Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma

📽️📽️📽️Paul and Stephen are excited to meet Academy Award-winning Director and avid book collector Errol Morris.Stephen’s funky blue lighting and Paul’s floatation tank-talk mark the start of this Chinwag and in just a few short turns, the conversation goes from the idea of the bodhisattva in Buddhism to the weirdness of Florida, in particular Vernon, FL (aka “Nub City”). In typical Waggy fashion, they’re on to a shared reverence for American novelist Harry Crews and a fascination with notorious serial killer Ed Gein (whom Errol actually met and misses!?).Anyway, Errol Morris talked to Gein about Sigmund Freud and somehow Gein is responsible for Errol’s long and successful marriage. Lots of talk about sociopathy, psychopathy and multiple personalities follows and Paul and Stephen wonder if everything is a sort of a function of imagination and fantasy. Then, why this celebrated documentarian is fed up with the medium, and the flack he caught for doing a film on Steve Bannon. And now of course the big questions - does Errol believe in UFOs, and how does that relate to his first colonoscopy? You know you want to know – it’s all in this close-up Chinwag with Errol Morris!Bonus: What reality TV series does this legendary filmmaker watch?Paul Giamatti is a Golden Globe Award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. Errol Morris is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker whose films include Gates of Heaven, The Fog of War, The Thin Blue Line, A Brief History of Time, American Dharma, and many more. He’s also authored two New York Times bestsellers, Believing is Seeing and A Wilderness of Error and his latest documentary, The Pigeon Tunnel about the storied life and career of spy novelist John le Carré is streaming on Apple TV+.📽️📽️📽️=========New eps of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊)Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YOUTUBE x CHINWAG Playlists ▶️ YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Full episodes playlist: https://bit.ly/chinwagYT Animated shorts: https://bit.ly/chinwaganimations Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⚔️🇳🇴🦈Paul and Stephen talk about Stephen’s trip to Norway and his readings from an 8th Century book of spells found in the floorboards of an old church.Is Iceland or Norway known for delicacies like rotten shark? They’re not sure, but still not fans (of the shark meals). And listeners out there, do you want to hear Paul and Stephen explore Berserkers? Let us know! Also, if your genetic analysis says you’re part Viking, you’re actually not. Also not part Berserker, but neither here nor there. Stephen explains in this week’s Bonus-Wag!Chin-word of the week: GRIMOIREPaul Giamatti is a Golden Globe Award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. ⚔️🇳🇴🦈=========New eps of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊)Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YOUTUBE x CHINWAG Playlists ▶️ YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Full episodes playlist: https://bit.ly/chinwagYT Animated shorts: https://bit.ly/chinwaganimations Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

