Converging Dialogues

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Bruce Gordon about a history of the Bible. They discuss the origins of how the Bible formed in the 2nd Century, original audience of the Bible, Codex and canonization and how we got 66 books. They talk about original languages, the Bible as an icon and symbol, different ways of reading and interpreting the Bible, and the impact of the Gutenberg Press. They talk about the King James Bible (KJV), missions, global legacy, and many other topics.

Bruce Gordon is the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School at Yale University. He previously taught at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he was professor of modern history and deputy director of the St Andrews Reformation Studies Institute. His research and teaching focus on European religious cultures of the late-medieval and early modern periods, with a particular interest in the Reformation and its reception. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, The Bible: A Global History.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Renée DiResta about misinformation and digital delusions. They define misinformation and disinformation, rise of influencers, and incentive structures. They discuss audience capture, online ethical responsibilities, the Twitter files, election interference, and many other topics.

Renée DiResta is the former technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, a cross-disciplinary program of research, teaching, and policy engagement for the study of abuse in information technologies. Her work examines rumors and propaganda in the digital age. She has analyzed geopolitical campaigns created by foreign powers such as Russia, China, and Iran; voting‑ related rumors that led to the January 6 insurrection; and health misinformation and conspiracy theories pushed by domestic influencers. She is a contributor at The Atlantic. Her writing has appeared in Wired, Foreign Affairs, New York Times, Washington Post, Yale Review, The Guardian, POLITICO, as well as many academic journals. She is the author of the latest book, Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality.

Website: https://www.reneediresta.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Alice Driver about immigrants working at meatpacking factories. They discuss moral beauty in immigrants work, immigrants who work in meatpacking factories, and how the factories operate. They talk about onsite medical clinics, the Clintons relationship with Tyson Foods, and challenges during the pandemic. They discuss the class action lawsuit against Tyson Foods, future of the industry, and many more topics.

Alice Driver is a writer and author. She has her Masters and PhD in Hispanic Studies from the University of Kentucky. She has won many awards for her journalism and, in 2025, will be a Resident at the Bellagio Center. She is the author of the award-winning book, The Life and Death of the American Worker: The immigrants taking on America’s largest meatpacking company.

Website: https://www.alicedriver.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paul North and Paul Reitter about their new English translation of Karl Marx’s Capital I. They discuss their process editing and translation Capital I, the 2nd German edition and various English and French translations, and the motivations for Marx. They discuss Marx’s thought and Marx’s impact, his main thesis in Capital I, and some of the interactions with Hegel’s thought. They also talk about Marx’s labor theory of value, the enduring legacy of Marx, and many other topics.

Paul North is Chair and Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Yale University. He has his PhD in comparative literary studies (German Concentration) from Northwestern University. His main research areas are on Critical Theory, History of Philosophy, and European literature.

Paul Reitter is Professor in Germanic Languages and Literatures at The Ohio State University. He has his PhD in German Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. His main research areas are on Critical Theory, German-Jewish culture, and History of Higher Education.

They are the editors and translators of the new English translation of Karl Marx’s Capital I.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Marlene Laruelle about the rise of Illiberalism. They talk about liberalism, illiberalism, impact of immigration and socioeconomic issues, and the current and future state of the EU. They discuss Le Pen and far-right in France, Orban in Hungary, the AFD in Germany, and state of Central Eurasian countries. They talk about the Russian-Ukrainian war, motivations of Putin, propaganda, peace in Ukraine, illiberalism in the United States, and many other topics.

Marlene Laruelle is Research Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at The George Washington University, and Director of GW's Illiberalism Studies Program. Her main research interests are in populist and illiberal movements in post-Soviet Eurasia, Europe, and the US. Her research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia and nationhood construction in Central Asia, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions.

Website: https://marlene-laruelle.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Josephine Quinn about a 4,000 year history of the world. They discuss why “the West” is not an accurate or helpful framing, civilizational thinking, importance of sailing, and different people groups in one region. They also talked about the importance of ancient/isolated languages (i.e., Sumerian, Ugaritic), the Iberian regions absorbing elements of the Levant in the 2nd Millennium, invention of Greece, Rome and Byzantium, Crusades, the idea of “Europe,” moving away from civilizational thinking, and many more topics.

Josephine Quinn is currently Professor of Ancient History at Oxford University, and Martin Frederiksen Fellow and Tutor of Ancient History at Worcester College, Oxford. In January 2025, she will be Professor of Ancient History at Cambridge. She has her BA in Classics from Oxford, and an MA and PhD in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology from the University of California, Berkeley. Her main interests are in Mediterranean history and archaeology, with a particular interest in ancient North Africa. She is the author of, In Search of the Phoenicians and her latest book, How the World Made the West: A 4,000 Year History.

Website: https://josephinecrawleyquinn.wordpress.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lindsay Chervinsky about the presidency of John Adams. They provide an overview of Adams’s presidency, maintaining the cabinet, the XYZ affair, Alien and Sedition Acts, Fries Rebellion, replacing Pickering and McHenry, Election of 1800, legacy of Adams, and many more topics.

Lindsay M. Chervinsky a historian of the presidency, political culture, and the government. She is the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library. She obtained her PhD in history from the University of California, Davis and has been a fellow at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. She has also been a professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. She is the author of The Cabinet: George Washington and The Creation of An American Institution, co-editor (with Matthew R. Costello) of Mourning The Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture, and her latest, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic.

Website: https://www.lindsaychervinsky.com/

Substack: Imperfect Union

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Steven Mithen about the evolutionary history of language. They discuss the language puzzle, provide an overview of human evolution, importance of bipedalism, and fossil record gaps. They discuss different human species, how language works, origins and spread of different languages, and the physiology of speech. They also talk about the neurology of language, language evolving over time, language connected with thinking and emotions, future of language, and many other topics.

Steven Mithen is a Professor of Early Prehistory in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Reading. He has previously been Pro Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Reading. He has a BA (hons) in Prehistory & Archaeology from Sheffield University, an MSc in Biological Computation from York University, and a PhD in Archaeology from Cambridge University. He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2004. His main research areas are in Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene hunter-gatherers and evolution of the human mind. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, The Language Puzzle: Piecing Together the Six-Million-Year Story of How Words Evolved.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Benjamin Nathans about the Soviet dissident movement. They discuss how he complied all of the narratives together, why the Soviet dissident movement matters and how the Soviet legal system was used. They discuss civil disobedience vs. civil obedience, Alexander Volpin, Sinyavsky-Daniel affair, and what rights looked like in the Soviet Union. They talked about the makeup of the dissident movement, the Red Square demonstration, Initiative group, fifth directorate, Solzhenitsyn, other civil rights movements, legacy, and many more topics.

Benjamin Nathans is Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. His main focus areas are on Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, modern European Jewish history, history of human rights. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Brett Loyd on political polling. They discuss what polls can and cannot tell us, sample size, random sampling, flex quotas, weighting variables, and sample characteristics. They talk about question order and wording on polling surveys, phone and online polling, internal vs. external polling and national vs. state polls. They talk about how pollsters got the 2016 election wrong, characteristics of a Trump voter, and education level. They talk about the 2020 and 2022 elections, why there was no red wave in 2022, and reproductive rights. They discuss the 2024 election, battleground states, Harris’s challenges, contrast between Republican and Democratic tickets, and VP picks. They also talk about the 2024 Senate outlook, the House, how to read polls, and many more topics.

Brett Loyd is President and CEO of The Bullfinch Group and is leading researcher and campaign strategist. He has degrees in statistics and political science from Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. He has worked on presidential, senatorial, congressional, and gubernatorial campaigns; national political committees; and corporate and issue campaigns.

Website: https://www.thebullfinchgroup.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Isaac Nakhimovsky about the holy alliance. They discuss understanding current events through historical events, what is the holy alliance, “friend of mankind,” debates around the holy alliance, La Harpe and Czartoryski, Krug, Kant, and history of religion, league of nations, and the holy alliance today.

Isaac Nakhimovsky is Associate Professor of History and Humanities at Yale University. Previously, he was research fellow at Emmanuel College and the Faculty of History in the University of Cambridge. He received his PhD in Political Science from Harvard University. His research focuses on the history of political thought and on European debates about economic competition and international relations in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, The Holy Alliance: Liberalism and the Politics of Federation.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Elizabeth Saunders on elites dictating foreign policy. They discuss negative public opinion, the elites comprised of military, administration, and legislators, and the differences with hawks and doves. They talk about McNamara and LBJ in Vietnam, Truman, Korea, and Taiwan, and Bush in Afghanistan and Iraq. They also discuss Obama on Syria, future insider’s games, and many more topics.

Elizabeth Saunders is Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. She previously taught in the School of Foreign Service and the Director of the Mortara Center for International Studies, as well as a core faculty member in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. She is also a non-resident senior fellow at Brookings Institution. Her main interests focus on the domestic politics of international relations and US foreign policy, especially the role of leaders, the presidency, and the politics of using force. She is the author of two books, including the most recent book, The Insiders’ Game: How Elites Make War and Peace.

Website: https://profsaunders.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Arik Kershenbaum about why and how animals communicate with each other. They discuss the differences between language and communication in animals, respectfully communicating with animals, and the six animals he studied for communication. They talk about howling in wolves, clicks in dolphins, comprehension in parrots, singing in the hyrax and gibbons, chimps, humans, and many more topics.

Arik Kershenbaum is a zoologist and College Lecturer at Girton College, University of Cambridge and is formerly Herchel Smith Research Fellow in Zoology at the University of Cambridge. He has his Bachelors in Natural Sciences from University of Cambridge and his PhD in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology from the University of Haifa, Israel. His main research interests are in the acoustic communication systems in different animals. He is the author of the latest book, Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication.

Website: https://arikkershenbaum.wixsite.com/arikkershenbaum

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nick Romeo on different and alternative economies. They talked about reimagining capitalism, improving economic pedagogy in academia, True Price, a living wage, and Job Guarantee program. They discuss the gig economy, purpose economy, scaling alternative economies, and many more topics.

Nick Romeo is a Journalist and Author who has focused his writing on economics, policy, and culture. Currently, he is a writer for The New Yorker and has written pieces in outlets such as The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The New Republic. He is the author of the latest book, The Alternative: How To Build A Just Economy.

Website: https://www.nickromeowriter.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with B. Rosemary Grant on her life and work on genetics and evolutionary change. They discuss an overview of her life and research, her childhood and being raised in England in WWII, her interest in genetics, and moving to Canada and meeting her husband. They discuss how she balanced raising a family and her career, her work over 40 years in the Galapagos Islands, retirement and continued research, her legacy, and many other topics.

B. Rosemary Grant is an evolutionary biologist and Emeritus Professor at Princeton University. Her research focuses on phenotypic variation and the process of speciation in natural environments. She is well-known for the research done with her husband (Peter Grant) on Darwin’s Finches on the Galapagos Islands for over 40 years. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society and received many awards for her research. She is the author numerous books, including her recent memoir, One Step Sideways, Three Steps Forward: One Woman’s Path to Becoming a Biologist.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Anthony Sattin about the history of Nomads on our planet. They discuss humans as naturally nomadic, Göbekli Tepe, Çatalhöyük and early settlements, Uruk and the epic of Gilgamesh, and domestication of horses. They talk about the Persian empire, Scythian empire, and nomadic identity. They discuss the impact of Islam, Chinggis Khan and the Mongol empire, Ottoman empire, Native Americans, future of nomads, and many more topics.

Anthony Sattin is a writer and broadcaster who has written a fiction and non-fiction works. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, editorial advisor on Geographical Magazine, founder-member of Travel Intelligence and ASTENE (the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East). He is the author of the latest book, Nomads: The Wanderers who Shaped our World.

Website: https://www.anthonysattin.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Adam Forrest Kay about the history and current state of quantum mechanics. They discuss the current state of quantum mechanics, overview of modern physics, and the impact of Niels Bohr. They also talk about light and vision, double slit experiment, Fourier analysis, Schrödinger’s equation, Bell’s theorem, and many other topics.

Adam Forrest Kay is a postdoctoral associate in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has two PhDs, one in literature from the University of Cambridge and the other in Mathematics from the University of Oxford. His interests and research have centered around Hydrodynamic Quantum Analogies (HQA), quantum mechanics, relativity theory, and variable coefficient wave equations. He is the author of, Escape From Shadow Physics: The quest to end the dark ages of quantum theory.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kenneth Harl about the various nomadic empires of the steppes. They discuss the origins of nomadic peoples, Tocharian texts, and why language is essential for understanding nomadic peoples. They talk about the Turkish language, nomadic spread over 35 centuries, the Steppe, and nomadic identity. They discuss the Scythians, impact of China, Kublai Khan, Uyghurs, administrative might of the Mongols, Orkhon valley and Mongolia, legacy of the Nomadic peoples, and many more topics.

Kenneth Harl is Professor Emeritus of Classical and Byzantine history at Tulane University. He has his Bachelors in history from Trinity College, Masters in history from Yale University, and PhD in history from Yale University. He specializes in ancient history, specifically in classical Anatolia and on Imperial Roman Coinage. He is the author of many books including, Empires of the Steppes: A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilization.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Alexandre Lefebvre about the many facets of liberalism. They discuss morals and values from liberalism, Christianity’s impact on liberalism and Western society, defining liberalism, and the differences between liberalism and conservatism. They also talk about the philosophy of Rawls, swearing, fairness, spiritual exercises, public dialogue, liberalism as a way of life, and many more topics.

Alexandre Lefebvre is Professor of Politics and Philosophy at The University of Sydney. He has his PhD from Johns Hopkins University and his teaching and his research are in political theory, the history of political thought, modern and contemporary French philosophy, and human rights. He is the author of the latest book, Liberalism As A Way Of Life.

Website: https://www.alexlefebvre.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a conversation with Michael Cook about the history of the Muslim world. They discuss Islamic civilization from origins to modernity, early antecedents before Islam, genesis of Islam, and the Prophet Muhammad and his creation of a monotheistic religion and state. They discuss succession after the death of Muhammad and the caliphate, the Umayyid dynasty, the Abbasid dynasty, and how important Islam and the Arabic language were for an Islamic civilization. They talk about the origin of the Turks, Bilga Qaghan, Turks being pagan and interacting with Islam, and the three ways the Turks spread out of the Steppe. They discuss the Mongols and their relationship with Islam, the Seljuk dynasty, the Safawid dynasty and the impact of Shiism. They also talk about the Ottoman Empire and their administration and integration of other cultures. They discuss the spread of Islam into India by conquest and merchants, Islam in Southeast Asia and around the Indian Ocean, Sahara and central Africa, and conflict between Christians and Muslims in Ethiopia. They also discuss Arab identity, Islam’s spread through conquest, Islam juxtaposed with other religions and cultures, Islam in the modern period, future of Islam, and many other topics.

Michael Cook is the Class of 1943 University Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He was educated at Cambridge studying English and European history and learned Turkish and Persian. He was also educated at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London, emphasizing research into Ottoman population history in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He spent many years teaching and researching Islamic history at the School of Oriental and African Studies. He is the author of numerous books, including the most recent book, A History of the Muslim World: From its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Tom Chivers about Bayesian probability and the impact Bayesian priors have on ourselves. They define Bayesian priors, Thomas Bayes, subjective aspects of Bayes theorem, and the problematic elements of statistical figures such as Galton, Pearson, and Fisher. They talk about the replication crisis, p-hacking, where priors come from, AI, Friston’s free energy principle, and Bayesian priors in our world today.

Tom Chivers is a science writer. He does freelance science writing and also writes for Semafor.com’s daily Flagship email. Before joining Semafor, he was a science editor at UnHerd, science writer for BuzzFeed UK, and features writer for the Telegraph. He is the author of several books including the most recent, Everything Is Predictable: How Bayesian Statistics Explain Our World.

Website: https://tomchivers.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Thomas Cech about RNA as a major catalyst in organic systems. They discuss why RNA does not get discussed as much as DNA, basics of DNA, RNA as a catalyst, and the splicing capabilities of RNA. They also talk about transcription, translation, and splicing, RNA as internal catalyst and external catalyst, and the origins of life. They talk about telomeres and extended life, different types of RNA, mRNA vaccines, CRISPR, and many more topics.

Thomas Cech is distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He has been an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) since 1988 and was President of HHMI in 2000-2009. He has his PhD from the University of California-Berkeley and completed his postdoctorate at MIT. His main interests are in RNA and telomeres. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (with Sidney Altman) in 1989 and the National Medal of Science in 1995. He is the author of the latest book, The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Wendy Pearlman about the voices from the new Syrian Diaspora. They discuss the various reasons for telling Syrian stories, protests around the world, the ongoing Syrian conflict, concept of home and internal displacement. They also talked about leaving Syria and rebuilding elsewhere, maintaining culture, future of the Syrian diaspora, and many other topics.

Wendy Pearlman is Crown Professor of Middle East Studies and Interim Director of Middle East and North Africa Studies Program at Northwestern University. Her main interests are comparative politics of the Middle East. She has her Bachelors from Brown University and her PhD from Harvard University. She is the author of numerous books, including the most recent, The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the new Syrian Diaspora.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Eugene Rogan about the 1860 Damascus massacre. They discuss why the 1860 Damascus massacre is still relevant, relationship between Egypt and the Ottomans, Mishaqa as US Vice-Consulate in Damascus, Ottoman Tanzimat Reforms, Druzes and Maronites with rising tensions in Lebanon and Damascus. They also talk about al-Qadir’s influential role, events about the Damascus massacre, defining genocide, aftermath of the massacre, rebuilding Damascus, impact on the modern Middle East, and many more topics.

Eugene Rogan is Professor of modern Middle Eastern History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. He has a Bachelors in economics from Columbia University and Masters and PhD in Middle Eastern history from Harvard. His main interests are the Arab world from the 18th to 20th century. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Making of the Modern Middle East.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Maxwell Stearns about potential changes to the Constitution. They discuss the general narrative about the US Constitution, overview of his proposed reforms, third parties as spoilers, generational shifting of parties, and history of political parties in the 19th century. They also talked about positive vs. negative rights, gerrymandering, Germany’s Mixed Member Proportionality, problems with ranked choice voting, and many more topics.

Maxwell Stearns is Venable, Baetjer & Howard Professor of Law at the Francis King Carey School of Law at the University of Maryland. His main interests are in Constitutional law and law & economics. He has his Bachelors from the University of Pennsylvania and his JD from the University of Virginia. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, Parliamentary America: The Least Radical Means of Radically Repairing Our Broken Democracy.

Website: https://www.blindspotblog.us/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Aziz Rana about the failures of the US Constitution. They discuss the timeframe of 1887-1987, why people resist criticisms of the US Constitution, and creedal constitutionalism. They discuss the positive aspects of the Constitution, empire settlerism and the US state in post-reconstruction era. They discuss the Socialist Party of America, WWI and pro-constitutionalism, the New Deal, and government elites post WWII. They talk about justices with more authority over the Constitutionalism, originalism, Black Panther movement, the future of the Constitution, and many other topics.

Aziz Rana is professor of Law at Boston College Law School where his main interests are American Constitutional law and political development. He has his Bachelors from Harvard College, JD from Yale Law School, and PhD in political science from Harvard University. He has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Law and Political Economy Project. He is the author of the latest book, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans came to idolize a document that fails them.

Website: https://www.azizrana.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lynn Tesser about the various ways of thinking about empire. They discuss moving from empire to nation states, define nationalism vs. nation states, and sovereignty and modular nationalism. They talk about rebellions in the Americas as being more mixed, the Greek revolution as performed by elites, the Balkans and Anatolia in the post-Ottoman period, Armenia, empire today, and many more topics.

Lynn Tesser is an Associate Professor of International Relations at Marine Corps University with a focus on comparative politics, international relations, and history. She has Bachelors in political science from Reed College and her Masters and PhD in political science from the University of Chicago. She has received fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, Fulbright Commission, and the MacArthur and Mellon Foundations. She was a Visiting Fellow at the European University Institute (2019), a Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki’s Aleksanteri Institute for Russian and Eastern European Studies (2011), and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the International University of Sarajevo (2008-10) as well as at the American University, Girne-Cyprus (2011-12). She is the author of her latest book, Rethinking the End of Empire: Nationalism, State Formation, and Great Power Politics.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Batja Mesquita about the impact of culture on emotions. The discuss the distinctions between emotions, feelings, and affect, universalist vs. social constructionist theories, and the expression of emotions. They discuss the MINE vs. OURS framework, emotions in other cultures, shame and how it presents differently in other countries, emotionally acculturating to a new environment, and many other topics.

