Category Archives: Podcast

Atheistically Speaking Episodes

AS244: Sean Carroll, Part 2

We’re back for more with Dr. Sean Carroll! This time it’s even more action packed. We talk about his debate with William Lane Craig, which I think is one of the best atheism/religion debates out there on the YouTubes. In addition to that, we talk about the Boltzmann Brain Problem, and Sean answers questions from patrons, who submitted them over on patreon.com/atheist.

Find Sean’s new book here!

AS243: The Big Picture, with Sean Carroll

This week I have Dr. Sean Carroll on the show!!! I’m more excited than I can contain! Sean has a new book called The Big Picture. You can find it on Amazon by clicking here. In today’s episode, we talk about Sean’s new book, which I highly recommend everyone go buy! In additional to discussing the book, we talk about so many other fascinating issues, including whether or not objective moral values exist.

Watch out for part 2 on Thursday, in which we talk about Sean’s debate with William Lane Craig, and Sean also answers questions from Patrons. If you’d like to join those patrons and get access to Thursday’s episode right away, click here.

AS242: Einstein, Godel, and God

Time for a change of pace! This episode I speak to a listener who doesn’t want to call himself an atheist. We debate about that, and we also discuss Einstein and Godel’s religious views. If those men were so brilliant and yet had some amount of belief in god, who are we to disagree?
Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem

AS241: Social Justice Commentary 2

Back by popular demand! I had almost universally positive answers when I asked listeners if I could get away with doing some more commentary on this. So I did! This time I’m getting more into the issues that I wasn’t able to last Thursday. I have a few links I said I’d post as well:

Boghossian Safe Space Tweet

Shirtstorm Explanation

SAE racist chant

Pro Trigger Warning List of Trigger Warnings

AS240: Social Justice Commentary

Well today’s the day I finally speak up after staying virtually silent for 3 episodes. I talk about some aspects of the Eli James debate and actually also explain some practical issues, like why I stayed virtually silent for 4 hours. There’s absolutely no way I can cover everything or even like half the things, but I picked a few highlights from each side to go over and give my opinions on.

AS238: Eli and James, Part 2

You guys know the drill. Two great minds squaring off on social justice and related topics. Here’s a nice long part 2 out of 3! If you’d like to hear part 3 early, you can always hop on over to Patreon and subscribe!

AS237: James Lindsay and Eli Bosnick on Social Justice

This is it! Something I’ve been trying to have happen for a long time! I’ve been critical of people on both sides of these issues only dealing with their respective echo chambers and never engaging, and I’ve wanted to be a better example for you guys for quite some time now. It has been very difficult to find the right people to have this debate. It can’t be one sided, it needs to be two people who are capable of defending their views. We’ve finally got that here, and all the credit goes to Eli and James for being willing to make this recording.

This is part 1 of a VERY lengthy 3 part debate. Each episode will be longer than a normal episode of my show. This could have easily been almost 5 parts long, but I really don’t want to alienate listeners who perhaps aren’t a huge fan of these issues, so I’ve condensed it as much as possible. If you are a patron, go to http://www.patreon.com/atheist and listen to the entire interview right now all in one file. As for what is covered, in part one the debate mainly focuses around safe spaces, but of course there’s so much to it so why try to summarize it here. Check it out!

Here are about a billion links referenced by James:

Social Work Trigger Point Crisis: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10437797.2016.1116850

Inside Higher Ed criticism of new culture: https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/04/25/new-diversity-requirements-umass-amherst-compel-speech-and-belief-essay#.Vx7m701o0ik.twitter

Magna Charta Universitarium, Preamble (1988): http://www.magna-charta.org/resources/files/the-magna-charta/english

Purpose of Higher Ed (and problems fulfilling it, mostly how universities have painted themselves into a corner with commercial models): http://evolllution.com/opinions/the-purpose-of-higher-education-to-create-prepared-minds/

American Psychological Association Monitor on Psychology on Trigger Warnings: http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/07-08/course-distress.aspx

Why Critics of Microagressions are Skeptical: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/why-critics-of-the-microaggressions-framework-are-skeptical/405106/

Shulevitz’s In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/opinion/sunday/judith-shulevitz-hiding-from-scary-ideas.html?_r=1

The New Intolerance of Student Activism: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-new-intolerance-of-student-activism-at-yale/414810/

Campuses Cannot Become One Big Safe Space: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-03-31/campuses-can-t-become-one-big-safe-space

Freedom of Individual Rights in Education summary of Yale Halloween controversy: https://www.thefire.org/yale-students-demand-resignations-from-faculty-members-over-halloween-email/

Yale’s Statement of Freedom of Expression: http://yalecollege.yale.edu/new-students/class-2019/academic-information/intro-undergrad-education/freedom-expression

On The Right Not to Be Triggered: http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/12/18/on-the-right-not-to-be-triggered/

Chronicle of Higher Ed, Treatment Not Trigger Warnings: http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2014/05/23/treatment-not-trigger-warnings/

National Institute of Medicine, Treatment of PTSD: An Assessment of the Evidence: http://www.nap.edu/read/11955/chapter/1

Is There a Research Basis for Trigger Warnings?: http://www.forensicpsychology.org/VeraldiVeraldiTriggerWarningsHandout.pdf

American Association of University Professors statement on trigger warnings: http://www.aaup.org/report/trigger-warnings

How Grown-Ups Deal with Microaggressions: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-11/how-grown-ups-deal-with-microaggressions-

Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind (unequivocally a must-read): http://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/0307455777

Sam Harris’s Waking Up Podcast with Jon Haidt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VshD1NcfUs4

Jon Haidt on viewpoint diversity in colleges: http://righteousmind.com/viewpoint-diversity/

Here are two links referenced by Eli (later on in the debate:

Amaerican College of Pediatricians

 

Amaerican Acadamy of Pediatricians

AS236: Originalism with Andrew Torrez

Back by popular demand is Andrew Torrez! Last time we talked about Scalia and originalism, this time we’re going to do that again but also touch on some surrounding issues. Prepare to learn a ton about why Scalia was even more annoying that you thought!

Check out his blog here.

AS235: Do We Live In A Simulation?

It’s an argument I’ve seen floating around multiple places lately. In the future, simulations of universes will surely outnumber the one regular universe. Therefore, it’s more likely we’re in a simulation! I think it’s actually a terrible argument and I talk about why.

Plus, more on the soccer team pay discrepency from last week, as I delved into a lot more sources on that. I also address some of the many comments on the gender pay gap I received.

Here’s a good article on the soccer teams.