Podcast appearances

Antique microphone

Several podcast hosts have invited me to speak with them. This has been a great opportunity for exchange of ideas in discussion. It’s also a way to explain concepts in a format different from web text. Different people find it easier to absorb material in different media, and audio makes them accessible to a different audience.

I’ve listed all my podcast appearances below, most recent first. For each, I link the podcast’s web page for the episode, and also a page in which I discuss it.

Most of my podcast appearances have been about Buddhism—although Meaningness material also showed up! My priorities have shifted in recent years, and I expect most future podcast episodes will be about Meaningness.

Upcoming podcasts

Over the past couple years, several hosts have invited me to speak with them. Unfortunately, I’ve had to stall. Since mid-2017, almost all my time has been taken up by family responsibilities.

I’ve been excited to provisionally accept all the invitations, but I don’t know when I will get a chance to fulfill them.

Pengi: the offloaded brain

I discussed Pengi, a program I wrote with Phil Agre in our PhD work, with Brian Marick.

Pengi was the first AI system in what’s now called the “enactive” approach in cognitive science. Its official academic write-up is here. I wrote about its role in my overall arc of thought in 2011 in “I seem to be a fiction” (and in several other places).

Brian is a pioneer of the Agile approach to software development, and one of the signatories on the original Agile Manifesto. His very interesting podcast series “Oddly Influenced” is about bringing ideas from outside software engineering to software engineering. His expertise is particularly in the area of program testing.

That reminded me, as a near-total non-sequitur, that I wrote what was, as far as I know, the first-ever automated software testing system (1982).

Podcast link | December, 2023

Pretending to believe

A two-part discussion in May, 2022, with Matt Arnold, who produces the Meaningness audiobook.

Part 1 concerns the nebulosity of believing. It is often not clear what it would even mean to believe something; not clear whether one does; and not clear even what the thing is that one is doing the believing about. It may be helpful to understand “believing” as a diverse class of interactive activities—not as a simple, objective fact about your brain state. (I wrote about this in “Reasonable believings.”)

Part 2 concerns ideological believing, which seems to work quite differently from believing (or knowing) ordinary facts. (I wrote about this in “Vaster than ideology.”) We discuss several specific examples.

Buddhism and cognitivism

Posted here on Meaningness. I produced this myself, as an informal experiment.

Podcast link | June, 2019

Pattern and Nebulosity

With Michael Taft on Deconstructing Yourself.

Podcast link | My discussion | August, 2017

Stages of maturation, Dzogchen & the future of Buddhism

With Matthew O’Connell on Imperfect Buddha.

Podcast link | My discussion | January, 2017

Western Buddhism is Dead (Long Live Western Buddhism)

With Vincent Horn on Buddhist Geeks.

Podcast link | My discussion | May, 2016

Buddhist ethics is a fraud

With Vincent Horn on Buddhist Geeks.

Podcast link | My discussion | March, 2016

Creating Living Ritual

With Vincent Horn on Buddhist Geeks.

Podcast link | My discussion | March, 2014

Reinventing Buddhist Tantra

With Vincent Horn on Buddhist Geeks.

Podcast link | My discussion | March, 2014

Enlightenment & Epistemology

With Ted Meissner on The Secular Buddhist.

Podcast link | My discussion | December, 2012

Innovating new forms of Buddhist Tantra

With Hokai Sobol on Buddhist Geeks.

Podcast link | My discussion | December, 2011

Consensus Buddhism and Mindful Mayo

With Hokai Sobol on Buddhist Geeks.

Podcast audio | Transcript | My discussion | December, 2011

Buddhism for Vampires

With Ted Meissner on The Secular Buddhist.

Podcast link | My discussion | October, 2011