Batja Mesqutia is a is a social psychologist, an affective scientist, and a pioneer of cultural psychology. She is a professor of psychology at the University of Leuven, Belgium, and director of the Center for Social and Cultural Psychology at the University of Leuven. Previously, she was affiliated to Wake Forest University, the University of Michigan, Stanford University, and the University of Amsterdam. Mesquita is one of the world’s leading authorities on the psychological study of cultural differences in emotions. Her most recent research focuses on the role of emotions in multicultural societies. She studies how emotions affect the belonging of minorities in middle schools, and the social and economic integration of “newcomers” (i.e. newly arrived immigrants). She has been a consultant for UNICEF and the WHO, and most recently, she was a member of the core group of scientific advisors for the Happiness and Well-being (SEH) Project, and initiative of the Vatican in partnership with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). She is the author of the book, Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions.

Website: https://www.batjamesquita.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Natalie Foster about the guarantee framework for economic stability for all Americans. They discuss what is the guarantee and why government involvement is essential, FDR and basic rights, the rise of neoliberal and neoconservative policies, and the features of the guarantee over the past 15 years. They discuss the importance of community organizing, the great recession and bank bailouts, the rise of right-wing and left-wing populism, debt and inflation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the future of the guarantee framework.

Natalie Foster is the President and co-founder of the Economic Security Project and a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute Future of Work Initiative. Previously, she was the CEO and co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, a platform for people–driven economic change, with Van Jones. She served as digital director for President Obama’s Organizing for America (OFA) and the Democratic National Committee. She built the first digital department at the Sierra Club and served as the deputy organizing director for MoveOn.org. She’s been awarded fellowships at the Institute for the Future, Rockwood Leadership Institute and New America California, and is a board member of the California Budget and Policy Center, the Change.org global foundation and Liberation in a Generation, a project to close the racial wealth gap. She is the author of the latest book, The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy.

Website: https://nataliefoster.me/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Tricia Rose about systemic racism in the United States. They discuss why and how racism persists, how it looks different from decades past, and how it evolves in institutions. They define metaracism, discuss individuals vs. institutions, understanding systems theory, colorblindness, and many more topics.

Tricia Rose is Chancellor’s Professor of Africana Studies, Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives, and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. She has her Bachelors in Sociology from Yale and her PhD in American Studies from Brown University. She has received numerous scholarly fellowships including from the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Mellon Foundation and the American Association of University Women. She is the author of the latest book, Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives—And How We break Free.

Website: https://www.triciarose.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robert Merry about the Presidency of James Polk. They give and overview of James Polk, influence of Andrew Jackson, Polk’s personality and trajectory, and the four major issues he tackled as President. They discuss Polk’s expansionism, the Mexican-American War, Polk’s one-term deal, legacy, and many more topics.

Robert W. Merry has an extensive background as a reporter, newsroom manager, and publishing CEO. He has both his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Journalism. Currently, he is the author of numerous books on American history and foreign policy, including, A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent.

Website: https://www.robertwmerry.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Alex Edmans about misinformation and the role of human biases. They discuss how to look at data, confirmation bias, statements not facts, facts not data, and the value and limits of the scientific method. They also discuss data mining and ethics with stats, correlation not being causation, data with social issues, and many more topics.

Alex Edmans is Professor of Professor of Finance at London Business School. He has a degree from Oxford University and a PhD in Finance from MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar. Prior to teaching at LBS, he taught at Wharton and became tenured in 2013. He is a Director of the American Finance Association, Vice President-Elect of the Western Finance Association, Fellow, Director, and Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Financial Management Association, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. From 2017-2022, he was Managing Editor of the Review of Finance, the leading academic finance journal in Europe. 

Alex’s research interests are in corporate finance, responsible business and behavioral finance.  He is a Director of the American Finance Association, Vice President-Elect of the Western Finance Association, Fellow, Director, and Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Financial Management Association, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. From 2017-2022 he was Managing Editor of the Review of Finance, the leading academic finance journal in Europe. 

Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, presented to the World Bank Board of Directors as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, and given the TED talk What to Trust in a Post-Truth World and the TEDx talks The Pie-Growing Mindset and The Social Responsibility of Business. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review and World Economic Forum and been interviewed by Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, Fox, ITV, NPR, Reuters, Sky News, and Sky Sports. He is the author of the latest book, May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases – And What We Can Do About It.

Website: https://alexedmans.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Stephanie Ternullo about the political shift from liberal to conservative in the American heartland over the 20th century. They discuss how she constructed her study, makeup of the three Midwest cities used in the study, New Deal coalition, place-based partisanship, role of unions, and many more topics.

Stephanie Ternullo is Assistant Professor in Government at Harvard University. She has her PhD in Sociology from the University of Chicago. Her research uses multiple methods to explore the bidirectional relationship between place and politics – both how politics shape places, and how places shape political identity and behavior. She is the author of the book, How the Heartland Went Red: Why Local Forces Matter in an Age of Nationalized Politics.

Website: https://stephanieternullo.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paco Calvo about the intelligence of plants. They discuss plant blindness, plant intelligence, sun tracking and internal representations, predictive processing, and what is it like to be a plant. They discuss domesticated and wild plants, time, individuality of plants, ethics, and many more topics.

Paco Calvo is a cognitive scientist and philosopher of biology, known for his groundbreaking research in the field of plant cognition and intelligence. He is a professor at the University of Murcia in Spain, where he leads the Minimal Intelligence Lab (MINT Lab), focusing on the study of minimal cognition in plants. Calvo’s interdisciplinary work combines insights from biology, philosophy, and cognitive science to explore the fascinating world of plant behavior, decision-making, and problem-solving. He is the author of the book (with Natalie Lawrence), Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence.

Website: https://www.um.es/mintlab/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Andrew Boryga about his novel on victimhood. They discuss how he approaches writing novels vs. non-fiction pieces, choosing themes for the novel, personal influence on fictional characters, evolution of characters, and using tragedy and victimhood for clout. They also discuss dealing with social justice themes, shaped by environment, stereotypes, talking about experiences honestly, and many more topics.

Andrew Boryga is a writer, editor, and author who’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The Daily Beast, and many other outlets. He has also taught fiction and non-fiction writing to elementary school students, college students, and incarcerated men in Florida. He is the author of the new novel, Victim.

Website: https://www.andrewboryga.com/

Substack: Andrew Boryga

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Cole Bunzel about the Islamic branch of Wahhābism. They talk about the current landscape of Wahhābism, extreme and non-extreme uses of Wahhābism and some of the differences between terrorists groups that use Wahhābism. They discuss Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and how he started a movement, modeling himself after the Prophet Muhammad, being against polytheism and the cult of saints, and why Wahhābism was designed to be aggressive. They discuss the critics of Wahhābism, role of Sufism, major doctrines, three Saudi states, legacy of Wahhābism, and many other topics.

Cole Bunzel is a historian and fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He studies the history and contemporary affairs of the Islamic Middle East, with a particular focus on violent Islamism and the Arabian Peninsula. He has his MA in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and his BA and PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. He has been a research fellow in Islamic law and civilization at the Yale Law School, and is a nonresident fellow at the George Washington University Program on Extremism. He is the editor of the blog Jihadica and has written widely on the ideology of Sunni jihadism, including his most recent book, Wahhābism: The History of A Militant Islamic Movement.

Twitter: @colebunzel

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with James Marcus about the life and work of Ralph Waldo Emerson. They discuss how the book is formed and how themes are pulled from Emerson’s life, his religious background and relationship with religion over his lifetime, unitarianism, and when do we find our identity. They talk about first and second marriages, self-reliance and individualism, nature, slavery, his legacy, and many more topics.

James Marcus is an editor, translator, critic and writer. He was editor-in-chief at Harper’s Magazine and worked at Columbia Journalism Review. He is the author of the latest book, Glad to the Brink of Fear: A Portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Twitter: @jamesamarcus

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with James Traub about Hubert Humphrey. They define liberalism, background and context of Humphrey and his internal motivations, how he governed as mayor in Minneapolis, and how he was a liberal and a progressive. They talk about his time as a U.S. Senator, a cold war liberal, and his relationship with Lyndon Johnson. They discuss Humphrey’s foreign affairs work, his time as Vice President of the U.S., Senate years post-Vice Presidency, legacy of Humphrey, and many more topics.

James Traub is a journalist and scholar specializing in international affairs. He is a columnist and contributor to the website foreignpolicy.com. He worked as a staff writer for The New Yorker from 1993 to 1998 and as a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine from 1998 to 2011. He has also written extensively about national politics, urban affairs, and education. He has written many books, including the most recent, True Believer: Hubert Humphrey’s Quest For A More Just America. He teaches classes on American foreign policy and on the history of liberalism at NYU Abu Dhabi and at NYU. He is a fellow of the Center on International Cooperation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Website: https://www.traubjames.com/

Substack: James Traub

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Michèle Lamont about recognition and interpersonal dynamics. They define recognition and worth, the three avenues of building recognition and ordinary universalism, and what blocks change. They talk about inequality, individualism/collectivism, and challenges of the American dream. They also discuss using media, role of institutions, how we can recognize others, and many more topics.

Michèle Lamont is Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies and the Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies at Harvard University. An influential cultural sociologist who studies boundaries and inequality, she has tackled topics such as dignity, respect, stigma, racism, class and racial boundaries, and how we evaluate social worth across societies. She served as President of the American Sociological Association in 2016, was a Carnegie Fellow in 2021-2022, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Royal Society of Canada, and the British Academy. She is the author of numerous books, including her most recent, her most recent book is Seeing Others: How Recognition Works and How It Can Heal a Divided World.

Website: https://www.michelelamont.org/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with S. Frederick Starr about the lives and work of Ibn Sina and Biruni. They discuss who were Ibn Sina and Biruni, their time and context, and the correspondence between Ibn Sina and Biruni. They discuss their interactions in the Muslim world, Ibn Sina as vizier, the canon of Ibn Sina and the canon of Biruni. They also discuss work post-canon, how their works were preserved, legacy of both thinkers, and many more topics.

S. Frederick Starr is the founding chairman of the Central Asia -Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program, a joint transatlantic research and policy center affiliated with the American Foreign Policy Institute (AFPC) in Washington and the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Stockholm. Dr. Starr is Distinguished Fellow for Eurasia at AFPC. 

Starr is author of the widely acclaimed Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. In this book on the history of the region between the 8th and 11th centuries, he argues that Central Asia was the center of the world. Lost Enlightenment has been translated into 20 languages, and received widespread praise by regional leaders, including Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. 

Starr has focused on the challenge of reopening continental-wide transport passing through Central Asia and Afghanistan. This issue was the subject of a series of articles between 2000 and 2008 and of a book, The New Silk Roads, published in 2007.  He is a frequent commentator on the affairs of the region, and the author of numerous articles in journals including Foreign Affairs and op-eds in various leading American and international newspapers. 

Starr was the founding Chairman of the Kennan Institute in Washington, and served as Vice President of Tulane University and President of Oberlin College (1983-94).  He was closely involved in planning the University of Central Asia and the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy and is a trustee of the Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan.  He earned his PhD in History at Princeton, MA at King’s College, Cambridge, and his BA at Yale, and holds five honorary degrees. Starr is also a founding member of the Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble of New Orleans and founded the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the single largest non-governmental sponsor of post-Katrina recovery in that city. He has written four books on New Orleans, including New Orleans Unmasqued, Southern Comfort, and Inventing New Orleans: The Writings of Lafcadio Hearn.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Clay Routledge about nostalgia. They define nostalgia, nostalgia being forward thinking, nostalgia with positive and negative memories, and the downsides of nostalgia in pop culture. They discuss nostalgia with self-concept, self-continuity, and self-esteem, nostaglia for understanding existential anxiety and death, best ways to use nostalgia, and many more topics.

Clay Routledge is an existential psychologist, writer, and consultant. He is Vice President of Research and Director of the Human Flourishing Lab at Archbridge Institute and co-editor of Profectus, a magazine on human progress and flourishing.  He has published more than 100 academic papers, co-edited three books, authored three books, and received numerous awards for his scholarly research and student mentorship. He is the author of his most recent book, Past Forward.

Website: https://www.clayroutledge.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lisa Bortolotti about delusions. They talk about why we should think about delusions, delusions as emotional and rational beliefs, defining delusions, clinical and non-clinical delusions, and why we believe delusions. They talk about when delusions cause harm, can people change their delusional beliefs, and many more topics.

Lisa Bortolotti is a philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham. She is Editor in Chief of Philosophical Psychology. She has her PhD in philosophy and her main interests are in philosophy of science, irrational beliefs, and epistemic injustice.

Website: https://lisabortolotti.blogspot.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Ajit Varki about the evolutionary origins of denial and self-deception. They discuss the evolutionary perspective of human origins, self-awareness in humans, theory of mind, and how false beliefs and denial evolved. They also discuss lying, self-deception, religion, positive uses of deception, climate change, future of Mind Over Reality theory, and many more topics.

Ajit Varki received training in physiology, medicine, biology, and biochemistry at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, The University of Nebraska, Omaha, and Washington University, St. Louis. He was trained and board-certified in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology. He joined the faculty of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 1982.Dr. Varki is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, American Society for Clinical Investigation, Association of American Physicians, and of Sigma Xi. He has been a recipient of a MERIT award from the NIH, the American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award, as well as three of the highest honors in the field: the Karl Meyer Award (2005), the International Glycoconjugate Organization Award (2007), the Rosalind Kornfeld Award for Lifetime Achievement in Glycobiology (2020), and the ASBMB Herbert Tabor Research Award (2023). He was also elected President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (1998–1999), President of the Society for Glycobiology (1996) and served Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Investigation (1992–1997). He is  recognized for creating the first major open access research journal, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, JCI (1996), as well as the first major open access textbook, Essentials of Glycobiology (2008). Dr. Varki was honored with the Old Cottonian of Eminence Award at the 150th Anniversary of Bishop Cotton Boy's School in Bangalore, India (2015) and he was also honored with the Annual Research Day Distinguished Faculty Medal and Oration at his medical school alma mater, the Christian Medical College, Vellore, India (2020). Dr. Varki's interests in human evolution also led him to propose a novel Mind Over Reality Transition theory about human origins, in the book, Denial.

Link to paper: https://cmm.ucsd.edu/research/labs/varki/_files/publications/b200.pdf

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Sima Samar about her life and work for women’s rights. They discuss her reasoning for writing her memoirs, history of modern Afghanistan, impact of Islam, and the rule of the Taliban. They talk about her work in medicine and human rights advocacy, women’s rights in Afghanistan, becoming Vice President and Minister of Women’s Affairs of Afghanistan. They also discuss her work on the human rights commission, being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, women’s rights around the world, the future of Afghanistan, and many more topics.

Sima Samar is a human rights advocate, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and global influential female figure. She received her MD from Kabul University Medical College. Since 2002 she has been the Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) which holds human rights violators accountable and sets the human rights agenda in Afghanistan. She is also the Chairperson of the Commission for the Prevention of Torture and was the Chairperson of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF).

Prior to her appointment as the chair of AIHRC, she was the Vice President of the Interim Administration of Afghanistan and the first Minister of Women’s Affairs. She served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Sudan between 2005 and 2009 and has been appointed as a member of the United Nation’s Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation. Samar also served as member of High Level Panel for Internal Displacement.

Her commitment to her community is evident through her NGO Shuhada Organization’s work in operating 55 middle and high schools for girls and boys in Afghanistan, and three schools in Quetta, Pakistan for Afghan refugees. In addition to this Shuhada operates 12 clinics and three hospitals in Afghanistan and one hospital in Quetta for refugees, dedicated to providing education and healthcare, particularly focusing on women and girls.

Website: https://shuhada.org.af/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Peter Kramer about Prozac. They talk about the 30th anniversary of Listening To Prozac and antidepressants, origins of antidepressants, classes of antidepressants, selfhood, criticisms of SSRIs and the serotonin hypothesis, risk of suicide with Prozac, future of SSRIs, and more more topics.

Peter Kramer is a psychiatrist who practiced and taught psychiatry for over 40 years. He is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University. He has done extensive research on depression and anti-depressants. He is the author of numerous books including the bestseller, Listening to Prozac.

Website: https://www.peterdkramer.com/

Twitter: @peterdkramer

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Stefanos Geroulanos about the history of prehistory. They talk about why studying history is important and why it is not final, the emphasis on the nature of man, why Rousseau and Hobbes’ ideas still persist, human nature and equality, and the impact of Darwin. They also talk about the impact of Marx, Neanderthals, thin veneer, and the instincts, Freud’s contribution, Nazi party, how we continue to understand history, and many more topics.

Stefanos Geroulanos is Director of the Remarque Institute and a professor of history at New York University. He has his BA from Princeton and his PhD from Johns Hopkins. From 2015-2017, he was Director of the Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences at NYU. His research focuses on histories of the concepts that weave together understanding of the human, of time, and of the body. He has written many books, including the most recent book, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins.

Website: https://www.stefanos-geroulanos.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jorell Meléndez Badillo about the history of Puerto Rico. They talk about the origins of the island of Puerto Rico, Taino peoples, reasons for Columbus coming to Puerto Rico, and indigenous peoples fighting back. They talk about enslaved peoples in the mid 16th century, origins of the term “Puertorriqueños,” impact of race and colorism, and hardship in Puerto Rico in the 19th century. They discuss the Lares revolution, coming to New York, Spanish-American war and the United States acquiring Puerto Rico, cultural shifts from Spanish colony to American colony, the great migration in the mid 20th century, history of parties, status of Puerto Rico, and the future of Puerto Rico.

Jorell Meléndez Badillo is a historian of Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, and Latin America. He is currently Assistant Professor of Latin American and Caribbean History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before arriving at UW-Madison, he was a Mellon Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor of History at Dartmouth College. His work focuses on the global circulation of radical ideas from the standpoint of working-class intellectual communities. He is the author of the book, Puerto Rico: A Natural History.

Website: https://www.jorellmelendezbadillo.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Elizabeth Barnes about the ideas surrounding health. They discuss why we care about health and how we define health, social impact of health, and discussing health publicly. They also talk about shame and stigma with health, disability and health differences, ameliorative skepticism, and many more topics.

Elizabeth Barnes is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia. Her research interests are divided between metaphysics, political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and ethics. She has written a handful books, including her most recent book, Health Problems.

Website: https://elizabethbarnesphilosophy.weebly.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Christian Madsbjerg about perception in the world. They discuss why perception and observation are important, the work of Merleau-Ponty, perception being reality, and intersubjectivity. They discuss the role of the body in phenomenology, phenomenology of space, the “other,” practical ways of paying attention in the world, and many more topics.

Christian Madsbjerg is an author, entrepreneur, and academic who focuses on the practical and commercial application of the Human Sciences. He is the co-founder of the global consulting firm Red Associates which addressing strategy questions through empirical, organized observations of the human world. He also serves as the Chairman of the Board at the world-class architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group, holds a non-executive director position at Fritz Hansen A/S, is an independent Director and Chair of the Nomination and Governance Committee at The Metals Company (Nasdaq: TMC), and is a member of the US board of Kvadrat A/S. He also serves as a director of the Revs Institute, a design museum and research institute. He has held the Professor of Applied Humanities position at The New School in New York City. He is the author of several books, including the most recent book, Look: How to Pay Attention in a Distracted World.

Website: https://madsbjerg.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Helen De Cruz about wonder and awe. They define awe and wonder as distinct emotions, awe in other animals, social and cultural aspects of awe, and philosophy being born in wonder. They discuss the history of awe and wonder from ancient Greece to the Enlightenment, theories of emotions, magic and wonder, religion and wonder, Merleau-Ponty and habits, spiritual naturalism, and many more topics.

Helen De Cruz holds the Danforth Chair in the Humanities at Saint Louis University. She holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Groningen and a PhD in archaeology and art sciences from the Free University of Brussels. Her work examines why and how humans engage in pursuits that seem remote from the immediate concerns of survival and reproduction, such as theology, mathematics, and science. She is the author of many books including the most recent, Wonderstruck: How Awe and Wonder Shape the Way We Think.

Website: https://helendecruz.net/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Katlyn Carter about the origins of the United States during the revolutionary period. They discuss the concern about secrecy and transparency in government, representative government and representative democracy, pros and cons of democracy, and how democracy is different from 1776. They also talk about shifting from colonies to states, reasons for secrecy in the founding, comparisons with France, Madison’s speed bumps for democracy, how we see transparency now in government, and many more topics.

Katlyn Carter is a historian and Assistant Professor in History at the University of Notre Dame. Her research focuses on the origins of modern representative democracy through the study of political practices and institutions. She has a Bachelors in History from the University of California, Berkeley and a PhD in History from Princeton University. She is the author of, Democracy In Darkness: Secrecy and Transparency in the Age of Revolutions.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robin Lane Fox about Homer and his Iliad. They discuss how to best read the Iliad, structure of the poem, and the use of speeches, language, and movement. They talk about the location of Troy, Homer’s authorship, Homer’s description of the Trojan war, Homer’s illiteracy, Iliad’s transcription, genius of Homer, and many more topics.