👔👔👔Paul puts Stephen in the hot seat for Part 1 of this rigorous round of “Ask the Philosopher!”This is not just your basic Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. You’ll learn the importance of Pythagoras, besides that theorem you learned in grade school (with an obligatory mention of passing gas). Then, hear about the mindf*ck of Zeno’s paradox, famed thinker and nudist Diogenes, all about cynics, roots of empirical thinking, Roman stoicism and Marcus Aurelius, and why prisoners of war like Senator John McCain passed around the stoic text, Enchiridion of Epictetus.All that plus the news that Epicurean philosophy doesn’t come from a love of great food, infinite regress, Stephen shines a much-needed light on great female philosophers like Hildegard von Bingen, and the intermingling of religion and philosophy in the Western tradition. So grab a cocktail, as Socrates would, and settle into Part 1 of “Ask the Philosopher!”  Bonus: Did you know René Descartes invented the necktie? Stephen didn’t, but Paul’s running with it…Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art.👔👔👔=========🎟️🎟️🎟️New live taping alert!! CHINWAG is coming to Boston on Friday April 19th Tix on sale ➡ https://chinwagpod.fm/boston🎟️🎟️🎟️=========New eps of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊)Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YOUTUBE x CHINWAG Playlists ▶️ YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Full episodes playlist: https://bit.ly/chinwagYT Animated shorts: https://bit.ly/chinwaganimations Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🐙💭🪸Paul and Stephen have a few more questions for resident Octopus expert, author, philosopher and biologist, Professor Peter Godfrey-Smith.When does consciousness emerge in the evolutionary process and does it exist in every bit of matter - even a grain of sand? Then, do Octopuses have language and what is its function? And controversial questions abound on whether animals dream, the role of memory, and what commonality of sleep phases suggests about our shared evolutionary origins. Dream on Chinwaggers!Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art.Peter Godfrey Smith is a Professor of Biology in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. He’s also a very accomplished scuba diver and the author of many books including “Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind” and the best-seller “Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness.”🐙💭🪸=========🎟️🎟️🎟️New live taping alert!! CHINWAG is coming to Boston on Friday April 19th Tix on sale ➡ https://chinwagpod.fm/boston🎟️🎟️🎟️=========New eps of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊)Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YOUTUBE x CHINWAG Playlists ▶️ YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Full episodes playlist: https://bit.ly/chinwagYT Animated shorts: https://bit.ly/chinwaganimations Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🐙🐙🐙The Octopus is fascinating and mysterious, and as Paul and Stephen discover, a cephalopod that offers incredible lessons in consciousness, intelligence, awareness and being. The octopus might also be the closest we have to studying the alien mind.Peter Godfrey-Smith is an author, Professor of Biology, philosopher of science and skilled scuba diver who’s looked right into the eyes of many an octopus, and they’ve observed him back. Listen as Professor Godfrey-Smith explains how the octopus’s unique brain architecture raises questions about the self.What’s the difference between consciousness and sentience, and does the ability to feel pain change our view of an animal? What about plants? Do sea squirts eat their own brains, and why would they do that? Is there a lights-on moment, or can one be half-conscious (like babies perhaps)? Then, is sentient AI possible, and how important is language to sentience?On to smart insects like bees and flies, and a discussion of whether brain size is a predictor of intelligence. A lot to unpack here…if you want to know what the octopus can teach us about our own minds, you’re Chinwagging in the right place!Bonus Chin-Word: PANPSYCHISMPaul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art.Peter Godfrey Smith is a Professor of Biology in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. He’s also a very accomplished scuba diver and the author of many books including “Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind” and the best-seller “Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness.”🐙🐙🐙=========🎟️🎟️🎟️New live taping alert!! CHINWAG is coming to Boston on Friday April 19th Tix on sale ➡ https://chinwagpod.fm/boston🎟️🎟️🎟️=========New eps of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊)Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YOUTUBE x CHINWAG Playlists ▶️ YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Full episodes playlist: https://bit.ly/chinwagYT Animated shorts: https://bit.ly/chinwaganimations Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

📊🔢🧮📐Paul and Stephen dig into our Chinwag mailbag for this SETI-inspired question (that’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence to any novice listeners). The Drake Equation is explained and let’s just say there’s A LOT of math involved.It’s been 60+ years since last estimates were made on the odds of finding intelligent life in the Milky Way, and Chinwag listener Rick B. wants to know, how long could a civilization broadcast its presence through technology, and what current factors might affect a civilization’s ability to remain detectable? Is there a ticking clock to our existence, and what’s Twinkie-lung got to do with all this?Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art.📊🔢🧮📐=========New eps of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊)Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YOUTUBE x CHINWAG Playlists ▶️ YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Full episodes playlist: https://bit.ly/chinwagYT Animated shorts: https://bit.ly/chinwaganimations Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🦑🦑🦑The sea is deep, but it’s no match for Paul and Stephen’s boundless appetite for aquatic mysteries.Follow them as they dip into the strange world of three famed squids: The Giant Squid, the Colossal Squid, and the Bigfin Squid (a BigFoot squid, really??). Then, other Unidentified Submerged Objects (USOs) like humboldt squids, giant albino crabs, boat-attacking-squids (!), megamouth sharks, whale sharks, and the myth of a Japanese moon maiden.And of course, the theory that UFOs originate from the deep blue. Yes, it all goes back to the hollow earth! We only know 2% about the ocean, but after this, perhaps even less!Bonus: Another story about Paul getting peed on!Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art.🦑🦑🦑=========Bonus Chin-Word: PANSPERMIA=========New eps of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊)Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YOUTUBE x CHINWAG Playlists ▶️ YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Full episodes playlist: https://bit.ly/chinwagYT Animated shorts: https://bit.ly/chinwaganimations Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

