From the Big Bang to the nature of consciousness, our core scientific assumptions frame how we understand reality. But what if the very foundations of our theories are flawed? | https://bit.ly/3OEPRv4 Nobel Prize Laureate Roger Penrose joins legendary physicist Brian Cox in this interview.

Might fiction be able to uncover more about our real-life political timeline than non-fiction ever could? | https://iai.tv/video/stranger-than-fiction Join best-selling authors Catherine Mayer and Mary Ann Sieghart as they discuss how science fiction can shed light on our present political reality.

As science, philosophy, and politics collide, the idea we can truly know the world is under pressure. | https://bit.ly/3QA1wMb Ahead of the HowTheLightGetsIn Festival debate on May 25th, Omari Edwards argues what’s at stake isn’t just knowledge, but whether inquiry can survive without it.

Few presidencies have come with as bold an economic agenda as Trump's. | https://bit.ly/3ODAoeL In this interview, Jason Furman cuts through the noise of the US economy, argues that economic efficiency requires businesses to behave like businesses and governments to behave like governments.

Is spacetime real, or does it dissolve under scrutiny? | https://bit.ly/4tqQMOV Philosopher Sam Baron argues that the idea of spacetime "emerging" from quantum reality is circular, leading to the radical conclusion that Einstein's spacetime does not exist.

We often prize memory as critical to success. But might forgetting be more important to our sense of self? | https://bit.ly/3OT5MWF Oliver Hardt, Catherine Loveday, and Iaian McGilchrist debate whether we should place less emphasis on memory and focus more on how to forget.

Is tragedy a means of exploring suffering, or does it teach us to enjoy it? | https://bit.ly/42mr6a0 Paul Kottman argues that our appetite for tragic drama cultivates a dangerous sadomasochistic tendency, and that we must resist the temptation to aestheticise our suffering.

What if the divide between the quantum world and the classical world is an illusion? | https://bit.ly/4tb3S2y Oxford Professor Vlatko Vedral offers a radical new interpretation of quantum mechanics, arguing that everything in the universe is a quantum wave.

Morality is most commonly driven by norms, not by God or reason, and in order to catch on, norms must be achievable. | https://bit.ly/3QEUGoD Michael Plant argues that giving 1%, rather than the 10% famously outlined by Peter Singer, is a much more effective and realistic target.

Culture war clashes, from book bans to toppling statues, seem like battles between conservatives and liberals. | https://bit.ly/4sv5Omz But Namrata Goyal says the real fault line runs deeper; the true divide is between those who believe morality is absolute and those who believe it is relative.

The popularity of post-apocalyptic narratives raises questions about why people are fascinated by fictional narratives of doom in times of trouble. | https://bit.ly/48MVdLp Florian Mussgnug questions whether this is escapism, or a deeper desire to come to terms with an unpredictable world.

"Quantum mechanics does not uncover facts that were already there. Measurement brings reality into being." | https://iai.tv/articles/quantum-realism-is-impossible-auid-3432 As theory becomes engineering, Paul Davies argues that every attempt to “save” traditional views of realism fail.

'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder' is the way Margaret Hungerford reframed an old saying about beauty in the mid-19th century. | https://bit.ly/4cxHklq But critics warn that this idea validates prejudice and shields our tastes from scrutiny. Jessica DeFino, Simon May, and Janne Teller debate.

We are taught that life’s immense variety emerged through natural selection based on random genetic mutations. | https://bit.ly/3Mdg4zN Microbiologist James Shapiro argues, however, that the mutations driving evolution are not random at all, but are the result of organisms modifying themselves.

William Blake and Werner Heisenberg, separated by a century, arrived at the same troubling insight: that science's greatest strength may also be its deepest flaw. | https://bit.ly/3KBmcAC The remedy, both argued, lies in poetry and imagination. Psychotherapist and author Mark Vernon explains why.

We have evolved to want revenge. But @greggdcaruso.bsky.social argues this instinct is built on the belief that people are the authors of their own actions. | https://bit.ly/48CZMrG Abandon that belief, and the justice system we've built around it starts to look more like organised cruelty.