Robin Lane Fox is a historian and Emeritus Fellow of New College, Oxford, and taught Ancient History at Oxford University from 1977 to 2014. He has taught on Greek and Latin literature and Islamic history for many years. He has written many books on classical history, including his most recent book, Homer and His Iliad.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla and Michael Callahan have a discussion about their respective podcasts. They discuss why they decided to do this crossover episode, how Converging Dialogues started, how Where We Go Next started, and how they treat guests. They discuss their process for asking questions, motivations for interviews, importance of active listening, their process for each episode, legacy of the podcast, and many more topics.

Where We Go Next is a podcast focused on in-depth conversations with the people changing the ways we think, create, and live. Host Michael Callahan engages with visionary founders, best-selling writers, award-winning journalists, acclaimed educators, and innovative artists.

Website: https://wherewegonext.com/

Instagram: @wwgnpodcast

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Tara Palmeri about the 2024 US Presidential election. They discuss why there is rematch of the 2020 US Presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, Biden’s challengers, Biden’s age, and the Democrats “bench.” They talk about feelings mattering more than policy, immigration, predictions, and many more topics.

Tara Palmeri is a Senior political correspondent at Puck and host of the Ringer’s election podcast, “Somebody’s Gotta Win.” Previously, she has worked as a journalist for Politico and ABC News.

Twitter: @tarapalmeri

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jeffrey Rosen about the impact of Classical Writers on the founding fathers. They discuss why studying the influences of the founding fathers is important, pursuit of happiness, Franklin and the impact of Pythagoras, Adams on humility, and Jefferson as a complicated figure. They discuss Washington’s self-mastery, Hamilton and Madison on moderation, and many more topics.

Jeffrey Rosen is President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, where he hosts We the People, a weekly podcast of constitutional debate. He is also a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. Rosen is a graduate of Harvard College, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. His essays and commentaries have appeared in The New York Times Magazine; on NPR; in The New Republic, where he was the legal affairs editor; and in The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer. He is the author of seven previous books, including the most recent book, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Christopher Liddell about the five-year presidency. They discuss what is year zero and why presidential transitions are important, filling the government, and design, plan, and execution phases of year zero. They discuss the Romney transition, Trump transition, and Biden transition, standardization and flexibility with different presidents, Office of POTUS, first 200 days, the 2024 Presidential election, and many more topics.

Christopher Liddell has held senior roles in politics, the private sector, and philanthropy. He was White House Deputy Chief of Staff during the Trump Administration, and has been involved in three presidential transition cycles, including the White House operational head of transition to the Biden Administration, where he played a key role. In the private sector, he has been Chief Financial Officer of several major companies, including Microsoft and General Motors. He is also active in philanthropic projects, having been Chairman of New Zealand’s largest foundation focused on environmental preservation. He graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering from Auckland University and a Master of Philosophy from the University of Oxford. He is the author of the book, Year Zero: The Five-Year Presidency.

Website: https://chrisliddell.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with György Buzsaki about the inside out framework of the brain. They discuss the outside-in vs. inside-out framework for understanding the brain, causation as problematic for self-organizing systems, and perception and action on thought. They mention the Bayesian brain model, reinforcement and reward, brain systems and neural syntax, space and time within the hippocampus, the future of using the inside-out framework, and many more topics.

György Buzsáki is a neuroscientist and Biggs Professor of Neuroscience at the NYU School of Medicine. He has his MD and PhD in neuroscience from the University of Pecs in Hungary. His main interest areas are on neural syntax and hippocampal networks. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent book, The Brain From Inside Out.

Website: https://buzsakilab.com/wp/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robert Trager about international governance of AI systems. They discuss why questions of AI are important, defining intelligence and machine learning, and provide an overview of the current landscape of AI systems. They talked about the ethics and governance for AI systems, how other governance models have been used, controlling the creativity of AI, civilian AI, military AI, and enforcement rules with military AI. They also mention the alignment problem, how to discuss AI in public life, and many more topics.

Robert Trager is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and International Governance Lead at the Centre for the Governance of AI. He is a recognized expert in the international governance of emerging technologies, diplomatic practice, and institutional design. His research also focuses on economic models of technology races, and regulation and industry cooperation for the public benefit in safety-critical industries. He has written two books and numerous articles in leading social science journals, including the American Political Science Review, International Organization, International Security, Foreign Affairs and many others.

Website: https://robertftrager.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jonathan Blitzer about Central American immigrants coming to the United States and the evolving relationship in the region. They talk about the emphasis on Central America and, more specifically, El Salvador, when discussing immigration. They discuss the many narrative accounts of immigrants from El Salvador and some of the background information on El Salvador. They provide some of the history of El Salvador and the many brutal aspects of the 12+ years civil war. They also talk about the cyclical nature of US involvement with Central America, future goals, and many more topics.

Jonathan Blitzer is a journalist and writer who currently is a staff writer at The New Yorker. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and many other publications. He is the recipient of the 2018 Immigration Journalism Prize from French-American foundation and the Media Leadership Award from the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He is the author of the new book, Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of A Crisis.

Twitter: @jonathanblitzer

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nicholas Morton about the Mongol empire. They discuss the background overview of Seljuck Turks, Karwazman Empire, and how the Mongols conquered and governed administratively. They talk about the environmental scope of the Mongols, religious tolerance, centralized hierarchy, the fifth crusade, how the Mongols splintered, and many more topics.

Nicholas Morton is Associate Professor of History at Nottingham Trent University. He is a member of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Conflict. His main research areas are on the Crusades and Medieval Near East between the 10th and 14th centuries. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent book, The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East.

Website: https://www.ntu.ac.uk/staff-profiles/arts-humanities/nicholas-morton

Twitter: @nicholasmorto11

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky about North Caucasian Muslims in the late Ottoman period. They discuss the landscape of the Caucasus, the Ottoman Empire, and the Russian Empire in the late 19th century. They talk about the diversity of ethnic groups in the Caucasus, the Ottoman Empire as a land of refugees, and why Russian troops perpetrated an ethnic cleansing. They discuss the term muhajir, four major migrations from the Caucasus, the Ottoman Empire as a refugee regime, 1857 immigration law, 1858 land laws, 1860 refugee commission, what happened to Circassian refugees in the Balkans, and Ottoman slavery. They discuss Circassians moving to the levant, the importance of Amman, resettlement in central Anatolia, return migration to Russia, and many other topics.

Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky is Assistant Professor of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has his Ph.D. in History from Stanford University and was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. His main interest areas are in global migration and forced displacement, with expertise in the Ottoman and Russian empires and their successor states. He is the author of Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State.

Website: https://www.vladimirhamedtroyansky.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Burak Kadercan about territory and nation states. They define territory and nation states, discuss empire, healthy nationalism, and ethnic groups in territories. They also define borders and discuss Westphalia, mosaic and monolithic order, Ottoman empire, war and conflict, Russia and Ukraine conflict, and many more topics.

Burak Kadercan is Associate Professor of Strategy and Policy at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He has his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. He was an inaugural fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies, The Fletcher School, Tufts University. He was also a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Reading (UK) and Assistant Professor in International Relations and coordinator for the Master Program in International Security at Institut Barcelona D’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI). He is also Senior Associate at the Center on Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups (CIWAG). His main interest are in territoriality, international security, and state-formation. He is the author of Shifting Grounds: The Social Origins of Territorial Conflict.

Website: http://www.burakadercan.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nicola Clayton about cognition across many animals. They define cognition in humans and in animals, intelligence, using magic to understand cognition in animals, embodied mind in animals, and comparative cognition as a type of convergent evolution. They discuss difficulties in using human measures for evaluating animal cognition, New Caledonian crows and their intelligence, consciousness, the future of comparative cognition research, and many more topics.

Nicola Clayton is Professor of Comparative Cognition in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Clare College and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Her main interests areas are comparative cognition and the evolution and development of intelligence in non-verbal animals and pre-verbal children. She is currently President of the British Science Association Psychology Section. She is also in residence at Rambert Dance Company.

Website: https://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/people/nsc22%40cam.ac.uk

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lucy Cooke about the female animals across many species. They discuss why the female species were neglected in Darwin’s studies, binary model of sex, female choice in sexual selection and the social and sexual monogamy in birds and sexual coercion with ducks. They talk about hierarchies with males and females, female dominance in lemurs, menopause, female bonding, and many more topics.

Lucy Cooke is a Zoologist, broadcaster, filmmaker, and author. She has a Masters Degree in Zoology from New College-Oxford. She has been a regular guest on Radio 4 and presented on BBC, ITV, and National Geographic. She is the author of numerous books, including her most recent book, Bitch: On the Female of the Species.

Website: http://www.lucycooke.tv/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Peter Bellwood about the five million year history of humans. They discuss the genera and species of humans and the different types of humans that lived together at the same time, genes from early human species, and the four acts of human history. They talk about Hominins arising out of the Miocene, distinct features of Australopithecus, humans in the Pleistocene, Homo Erectus walking out of Africa, Homo Floresiensis, and Neanderthals. They discuss domestication and cultivation of plants and animals in the Holocene, rice and corn in the Fertile Crescent and in China, Maize in the Western Hemisphere, Anatolian hypothesis for languages, and many other topics.

Peter Bellwood is Emeritus Professor in archaeology at Australian National University. He has his PhD from Kings College-Cambridge. His research areas have focused on population migrations during prehistory eras and the spread of Austronesian languages. He is the author of numerous books, including his most recent book, The Five-Million-Year Odyssey: The Human Journey from Ape to Agriculture.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paul Halpern about the multiverse. They discuss the cosmological multiverse and many worlds interpretation, impact of Newton, Maxwell, and Einstein for general relativity, gravitational waves, and quantum mechanics. They also talk about different dimensions, dark matter, dark energy, string theory, the multiverse in popular culture, and many more topics.

Paul Halpern is Professor of Physics at Saint Joseph’s University. He has a Bachelors, Masters, and PhD in physics. He was is the recipient of the 2002 Guggenheim Fellowship and in 1996 received a Fulbright Scholarship. He was also awarded Athenaeum Society Literary Award. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent book, The Allure of the Multiverse: Extra Dimensions, Other Worlds, and Parallel Universes.

Twitter: @phalpern

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robert Pippin about Heidegger’s philosophy in connection with German idealism. They discuss Heidegger’s ideas on the culmination of Western philosophy with Hegel, Heidegger’s emphasis on Being, meaningfulness of being, and present-at-hand and ready-to hand. They talk about the impact of Husserl on Heidegger and their different ideas concerning worldhood. They discuss Heidegger’s ideas on standing presence, unveiling and concealment, imagination and intuition, and the juxtaposition of Heidegger’s Dasein with Hegel’s Geist. They talk about Schelling’s ideas on nature, Hegel’s conceptual ideas, Heidegger as the first post-Hegelian European philosopher, poetic thinking, and many more topics.

Robert B. Pippin is the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought, the Department of Philosophy, and the College at the University of Chicago. He has been awarded a Guggenheim fellowship and was twice an Alexander von Humboldt fellow. He is a winner of the Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award in the Humanities and was recently a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a member of the American Philosophical Society. He is also a member of the German National Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of several books and articles on German idealism and later German philosophy, including his most recent book, The Culmination: Heidegger, German Idealism, and the Fate of Philosophy.

Website: https://voices.uchicago.edu/rbp1/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Benjamin Herold about the evolving state of suburbia. They discuss the fast development in Dallas suburbs, Black Americans in suburbs around Atlanta, Multiethnic heritage in Evanston, Illinois, potential multiple futures in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, and the founding families and long history of Compton. They talk about culture and history in each of these locations, centrality of schools in suburbia, cultural issues, covid-19 pandemic, the future of suburbia, and many more topics.

Benjamin Herold is a journalist and author who primarily has written on urban education. He has a Masters in urban education from Temple University. His work has been heavily featured in Education Week, PBS NewsHour, Huffington Post, NPR, and many other outlets. He is the author of the latest book, Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America’s Suburbs.

Website: https://www.benjaminherold.com/

Twitter: @benjaminbherold

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nelson Lichtenstein about the failures of the Clinton presidency. They discuss his collaboration with Judith Stein for the book, why Clinton focused on economic issues, Al From, Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), and the impact of Ross Perot on the 1992 Presidential election. They talk about important figures in Clinton’s economic team, failures of healthcare, economic negotiations with Japan and NAFTA. They also talk about the 1994 Crime Bill, repealing Glass-Steagall, legacy of the Clinton presidency, and many more topics.

Nelson Lichtenstein is Research Professor in the Department of History at University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he directs the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy. He has his Bachelors from Dartmouth College and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations, the University of California, and from the Fulbright Commission and the Oregon Center for the Humanities. He has also been elected to the Society of American Historians and received the Sidney Hillman Foundation’s Sol Stetin Award for lifetime achievement in labor history. He is the author of numerous books including his most recent book (co-authored with Judith Stein), A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism.

Twitter: @nelsonlichtens1

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Camilla Nord about the neuroscience of mental health. They define mental health and how the brain is central to mental health, measuring subjective vs. objective well-being, and chronic pain. They discuss depression, anhedonia, dopamine networks, behaviorism for motivation, and reward and valence. They talk about various emotional theories, gut microbiome, Bayesian brain and predictive processing, placebos, homeopathy, antidepressants, and many other topics.

Camilla Nord is a neuroscientist and Associate Professor and MRC Investigator at Cambridge University. She has a degree in physiology, psychology, and philosophy from Magdalen College-Oxford. She has her PhD from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience from University College, London. Her primary focus is on the physiology and neuroscience around mental health disorders. She is the author of the book, The Balanced Brain: The Science of Mental Health.

Twitter: @camillalnord

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paul Smaldino about agent-based models of social dynamics. They discuss why modeling in social sciences are important, quantitative and qualitative data, models and how we define them, and decomposition with complexity science. They also discuss modeling with multivariate questions, importance of theory, modeling with COVID19, modeling in politics, and many more topics.

Paul Smaldino is an Associate Professor of Cognitive & Information Sciences and faculty in the Quantitative and Systems Biology graduate program at UC Merced, where he is also affiliated with the Center for Analytic Political Engagement and the Center for Interdisciplinary Neuroscience. He is also an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His primary interests are how behaviors emerge and evolve in response to social, cultural, and ecological pressures, as well as how those pressures can themselves evolve. He also has broad interests related to cultural evolution, cooperation, and complex systems. He is the author of the book, Modeling Social Behavior: Mathematical and Agent-Based Models of Social Dynamics and Cultural Evolution.

Website: https://smaldino.com/wp/

Twitter: @psmaldino

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Ruy Teixeira about the current state of the Democratic party. They discuss how Democrats are running in 2024, why Democrats have abandoned the working class voters, and why they have pivoted to college educated voters. They talk about immigration challenges with Democrats, impact of populism on the Right and the Left, Latinos shifting to the Republican Party, cultural issues, and many more topics.

Ruy Teixeira is a sociologist and political commentator who writes on issues of party coalitions and American politics. He is nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and was previously senior fellow at the Center for American Progress from 2003 to 2022. He has a MS and PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the coauthor of The Emerging Democratic Majority and his latest book, Where Have All the Democrats Gone?

Substack: Ruy Teixeira The Liberal Patriot

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Daniel Tutt about the importance of the political left reading Nietzsche seriously. They talk about Nietzsche vs. Nietzscheanism, prolepsis and prophetic/esoteric and exoteric readings, and the Janus face of Nietzschean philosophy. They discuss building culture, caste and class, current leftist readings of Nietzsche, and Losurdo’s four stages of Nietzsche. They also talk about Nietzsche and Marx on religion, reading Nietzsche as a parasite, and many more topics.

Daniel Tutt is a philosopher and writer and has been trained in philosophy and psychoanalytic practice. He has taught philosophy at George Washington University and Marymount University. His interest areas and writing are focused on Marxist thought, Nietzsche’s philosophy, and social power of the intellectual. He is the author of Psychoanalysis and the Politics of the Family: The Crisis of Initiation and, his most recent book, How to Read Like A Parasite: Why the Left Got High on Nietzsche.

Website: https://danieltutt.com/

Twitter: @danieltutt

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Hein de Haas about migration and many of the myths surrounding immigration. They discuss why immigration is a major issue globally and its connection with nationalism, distinctions between immigration, emigration, asylum seekers, and refugees, and how migration is not at an all-time high. They also talk about internal/external migration, borders, labor demand in the USA, low-skilled vs. high-skilled workers, refugee crisis, hypocrisy on the political left and right, future of migration, and many more topics.

Hein de Haas is a sociologist and a geographer who has lived and worked in the Netherlands, Morocco and the United Kingdom. He is currently Professor of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). He has a Bachelor’s in cultural anthropology and Master’s degree in social and environmental geography from the University of Amsterdam and a PhD in social sciences from the University of Nijmegen. He has worked as a researcher at the University of Amsterdam and as a researcher and lecturer at the University of Nijmegen. He was visiting scholar at Bilkent University in Ankara (Turkey) the Program of Forced Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University of Cairo (AUC Egypt). He has been part of the International Migration Institute (IMI) at the University of Oxford and played a central role in lecturing and directing the newly established MSc in Migration Studies at the  Oxford Department of International Development (ODID). He was also a fellow at the Oxford Martin School and governing body fellow at Wolfson College. He is lead author of The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World, a seminal text book in the field of migration studies. He is the author of the new book, How Migration Really Works: The Facts About the Most Divisive Issue in Politics.

Website: https://heindehaas.org/

Blog: https://heindehaas.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @heindehaas

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Rory Cox about the multiple origins of the just war concept. They give an overview of the Egyptian empire, nile river and its importance for the Egyptian kingdom, and the three major kingdom periods with a central monarchy. They also talk about the Hittites, boundaries of their kingdom, and why they were so short lived. They discuss the Israelites, problems with the Hebrew Bible as a primary source, and the legacy of the Israelites. They also define just war, ius ad bellum, ius ad bello, ius post bellum, and describe what war looked like in the ancient Near East. They talk about authority and divine appointment for going to war with these three kingdoms, self-defense, military ethics, culture and identity, treatment of combatants and non-combatants, importance of Deuteronomy 20 for the Israelites, violence and genocide, just war theory up to the modern era, and many more topics.

Rory Cox is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of St. Andrews. He has held two international research fellowships: a Wallenberg Research Fellowship at the Stockholm Centre for the Ethics of War and Peace (University of Stockholm) in 2016; and a Humanities Collaboration Research Fellowship at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Huntington Library, Los Angeles, in 2017-18. He has his Bachelors in Ancient History and a Masters in Medieval Studies from University College London. He has a DPhil in history from the University of Oxford. His main focus areas are on the ethics of war, history of violence, and intellectual history. He is the author of the book, Origins of the Just War: Military Ethics and Culture in the Ancient Near East.

Twitter: @drrorycox

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lisa Feldman-Barrett about emotions. They discuss what emotions are and how they are different from affect and feelings. They also discuss the social construction model of emotions with discussion on interoception, exteroception, allostasis and homeostasis. They talk about predictive processing, Bayesian brain, emotions as heuristics, nature of reality, discrete emotions, emotions in relationships, and many more topics.

Lisa Feldman Barrett is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory (IASLab) at Northeastern University. She also holds research appointments at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/Harvard Medical School in the Psychiatric Neuroimaging Program in the Department of Psychiatry, and at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in the Department of Radiology. She is among the top 0.1% of the most-cited scientists in the world with more than 275 peer-reviewed scientific papers across several fields. Her research focuses on how the human brain, in continual conversation with the human body and the world, regulates the body and creates mental events, such as episodes of emotion.

Dr. Barrett has also received numerous awards for service to the field of psychology, including the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award in Psychology (2021) and the Award for Distinguished Service to Psychological Science (2013), both from the American Psychological Association. She also received the Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Association for Psychological Science (2018) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2019). She has served on the editorial boards of psychology’s most important journals, including Psychological Science (since 2007), Psychological Review (2007-2012) and Current Directions in Psychological Science (2020-2023). She also served as president of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) in 2019–2020.

She is the author of How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain and 7 1/2 Lessons About The Brain. She has also edited five scientific volumes, including the 3rd and 4th editions of the Handbook of Emotion.

Website: https://lisafeldmanbarrett.com/

Lab: https://www.affective-science.org/

Twitter: @lfeldmanbarrett

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Danna Staaf about the natural history of cephalopods. They discuss the family of cephalopods and their anatomy along with some of the behaviors, intelligence and consciousness with cephalopods, and what convergent evolution tells us about cephalopods. They talk about how cephalopods are able to live outside water, how they live in all bodies of water, impact of climate change, and many more topics.

Danna Staaf holds a PhD in invertebrate biology from Stanford university and is an expert on cephalopods. She continues to do research on cephalopods and has had her writing published in the Journal of Experimental Biology and numerous textbooks. She is the author of, Monarchs of the Sea: The Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods and her latest book, The Lives of Octopuses and Their Relatives: A Natural History of Cephalopods.