📫💭📆We love our loyal Chinwag listeners and we love your letters! Keep ‘em coming and we may respond to them on the air!Miss B Havin wrote to Paul and Stephen and shared a message she received in a recurring dream about Paul. Does Paul understand the message therein? What does water represent in a dream, and what’s the least lucky month of the year? Put your ears on this Bonus-Wag and find out!Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art.📫💭📆=========New eps of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊)Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YOUTUBE x CHINWAG Playlists ▶️ YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Full episodes playlist: https://bit.ly/chinwagYT Animated shorts: https://bit.ly/chinwaganimations Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🔱🔱🔱Paul and Stephen wade through the deep waters and history of such aquatic mysteries as Atlantis and The Bermuda Triangle.Listen in as Stephen details Plato’s telling of Atlantis, with all its craven needs, imperialist ambitions and loss of virtue. The weird link between Atlantis and UFO/paranormal activity is legend, but did you know of the lasers in Atlantis and its connection to The Bermuda Triangle? It’s also a thing!Then Paul introduces Charles Berlitz (yes that Berlitz) who popularized The Bermuda Triangle myth, and the fact that no one actually has the vaguest sense of where the Bermuda Triangle begins or ends! Hear tales of disappearing ships like the USS Cyclops that helped build the mythos of the Bermuda Triangle (and its sister ship that also went missing years later - creepy!). Paul reveals a Speilberg Easter egg, many tales of boats and planes gone missing without a trace, and the unusual case of Donald Crowhurst, amateur sailor.Are these unexplained occurrences due to human error, magnetic fields, harsh weather, or a hoax? And our new tagline “Chinwag: Bear with Me” is born! Would you buy the t-shirt?? Ahoy! It’s a veritable Chinwag ahead!Bonus: Paul’s dramatic reading of the 1950s NY Times piece that first mentioned the mysteries surrounding the massive, mysterious swath of land later known as The Bermuda Triangle.Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art.🔱🔱🔱=========Bonus Chin-Word: SARGASSUM=========New eps of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊)Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YOUTUBE x CHINWAG Playlists ▶️ YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Full episodes playlist: https://bit.ly/chinwagYT Animated shorts: https://bit.ly/chinwaganimations Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

👐🏼✝️👐🏼Paul and Stephen have a few more questions for the "Long Island Medium," Theresa Caputo.Listen in to hear how she learned to interpret the messages she receives from departed souls and spirits? How Catholics respond to her abilities, and do demons and negativity in the spirit world get her down? And does she fear losing her gifts? T his bonus is Medium-well! Get it? Dig in Waggers!Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. The Long Island Medium Theresa Caputo is on tour. Check out www.TheresaCaputo.com for more information.👐🏼✝️👐🏼=========New eps of CHINWAG drop Wednesdays for free... n(🧊)Make sure to follow us @chinwagpod 👉🏼 IG: https://www.instagram.com/chinwagpod/ Tik: https://www.tiktok.com/@chinwagpod Website: http://chinwagpod.fm YOUTUBE x CHINWAG Playlists ▶️ YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chinwagpod Full episodes playlist: https://bit.ly/chinwagYT Animated shorts: https://bit.ly/chinwaganimations Send your stories, Qs, or thoughts to 📧 questions [at] chinwagpod [dot] fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices