone — Robert Putnam
Calhoun's Mouse Utopia Experiment (1950s)
William Costello's research on cross-sex mind reading (UT Austin / David Buss lab)
Malcolm & Simone Collins, Basecamp Podcast
Nick Fuentes "Jester Maxxing" clip
0:00 Intro
0:24 What do you make of looksmaxing?
2:30 The loss of third spaces (Bowling Alone)
4:37 Why guys lack emotional literacy
6:15 Charisma vs. looks on dating apps
8:07 The proxy-vs-goal trap (deadlift maxing)
11:00 The PSI scale and sexual market value
12:35 Who is Clavicular?
13:35 "Dating girls is gay" — courtship as simping
15:32 Jester maxing and the simp problem
17:48 Validation without sex
19:53 Situationships vs. relationships
21:41 Trading richness for convenience
23:33 Short-term vs. long-term mating strategies
27:27 The Mouse Utopia and the Beautiful Ones
30:33 The peacock alpha vs. the patriarch alpha
32:03 Why discomfort around the opposite sex has spiked
34:53 Competing with the entire city
37:50 Why guys actually are being creepy
39:11 What courtship used to look like
43:08 Playing hard to get meets harassment culture
47:49 The male over-perception bias
52:40 25% of women think asking for coffee is harassment
54:20 Is cultural fragmentation the real problem?
58:46 Incel violence and the limits of "let them die out"
59:51 The political divide between young men and women
1:01:34 The Scandinavian paradox — more freedom, more divergence
1:03:48 Redistribution and the male loneliness problem
1:07:31 "Monogamy was the socialism of women" | |||
| Can Science Explain Consciousness (w/ Grace Lindsay) | 10 Apr 2026 | 00:45:58 | |
Could a computer simulation be conscious? I sat down with Grace Lindsay, professor of psychology and data science at NYU and computational neuroscientist, to talk about modeling the brain, free will, emergence, the hard problem of consciousness, and whether uploading your mind to a computer would actually be you.
We cover:
• The fruit fly connectome and what’s still missing
• Is the brain deterministic or probabilistic?
• Why randomness doesn’t save free will
• What the “self” actually is
• Whether a self-modeling system could be conscious
• The line between science and philosophy
Subscribe for more conversations on philosophy, neuroscience, and the biggest questions.
Substack: https://substack.com/@micahzarin
Instagram: @ebkphilosophy
X: @micahzarin | |||
| Is the Brain a Computer? | Scott Aaronson Interview | 23 Feb 2026 | 00:53:09 | |
In Episode 8 of EBKP I’m joined by theoretical computer scientist Scott Aaronson to explore one of the deepest questions at the intersection of philosophy, physics, and computation.
We discuss whether the brain could, even in principle, be simulated by a digital computer, what the Church–Turing thesis actually says about minds, and how quantum mechanics complicates questions of free will, prediction, and consciousness.
⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Preview
00:33 Is the brain a computer?
04:49 Is consciousness finite?
10:00 Information, physics, and limits
17:14 Interpreting quantum mechanics
24:53 Many worlds and decision-making
28:09 Free will and predictability
37:37 Could AI be conscious?
46:17 What is a quantum computer? | |||
| Empathy and Empirics | Elite Ball Knowledge | Ep. 1 | Visual Edition | 08 Aug 2025 | 01:00:34 | |
Welcome to Elite Ball Knowledge, Episode 1: Empathy and Empirics. This podcast explores what happens when a real conversation about feminism, tattoos, empathy, math, and identity unfolds—layered with full Minecraft parkour footage.
Micah and Kat discuss what the word “patriarchy” actually means, whether emotional suppression hides behind intellectualism, and how our culture treats feeling vs. thinking. The goal isn’t debate—it’s understanding.
Filmed live at Harvard SSP. Visual edition includes one hour of Minecraft parkour for vibes and retention.
If you’ve ever intellectualized your emotions, questioned gender norms, or wondered why people cry during math, this one’s for you.
Watch. Think. Spiral.
Timestamps and clips coming soon.
#philosophy #feminism #neurodivergent | |||
| Delete Suffering From Human DNA | David Pearce | 01 Mar 2026 | 00:53:29 | |
LINKS
https://x.com/@micahzarin
https://substack.com/@micahzarin
0:00 – Suffering
18:15 – Psychedelics
27:49 – Immortality and Eugenics
32:06 – Animals
42:40 – AI, QM, and The Brain | |||
| Why Scrolling Feels So Good (w/ Todd McGowan) | Ep. 7 | Elite Ball Knowledge Philosophy | 19 Feb 2026 | 00:47:51 | |
Why does scrolling feel better than reading, thinking, or even resting? Why is scrolling addictive?