Website: https://www.dannastaaf.com/p/home.html

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Venki Ramakrishnan about his discovering and mapping the ribosome structure. They discuss his background in coming from India to study physics and then biology, layout of ribosome, DNA, RNA, mRNA, and proteins, what we have learned about the ribosome over the past 50+ years, x-ray crystallography, and his trip to the LMB. They also discuss his experience of seeing atomic subunits of ribosomes for the first time, winning the Nobel Prize, and the future of ribosome research.

Venki Ramakrishnan is a biologist and group leader of the Medical Research Center (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology and is a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was President of the Royal Society from 2015 to 2020. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 for his work on the sequence of the ribosome structure. He is also a member of the Order of Merit since 2012. He is the author of, Gene Machine: The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Helena de Bres about the philosophy of twins. They talk about why people are fascinated by twins, binarizing twins, definitions of selfhood, twins and individuality, and the extended mind. They also talk about twins and love, twins and dating, what twins teach people about objectification, and many more topics.

Helena de Bres is Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College. Her main interests are on philosophy of literature, specifically the nature of memoir. She also works with themes of creative writing, public philosophy, and distributive justice. She is the author of Artful Truths: The Philosophy of Memoir and her most recent book, How to be Multiple: The Philosophy of Twins.

Website: https://sites.google.com/wellesley.edu/helenadebres/home?authuser=0

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Darrin McMahon about the history of equality. They define equality and inequality, hierarchies, equality not being sameness, equality as a value, and equality in other animals. They also talk about the origins of equality, reverse hierarchy dominance theory for equality, cooperation, slavery, religion, the Greeks complicated history with equality, complexity of enlightenment values, equality in the future, and many more topics.

Darrin McMahon is David W. Little Class of 1944 Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Dartmouth College. He has his PhD from Yale University. He is the recipient of major fellowships from the Mellon and Guggenheim Foundations and has been visiting scholar at Columbia University, New York University, Yale University, the University of Rouen, the École Normale Supérieur, the École des Hautes Études, and the University of Potsdam. His writings have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, the New Republic, and Slates. He writes regularly for the Literary Review in London. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, Equality: The History of an Elusive Idea.

Website: https://darrinmcmahon.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robert Jay Lifton about resilience, catastrophe, and survival. They discuss psychohistory, his work with survivors of Hiroshima, the death imprint for survivors and his work with Erik Erikson. They talk about Freud’s death drive and differences and similarities to the death imprint. They discuss understanding resilience and surviving COVID-19, individual and collective mourning, surviving the effects of climate change, protean self, survivor power, the realities of catastrophe, and many other topics.

Robert Jay Lifton is a psychiatrist and pioneer of psychohistory. He has been a professor at the Washington School of Psychiatry, Yale University, Harvard University, the City University of New York, and Columbia University. Together with Erik Erikson, he convened the Wellfleet Psychohistory Group in 1966. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, Surviving our Catastrophes: Resilience and Renewal from Hiroshima to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Website: https://www.robertjaylifton.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Samuel Moyn about cold war liberalism. They provide a definition of liberalism, cold war liberalism, and some of the differences between these two forms of liberalism. They discuss some of the lessons from Cold War liberals for liberals today and the rise of neoliberalism and neoconservatism. They discuss the work of Judith Shklar, romanticism for Shklar and Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper and historicism, Hannah Arendt on liberalism, Lionel Trilling on Freud and Cold War liberalism, the future of liberalism, and many more topics.

Samuel Moyn is Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University. He has his law degree from Harvard University and his PhD in modern European history from University of California, Berkeley. He is fellow at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Berggruen Institute, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. His main interests are in international law, human rights, and 20th century European moral and political theory. He was recently named one of Propsect Magazine’s top thinkers in the world for 2024. He is the author of numerous books including his most recent, Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of our Times.

Website: https://campuspress.yale.edu/samuelmoyn/

Twitter: @samuelmoyn

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Philip Goff about the big questions of the universe. They discuss questions such as “why are we here” and “what is the purpose of living?” They talk about how much meaning could we possibly receive from life, value nihilism and value fundamentalism, and where do morals originate? They also discuss panpsychism, consciousness, Integration Information Theory, implications of panpsychism, and many more topics.

Philip Goff is a philosopher and professor at Durham University, UK. His main focus areas are on the nature of reality and he is well-published on panpsychism. He has a podcast, Mind Chat, and is the author of several books including the most recent, Why?:The Purpose of the Universe.

Website: https://philipgoffphilosophy.com/

Twitter: @philip_goff

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Colleen Eren about mass incarceration and the First Step Act. They discuss the current landscape of mass incarceration, jail and prison, and why people have started caring about mass incarceration. They discuss the First Step Act, bipartisan support, ‘94 crime bill, and the history of legislation on incarceration since LBJ. They talk about “mainstreamization,” billionaire involvement, celebrity involvement, impact of the First Step Act, and where future legislation goes on mass incarceration.

Colleen Eren is Associate Professor and the Criminology and Criminal Justice Program Director at William Paterson University. She has her PhD in Sociology from City University of New York, The Graduate Center. She is a member of the Crime and Justice Research Alliance of the American Society of Criminology. She has written three books including her most recent book, Reform Nation: The First Step Act and The Movement to End Mass Incarceration.

Twitter: @colleeneren

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Vincent Schiraldi about mass incarceration, probation, and parole. They discuss the current landscape of mass incarceration, probation, and parole, why there are high rates of incarceration and probation, history of probation and parole, and the impact of Nixon’s war on drugs. They talk about the Martinson report, bias, stereotypes, and racism, and the case example of Meek Mill and high incarceration rates in Philadelphia. They talk about alternative methods for improving probation and parole, future of probation, and many other topics.

Vincent Schiraldi is the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. He previously served as Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Correction​, and before that Columbia University, where he served as Senior Research Scientist at the Columbia School of Social Work and co-Director of the Columbia Justice Lab. While Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Correction, he attempted to close Riker’s Island and end the practice of solitary confinement. He also served as director of juvenile corrections in Washington DC, as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Probation, and as Senior Policy Adviser to the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. He is the author of the book, Mass Supervision: Probation, Parole, and the Illusion of Safety and Freedom.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Helen Czerski about the Ocean on the Earth. They talk about how there is one ocean on planet Earth, why we ignore the ocean, makeup of the ocean with temperature, salinity, and wetness, and how much salt is in the ocean. They discuss the layers of the ocean, the Mediterranean sea, the shape of water, impact of wind and gravity, the moon’s relationship with ocean tides, 5 gyres, the ocean floor, impact of climate change, and many more topics.

Helen Czerski is a physicist and oceanographer who conducts research in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London. She has her PhD in physics from Cambridge and completed a postdoc in oceanography. She has presented on many BBC science documentaries and her research is spent studying the atmosphere and ocean surface. She is the author of the new book, The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works.

Website: https://www.helenczerski.net/

Twitter: @helenczerski

Instagram: @Helen_czerski

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Richard Prum about sex, gender, and biology. They talk about why sex and gender are sometimes controversial, defining sex, and sex as history. They discuss the materialist-feminist framework, gender as an extended phenotype, gender performativity, genes and chromosomes, Wolffian and Müllerian ducts, the role of hormones, the future of gender, and many more topics.

Richard Prum is an Evolutionary Ornithologist at Yale University. His research interests are avian biology, behavioral evolution, sexual selection, and mate choice. He has been a main contributor to the theropod dinosaur origins of birds and the evolution of avian plumage coloration. He is the Curator of Ornithology and Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Previously, he was the Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale. He is the author of, The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us, and his latest book, Performance All the Way Down: Genes, Development, and Sexual Difference. You can find his scholarly publications here.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Stephen Porges about polyvagal theory. They discuss the importance of safety, the vagus nerve and polyvagal theory, and why the Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) is important. They discuss the various branches, the social engagement system, neuroplasticity, and how the polyvagal theory works with trauma and co-regulation. They discuss the practical and clinical uses of the polyvagal theory, criticisms of the theory, future of the theory, and many more topics.

Stephen Porges is Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University where he is the founding director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium. He is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina, and Professor Emeritus at both the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Maryland.

He was president of the Society for Psychophysiological Research and the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences and was a recipient of National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Development Award. He has published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers across several disciplines and is the founder of the polyvagal theory. He is the author of numerous books, including the most recent book (co-authored with Seth Porges), Our Polyvagal World: How Safety and Trauma Change Us.

Website: https://www.stephenporges.com/

Paper 1: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666497621000436?via%3Dihub

Paper 2: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnint.2022.871227/full

Paper 3: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666497623000346?via%3Dihub

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Stephen Houlgate on Hegel’s Logic and his philosophy of being. They discuss the main aims of Hegel’s Logic and the use of categories, why Hegel believed Kant’s Logic is not critical enough, categories of thought and natural kinds, and separating thinking and being. They discuss Hegel and Heidegger on being, Hegel on objectivity and being presuppositionless, and pure being, becoming, and nothing. They discuss Nietzsche and Hegel on becoming, Dasein, Hegel and Frege on quantity, differential calculus, linking the Phenomenology of Spirit and Logic, and many more topics.

Stephen Houlgate is professor of philosophy at the University of Warwick. He has his PhD from the University of Cambridge and his main interest is the work of Hegel. He has published numerous books, including the most recent two volume, Hegel on Being.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Adam Mestyan about the post-Ottoman Middle East. They discuss nation states, recycling empire, international imperialism, and sovereignty. They talk about political order rather than governance, local states, nation states or federations, republics or monarchies, constitutive fictions, British and Ottoman involvement in Egypt, Egyptian sovereignty and the Muslim Brotherhood, the kingdom of Syria, and many more topics.

Adam Mestyan is Associate Professor in the History Department at Duke University. He has previously taught at Harvard University and was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. His main interests are in natural history and Islamic law, urban history, the history of taxation, and Arab state formation (especially federations) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is the author of a handful of books including the most recent book, Modern Arab Kingship: Remaking the Ottoman Political Order in the Interwar Middle East.

Website: https://adammestyan.com/

Twitter: @adammestyan

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Carl Robichaud about past and present nuclear risks. They discuss why nuclear weapons are still relevant, creation of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer, and attempts at regulation after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They discuss Bay of pigs, SALT I & II, START I & II, and the nuclear arms race during the Cold War. They talk about the nine countries that currently have nuclear weapons, nuclear taboo, India-Pakistan tensions with nuclear weapons, Iran deal during the Obama administration, and nuclear energy. They also discuss the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Israel and their nuclear weapons, China’s nuclear program, nuclear testing, and hypersonic missiles. They talk about the process of launching a nuclear weapon, Ai and nuclear weapons, a future with no nuclear weapons, and many more topic.

Carl Robichaud co-leads Longview Philanthropy’s programme on nuclear weapons policy, and co-manages Longview’s Nuclear Weapons Policy Fund. He holds an MPA in public policy and international affairs from Princeton University. Carl previously worked with The Century Foundation and the Global Security Institute, where his extensive research spanned arms control, international security policy, and nonproliferation. He is also on the Council for Foreign Relations.

Website: https://www.longview.org/

Twitter: @carlrobichaud

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Peter Sarris about the Roman emperor, Justinian. They give an overview of Justinian, provide the context of the Roman Empire, discuss the rise of Justin and him adopting Justinian and Justinian’s succession. They talk about the lessons Justinian learned from Justin’s reign, urgency and energy early in Justinian’s reign and his emphasis on religious law. They discuss the importance of Armenia, zealous nature of Justinian with his religious laws, the Hagia Sofia and other religious sites, military campaigns, and the impact of his religious laws. They talk about the relationship dynamics with his wife, how he handled pandemics and disease, the legacy of Justinian, and many other topics.

Peter Sarris is Professor of Late Antique, Medieval, and Byzantine studies and Fellow of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. He has been Visiting Fellow at Rice University and Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, Washington, DC (Harvard University). His research has focused on the social, economic and legal history of Late Antiquity, the Early Middle Ages and Byzantium, with a particular focus on the political economy of the East Roman Empire from the fourth to sixth centuries. He is the author of many publications, including the most recent book, Justinian: Emperor, Soldier, Saint.

Twitter: @peter_sarris

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Joseph LeDoux about human cognition, consciousness, and existence. They discuss his work with Michael Gazzaniga on split brain patients, the four realms of existence, idea of the self, personality and temperament, and integration information theory. They talk about the extended mind, habits and goal direct behaviors, granular and sub-granular areas of the prefrontal cortex for consciousness, and Tulving’s 3 layers of consciousness. They also discuss cognition as a psychological concept, fear, first order and higher order theory, AI and consciousness, and many more topics.

Joseph LeDoux is the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science at NYU in the Center for Neural Science, and he is the director of the Emotional Brain Institute at NYU. He also a Professor of Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical School. His work is focused on the brain mechanisms of memory and emotion and he is the author of numerous books including his most recent book, The Four Realms of Existence. He has received numerous awards and he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is also the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band, The Amygdaloids.

Website: https://joseph-ledoux.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kristian Rönn about carbon accounting and climate change. They talk about his work with Future for Humanity and how he created Normative. They discuss the landscape of climate change at the moment, his company Normative, and the differences between net zero and carbon neutral. They discuss carbon offsets, carbon accounting, and ton-year accounting. They talk about scopes 1, 2, & 3, global regulations, cap and trade, greenwashing, impact of AI on carbon accounting, and many more topics.

Kristian Rönn is the CEO and Co-founder of Normative. He has previously worked at the University of Oxford’s Future for Humanity analyzing global catastrophic risks. His background is in mathematics, philosophy, computer science, and artificial intelligence.

Website: https://normative.io/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Douglas Brinkley about various conservation presidents in the 20th century. They discuss his process for how he wrote his conservation trilogy, understanding the psychology of Theodore Roosevelt (TR’s) and how conservation was important to him, and TR’s complex relationship with animals that included preservation and hunting. They talk about how TR used the Federal Government to protect natural land, his relationship with Native Americans, and his overall legacy. They discuss Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) using the Federal Government for enacting policies to protect forests, building dams, and creating recreation areas, and how he tied conservation with economic growth. They discuss the impact of Rachel Carson and John F. Kennedy (JFK) for the environmental wave in the 60s, the environmental justice movement, Richard Nixon seizing the moment of environmental activism, climate change in the present moment, and many more topics.

Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He is the author of numerous books including the conservation trilogy which include, The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, Righteous Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America, and Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening.

Six of his books have been named New York Times “Notable Books of the Year” and seven became New York Times bestsellers. He received a Grammy Award in 2017 as co-producer of Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom (Best Jazz Ensemble). The New-York Historical Society selected Brinkley in 2017 as their official U.S. Presidential Historian. He is on the Board of Trustees at Brevard College and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. He is a member of the Century Association, Council of Foreign Relations and James Madison Council of the Library of Congress.

Website: https://douglasbrinkley.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Cat Bohannon about the evolutionary history of females. They discuss her background, limited female subjects in many research papers, “morgie” and how milk became important, other features of milk such as bonding, attachment, and the “let-down” reflex. They also talk about the different types of wombs for monotremes, marsupials, and placentals, placenta and the menstrual cycle, and risks of pregnancy. They also talk about the grandmother hypothesis, future of females, and many more topics.

Cat Bohannon is a research and author with her PhD from Columbia University. She has studied the evolution of narrative and cognition. Her writing has appeared in Scientific American, Science magazine, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Lapham’s Quarterly, and other outlets. She is the author of the book, Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution.

Website: https://www.catbohannon.com/

Twitter: @catbohannon

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nicholas Dames about the history of the chapter. They discuss how chapters have boundaries, define what is a chapter, and talk about literacy form. They also talk about the chapter as temporal units or scenes, Tabula Bembina and the first chapter, capitulation and Augustine, and how the chapter evolved with the history of the Bible. They also discuss the chapter in the 15th century, Locke’s anti-chapter theory, Jane Austen and the significance of chapter word count, Tolstoy and episodes, and Dickens and Eliot with diurnal time. They also discuss Machado’s inbetweenness, the Antique-Diminutive Model, chapter in film, the future of the chapter, and many more topics.

Nicholas Dames is the Theodore Kahan Professor of Humanities in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He has been a recipient of Columbia’s Presidential Teaching Award (2005), a Charles Ryskamp Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (2005-6), the Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award (2008), and the Mark Van Doren Award for Teaching (2013). In 2009-2010 he was chair of the MLA’s Division on Prose Fiction Executive Committee.  From 2011-2014 he was chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature. His main interests are in the history and theory of the novel, the hsitory of reading, and 19th century fiction. He is the author of the most recent book, The Chapter: A Segmented History from Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century.

Website: https://nicholasdames.org/

Twitter: @n_j_dames

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Walter Veit about animal consciousness. They talk about various frameworks for understanding consciousness, the naturalist approach, cognitive ethology, and pathological complexity thesis. They discuss consciousness arising in the Cambrian period, defining consciousness, free will, consciousness profile, Integrated Information Theory, interacting with animals, and many more topics.

Walter Veit is a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Reading. He is also the Director of the PPE Program and the Philosophy MA Program. He is also an external member of the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy at the University of Munich. He has his PhD from the School of History and philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. His research interests have been on animal ethics, welfare, and evolution. He is the author of the book, A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness.

Website: https://walterveit.com/

Twitter: @wrwveit

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Michael Muthukrishna about energy, cooperation, and global themes. They discuss the broad scope of the book, importance of theory, energy being essential for cooperation, corruption and cooperation, laws of life, cooperation fueling human growth, and some of the negative aspects of cooperation. They also talk about intelligence, immigration, wealth inequality, meritocracy, and many other topics.

Michael Muthukrishna is Associate Professor of economic psychology in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has his PhD in psychology from the University of British Columbia and his main interests are in cooperation, cross-cultural differences, and corruption. He is the author of the latest book, A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How we got here, and Where we are going.

Website: https://www.michael.muthukrishna.com/

Twitter: @mmuthukrishna

Book Website: https://www.atheoryofeveryone.com/

Substack: Michael Muthukrishna

2019 paper on theory: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-018-0522-1

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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Sam Ottewill-Soulsby about Christians and Muslims relationships during the age of Charlemagne. They discuss Charlemagne and his context, the viewpoint of the Muslim world, and the landscape of the Abbasid and Umayyad empires. They discuss prestige diplomacy, frontier diplomacy, importance of Islam and Christianity, four legal schools of Islam, and Carolingian religious values. They also discuss the dynamics with the Abbasid, gift giving, war and peace with the Umayyads in the 9th century, and many more topics.

Sam Ottewill-Soulsby is a researcher at the University of Oslo. He has a Bachelors in History from the University of York, Masters in Medieval History and PhD in History from the University of Cambridge. He has been a Research Associate for the Impact of the Ancient City project at the University of Cambridge. He was also Visiting Research Fellow at the Migration and Mobility in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Tübingen. He is the author of the book, The Emperor and the Elephant: Christians and Muslims in the Age of Charlemagne.

Twitter: @sottewillsoulsb

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Melvin Rogers about Black American thought and democracy. They discuss the two visions/stories of democracy in America, utility of rhetoric, and whether white supremacy is still a relevant term in present-day America. They discuss Walker’s use of appeal, on freedom, Jefferson on we the people, political loss, Baldwin and race relations, how we move forward, and many more topics.

Melvin Rogers is the Associate Director of the Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and Professor of Political Science at Brown University. He has his MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History from Cambridge and his PhD in Political Science from Yale University. His main interests are in democratic theory, American, and African-American political thought. He is the author of numerous books, including the most recent, The Darkened Light of Faith.

Website: https://www.melvinrogers.site/

Twitter: @mrogers097

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Juliet Hooker about the politics of loss and the racial themes connected with loss. They discuss how racial justice is a prominent theme in today’s society, they define loss and how it is political, and discuss anticipatory loss. They also talk about white Americans with Anticipatory loss, symbolic vs. material loss, democracy and political loss, and class and inequality. They also discuss Civil Rights today, Black Maternal health, public grievance, and many other topics.

Juliet Hooker is the Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence in Political Science at Brown University. She is a political theorist that teaches and covers topics of racial justice, Latin American political thought and Black political thought. She has her PhD in government from Cornell University. She is the author of numerous books including the most recent book, Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss.

Website: https://juliethooker.com/

Twitter: @creoleprof

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Manon Garcia about sexual consent. They define what is consent, legal and moral consent, qualitative sex and consensual sex, and where power and responsibility fit within sexual consent. They discuss gender norms, consent out of politeness, reciprocal pleasure, consent in marriage, sex as a conversation, and many more topics.

Manon Garcia is a philosopher, author, and Junior Professor of practical philosophy at Freie Universitat in Berlin, Germany. She has a PhD in philosophy from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She has completed fellowships at Harvard, University of Chicago, and was an Assistant Professor of philosophy at Yale University. Her main interests are in political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and moral philosophy. She is the author of two books which are, We Are Not Born Submissive: How Patriarchy Shapes Women’s Lives, and her most recent book, The Joy of Consent: A Philosophy of Good Sex.

Website: https://www.manon-garcia.com/

Twitter: @manongarciafr

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Melissa Kearney about the two-parent privilege. They define what is the two-parent privilege, the class gap in families and importance of college educated parents. They talk about conservative family values and views on two-parent households, two parents working outside of the home, working moms, stay-at-home moms, and single moms. They talk about the child tax credit, childhood poverty, birth rates, and many more topics.

Melissa S. Kearney is the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland and Director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); a non-resident Senior Fellow at Brookings; a scholar affiliate and member of the board of the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO); and a scholar affiliate of the MIT Abdul Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). She is an editorial board member of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and Journal of Economic Literature, and a former co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources and Senior Editor of Future of Children. She holds a BA in Economics from Princeton University and a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of the book, The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind.

Website: http://econweb.umd.edu/~kearney/melissa_website/index.html

Twitter: @kearney_melissa

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kevin Mitchell about the evolutionary story of free will. They discuss why biology and genetics help understand free will, different levels of determinism, reacting vs. choosing at the cellular level, and choice with ion channels in the cell. They also discuss dimensions of free will, vision and choice, decision making at cortical levels of the brain, creativity, and metacognition. They engage on personality theories, notion of the self, AI and free will, and many more topics.

Kevin Mitchell is an Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He has his BA in Genetics from Trinity College Dublin and his PhD in Neurobiology from the University of California at Berkeley. His current research focuses on genetics and wiring of the brain specifically as it relates to neuropsychiatric disorders. He is the author of Innate: How the wiring of our brains shapes who we are and his latest book, Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will

Website: https://www.kjmitchell.com/

Blog: http://www.wiringthebrain.com/

Twitter: @wiringthebrain

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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Clancy Martin about suicide. They talk about his personal experiences and why he wrote the book in such an honest manner. They discuss why suicide is such a taboo topic, why gratitude for life isn’t always enough, practical ways to help when feeling suicidal, and the imminence of death. They talk about freedom and burden of living, assisted suicide, treatment, and many more topics.

Clancy Martin is a philosopher and author. He is a professor of philosophy at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and Ashoka University in New Delhi. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, New York, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Esquire, and The Paris Review. He is the author of the book, How Not To Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind.

If you or someone you know feels suicidal, please contact the National Suicide Hotline 24/7: 988

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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Yascha Mounk about the cultural wars and how identity has become central for society today. They discuss his motivations for writing the book and his perspective on identity and cultural issues. They talk about the lure of the identity trap, the history of the identity synthesis from Foucault, to Said, to Spivack, to Bell, to Crenshaw, and the links between these figures. They discuss the impact of social media, institutional capture, how to engage with identity issues, and many more topics.

Yascha Mounk is a writer and academic. He has a Bachelors in history from Trinity College, Cambridge and PhD in government from Harvard University. He is a Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University, where he holds appointments in both the School of Advanced International Studies and the SNF Agora Institute. He is also a Contributing Editor at The Atlantic, and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the Founder of Persuasion, the host of The Good Fight podcast, and serves as a publisher (Herausgeber) at Die Zeit. He is the author of five books, including the most recent book, The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time.

Website: https://www.yaschamounk.com/

Substack: Yascha Mounk

Podcast: The Good Fight

Twitter: @yascha_mounk

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Adrian Goldsworthy about the 700 years of rivalry between the Roman and Persian Empires. They discuss the importance of studying past empires, overview of the rivalry, and the Roman and Persia Empires in this 700 year period. They discuss the differences in governing and peaceful co-existing, complexities of Armenia, greatness of Augustus, and the silk road. They also discuss Constantine, Justinian’s reign, the Arab armies and how they quelled the Roman and Persian rivalry, and many more topics.

Adrian Goldsworthy is a historian and author. He has his DPhil from Oxford University and has conducted research at Cardiff University and taught at King’s College London and University of Notre Dame. He is the author of numerous books on Roman history, including his latest book, Rome and Persia: The Seven Hundred Year Rivalry.

Website: http://www.adriangoldsworthy.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Tom Holland about the Golden Age of the Roman empire. They provide an overview of Pax Romana, greatness of Augustus, and Nero as a tyrant. They talk about the chaotic year of AD 69 with four emperors, Judean revolt, and Vespasian’s peacemaking abilities. They discuss the importance of Pliny, environmental contexts for peace, the five good emperors and the rule of Trajan and Hadrian, legacy of the Roman empire, and many more topics.

Tom Holland is a historian and author. He has adapted Homer, Herodotus and Virgil for the BBC. He is the presenter of BBC 4’s Making History series and is the co-host of the podcast, The Rest Is History. He is the author of numerous books such as Dominion, Dynasty, Rubicon, and his latest book, Pax.

Website: https://www.tom-holland.org/

Twitter: @holland_tom

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with David Lipsky about the history of climate science denial. They discuss how he wrote this book, origins of discovering climate change, Edison and Westinghouse, and the influence of Einstein. They discuss the history of scientists observing climate changes, Nixon and the Clean Air Act and EPA, and Fred Singer and his involvement with the Unification church. They also talk about believing pseudoscience, PR campaigns for science denial for smoking and climate, and many more topics.

David Lipsky is an author, editor, and teacher. He teaches writing and literature at New York University. He is the author of numerous books including Absolutely American, Although Of Course You End Up Yourself, and his latest book, The Parrot and The Igloo: Climate and the Science of Denial. He is work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The Best American Short Stories, and The New York Times Book Review. He is also the recipient of the GLAAD award and National Magazine award.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Myisha Cherry about forgiveness. They define forgiveness, discuss how moral systems are important for forgiveness, and discuss the narrow view and the broad view of forgiveness. They also talk about emotions and behaviors, what we do with bitterness, actions or the person, different capacities for different people, canceling others and forgiving public figures, forgiving one’s self, and many other topics.

Myisha Cherry is associate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. She is the Director of the Emotion and Society Lab with her research areas being in moral psychology, emotions, and social and political philosophy. She has a Bachelors in philosophy from Morgan State University, a Masters of Divinity from Howard University, and a PhD in philosophy from University of Illinois, Chicago. She is the author of The Moral Psychology of Anger (Co-edited with Owen Flanagan), The Case for Rage, and her newest book, Failures of Forgiveness.

Website: https://www.myishacherry.org/

Substack: Myisha Cherry

Podcast: https://unmutetalk.podbean.com/

Twitter: @myishacherry

Instagram: @myishacherry

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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Hajar Yazdiha about collective memory and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They discuss how we can accruately understand Dr. King’s message and legacy, how we reckon with history, and what a multicultural coalition looks like today. They discuss collective memory, creating culture, primary audience of Dr. King’s message, various groups using Dr. King’s message, and many more topics.

Hajar Yazdiha is a sociologist and writer. She is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and faculty affiliate of the Equity Research Institute at the University of Southern California. She has her PhD in Sociology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her main research areas are on social movements, race and ethnicity, immigration, and collective memory. She is the author of, The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement.

Website: https://www.hajaryazdiha.com/

Twitter: @hajyazdiha

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Daron Acemoglu on technology, inequality, and power. They discuss how technological progress is a choice, defining progress, power of persuasion, and needs and innovations. They also talk about innovation, globalization, and automation in the post World War II era, AI and culture, fixing the challenges of technological inequality, and many more topics.

Daron Acemoglu is an economist and Institute Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is part of the National Bureau Economic Research and Center for Economic Policy Research. He has his Bachelors in economics from the University of York, a Masters in mathematical economics and econometrics from the London School of Economics, and a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics. He is the author of six books including, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty (with James A. Robinson), and his most recent book, Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity (with Simon Johnson).

Website: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/daron-acemoglu

Twitter: @dacemoglumit

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Hugo Drochon about Nietzsche’s political thought. They talk about why Nietzsche’s political thought has been ignored, Nietzsche’s great politics, Nietzsche’s emphasis on culture, Plato and political philosophy, and how to build a culture. They also talk about philosophy of state, democracy, slavery, caste systems, Nietzsche’s politics in modernity, and many other topics.

Hugo Drochon is a political theorist and historian. He has his PhD from Cambridge and completed his postdoctoral fellowship there as well. He has also had fellowships at Yale, Princeton, and Royal Historical Society. His main interests are in Nietzsche’s politics, democratic theory, and liberalism. He is the author of, Nietzsche’s Great Politics.

Website: https://www.hugodrochon.com/

Twitter: @hdrochon

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Katja Hoyer about the history of East Germany. They discuss the culture of East and West Germany and how East Germany originated, East Germany and the relationship with the Soviet Union, and the political makeup of East Germany. They also talk about the significance of Ulbrecht and socialism, creation of the Berlin Wall, and the Stasi in East Germany. They discuss the failed economics in East Germany in the 1980s, similarities between unification in 1871 and reunification in 1990, Angela Merkel’s time in office, and how a unified Germany moves forward.

Katja Hoyer is a historian and journalist who is visiting research fellow at King’s College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She is also Global Opinions contributing columnist for The Washington Post. Her main research area is the history of modern Germany. She is the author of Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871-1918 and Beyond the Wall: A History of East Germany.

Twitter: @hoyer_kat

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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Diana Fleischman about a wide range of topics including polyamory and eugenics. They talk about how evolutionary psychology is a good framework for understanding relationships, patriarchal and matriarchal societies, history of monogamous and polyamorous relationships and jealousy and polyamory. They also talk about the difficult history of eugenics, decoupling bad from the good, polygenic scores, governmental differences with prenatal care, GWAS, and many more topics.

Diana Fleischman is an evolutionary psychologist and Associate Research professor at the University of New Mexico. Her research has focused on evolutionary psychology, disgust research, sex differences, animal rights, and eugenics.

Website: https://www.dianafleischman.com/

Substack: Dissentient

Twitter: @sentientist

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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with William Egginton about the nature of reality through the work by Borges, Heisenberg, and Kant. They discuss what connects these three men, role of interpretation, and different tools to ask big questions about space, time, and reality. They also talk about the origins of reality, change, Hume’s impact on Kant’s thinking, power of theory for understanding science, existence, and many more topics.

William Egginton is an author, literary critic, and Decker Professor in the Humanities and Director of the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute at Johns Hopkins University. His main interests are in poetry, literature, philosophy, history of science. He is the author of numerous books including his latest book, The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality.

Website: https://www.williamegginton.com/

Twitter: @williamegginton

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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Neil Theise about complexity in biology, physics, and consciousness. They talk about complexity with general systems theory, chaos theory, and fractals. They discuss complementarity with cellular biology and quantum mechanics. They also discuss consciousness, what it means to be human, and many more topics.

Neil Theise is a professor of pathology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. His main research interests are on adult stem cells and the anatomy of the human interstitium. He is the author of the book, Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being.

Website: https://www.neiltheiseofficial.com/

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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lauren Lassabe Shepherd about conservatives on colleges campuses in the 1960s. They talked about the organization of the book, presentism, the New Right being exported to mass media and politics, and how the New Right was very “Anti.” They discuss Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), movement from college campuses to politics, Libertarians split from conservatives, and the impact on current politics.

Lauren Lassabe Shepherd is a historian, writer, and teacher. She teaches in the Department of Education and Human Development at the University of New Orleans. Her research focuses on the history of higher education in the United States during the 20th century. She is the author of her first book, Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and the Campus Wars.

Website: laurenlassabe.com

Twitter: @llassabe

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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lev Parikian about flight in animals. They discuss convergent evolution for flight, four forces of flight, and early flight with mayflies and dragonflies. They talk about vision in dragonflies, beetles, bees and their different uses of their wings and pterosaurs. They talk about birds, flightless birds, speed of hummingbirds, bats, and many more topics.

Lev Parikian is an author and conductor. He has written for many publications on birds. He is the author of six books including the most recent book, Taking Flight. His orchestral work has been on BBC and he has put out two albums and various orchestral work.

Website: https://levparikian.com/

Substack: Lev Parikian

Twitter: @levparikian

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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Damion Searls about the philosophy of translation. They talk about decisions in translation, primacy of reading, and trusting the translator. They discuss language proficiency, fluency, dead vs. modern languages, and translating various authors. They also talk about translating Wittgenstein, translation process, how to select a translation, and many more topics.

Damion Searls is a translator, author, and philosopher. He has translated works by Proust, Rilke, Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, Jon Fosse, and many others. He is author of, The Inkblots, and is currently working on his latest book on the philosophy of translation.

Website: https://www.damionsearls.com/

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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Bence Nanay about mental imagery. They define mental imagery, hyperaphantasia and aphantasia, mental imagery as unconscious, predictive processing and representations. They discuss the role of the body, multimodal dimensions, EMDR, metaphysics, phenomenology of perception, and many more topics.

Bence Nanay is a philosopher and BOF Research Professor of philosophical psychology at the University of Antwerp. His main interests are on the philosophy and psychology of perception. He is well published with many peer-reviewed articles and is the author of numerous books, including the most recent book, Mental Imagery.

Website: https://bencenanay.com/

Twitter: @bencenanay

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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with David Edmonds about the life and philosophy of Derek Parfit. They discuss the enigma of Derek Parfit, impact of his religious family, his work with poetry, journalism, and photography, and his time in the USA and Oxford. They talk about personal identity and the self, Reasons and Persons, utilitarianism, non-identity, equality, On What Matters, and many more topics.

David Edmonds is a philosopher and author. He is Distinguished Research Fellow at Oxford University. His main interests are in moral philosophy and ethics. He is also the co-host (with Nigel Warburton) of the popular podcast, Philosophy Bites. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent book, Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality.

Website: http://www.davidedmonds.info/

Twitter: @davidedmonds100

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In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Alfonso Martinez Arias about the cell and its importance for organisms. They talk about why many people overemphasize genes and underemphasize cells, provide a basic overview of the cell, and discuss the role of gametes. They talk about cells and embryos, embryonic stem cells, bioethics, science communication, polygenic index scores, cancerous cells, and many more topics.

Alfonso Martinez Arias is a developmental biologist and ICREA Research Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. He is the leader of the Martinez Arias Lab where his research is focused on embryonic stem cells. He is the author of a handful of books including the most recent book, The Master Builder: How the New Science of the Cell is Rewriting the Story of Life.

Website: https://amapress.upf.edu/

Twitter: @amartinezarias

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jacob Mikanowski about the past and present history of Eastern Europe. They define the contours of Eastern Europe and why this region is often forgotten. They talk about the Slavs possibly originating from Romania, Ashkenazi Jews, Paganism, Christianity, and Judaism in Eastern Europe. They talk about Muslim majority countries in Eastern Europe, impact of the Ottoman Empire, the “almost empire” of Poland-Lithuania, and Transylvania. They also discuss language and nationalism, modernization in the 20th century, communism, and many more topics.

Jacob Mikanowski is a writer and journalist who focuses on on many topics within art, anthropology, and history. He has been studying the history of Eastern Europe for many years and his writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other places. He is the author of the latest book, Goodbye Eastern Europe: An Intimate History of A Divided Land.

Website: https://jacob-mikanowski.com/

Twitter: @jmikanowski

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Andrew Jones about the impact that Kant had on biology. They discuss philosophy of science, Kant’s influence on biology, and how transcendental idealism of Kant impacts biology. They talk about Kant’s idea of the natural world and reality, Straussian interactions with Kant, the need for distinct disciplines, and some spiritualism in biology. They also talk about the impact of judgement on science, Kant and Hume, Kant’s relevance on Darwin, on biological organisms, and many more topics.

Andrew Jones is a philosopher and Postdoctoral Impact Fellow at the University of Exeter. He has a variety of interests in philosophy, interdisciplinary research, theology, and biology. He is the author of the book, How Kant Matters for Biology.

Website: https://andyjonesphilosophy.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @andyjonesphd

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Mackenzie Cooley, Anna Toledano, & Duygu Yildirim about natural things in early modern worlds. They discuss how they wrote and edited their book together, Bezoar stones and their medicinal purposes, and ambergris and its medicinal purposes along with aesthetic uses. They also talk about coffee in the middle Ottoman Empire and the relationship of coffee with the body. They discuss Felix de Azara as an engineer turned naturalist, use of local terms and labels, how we see natural things in the past and present, and many more topics.

Mackenzie Cooley is a historian and Assistant Professor of History and Director of Latin American Studies at Hamilton College. She has her PhD from Stanford University and completed her postdoc fellowship from Cornell University. Her main interests are uses and abuses of the natural world in early modern science. She is the author of The Perfection of Nature and co-editor of Natural Things in Modern Worlds. You can find her work here. Twitter: @newworldnature1

Anna Toledano is a historian and museum professional studying objects in early modern science. She is completing her PhD in History of Science from Stanford University. You can find her work here. Twitter: @annatoledano

Duygu Yildirim is a historian of science and medicine and Assistant Professor The University of Tennessee. She has her PhD in history from Stanford University. Her main interests are in the early Modern Mediterranean and Ottoman Empire. You can find her work here. Twitter: @historiandiary

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue about the life and impact of J. Robert Oppenheimer. They talk about the elusive nature of Oppenheimer, how he became involved with theoretical physics, and the creation of the atomic bomb. They discuss his involvement with communism, AEC hearings, his last years, the legacy of Oppenheimer, and many more topics.

Kai Bird is a historian, journalist, and writer. He is executive director and distinguished lecturer at CUNY Graduate Center's Leon Levy Center for Biography in New York City. He is the author of numerous books and is the recipient (along with co-author Martin J. Sherwin) of the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award, the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, and the 2008 Duff Cooper Prize for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. He is also the author of The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter.

Website: https://www.kaibird.com/

Twitter: @kaibird123

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nancy McWilliams about psychoanalysis and the evolution of psychoanalytic theory and practice. They discuss the origins of psychoanalysis and misconceptions about Freud and the evolution of psychoanalytic theory from drive theory to object relations to self psychology to relational theory. They talk about the strengths and areas of improvement for psychoanalytic clinicians, case conceptualization, level of personality organization, defenses, transference, and countertransference. They also discuss psychoanalytic training for graduate students, clients looking for psychoanalytic clinicians, and many more topics.

Nancy McWilliams is Visiting Professor at Rutgers University and is a psychoanalytic clinician in private practice. She is a former president of the Division of Psychoanalysis (39) of the American Psychological Association. She is a specialist in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and supervision. She is the author of numerous books including, Psychoanalytic Diagnosis, Psychoanalytic Case Formulation, and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.

Website: https://nancymcwilliams.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Sean Kirkland about Heidegger’s destruction of Aristotle. They discuss how he came to write on Heidegger and Aristotle together, destruction of the philosophical tradition, and the differences between positive and negative destruction. They provide and overview of Heidegger’s philosophy and provide an overview of Aristotle’s philosophy. They talk about the threefold aspects of Nietzsche, Aristotle’s idea of concepts, and three tactics of the destructive method. They also talk about the phenomenological reduction, construction, and destruction, truth and art, and many more topics.

Sean Kirkland is a philosopher and associate professor of philosophy at DePaul University. He has his PhD in philosophy from State University of New York, Stony Brook. His main research interests are in Greek philosophy and contemporary continental philosophy. He is the author of the recent book, Heidegger and the Destruction of Aristotle: On How to Read the Tradition.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Blair LM Kelley about the roots of the Black working class in the United States. They discuss why she wrote the book with some biographical content along with the historical events, class and race for Black Americans, and the impact of slavery for Black working class folks. They talk about the role of the church for building and organizing community, history of Black washerwomen and their involvement with unions, and the great migration. They also discuss the Porter union, Black maids, current themes with the Black working class, and many more topics.

Blair LM Kelley, Ph.D. is an award-winning author, historian, and scholar of the African American experience. Currently, she is the Joel R. Williamson Distinguished Professor of Southern Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the incoming director of the Center for the Study of the American South. She has her B.A. from the University of Virginia in History and African and African American Studies. She also has her M.A. and Ph.D. in History, and graduate certificates in African and African American Studies and Women’s Studies at Duke University. She is the author of two books, Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship, and the latest, Black Folk: The Roots the Black Working Class.

Website: https://www.profblmkelley.com/

Twitter: @profblmkelley

Instagram: @profblmkelley

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Frank Putnam about our various states of being. They discuss states of being, the continuous self, and states of being in development. They also talk about different states of being in rapid cycling with those that have Bipolar Disorders, importance of memory, and how critical is personality and the Big-5. They discuss mental disorders within a state model, the fragmented self and therapy, trauma and PTSD, Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), psychedelics, and many more topics.

Frank Putnam is a Physician and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He was formerly a Professor of Pediatrics and Child Psychiatry at Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He is an esteemed research on topics of violence, abuse, DID, and trauma. He is the author numerous books including, The Way We Are: How States of Mind Influence Our Identities, Personality, and Potential for Change.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with C.W. Goodyear about the life and presidency of James Garfield. They provide an overview of Garfield and talk about the background context and temperament of Garfield. They discuss how he rose to being a General in the Civil War very quickly, his tenure in the US House of Representatives, and his emphasis on Civil Service reform and a Department of Education. They discuss the moderate platform he ran on for President, his assassination, his legacy, and many more topics.

C.W. Goodyear is a historian and author who has a degree in Global Affairs from Yale University. He has worked as a ghostwriter for various projects. He is the author of the new book, President Garfield: From Radical To Unifier.

Website: https://www.cwgoodyearbooks.com/

Instagram: @cwgoodyear

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Salomé Sibonex about identity, creation, and embracing the ambiguity of life. They share immigration stories, shifting political sides, and being incentivized for being “anti.” They discuss why people believe in their belief systems so hard, being undefined, broad spectrum of opinions, and many more topics.

Salomé Sibonex is an artist, writer, and critic. She has written numerous articles on the self, identity, and spans topics in psychology and philosophy. She is also the Content Manager at the Foundation for Economic Education.

Substack: Salomé Sibonex

Website: https://www.salomesibonex.com/

Twitter: @salomesibonex

Instagram: @salomesibonex

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Richard Wolin about the dark side of Martin Heidegger. They discuss the black notebooks of Heidegger and what are the nature and intentions of these black notebooks. They dialogue about reading the antisemitic and Nazi themes in these notebooks with Heidegger’s philosophy. They talk about Heidegger being a member of the Nazi party, editing and re-editing his works, his views on race, and the impact these views have on his philosophy. They also talk about the New Right, Dugin, reading Heidegger in the 21st century, and many more topics.

Richard Wolin is a Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, History, & Political Science at The City University of New York. He has a PhD in Social and Political Thought from York University. His main interests are on 20th century French and German political thought. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, Heidegger In Ruins: Between Philosophy and Ideology.

Website: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/people/richard-wolin

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Randy Nesse about evolutionary psychiatry. They define evolutionary psychiatry, critics of evolutionary psychiatry, and how we define disorders. They also discuss emotions mood regulation, disease model of addiction, and many more topics.

Randy Nesse is Research Professor of Life Sciences, and Founding Director of The Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University. He is also Professor Emeritus, Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, and Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan. He is the founding President of The International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health. He is the author of many books including, Good Reasons for Bad Feelings.

Website: https://www.randolphnesse.com/homepage

Twitter: @randynesse

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lewis Dartnell about his triptych of books on the earth and humanity. They talked about how he came to write his trilogy of books, our essentials for survival, and diversification of hominids. They also discuss plate tectonics, fertile crescent, and East African rift. They talk about the differences and similarities of different human species, importance of the oceans through time, and different materials for different civilizations. They also discuss the impact of wind on colonization and exploration, cooperation for humans, pair bonding, royal families, disease, war, and many more topics.

Lewis Dartnell is a research scientist, presenter, and author. He has a degree in Biological Sciences from Oxford University and PhD from University College London. Currently, he is a professor of science communication at the University of Westminster. His current research is on astrobiology. He has written numerous books including, The Knowledge, Origins, and his latest book, Being Human.

Website: lewisdartnell.com/en-gb/

Twitter: @lewis_dartnell

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Celine Kasem about the various ways she culturally identifies, her work in Syria, and activism in our current age. They begin by discussing how she became involved in activism and political work in Syria, and Gen Z’s use of digital media tools to spread awareness about issues. They also talk about the various places she has lived, concept of home, ethnic and cultural identities, Circassians, and the various ethnic groups in Syria. They discuss the history of the Syrian conflict and the Arab Spring, how the conflict escalated and failed attempts at peace, the recent Assad Anti-normalization bill, and refugees. They mention the recent Turkish election, activism in the 21st century, and many more topics.

Celine Kasem is a human rights activist and public speaker. Currently, she is the Director of media at the Syrian Emergency Task Force. She has her Bachelors in Political Science and will continue her education in Qatar for her Masters in Intercultural Communication. She has Syrian, Circassian, Canadian, and Armenian backgrounds and has a deep passion for Syrians around the world.

Website: https://setf.ngo/

Twitter: @celinekasem

Instagram: @celinekasem

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Toby Matthiesen about Sunni and Shiism within the Islamic religion. They talk about the “divide” between Sunni and Shia Muslims and how this is not an accurate framing of these groups. They discuss the origins of Islam with the prophet Mohammad and the role of succession, school of jurisprudence, and the Shia century and interactions with the crusades. They also talk about the role of the Ottoman Empire and impact of the Safavids with the Ottomans. They talk about the rise of Wahaabism, British rule in India, modernization of the Ottoman Empire, pan-Islam and nationalism in the 20th century, and Turkey becoming more modern in the 20th century. They discuss Baathism, Muslim brotherhood, US involvement in the Middle East, the Arab Spring, Syrian conflict, and many more topics.

Toby Matthiesen is a historian and political scientist on Middle East studies and Global Islam. He is the Marie Curie Global Fellow at Stanford University and Ca’Foscari University in Venice, Italy. Starting in Fall 2023, he is Senior Lecturer in Global Religious Studies/Global Islam at the University of Bristol. He remains an Associate Member of Oxford University’s Department of Politics and International Relations. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, The Caliph and The Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism.

Website: tobymatthiesen.com/wp/

Twitter: @tobymatthiesen

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Peter Kramer about psychiatry and the role of anti-depressants. They discuss the inspiration for his new book and some of the major themes, the Goldwater rule and role of diagnosis, and the importance of truth. They discuss whether therapy is always valued for everyone, past and current depression research, anti-depressants, and many more topics.

Peter Kramer is a psychiatrist who practiced and taught psychiatry for over 40 years. He is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Brown University. He has done extensive research on depression and anti-depressants. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent novel, Death of the Great Man.

Website: https://www.peterdkramer.com/

Twitter: @peterdkramer

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with James Costa about the life of Alfred Russel Wallace. They discuss the radical and revolutionary nature of Wallace, his inquisitiveness about nature since an early age, apprenticeship, trip to the Amazon, and scientific publications. They also talk about his trip to Asia, the interactions with Darwin, spiritualism, social justice, his legacy, and many more topics.

James Costa is an entomologist and evolutionary biologist who is professor of biology and executive director Western Carolina University-Highlands Biological Station. He has co-taught in Harvard’s summer Darwin program at the University of Oxford and has been a long-time Research Associate in entomology at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. His main interests and research are on Darwin, Wallace, and the history of evolutionary thinking. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent book, Radical By Nature: The Revolutionary Life of Alfred Russel Wallace.

Website: https://jamestcosta.com/

Twitter: @jimcostahbs

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lawrence Sherman and Dennis Plies about the neuroscience of music. They discuss how they wrote the book together, define music, discuss the different parts of the brain involved in music, and the different elements of music. They also discuss musical preferences, differences between composing and improvising, curiosity, memory, truth in art, and many more topics.

Lawrence Sherman is a neuroscientist and professor of neuroscience at the Oregon Health and Science University where he also runs a lab. His widely published on brain development and disease and has investigated the neuroscience connections with music. You can find his work here.

Dennis Plies is a musician and music professor at Warner Pacific University. He has played the marimba and has recorded albums in various genres such as jazz and classical. They are the author of the book, Every Brain Needs Music.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Andrew Koppelman about Libertarianism. They discuss why Libertarianism is so popular, how it is a mutated form of liberalism, Hayek and his views, and on rights. They also talk about taxation, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, role of regulation, Liberalism today, Obamacare, and many more topics.

Andrew Koppelman is the John Paul Stevens Professor of Law, Professor (by courtesy) of Political Science, and Philosophy Department Affiliated Faculty at Northwestern University. His research focuses on issues at the intersection of law and political philosophy. He has received numerous awards and has written more than 100 scholarly articles and numerous books, including the most recent, Burning Down the House: How Libertarian Philosophy was Corrupted by Delusion and Greed.

Website: https://andrewkoppelman.com/

Twitter: @andrewkoppelman

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with David Veevers about the various perspectives around the British Empire. They talk about why people ignore some parts of history but emphasize others, Irish resistance, how the British colonized North America, and their interactions with various Native peoples. They discuss the British empire and the hegemony in Asia, meeting resistance in Africa, and having a full and complete picture of the history of the British Empire.

David Veevers is an award-winning historian and Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Bangor. His holds a PhD from the University of Kent. His research areas are on the international role of the British Empire. He is the author of the latest book, The Great Defiance: How the World Took on the British Empire.

Twitter: @davidveevers1

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jaime Green about the origins of life, other planets, and meaning. They discuss the origins of life on earth, why humans ask the big questions of life, and life on other planets. They talk about AI, machine learning, utility of sci-fi films, UFOs and many more topics.

Jaime Green is a writer, editor, and essayist. She is the series editor for The Best American Science and Nature Writing. She is also a lecturer at Smith College. She is the author of the latest book, The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos.

Website: https://www.jaimegreen.net/

Twitter: @jaimealyse

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Peggy O’Donnell Heffington about women’s rights, choice, and children. They talk about some of the reasons why women don’t have children, Millennials having children later, and structural aspects of choice. They discuss the history of abortion, contraception laws, Roe V. Wade, Dobbs ruling, the history and origins of the nuclear family, grandmother hypothesis, public perceptions of people without children, and many more topics.

Peggy O’Donnell Heffington is an Assistant Instructional Professor in the Department of History at the University of Chicago. Her interests are on historical research, gender, and women’s history. She is the author of the latest book, Without Children: The Long History of Not Being A Mother.

Website: http://poheffington.com/

Twitter: @peggyohdonnell

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Scott Fulford about the economical paradox during the COVID-19 pandemic. They discuss what is the pandemic paradox ( spending less and saving more), income vs. wealth, state of the economy pre-pandemic, and the economy during the beginning of the pandemic. They talk about the CARES act, subsequent acts after the CARES act, the American Rescue Plan, childhood poverty, childcare and women’s labor, the work revolution, inflation, and many more topics.

Scott Fulford is Senior Economist at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). He was also Assistant Professor of Economics and International Studies at Boston College. He holds a BA in Economics and a BS in Mathematics from Stanford University. He has a MA and PhD in Economics from Princeton University. He is the author of numerous economics papers and of the new book, The Pandemic Paradox: How the COVID Crisis Made Americans More Financially Secure.

Website: https://www.scott-fulford.com/

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lionel Page about rational decision-making and behavioral economics. They discuss the history and contours of behavioral economics, work of Kahneman and Tversky, and why an evolutionary framework is important for behavioral economics. They also talk about heuristics, cognitive biases, gains and loses, game theory, Nash equilibrium, cooperation, belief systems, and many more topics.

Lionel Page is an economist and Professor of economics at The University of Queensland in Australia. His research interests are in decision-making, game theory, and economics. He has been widely-published in economic journals and is the author of the book, Optimally Irrational.

Substack: Optimally Irrational

Twitter: @page_eco

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Andy Clark about prediction processing, embodiment, and reality. They discuss the predictive processing model, Bayesian brain, and the role of human growth and development for the brain. They question what is reality, Friston’s Free Energy Principle, controlled hallucinations, and computational psychiatry. They also talk about reward vs. salience, prediction error, body budget, consciousness, the extended mind, and many other topics.

Andy Clark is a Philosopher and Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex. His main research interests are embodied cognition, computational neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. He is the author of numerous books including his most recent book, The Experience Machine. You can find his work here.

Twitter: @cogsandy

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kaya Sahin about Sultan Süleyman and the Ottoman Empire. They provide an overview of the Ottoman Empire and how Süleyman was a critical leader, his upbringing, succession, and spreading the boundaries of the Empire. They also talk about the importance of the Grand Vizier, conflicts with the Hungarians and Hapsburgs, his legacy, and many more topics.

Kaya Sahin is a Historian and Associate Professor of History at Indiana University, Bloomington. His major research areas are focused with the early Ottoman Empire and the spread of governance, religion, and political and economic challenges. He has written a handful of books including the most recent, Peerless Among Princes. You can find his work here.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jonathan Losos about the evolutionary story of cats. They discuss how cats are semi-domesticated and similar around the world. They talk about how cats meow and purr to humans and less so with other cats. They discuss the sociality of cats, feral cats, and the evolutionary history of cats. They talk about the five different groups of cats, where cats originate from, different breeds of cats, genetics, where they roam, the future of cats and many other topics.

Jonathan Losos is an evolutionary ecologist who studies rapid evolution, ecology, and phylogenetics. He has his PhD from the University of California and taught at Harvard University for over 10 years. Currently, he is a professor at Washington University (St. Louis) and is the founder of the Living Earth Collaborative. He is the recipient of the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal, the Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize, the Edward O. Wilson Naturalist Award, and the David Starr Jordan Prize. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent book, The Cat’s Meow.

Website: https://biology.wustl.edu/people/jonathan-losos

Twitter: @jlosos

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Peter Frankopan about a natural history of climate change on the earth. They discuss how the climate was different on earth for billions of years and the impact the past climate has on earth today. They discuss the evolution of Hominids in the Holocene, formation of early cities, trading, domestication of horses in the Steppe, industrial age and fossil fuels, Rachel Carson and the rise of environmentalists, and many more topics.

Peter Frankopan is a Historian and Professor of global history at Oxford University. He is also the Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research and Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford. His main areas of research are on the history and politics of the Mediterranean, Central Asia, climate, and natural resources. He has won numerous awards for his books which include, The Silk Roads, The New Silk Roads, and his most recent book, The Earth Transformed.

Website: https://www.peterfrankopan.com/

Twitter: @peterfrankopan

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jean Twenge about the current generations in our society. They discuss how we define generations and why its important, technological changes being central to generational changes, and the ranges of generations. They talk about upcoming trends for Polars/alphas, Gen Z and the connection between increased mental health with increased social media use, and the changing social, economic, and educational dynamics with Millennials. They discuss Gen X as the middle child of generations and their emphasis on toughness, Boomers centrality and the ripple effects of the deaths of despair. They talk about the bipartisan nature of Silents, future generations, and many more topics.

Jean Twenge is a social psychologist and professor of psychology at San Diego State University. She is an expert on generational differences and technology from a dataset of 39 million people. She is the author of over 180 scientific publications and books which include Generation Me, iGen, and her latest book, Generations.

Website: http://www.jeantwenge.com/

Twitter: @jean_twenge

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Marissa Harrison about female serial killers. They discuss media sensationalizing serial killers, morbid curiosity, and defining serial killers. They talk about the average profile of a female serial killer, motives for female serial killers, and mental illness. They discuss psychopathy, PCL-R, and the need for improved mental health services. They also talk about neurobiology of serial killers, future research, and many other topics.

Marissa Harrison is a research psychologist and Associate Professor of psychology at Penn State Harrisburg. She has her PhD in Biopsychology (Evolutionary Psychology) from the University of Albany. Her primary research areas are in serial murder and human sexuality. She is the author of the book, Just As Deadly: The Psychology of Female Serial Killers.

Website: https://www.justasdeadly.com/

Twitter: @mharrisonpsu

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Inês Hipólito about neuroscience and embodiment. They talk about the different models of the brain, the embodied mind, and Free Energy Principle. They discuss Artificial Intelligence as a living system, Merleau-Ponty’s work on the phenomenology of embodiment, the role of perception, the self, and many more topics.

Inês Hipólito is a philosopher, researcher, and lecturer at Berlin School of Mind and Brain. Her research focuses on topics in cognitive neuroscience such as complexity, E-cognition, and Free Energy Principle. She has a BPhil, MPhil, MSc, and DPhil. She is also the co-founder and vice-president of the International Society of the Philosophy of the Sciences of the Mind.

Website: https://ineshipolito.my.canva.site/

Twitter: @ineshipolito

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Richard Fisher about the long view and our future. They talk about how society started thinking more short-term and not long-term. They discuss the historical aspects of longtermism, positive outlooks for different futures, longtermism and capitalism, and how our politics has become more short-term. They talk about the evolutionary framework for foresight and longtermism, deep time both past and future, climate change, and many more topics.

Richard Fisher is a senior journalist with the BBC-London. He is an Honorary Research Associate at University College, London. He has also been a fellow at MIT. His work covers science, technology history, health, and philosophy. He is the author of the book, The Long View.

Website: https://richardfisher.carrd.co/

Substack: The Long View: A Field Guide

Twitter: @Rifish

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Brian Lowery about the social construction of the self. They provide a definition of the “self,” how the self is only understood in the context of others, self as autonomous, and why the self is an illusion. They discuss the idea of a core self, different identities with different communities, switching identities, freedom and free will, and many other topics.

Brian Lowery is the Walter Kenneth Kilpatrick Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University. He is a social psychologist and is the director of many leadership groups. His research focuses on racial attitudes, perception of inequality, and the social context. He is the author of the book, Selfless: The Social Creation of You. He is also the host of Know What You See podcast. You can find his work here. Twitter: @brianloweryphd

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Peter Heather about the spread of Christianity. They discuss how the spread of Christianity is a story of conversion, the religious landscape at the end of the Roman empire, and the four phases of Constantine’s conversion. They talk about the essential aspects of the Council of Nicea, Augustine’s legacy, and Homoean Christianity. They also discuss the arrival of Islam in the 5th Century, the spread of Christianity to the Anglo-Saxon world, Charlemagne and the papacy, and the Great Schism of 1054. They also talk about the Crusades, Christianity’s spread, and many more topics.

Peter Heather is a historian of Medieval history and Late Roman Empire. He is Professor and Chair of Medieval History at King’s College, London. His primary interests are in the later Roman Empire and is published on the Goth and Visgoth kingdoms of the Medieval period. He has written numerous books including the most recent, Christendom: The Triumph of A Religion-A.D. 300-1300. You can find his work here.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Eckart Frahm about the Assyrian Empire. They give an overview of the various Assyrian periods, discuss the importance of the “fertile crescent,” and talk about the impact of language in Assyria. They talk about the importance of Ashur as a god and as a city, the initial rulers in the old Assyrian period, the middle Assyrian period, and the distinctions between Assyrian and Babylon. They also discuss the fall of Nineveh, Biblical accounts of the Assyrian empire, the second destruction of Assyrian artifacts by ISIS, and many other topics.

Eckart Frahm is Professor of Assyriology in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations department at Yale University. He is one of the world’s leading expert on the Assyrian Empire. He has written or co-written over six books including the most recent book, Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Charles Freeman about the history of intellectualism in the West. They discuss the preservation of texts after the fall of the Roman Empire, Charlemagne and his interactions with the Papacy, the importance of Augustine on Western thought, and the Great Schism of 1054. They also talk about rationality in the Middle Ages, impact of Islam, importance of Thomas Aquinas incorporating Greek philosophy into Christian theology, and the rise of Humanism. They also discuss impact of colonialism and conversion, the Reformation and the figures of Calvin and Luther, the reopening of the Western mind, and many more topics.

Charles Freeman is an independent historian and author. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has written over half a dozen books. He has wide spanning interests in the history of European culture and thought. He is the author of the last book, The Reopening of The Western Mind.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Ashley Ward about the senses and understanding our world. They define what a “sense” is and why we focus on the five senses. They question whether we can know reality outside of our senses and discuss the complexity of the human eye and how they human eye is different from other eyes. They talk about the role of beauty and aesthetics, impact of sound and music, taste and how it evolves over time, smell, the importance of touch, and many other topics.

Ashley Ward is a biologist and professor of animal behavior in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at The University of Sydney. He studies a wide range of animals and researches learning, communication, and decision-making in many animals. He is the author of the book, The Social Lives of Animals, and the most recent book, Where We Meet The World. You can find his work here and here. Twitter: @ashleyjwward

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Bart Ehrman about armageddon and the apocalypse as detailed in the Bible. They discuss why many people have a fascination with the end times and many of the things detailed in the book of Revelation. They talk about the role of interpretation, various views of the tribulation, and where the idea of the rapture originated. They discuss the importance of genre in the Bible, the historical view of Revelation, negative messaging of Revelation, and many more topics.

Bart Ehrman is James A. Gray Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has both his M. Div and PhD from Princeton University. He has served as President of the Southeast Region of the Society of Biblical literature and chair of the New Testament textual criticism section of the Society. He has served as associate editor for the Journal of Early Christian Studies, book review editor of the Journal of Biblical Literature, and editor of the monograph series The New Testament in the Greek Fathers (Scholars Press). He currently serves as co-editor of the series New Testament Tools, Studies, and Documents (E. J. Brill), co-editor-in-chief for the international journal of early Christian studies, Vigiliae Christianae, and area editor (early Christianity) for the Encyclopedia of Ancient History. An expert on the New Testament and the history of Early Christianity, has written or edited thirty books, numerous scholarly articles, and dozens of book reviews. He is the author of numerous books including his new book, Armageddon.

Website: https://www.bartehrman.com/

Blog: https://ehrmanblog.org/

Twitter: @bartehrman

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a discussion with Judith Herman about trauma and justice. They discuss how her new book on trauma is connected to her previous book on trauma. They define trauma and its potential overuse, role of dominance and submission before violence in intimate partner violence (IPV), and the role of patriarchy in our society. They talk about modern feminism working for trauma work, acknowledgement, apology, and forgiveness in trauma work, and restorative justice. They also talk about resilience, exposure therapy, and many other topics.

