Jack Roycroft-Sherry

David C. Shindler is a Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology at the John Paul II Institute, Washington, DC. If modern physics tells us that time and reality are not as they appear to us, what is real? Can we ever know and touch reality? Relatedly, does objective truth exist (or is it just in our minds)? This podcast explores these questions through philosophy. In this podcast, we consider the nature of truth, whether reality could be an illusion, how to deal with skeptical over the realness of truth, as well as how love, beauty, and goodness, relate to these questions. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:25 - Ancient Philosophy vs Academic Philosophy 10:00 - Theory Of Everything in Philosophy? 13:52 - Truth, Illusion, & Realness 21:59 - Skepticism About Reality 28:08 - Free Will and Nature of Truth 31:32 - Connection Between Truth, Goodness & Beauty 42:07 - Rituals and Symbols 58:38 - Unity and Disunity D.C Shindler -Website: https://www.johnpaulii.edu/academics/faculty/d-c-schindler/ -(Book) Freedom from Reality: The Diabolical Character of Modern Liberty -(Book) Love and the Postmodern Predicament: Rediscovering the Real in Beauty, Goodness, and Truth Jack Roycroft-Sherry: -X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft -Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry

Toby Woods is a scientist at the Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies. Subjective experience is notoriously difficult to study scientifically. This is even more the case for subjective experience in meditation and for this reason it has not been widely examined. In this podcast I am joined by Toby Woods, who is part of a growing movement to examine meditation experiences in a systematic and fine-grained manner using scientific methods. In the podcast we discuss the experience of "stillness" or "pure consciousness" in meditation, including the content that is present and absent, and we compare the experiences attained in different types of practices. We also look at the benefits of accessing the stillness and the risks and benefits of practising meditation more generally. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Start 0:40 Why Meditation Is Interesting To Study 3:20 What is Meditation? 9:30 Contentless Experience and Pure Consciousness 18:50 Beginner vs Advanced Meditators / Different Traditions 30:10 Buddhism and Advanced States of Meditation 33:35 Different Meditation Techniques For Different People 37:22 Science of Enlightenment 40:00 "Cessation" / Dropping Out of Consciousness 46:49 Risks of Meditation 55:45 Attention, Smartphones and Modern Distractions TOBY WOODS -Toby on X/Twitter: @TobyJWoods -Toby's papers: 1. Analysis of contentless goal-states using expert texts https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11097-022-09811-z 2. Analysis of paths to contentless goal-states using expert texts https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11097-022-09812-y 3. Analysis of contentless experience using participant reports https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-023-02145-0 MENTIONED IN THE PODCAST -Example of Peter Sedlmeier and Karin Matko papers on types of meditation practices: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-021-01641-5 -Papers by Ruben Laukkonen and colleagues on cessation: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37714573/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37777153/ -Seminal paper by Willoughby Britton, Jared Lindahl and colleagues on adverse experiences in meditation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5443484/ -Article on how "silent walking" is taking off on TikTok: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-08/silent-walking-taking-off-on-tiktok-boosting-youth-mental-health/102938224 JACK ROYCROFT - SHERRY -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DGVMa1qAI1huc87xNDrgy?si=62c281d9e8274694 -X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft -Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry

Garri Hovhannisyan recently completed his PhD in clinical psychology and is working towards becoming a fully qualified clinical psychologist. In this podcast, we explore what happens when someone starts psychotherapy, both from the patient's and the psychotherapist's perspectives. We discuss the biggest challenges and setbacks one faces in this journey. We also discuss attachment theory, personality theory, & addiction. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Introduction 2:00 - Who Garri is 2:54 - Garri's approach to psychotherapy 5:30 - What happens at the beginning of psychotherapy 14:00 - What the psychotherapist does 18:30 - Psychology of avoidance 23:25 - History of schools in psychotherapy 31:00 - Emotion-focused therapy 33:50 - Garri's style of psychotherapy 39:00 - Attachment theory 1:01:00 - Should we change our attachment style? 1:18:00 - Addiction GARRI: -Our previous podcast on the big 5 personality theory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fCdKTqh7CA -Academic papers: https://philpeople.org/profiles/garri-hovhannisyan PODCAST: -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DGVMa1qAI1huc87xNDrgy?si=62c281d9e8274694 -X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft -Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry

Robin Hanson is an economist at George Mason University. In this podcast we start off by exploring the panspermia hypothesis as a plausible explanation for both the origins of life on earth and UFO sightings. We then delve into existential risks to our species, such as declining population levels and AI. Finally, we cover the nature of money, economics, prediction markets, and academia and science. ROBIN HANSON -Learn more about Robin Hanson and his work: https://economics.gmu.edu/people/rhanson -Twitter: https://x.com/robinhanson?s=20 -Substack: https://www.overcomingbias.com/ THE PODCAST Jack Roycroft-Sherry Podcasts: -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DGVMa1qAI1huc87xNDrgy?si=62c281d9e8274694-X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft-Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry

Fredrik Albritton Jonsson is a professor of history at the University of Chicago. He's an expert on the history of Europe and Britain, and most recently has co-written a book with Carl Wennerlind called 'Scarcity: A History from the Origins of Capitalism to the Climate Crisis.' TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Start 01:17 Why the Industrial Revolution Happened 06:10 Origins of Growth and Science 12:00 Economic Growth as a New Idea (And the Time Before Growth) 14:50 How We Get to Modern Economics (Smith and Malthus) 22:27 Economic Growth Becomes Mainstream 26:10 When Did Climate Change Really Begin ? 31:20 Should We Stop Economic Growth? 38:15 Geoengineering and the Benefits of Climate Change 42:30 What Would a World with No Growth Look Like? 49:20 Advice to People Interested in Climate Change FREDRIK -University profile and research: https://history.uchicago.edu/directory/Fredrik-Albritton-Jonsson -His book: https://amzn.eu/d/j2Wbpcg THE PODCAST -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DGVMa1qAI1huc87xNDrgy?si=62c281d9e8274694 -X: https://twitter.com/jack_roycroft -Medium: https://medium.com/@jackroycroftsherry

Garett Jones is an economist at George Mason University. In this podcast, we delve into various pressing questions such as: What are the economic impacts of IQ? How do migrants affect the economies of the countries they move to? What is the ideal level of democracy? And what is the impact of AI and technology on jobs? Tune in to find out! Garett's academic webpage: https://economics.gmu.edu/people/gjonesb Garett's books: -The The Culture Transplant: How Migrants Make the Economies They Move To a Lot Like the Ones They Left -10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less -Hive Mind: How Your Nation’s IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Start 00:06 IQ matters more for nations than individuals 03:07 IQ and patience, savings, and cooperation 07:07 AI replacing jobs 09:13 IQ and immigration 12:35 "The Culture Transplant" 16:02 Do migrants assimilate? 20:47 Migration vs. geography vs. institutions 23:06 Migrants from Europe Made Countries Richer 24:56 How do migrants change the countries they move to? 27:05 The Economics of Diversity 33:30 Migration in the ancient world 39:04 The role of government 41:42 Bitcoin 43:50 Austrian school of economics: Under or Overrated? 49:53 Big data economics 52:49 The pros and cons of democracy 58:28 Democracy and migration 1:01:12 How to improve the world 1:04:08 Behavioral Economics

Damian Kelty-Stephen is a psychologist focused on understanding complex behaviors such as movement, language, and perception. Traditional cognitive science often views organisms as having a centralized controller in the brain to govern behavior. But what if we could better understand organisms as collective intelligences, exhibiting behaviors we typically associate with swarm organisms, like bees? In this episode, we discuss intelligence without a central controller and intelligence beyond brains. We explore how complex behaviors might be explained without centralized control systems. We also touch on the importance of neurons, the intelligence of cells, and compare biological with technological intelligence. Find Damian's Work: A great lecture related to this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P89WTmNBjBk&t=1032s Personal website: https://sites.google.com/site/foovian/ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Start 00:22 Explaining the complexity of movement 05:03 Cognition without a central controller 13:15 Intelligence beyond brains 21:48 Biological vs. technological intelligence 28:19 Multifractal social psychology 38:52 Measuring multifractality 49:16 Nations as collective intelligences 50:57 Understanding speech

Brett Andersen is a PhD student studying evolutionary psychology. We discuss how different models of cognition are increasingly being bridged together and how they relate to our world today. This is giving us the tools to appreciate the place of science and mythology in our culture, as well as helping to develop scientific accounts of meaning, mythology and God. READING AND EXTRA INFO Brett is a PHD student who is studying evolutionary psychology. His academic work focuses on autistic vs schizotypal spectrum. He has a Substack where is writing on topics such as our left hemisphere dominance as a culture, scientific account of mythology, and how we come to have morals and values. He recently wrote a paper with John Vervaeke bridging the relevance realisation theory of cognition with predictive processing which can be found here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11097-022-09850-6#ref-CR31 He has a Substack where he writes on as host of topics, bridging together complexity theory, cognitive science, philosophy, science and mythology: https://brettandersen.substack.com/