If you’ve ever thought “I’m cooked” but couldn’t stop scrolling, this is why.
Guest: Todd McGowan (Why Theory)
Chapters
0:00 – Intro + who Todd is
2:33 – Why scrolling feels so good (jouissance)
5:00 – Brainrot, Gen Z/Gen Alpha, and desire
14:54 – What brainrot actually is
17:36 – Memes, repetition, and absurd humor
23:45 – Numbers, recognition, and the algorithm
31:58 – AI, capitalism, fascism, and collapse
38:07 – How to resist the desire machine | |||
| What Even Is Consciousness? (w/ Benjamin Davidson) | Ep. 3 | Elite Ball Knowledge Philosophy | 28 Sep 2025 | 00:39:16 | |
In this episode of the Elite Ball Knowledge Podcast, Benjamin Davidson discusses his philosophical beliefs, including his views on the existence of God, the problem of evil, and the nature of consciousness. He explores the arguments for and against the existence of God, the role of mathematics in understanding the universe, and the concept of personal identity. Davidson also delves into ethics, free will, and the challenges faced by Gen Z in a rapidly changing world.
00:00
Exploring Beliefs and Background
02:52
The Problem of Evil and God's Existence
06:09
Arguments for and Against Deism
08:40
Mathematics: Discovery or Invention?
12:04
The Nature of Objects and the Ship of Theseus
14:46
The Concept of Self and Personal Identity
17:57
Consciousness: Emergence and Evolution
24:28
The Nature of Consciousness
27:16
AI and Consciousness: A Comparative Analysis
30:17
Emergent Properties: Consciousness in AI vs. Humans
33:07
Ethics and Moral Statements: Truth or Emotion?
38:41
Free Will: Illusion or Reality?
43:11
The State of the World: Perspectives for Gen Z | |||
| Is Moral Realism Cope (w/ Lance Bush) | 19 Jun 2026 | 01:24:34 | |
good video. subscribe and like if u enjoyed. dislike if u disenjoyed. 15:04 Philosophy | |||
| Will AI Make Everything Pointless? (w/ John Baez) | 07 Jun 2026 | 01:13:06 | |
828 views May 31, 2026 Interviews Mathematical physicist John Baez (This Week's Finds, the n-Category Café) on whether human thought still means anything | |||
| Can we cure aging (w/ Aubrey de Gray) | 31 May 2026 | 01:05:46 | |
yeah | |||
| Is Suffering Actually Bad? (w/ Richard Chappell) | 23 May 2026 | 00:51:02 | |
In this conversation, I talk with philosopher Richard Chappell about moral realism, suffering, moral responsibility, effective altruism, AI consciousness, digital sentience, and why our intuitions about machines may change once the machines actually arrive. Richard’s blog: https://www.goodthoughts.blog Timestamps | |||
| Why Our Civilization Will Collapse Within Decades (w/ Robin Hanson) | 23 May 2026 | 01:18:16 | |
Robin Hanson is an economist at George Mason University, the inventor of prediction markets, and the author of The Age of Em and The Elephant in the Brain. In this conversation he argues that our civilization is failing because we broke the engine of cultural evolution, and that the only way out is to let capitalism run more things, which I pushed back on, badly. | |||
| Does Fine-Tuning Prove God? (w/ Bentham's Bulldog) | 10 May 2026 | 01:05:09 | |
I sat down with Matthew Adelstein (Bentham's Bulldog) to debate one of the most popular arguments for God's existence: the fine-tuning argument. 0:14 - Intros 6:11 - Fine-Tuning Explained 9:10 - Independent Constants? 21:33 - Bill Gates Analogy 40:51 - Islands and Continents 1:02:06 - Why God? 1:04:06 - Advice | |||
| She Paints Brain Cells Without Realizing (w/ Haleh Fotowat) | 06 May 2026 | 01:05:54 | |
Haleh Fotowat is a senior scientist at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, where she leads neuroscience work on a DARPA-funded program developing novel anesthetics. She trained as an electrical engineer in Tehran and Houston before getting her PhD in neuroscience at Baylor, with postdocs at McGill, Ottawa, and Harvard studying locust escape behavior, weakly electric fish, and zebrafish navigation. She is also a working abstract painter whose pieces have shown in Harvard art exhibitions. I realized "Sleepwalkers" is an essay I never posted on my Substack, but it was an assignment for a class. Here's the Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/micahzarin 00:00 — Intro 00:21 — Art & Spontaneity 16:06 — The Brain 17:40 — Electric Fish & Serotonin 29:00 — Anesthesia & Consciousness 39:05 — AI & Attention 55:04 — What Makes Art Human 01:03:53 — The Secretary Problem 01:09:51 — Advice | |||