Judith Herman is the clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of Training at the Victims of Violence Program at Cambridge Hospital. She obtained her MD from Harvard Medical School. She has received numerous honors such as a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, a Bunting Institute fellowship at Radcliffe, a Manfred S. Guttmacher Award from the American Psychiatric Association and American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, and a Women in Science Award from the American Medical Women’s Association. She is the author of three books including the classic, Trauma and Recovery and her latest book, Truth and Repair. You can find her work here.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Simon Baron-Cohen about various components of autism. They define autism, discuss the systematizing mechanism and the if-and-then logic, and talk about the empathy circuit. They discuss how the systematizing quotient (SQ) and the empathy quotient (EQ) correspond with research on Big-5 personality and intelligence research. They mention some of the sex differences between between the SQ and EQ, evolutionary elements of invention, autism in present times, and many other topics.

Simon Baron-Cohen is a Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry University of Cambridge and Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is Director of the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge, which he set up in 1997. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the British Academy, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the American Psychological Association. He is Vice-President of the National Autistic Society, and was President of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR, 2017-19). He was Chair of the NICE Guideline Development Group for Autism (Adults) and was Chair of the Psychology Section of the British Academy. He is coeditor in chief of the journal Molecular Autism which has the highest impact factor of all autism research journals. He received a knighthood in the New Year’s Honors List 2021. He has published over 700 peer reviewed scientific articles, which have made contributions to many aspects of autism research. He is also the author of five books including the most recent, The Pattern Seekers. You can find his work at his website. Twitter: @sbaroncohen

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paul Bloom about major themes in psychology. They discuss how he wrote his latest book, Psych, and some of the origins of the book. They talk about dualism and understanding the brain, consciousness, and why we should still study Freud. They also discuss Piaget’s contributions to psychology, how serious is the replication crisis, core personality, the future of psychology and many more topics.

Paul Bloom is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto and the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University. Paul's interests are on morality, pleasure, and development. He is the past president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology and co-editor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. He has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. He is the author of numerous books such as Against Empathy, The Sweet Spot, and his latest book, Psych, which you can purchase here. You can find much of his research and writing at his website. Twitter: @paulbloomatyale.

Bonus: Make sure you read Nicole’s fantastic review below and subscribe to her excellent Bookmarked Reads📚.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nicholas Dirks about science communication and various issues in academia. They discuss his background as chancellor and dean of various academic institutions, problems and solutions for higher education, and why liberal arts are still needed. They also cover free speech and culture wars issues, COVID-19, science communication, and many other topics.

Nicholas Dirks is President and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences. He was the 10th Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley and was also Dean of faculty at Columbia University. He has a background in history and anthropology and has written numerous books. You can find his work here. Twitter: @nickdirks

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lindsay Chervinsky about death and mourning of U.S. Presidents. They discuss how the book came about and how certain essays were chosen for the volume. They talk about the themes of race, political party, and family. They discuss the ideas of legacy, and how U.S. presidential funerals compare with other global heads of state. They talk about Washington and his private funeral, Jefferson and his descendants, Taylor and his mixed legacy, and the global impact of Lincoln. They also discuss Theodore Roosevelt through a current lens, generational impact of FDR and JFK, the long goodbye of Reagan, the bipartisan mourning of H.W. Bush, and many other topics.

Lindsay M. Chervinsky is a historian, author, and speaker. She obtained her PhD in history from the University of California, Davis and is a fellow at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. She has also been a professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. She is the author of The Cabinet: George Washington and The Creation of An American Institution and co-editor (with Matthew R. Costello) of Mourning The Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture. You can find her work at her website and on her substack, Imperfect Union. Twitter: @lmchervinsky

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Clayton Bohnet about protest through a philosophical lens. They discuss what a montage is and why he used it for his book, defining protest, and the functionality of protest. They talk about protest as spectacle, differences between protests and mobs/riots, Kant’s contribution to understanding critique, and many more topics.

Clayton Bohnet is a philosopher, writer, and professor. He has Master’s in Psychology from the University of West Virginia and a PhD in Philosophy from Duquesne University. He has taught at Fordham University, Gonzaga University, and Central Washington university. Currently, he is pursing a law degree from Cleveland Marshall College of Law. He is the author of the book, Toward a Philosophy of Protest.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Shadi Hamid about democracy, liberalism, and foreign policy. They discuss democracy and how it is usually defined, what constitutes a “real” democracy, and the differences between liberalism and democracy. They discuss Islam and its various strands, challenges with democracy during the Arab spring, and why the United States chooses to get involved in some countries and not others. They also talk about positive examples of democracy abroad, the future of democracy in the Middle East, and many more topics.

Shadi Hamid is a Senior Fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings. He is also the Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Fuller Seminary. He is the Contributing Writer at The Atlantic. He has his Bachelors and Masters from Georgetown University and his DPhil in Politics from Oxford University. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, The Problem of Democracy: America, the Middle East, and the Rise and Fall of an Idea. You can find his work here and here. Twitter: @shadihamid

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paul Craddock about the history of transplant surgery. They discuss the overarching movement of transplant surgery, skin grafting, and blood transfusions. They also talk about the long history of teeth and their various surgeries through time. They talk about vascular surgery, first organ transplants, advances in medical technology and future transplants, and many more topics.

Paul Craddock is a cultural historian and award-winning author. He is a Science Museum Group Senior Research Associate, Honorary Senior Research Associate of UCL’s Division of Surgery, and Visiting Lecturer at Imperial College London. He is the author of Spare Parts: A Surprising History of Transplants. You can find him at his website. Twitter: @pwcraddock1984

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a discussion with William Costello about incels. They define sexuality more broadly and define incels and some of the features of incels. They discuss the importance of sexual selection and how incels are part of online culture and also outside of online culture. They talk about the “manosphere,” modern masculinity, and the different messages that men receive from society. They discuss the cultural perceptions of incels, violence, clinical treatment for incels, and many more topics.

William Costello is a current PhD student in evolutionary psychology in David Buss’ lab at the University of Texas, Austin. He has his MSc in psychology: evolution and culture from Brunel University, London. His research focuses on incels, individual differences and evolutionary psychology. You can find his work here. Twitter: @costellowilliam

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Adam Bulley about foresight and its evolutionary history. They define what foresight is and how it is different from prospective memory. They discuss how much executive functioning is involved, episodic foresight, abstraction, and theory of mind. They talk about the evolutionary history of foresight, cultural evolution, human development, and predictive models and perception. They also talk about brain systems involved with foresight, new technology, social dynamics, clock time, and many more topics.

Adam Bulley is a postdoctoral fellow at the Brain and Mind Centre and School of Psychology, The University of Sydney and the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. His primary research areas are in the evolution, mechanism, and psychology of imagination, foresight, and decision-making. He is the co-author (with Thomas Suddendorf & Jon Redshaw) of the book, The Invention of Tomorrow: A Natural History of Foresight. You can find his research here. Twitter: @adamdbulley

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Pinar Yildirim about marketing in our current society. They begin by defining marketing, how marketing influences consumers, and the importance of design and branding in marketing. They also discuss consumer loyalty within marketing and global marketing. They talk about content moderation within social media, public vs. private organizations, Tik Tok and data privacy, and many other topics.

Pinar Yildirim is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, Associate Professor by courtesy at the Penn Department of Economics, NBER Faculty Fellow, Senior Fellow at the Center for Technology and Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a PhD degree in Marketing and Business Economics and a PhD in Engineering, both from the University of Pittsburgh.

Pinar’s research areas are technology, media and information economics. She focuses on applied theory and applied-economics of online platforms, advertising, networks, media, and politics. Her research appeared in leading management, marketing journals including Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, and Journal of Marketing. She has received numerous grants and honors including, Marketing Science Institute Scholar, and earlier the Young Scholar, Awards, Seenu Srinivasan Young Scholar Award in Quantitative Methodology and the Erin Anderson Award for Emerging Mentor and Scholar. Her research has been covered by numerous media outlets such as CNN, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Forbes, Politico, Vox, San Francisco Chronicle, among others.  She is on the Editorial Board of Marketing Science and Journal of Marketing Research, two leading academic journals of marketing.

Website: www.pinaryildirim.com

Twitter: @prof_yildirim

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Joseph Graves Jr. about his life experiences and research in evolutionary biology. They talk about why he wrote his most recent book as half memoir/half popular science book, his early beginnings in the Jim Crow South, and how he became interested in the biological sciences. They talk about his work on Drosophila and broader research areas in evolutionary biology, his work on race and IQ, and many other topics.

Joseph Graves Jr. is an evolutionary biologist and Professor of Nanoengineering at North Carolina A&T State University. He has his BA in Biology from Oberlin College and his PhD from Wayne State University. He has studied the evolutionary theory of aging and race and IQ. He is the author of the most recent book, Voice In The Wilderness. You can find his work here. Twitter: @gravesjl55

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Brian Lowery about racial equality and equity, privilege, and selfhood. They discuss the major data points and reasons for continued racial inequities, systemic racism, and different types of privilege. They also talk about the differences between equity, equality, and equality of opportunity. They also discuss the efficacy of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) departments in academia and in the workforce. They also discuss the self and how one defines the self, why a social context is important, the uniqueness of individuals, and many more topics.

Brian Lowery is the Walter Kenneth Kilpatrick Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University. He is a social psychologist and is the director of many leadership groups. His research focuses on racial attitudes, perception of inequality, and the social context. He is also the host of Know What You See podcast. You can find his work here. Twitter: @brianloweryphd

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Ken Sheldon about free will, determinism, the self, and positive psychology. They talk about why studying free will is important, the three horsemen of determinism, grand hierarchy of human interaction, and the illusion of free will. They also talk about the self, self-determination theory, the symbolic self, and many more topics.

Ken Sheldon is the Curator’s Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri. He is well-established in the Positive Psychology field and is well-published in the scientific literature. His main interests are in motivation, well-being, personality, and values. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including the most recent book, Freely Determined. You can find his work here.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Alex Ross about Richard Wagner and his legacy. They discuss why he wrote a book on Wagner and what is Wagnerism, Wagner’s relationship with Nietzsche, and the many interpretations of Wagner. They talk about Wagner’s antisemitism, alternative Wagnerisms, Wagner’s impact on literature, Nazi Germany, and cinema.

Alex Ross is a writer and music critic who has been writing for The New Yorker for over 25 years. He writes on classical music from opera to avant-garde and has published pieces on literature, history, and film. He is the author of the Pulitzer prize winning, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. He is also the author of the latest book, Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music. You can find his work here and here. Twitter: @alexrossmusic

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Michael Stein about healthcare vs. public health. They talk about the narratives around healthcare and public health, biopsychosocial model, and progress of health in the USA. They talk about how to get people to care about the health of their fellow citizens, global health vs. USA public health. They talk about preventative vs. reactionary care, pandemic issues, public health as process and practice, and many more topics.

Michael Stein is a physician and health policy researcher in public health. He is the current Chair and Professor of Health, Law, Policy, and Management at Boston University School of Public Health. He has done research for over three decades on sleep, pain addiction, HIV/AIDS, and health care access. He is the author of eleven books including the more recent, Me Vs. Us. You can find his work here.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kat Rosenfield about stories and culture. They discuss her process for writing novels and essays, writing a gothic mystery novel, and how she writes strong female protagonists. They also talk about the stories we tell in our society, outrage culture, and many more topics.

Kat Rosenfield is a freelance pop culture writer. She is a former reporter for MTV News and has written articles for Entertainment Weekly, Unherd, Vulture, Wired, and many other places. She is the author of many books including Alliances: A Trick of Light with Stan Lee. Her newest novel is You Must Remember This and can be purchased here. You can find her at her website. Twitter: @katrosenfield

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Aynne Kokas about digital sovereignty and our data in the digital world. They discuss the US-China relationship with the tech industry. They define digital sovereignty and data trafficking, discuss ownership and management of personal data, and what are the three risks of data trafficking and three limitations of the US system for data. They also talk about China’s cyber sovereignty and China’s use of military for data surveillance. They discuss digital sovereignty and social media, the dangers of Tik Tok, and many more topics.

Aynne Kokas is the C.K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center and associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. She is also a non-resident scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute of Public Policy, a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow in the National Committee on United States-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program. Her work mostly focuses on US media and technology relations. She is the author of Hollywood Made in China and her latest release, Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty. Website: https://www.aynnekokas.com/ Twitter: @aynnekokas

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with David Marchick about the presidential transfer of power. They discuss the podcast he hosted on the transfer of power and how the book was developed. They talk about presidential transitions, the importance of the Office of Presidential Personnel, and importance of the General Services Administration. They discuss four key features of leading in crisis and discuss the presidential transitions of Presidents Carter, Reagan, and other presidents. They talk about the importance of Chris Liddell, presidential transitions for the future, and many more topics.

David Marchick is the Dean of the Kogard School of Business at American University. He has served as the Chief Operating Officer of the United States Development Finance Cooperation for the Biden Administration. He also held several positions in the Clinton Administration. He was also Director of the Center for Presidential Transition. He is the co-author of the book, The Peaceful Transition of Power: An Oral History of Presidential Transitions based on conversations he had on the podcast, Transition Lab. You can find his work here.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Christopher Ferguson about masculinity, homelessness, and mental health. They discuss his APA resignation letter and APA’s guidelines for boys and men. They also discuss the challenges and potential solutions for homelessness and institutionalization. They also review some of the political progress over the past two years and many other topics.

Christopher Ferguson is a clinical psychologist, professor, and writer. He teaches psychology at Stetson University and continues to conduct research on mass media violence. He is the author of two non-fiction books. He is the author of a handful of books including the most recent book, Catastrophe! How Psychology Explains Why Good People Make Bad Decisions Worse. You can find many links to his various publications and articles at his website.  Twitter: @cjferguson1111

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Peter Salmon about the life and philosophy of Jacques Derrida. They discuss Derrida’s place in philosophy and within deconstructionism, the culture and identity in Derrida’s upbringing, and the impact of Husserl, Heidegger, and Levinas on Derrida’s philosophical thought. They talk about Derrida’s emphasis on language, his interactions with Nietzsche’s thought, how he was received in society, his social circle and his enduring legacy.

Peter Salmon is a writer and has taught at schools in Liverpool and Cambridge. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The Tablet, and Sydney Review of Books. He is the author of the biography on Jacques Derrida entitled, An Event, Perhaps. You can find his work at his website. Twitter: @petesalmon

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with David Hoinski about different philosophical ideas and the importance of appreciation. They discuss the philosophy of the pre-socratics, logos, and the nature and role of philosophy. They also talk about immanence vs. transcendence, reality and the metaphysical, and the emotions of guilt and shame. They discuss Nietzsche’s idea about the death of god, universal and political implications of Nietzsche’s philosophy, capitalism, why appreciation is important and many more topics.

David Hoinski is a philosopher and writer. He is an Assistant Professor of philosophy at West Virginia University where he emphasizes ancient philosophy, modern German philosophy, and ethical/political philosophy. David is an esteemed bibliophile and speaks German and Ancient Greek.  Twitter: @davidfahoinski

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Merve Emre about literary criticism and how to engage with literature. They discuss what literary criticism is and why it is important. They talk about different ways of reading, author’s intent, and the contours of literary genre. They also discuss various forms of interpretation, themes of “becoming” in the philosophy of Nietzsche and writing of Mieko Kawakami, and many more topics.

Merve Emre is a professor of literature at Oxford University, Critic at The New Yorker, and the Shaprio-Silverberg Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Wesleyan University. She has her BA from Harvard University and her PhD from Yale University. Her essays have appeared in Harper’s, The Atlantic, and The New York Review of Books. She is the author of numerous books including Paraliterary and The Personality Brokers. You can find her work at her website. Twitter: @mervatim

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Justin Gregg about animal intelligence. They discuss how one defines intelligence, g, and what intelligence means for humans and animals. They talk about animal minds, communication in animals, and concepts of deception. They discuss theory of mind, minimal concept of death, morality and norms in animals, torture and pain in animals, and many other topics.

Justin Gregg is a science writer and communicator. He is Adjunct Professor at Saint Francis Xavier University and Senior Research Associate with the Dolphin Communication Project. He has a PhD from Trinity College, Dublin and has studied dolphin social cognition. He is the author of a few books including his most recent, If Nietzsche Were A Narwhal. You can find his work here. Twitter: @justindgregg

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lars Chittka about the cognitive abilities of bees. They discuss the individuality and evolutionary history of bees. They talk about the various aspects of vision in bees such as polarization, sun compass, and phylogenetic analysis. They discuss the antennae of bees and how they use this sense. They talk about the sociality of bees, the brains of bees, intelligence, and their personality. They also discuss robot bees, bee conservation, and many more topics.

Lars Chittka is a zoologist and ecologist who is the founder of the research centre for psychology at Queen Mary, University of London. He is an editor of PLoS Biology, fellow of the Linnean Society, the Royal Entomological Society, and Royal Society of Biology. He is a well-established researcher on sensory physiology and cognition of bees. He is the author of The Mind of A Bee. You can find his work here. Twitter: @lchittka

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Katja Hoyer about the history of the German Empire. They discuss what it means to be German, Prussia and its boundaries, and the importance of the German revolution in 1848. They talk about the character and rule of Otto Von Bismarck, the unification of Germany in 1871, and how the industrial revolution was economically important. They also talk about the changing of the Kaisers, Germany’s involvement in WWI and the aftermath, and many other topics.

Katja Hoyer is a historian and journalist who is visiting research fellow at King’s College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She is also Global Opinions contributing columnist for The Washington Post. Her main research area is the history of modern Germany. She is the author of Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871-1918. Twitter: @hoyer_kat

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Freddie deBoer about marxism, education and society. They define marxism, how marxism works today and how it is connected with communism and socialism. They discuss the evolution of the cult of smart, manufacturing and technical jobs, and how educational systems globally are compared to the United States. They talk about capacity and achievement, genetics and the “hereditarian left,” equality and equity, and lack of quality of education. They also discuss No Child Left Behind, Common Core, charter schools, solutions for our education system, and many more topics.

Freddie deBoer is a academic and writer. He has a Masters in writing and rhetoric from the University of Rhode Island and a PhD in english from Perdue University. He is the author of The Cult of Smart and writes consistently on his substack.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Stuart Ritchie about fraud, bias, and hype within the social sciences. They talk about “trust the science” and some of the challenges of science during the COVID-19 pandemic. The discuss how the scientific method work and some of the dynamics within the scientific publishing world. They talk about how certain campaigns can promote what does and does not get accepted into scholarly journals, the replication crisis, and various fads within psychology. They also talk about the challenges of priming studies, censorship in journals, the Wakefield MMR vaccine study, p-hacking, growth mindset, and many more topics.

Stuart Ritchie is a psychologist and Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at King’s College, London. His research interests are human intelligence and challenges within the social sciences. He is the author of Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth. You can follow his substack. Twitter: @stuartjritchie

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Matthew Cobb about the moral history of genetic engineering. They discuss his reasons for writing the book and why one should be worried about genetic engineering. They define genetic engineering and some of the precursor tools before the advent of recombinant DNA. They discuss recombinant DNA, Paul Berg, and Asilomar. They also talk about the genetic history of GMOs, gene editing/CRISPR, the future of genetic engineering, and many more topics.

Matthew Cobb is Professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester. He has interests in human and animal behavior and is a well-established science communicator. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, As Gods: A Moral History of The Genetic Age. Twitter: @matthewcobb

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue about the philosophy of Schelling, Spinoza, idealism, and realism. They talk about how he came to write his book on Schelling and Spinoza and how one can define idealism and realism. They talk about the three claims of idealism, Spinoza’s ethics, and the importance of Jacobi’s critiques on German idealism. They also talk about Spinoza’s god, the infinite and finite, modes and attributes of substance, principle of sufficient reason, and Kant’s synthetic judgements. They talk about Schelling’s philosophy of nature and his shift from philosophy of nature to philosophy of identity. They also mention the absolute, blotobjectivism, Kant’s antinomies, the problem of evil, and Schelling’s notion of potencies. They also mention Žižek’s three phases of Schelling’s philosophy, Schelling’s tripartite-tripartite soul, and many more topics.

Benjamin Norris is a philosopher and professor at Rowan University. He has his PhD in philosophy from the New School for Social Research. His main interests are German idealism, history of philosophy, and social and political philosophy. He is the author of the book, Schelling and Spinoza: Realism, Idealism, and the Absolute. You can find his work here. Twitter: @absoluteorgan

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Geoffrey Miller about evolution, polyamory, and artificial intelligence (AI). They give an overview of natural selection and sexual selection and explain why sexual selection was lost to history for many years. They discuss mate choice, pair-bonding, cold and hot choosers, sexual ornamentation, the ornamental mind, and mate retention. They also discuss polyamorous relationships, the moral and ethical implications of polyamorous relationships, and the role of commitment. They also talk about effective altruism and its connection with AI, the alignment problem of AI, libertarianism, and many more topics.

Geoffrey Miller is an evolutionary psychologist and associate professor at the University of New Mexico. He has a Bachelors in biology and psychology from Columbia university and a PhD in cognitive psychology from Stanford University. He is well cited in the scientific literature and has appeared in many mainstream outlets. His main research areas are in sexual selection, mate choice, creativity, and consumer behavior. He is the author of numerous books which can be found at his website. Twitter: @primalpoly

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Ben Winegard about the 2022 US midterm elections. They discuss the main takeaways and why there was no “red wave” for the republicans. They talk about the Desantis juggernaut and whether abortion was as big of an issue for people to get to the voting polls. They also discuss the importance of the midwest states such as Michigan and Wisconsin. They also talk about the ballot measures, the Senate, House, and Governorships, looking ahead to 2024, and many other topics.

Ben Winegard is currently an independent scholar who writes on many topics. He holds a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology with an emphasis on evolution. His current interests are on human progress, polarization, and political issues. Twitter: @winega2benjamin

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with W. Keith Campbell about the research on narcissism. They define narcissism and explain the three types: grandiose, vulnerable, and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). They talk about state vs. traits vs. disorder and the three theoretical models of narcissism along with the 4 major models of narcissism. They discuss general personality traits such as the big-5 and some of the personality measures. They discuss NPD, dark triad, light triad, and energetic triad, and how narcissism can present in relationships, dating, leadership, and on social media. They also talk about the adaptive aspects of narcissism, managing narcissism, and many other topics. 

W. Keith Campbell is a professor of psychology at the University of Georgia and is a leading expert on narcissism. He is widely published in scientific journals and has appeared in many major outlets. He is the author of The New Science of Narcissism. You can find his work here. 

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Richard Reeves about the current issues for boys and men. They discuss how to talk about men's issues next to women's issues. They talk about the structural issues against men such as in education and in the workforce. They mention the gender pay gap, challenges for Black and Latino men, and failures of the political right and political left to provide answers for men's issues. They also talk about HEAL and some of the solutions for men's issues and many other topics. 

Richard Reeves is senior fellow and theJohn C. and Nancy D. Whitehead Chair for economic studies at Brookings. He is the Director of the Future of the Middle Class Initiative. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. He is the author of several books including the most recent, Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It. You can find his work here. Twitter: @richardvreeves

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Susana Monsó about animal minds. They talk about how animal minds are defined and why there is an emphasis on cognition. They also talk about a minimal concept of death and why this is important to understand animal minds. They talk about whether consciousness is essential for understanding animal minds and some of the arguments for and against moral individualism. They also talk about the ethics of eating farmed animals, how to treat domesticated animals, and many other topics. 

Susana Monsó is a philosopher who has a Bachelors in philosophy, Masters in ethics and human Values and a PhD in philosophy. She is also the co-founder of the Philosophy of Animal Minds and Behavior Association. Her main interest areas are on animal minds and animal ethics. You can find all of her published research at her website. 

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Rob Dunn about the natural history of the future of earth. They discuss the two laws of ecological diversity and how increased ecological diversity is helpful for growth. They also talk about the anthropocentric view of the world and different islands for diverse populations. They discuss the inadvertent ark and how corridors play a role here. They also talk about how humans stay concentrated in certain regions with GDP and violence being contributing factors. They also talk about biodiversity, gut microbiome, and the role of climate change for the future of the earth. 

Rob Dunn is a biologist and professor of applied ecology at North Carolina State University. His research focuses on the world around people in their local environments and his lab examines species, organs, cells, genes, and various ecosystems of everyday life. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, A Natural History of The Future. You can find his work at his lab. Twitter: @rrobdunn

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kevin Aho about existentialism, life, and death. They discuss his background and heart attack which was the motivation for him writing his most recent book. They discuss the inevitability of death, existentialism and its major concepts, and authenticity. They also talk about "the herd" and negative impact of social media. They also discuss various ideas on disorders and neuroscience, Nietzsche's ideas on suffering well, and many other topics. 

Kevin Aho is a professor of philosophy at Florida Gulf Coast University. He has Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate in philosophy. He teaches and writes on existentialism, phenomenology, and hermeneutics. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, One Beat More: Existentialism and The Gift of Mortality. You can find his work here. Twitter: @kevinaho17

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with David Quammen about the origins and treatments for SARS-CoV-2. They discuss the lack of preparedness and missed warnings of SARS 2003. They talk about the two main schools of though on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the 2 lineages, variants, and future variants. They also talk about herd immunity, drug therapies, and vaccines. They mention gain-of-function research, preparedness for future pandemics, and many other topics. 

David Quammen is a well-renowned science writer and has received a Rhodes Scholarship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and numerous awards for his writing. He is the author of sixteen books including, The Song of the Dodo, Spillover, The Tangled Tree, and his latest, Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat A Deadly Virus. You can find his work here. Twitter: @davidquammen

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Massimo Pigliucci about the nature of virtues and character. They define virtue and why people seek virtue. They describe the differences between virtues and morals and discuss moral relativism. They talk about daemons and how they are important for moral character. They also talk about Plato's five ways of governing, trusting institutions, aspects of character, and many more topics.

Massimo Pigliucci is the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at City College of New York. He has a PhD in biology, a PhD in philosophy, and a doctorate in genetics. His main interests are philosophy of science, nature of pseudoscience, and stoicism. He is widely published in scientific journals and in mainstream outlets. He is the author of 16 books including his most recent book, The Quest for Character: What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us About Our Search for Good Leaders. You can find his work here. 

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Siddhartha Mukherjee about cellular biology. They define what a cell is and talk about the importance of Leeuwenhoek and Hooke in observing and discovering the cell. They talk about the five basic principles of cell biology and explore the anatomy of a cell. They explain how important B cells and T cells are for the innate immune system and the adaptive immune system for fighting diseases such as SARS-CoV-2 and HIV. They also talk about the potential of stem cells for human medicine and many other topics. 

Siddhartha Mukherjee is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a cancer researcher and physician. He has his Bachelors in biology from Stanford University. As a Rhodes Scholar, he has a DPhil in immunology from Oxford University and an MD from Harvard University. He has published articles in journals such as Nature and The New England Journal of Medicine and in mainstream outlets such as The New York Times. He is the author of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize winning, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, The New York Times best-Seller, The Gene: An Intimate History, and the author of the new book, The Song of The Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and The New Human. You can find his work here. Twitter: @drsidmukherjee

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Hannah Bradshaw about same-sex friendships, opposite-sex friendships, and relationships in society. They discuss some of her background and research, dynamics of male friendships, and dynamics of female friendships. They discuss opposite sex friendships, different levels of friendship, boundaries in friendships, and intrasexual female competition. They also discuss men and women in the workforce together, potential careers for younger generations, and sex differences in disgust research. 

Hannah Bradshaw is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Washington and Jefferson College. She has her PhD in experimental psychology and her main interests include a multidisciplinary approach examining disgust sensitivity, women's sociality, and consumer behavior. You can find her work here. Twitter: @hkbradshaw

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robin Hanson about hidden motives, norms, and the sacred. They discuss how one understands motives and why they are hidden. They also talk about bias and not violating norms, free will, status and signaling and why dominance and prestige are important. They also talk about some aspects of cancel culture, large and small norms, and self-deception. They spend some time discussing the sacred, futarchy, and many other topics. 

Robin Hanson is an Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University. He has degrees in physics and a PhD in social sciences from Caltech. His interests include economics, philosophy, political theory, healthy policy, and regulation. He has many articles published in various scientific journals and is the author of many books, including the most recent (co-authored with Kevin Simler), The Elephant In The Brain. He is also the co-host (with Agnes Callard) of the podcast, Minds Almost Meeting. You can find his work at his personal website. Twitter: @robinhanson

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Bruce Carruthers about credit, trust, and the American economic system. They discuss the point of emphasis on promise and trust when discussing credit and finances in the United States. They talk about why people willingly go into debt to be part of an American economic system. They spend time talking about the history and current use of the credit rating scale and its expanding evolution for society. They also talk about the national bank of the United States, student loans, and many other topics. 

Bruce Carruthers is a sociologist and John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University. His research focuses on the history of credit in the United States. He is the author of five books including the most recent book, The Economy of Promises: Trust, Power, and Credit in America. You can find his work here. 

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Richard Polt about the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. They define and discuss Dasein, 3 forms of Dasein, and how it is different from other types of being. They talk about authenticity and inauthenticity, being as metaphysics, and the role of Aristotle's philosophy on Heidegger's thought. They discuss Heidegger's "turn" in the 1930s, being-in-the-world, 4 senses of the world, and what a shared world means. They also talk about environment, present-at-hand, and ready-to-hand. They engage on Heidegger's concepts of care, thrownness, and anxiety. They also mention Heidegger's thoughts on language and technology, along with his involvement in the Nazi party, and many other topics. 

Richard Polt is Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of philosophy at Xavier University. He has a Bachelors in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley and a PhD from the Committee on Social Thought from the University of Chicago. His major interests are in Greek and German philosophy and he has translated and written over seven books, mostly on German philosophy, namely Heidegger's philosophical thought. You can find his work here. 

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Annie Wertz about her research on infant cognition and the interactions with plants. They discuss her background and how she came to study infant cognition and plants. They discuss infant development and cognition including object permanence, theory of mind, and various cognitive domains. They also talk about different types of plants such as toxic vs. non-toxic plants. They discuss the co-evolution of plants with humans and how infants can discriminate between edible and non-edible plants. They also discuss her PLANT experiment and the cross-cultural differences with infant cognition with plants.

Annie Wertz is a research psychologist who researches infant cognition and infants’ interactions with plants. She has her bachelor’s in psychology from Boston University and PhD in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She completed her postdoc research at Yale University and is currently a lead researcher in the MPRG Naturalistic Social Cognition Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. You can find her work here.      Twitter: @anniewertz

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jack Ashby about the wonderful mammals of Australia. They talk about the distinctions between monotremes, marsupials, and placentals and where they are located around the world. They mention the ways in which the rest of the world discusses Australian mammals. They describe the features of the platypus, along with their mating and reproduction characteristics. They also talk about the features of the echidna including the males four-headed penis. They talk about the features of marsupials and some of the reproductive features of Tasmanian Devils. They mention the extinct Australian animals and the recent discussion of some trying to "resurrect" the thylacine. They talk about working in tandem with various Indigenous people groups in Australia and how to best understand Australian mammals. 

Jack Ashby is a scientist and author. Currently, he is the Assistant Director of the University Museum of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. He has his PhD in Zoology from the University of Cambridge and was previously the museum manager at the Grant Museum of Zoology at University College London. He is a trustee of the Natural Sciences Collections Association, an Honorary Research Fellow in UCL Science and Technology Studies, and sits on the Council of the Society for the History of Natural History. He is the author of the latest book, Platypus Matters: The Extraordinary Story of Australian Mammals. You can find his work here. Twitter: @jackdashby

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Simon Morden about the natural history of Mars. They talk about the current data concerning Mars, origins of the universe and how Mars formed. They talk about the importance of the great dichotomy, features of Mars during the pre-Noachian period, and the 2 moons of Mars. They discuss the Noachian period and how water was on Mars. They talk about the change of climate and atmosphere in the Hesperian period, rust and how Mars became red, the Amazonian period, the difficulty of getting humans to Mars and many more topics.

Simon Morden is a scientist and author. He has a bachelor’s in Geology and his PhD in Geophysics. He has spent much of his career writing science-fiction novels and has written over 10 novels and novellas. He has won the Philip K. Dick Award and been a judge for the Arthur C. Clarke Awards. He has returned to writing about the sciences with his latest book, The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars. You can find him at his website.       Twitter: @comrademorden

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Vanessa Bohns about her research on influence. They define influence and how it has a reciprocal nature. They discuss who we are influenced by and what are the social norms for influence. They talk about why it is hard to make requests and hard to say no. They mention the negative aspects of influence, influence in dating and romantic relationships, the role of power with influence, and many other topics.

Vanessa Bohns is a social psychologist and professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University. She has an undergraduate degree from Brown University and PhD in Psychology from Columbia University. She has previously taught at New York University’s Stern School of Business and University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Her work as been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic. She is the author of her first book, You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate Our Power of Persuasion, and Why It Matters. You can find her work at her website. Twitter: @profbohns

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robert W. Merry about the life and presidency of William McKinley. They discuss the character and temperament of McKinley, his Ohio upbringing, impact of the Civil War, and why tariffs were a huge part of his policies. They talk about the brilliance of the 1896 election and his vision for his 1st term focusing on economic prosperity. They discuss the annexation of Hawaii, the Spanish-American war, and how he managed the Philippines acquisition. They also talk about why he ran for a 2nd term, impact of Theodore Roosevelt, trade reciprocity, assassination, and the unfinished legacy of McKinley.

Robert W. Merry has an extensive background as a reporter, newsroom manager, and publishing CEO. He has both his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Journalism. Currently, he is the author of numerous books on American history and foreign policy. His book, President McKinley: Architect of the American Century is now available everywhere. You can find his work at his website.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with William Deresiewicz about wokeness, academia, generational shifts, and the state of our culture. They talk about where one should place their energy and attention to events in society. They talk about how serious wokeness is and the misadventures of the extreme left in academia. They mention how society should progress towards balance, reforming/creating institutions, and the role of the internet and social media. They also talk about the various generational shifts and many more topics.

William Deresiewicz is a writer, cultural critic, and speaker. He has published over 300 essays and reviews in places such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Harper’s. He has previously taught at English Yale University and Columbia University and is now a full-time writer. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society. Find him at his website.                          Twitter: @wderesiewicz

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Troy Senik about the life and presidency of Grover Cleveland. They discuss how one defines a successful president and why this is important to consider when evaluating a presidential legacy. They talk about the philosophy and worldview in which Grover Cleveland governed, his temperament and contextual background, his absence from the civil war, and his time as mayor of Buffalo and governor of New York. They spend time discussing the case of Maria Halpin, his first term as president, his relationship with Frances Folsom, and his 2nd term as president along with what his legacy is as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. 

Troy Senik is an author and former White House speechwriter. He has worked at various think tanks and has published many pieces in mainstream publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. He is the co-founder of the digital media company, Kite & Key. He is the author of the book, A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland. Twitter: @troy_senik

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Geoffrey Cohen about the science around the concept of belonging. They discuss Kurt Lewin's work on social psychology, specifically on his idea of situation building and the importance of the environment. They talk about the individual vs. collective dichotomy, five vital resources, belonging uncertainty, and belonging with identity. They also discuss us vs. them, interpersonal dynamics and perception, the negative side of belonging and fundamental attribution error. They talk about stereotypes and biases and how to foster belonging in schools, workforce, and in society. 

Geoffrey Cohen is a social psychologist and James G. Marsh Professor of Organizational Studies in Education and Business, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. He has a bachelors in psychology from Cornell University and PhD from Stanford University. His main research areas are the psychology of the self and belonging. He is the author of the new book, Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides. Visit his website here. Twitter: @geoffcohen

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Douglas Kenrick and David Lundberg-Kenrick about the evolutionary adaptations of the human body and brain. They discuss their pyramid of needs being rooted in evolution and juxtaposing it with Maslow's hierarchy of needs. They talk about evolution mismatches and tradeoffs and the values of behaviorism for adaptive change. They discuss tribalism, friendships, prestige/dominance, romantic relationships, family, and many other topics. 

Douglas Kenrick is a social psychologist and professor of psychology Arizona State University. His interests are evolutionary biology and cognitive science to understand social interactions, decision-making, and creativity. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent book, Solving Modern Problems with A Stone-Aged Brain. You can find his work here. Twitter: @douglastkenrick

David Lundberg-Kenrick is the media outreach program manager at Arizona State University. He attended film school in New York and has an extensive background in multimedia education and working on various documentaries. He is the co-author of Solving Modern Problems with A stone-Aged Brain. Twitter: @lundbergkenrick

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Ed Hagen about evolution, mental disorders such as depression,  and suicidality. They begin talking about the power of evolution, providing a defense of evolutionary psychology and the evolutionary history of humans. They discuss the evolutionary model for mental health disorders, the clinical taxonomy of the DSM-5, and defining depression. They provide some criticism of the new prolonged grief disorder, discuss the epidemiological data on depression, and explain the evolutionary model for understanding postpartum depression. They also discuss suicidality and some of the cross-cultural elements of mental disorders. 

Ed Hagen is an anthropologist who specializes in conducting research on evolutionary medicine. He has his Bachelors in mathematics from UC Berkeley and his PhD in anthropology from UC Santa Barbara. His research takes an evolutionary approach to understanding non-infectious diseases, specifically mental health. He has researched depression, postpartum depression, suicide, and self-harm. You can find his research here.     Twitter: @ed_hagen

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Thomas R. Verny about his work on the embodied mind. They discuss Thomas' background and motivation for writing his most recent book and how the embodied mind is an extended mind. They discuss the importance of the gut microbiome and the enteric nervous system. They talk about the vagus nerve, epigenetics, and stem cells and CRISPR. They also provided details on regeneration, hibernation, and metamorphosis using the example of the Planarian flatworm. They also talk about consciousness, the self, and many other topics. 

Thomas R. Verny is a psychiatrist and author. He has taught at many academic institutions such as Harvard, University of Toronto, and York University, Toronto. He founded the Pre- and Perinatal Psychology Association of North America (PPPANA, renamed APPPAH—Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health – in 1995), and served as its president for eight years. He also launched the APPPAH Journal – the Journal of Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health (JAPPAH) (Human Sciences Press, New York), which he edited from its inception until 1990. He is a member of the Ontario Review Board (ORB) and Associate Editor of the Journal of the Association for Pre- and Peri-natal Psychology and Health (JAPPPAH). He has almost 50 papers in the scientific journals and is the author of numerous books, including the most recent, The Embodied Mind: Understanding the Mysteries of Cellular Memory, Consciousness, and Our Bodies. You can find his work at his website. 

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nicholas Christakis about cooperation, social networks, and tribalism. They discuss how humans are more cooperative and have a propensity for good than many people emphasize. They talk about the social suite and examples of unintentional, intentional, and artificial communities. They discuss positive and negative aspects of cooperation, punishment, and social networks. They discuss friendship, in-group tribalism, social learning, teaching, and culture. They also provide a brief update on where COVID-19 is at the moment and what we can expect in the next few years. 

Nicholas Christakis is a physician and sociologist who conducts research at his Human Nature Lab at Yale University on social networks. Currently, he is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, Internal Medicine, & Biomedical Engineering at Yale University.  He has his MPH and MD from Harvard University along with his PhD in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2009, he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He is the author of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of A Good Society, and Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. You can find his lab here. Twitter: @nachristakis

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lori Marino about the ethics of eating animals and whether they have conscious states. They define intelligence in non-human animals and discuss the brains of whales and how they communicate. They discuss consciousness in animals and how humans can ethically cohabitate with animals. They talk about how domesticated animals, including farmed animals, have sentience, personality, and consciousness. They also talk about the ethics of eating animals and artificial meat, and many more topics.

Lori Marino is a neuroscientist and expert in studying animal intelligence and behavior. She has her PhD in biopsychology and has done extensive research on whale and dolphin intelligence. She is well-published in the scientific literature on animal minds. She is the President of The Whale Sanctuary Project and is also the founder and Executive Director of The Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy. You can read her essay mentioned in this episode here. 

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Skye Cleary on authenticity and the feminism of Simone de Beauvoir. They define authenticity, discuss existence before essence, and dialogue on the "other" and subjectivity. They talk about de Beauvoir's mystifications and how to define what is a woman? They discuss roles, progress for women, and women's health. They also discuss de Beauvoir on friendship, love and marriage, motherhood, narcissism, and why rebellion is necessary. 

Skye Cleary is a philosopher who teaches at Columbia University and City University of New York. She was the editor-in-chief of the American Philosophical Association's blog and certified fellow with the American Philosophical Practitioners Association. She is the author of three books including her latest, How to be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment. You can find her work here. Twitter: @skye_cleary

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla moderates a dialogue between Patrick Lockwood and Colin Wright on gender and sexuality. They begin by defining biological sex and defining gender. They spend some time discussing the various complexities around gender dysphoria and they discuss the idea of being born in the wrong body. They end the dialogue by emphasizing how to have honest and compassionate conversations about sex and gender. 

Patrick Lockwood is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in California. He works at a premier addiction clinic for LGBTQ+ population in Los Angeles. He has over 15 years of experience in clinical practice, mainly with individuals that have substance abuse challenges. He is the author of The Fear Problem and has his own youtube channel. Twitter: @psychplockwood

Colin Wright is an evolutionary biologist with an emphasis on behavioral ecology. He is widely published in the scientific journals with his research on paper wasps, spiders, and ant colonies. He has written a variety of pieces on evolution, sex, and gender differences. You can follow his substack and on Twitter: @swipewright