Does AI have the potential to uncover the mysteries of reality, or does it lack the capacity for genuine discovery? | https://bit.ly/4dShnPV Join Roman Yampolskiy, @profstevefuller.bsky.social, and Suzanne Livingston to debate what AI can and can't do for science.

The pull we feel towards beauty encodes a fantasy that reality is ordered and familiar, accessible to reason and observation. | https://bit.ly/4mxZl7G Jane Forsey argues that letting ugliness into our theories lets us confront the world’s strangeness and our irredeemable disconnection from it.

We are told that mind can triumph over matter. But Susie Orbach argues it is the body, not the mind, that holds the truth about who we are. | https://bit.ly/4mPGQfv In this talk, she makes the case for reclaiming control of our own bodies, and insists that they are not synonymous with our selves.

Without subjectivity to perceive the objectivity of the world, the way in which space, time, and the universe exist would be radically other. https://bit.ly/4teWHXg David Bather Woods uses the philosophy of Schopenhauer to argue that the will that makes up our subjectivity also makes up the world.

What counts as a "country" is far from objective. | https://iai.tv/articles/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-country-auid-3551?_auid=2020 Despite having borders, governments, and populations, political scientist Ian Hurd argues that statehood is a fragile social construct.

Is thinking something that happens only in our heads, or does it exist elsewhere? | https://bit.ly/3QDSeib In this studio interview, leading psychologist Barbara Tversky explores how the body shapes the mind, arguing that thinking is fundamentally spatial and embodied.

Einstein’s theory of relativity appears to drain time of its most familiar feature: its flow. | https://bit.ly/4svPela But Samuele Iaquinto introduces the radical alternative view of Fragmentalism, which views spacetime not as a coherent whole, but a patchwork of incompatible perspectives.

We often assume consciousness is something the brain generates; a side effect of matter arranged in just the right way. | https://bit.ly/47RWEIk But Alex O’Connor challenges that idea, suggesting consciousness might be more fundamental than we think.

Peace is widely valued, yet evidence suggests that conflict and adversity may be essential for fostering purpose, cohesion, and motivation. | https://iai.tv/video/peace-passion-and-adventure Join Janne Teller, Alenka Zupančič, and Paul Bloom as they debate the comfort of chaos.

Political scientist Nader Hashemi here argues that Iran was attacked because it resists American power and refuses to surrender to its commands. | https://bit.ly/4t4dMmv Tap to read more about the real reason the US attacked Iran.

Over 2,500 years ago, Parmenides made a claim so strange it has never quite been resolved: that thought and being are the same. | https://bit.ly/4p6Pdnu Tom Rockmore argues this wasn't just a curiosity: it planted the seed for one of philosophy's deepest disputes.

Science tells us what things are made of, not what they are. | https://iai.tv/articles/on-the-ultimate-nature-of-reality-auid-3408 For Graham Harman, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, the world’s ultimate nature can’t be captured by equations or unified theories. #philsky

Physicists often describe spacetime as a container in which the universe unfolds, but this metaphor is misleading and even obstructive. | https://bit.ly/47Fvu7d Eleanor Knox dismantles the classical view and argues for an alternative: spacetime should be understood functionally.

Every major new technology has provoked the same debate about whether it could ever produce real art. | https://bit.ly/3Q7Qcqm Henry Shevlin argues that AI is no different, and that the question worth asking isn't whether AI can make art, but whether human creativity can push beyond it.

A core value of Western liberal democracy is freedom, and we tend to assume that the more choice we have, the freer we are. | https://iai.tv/articles/too-much-choice-makes-us-less-free-auid-3416 But that’s a dangerous illusion, argues psychologist Barry Schwartz.

What does quantum physics have in common with the way we think about history, politics, and everyday life? https://bit.ly/4gFZXW4 In this wide-ranging interview, philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek cuts across disciplines to expose the hidden madness underlying what we take to be reality.

Poet William Blake and pioneering quantum physicist Werner Heisenberg, separated by a century, reached the same unsettling conclusion: that science, for all its power, was cutting us off from reality itself. | https://bit.ly/3KBmcAC Tap to read more about the case for a poetic science.

We assume reality consists of objects, stars and atoms, tables and chairs, animals and people. | https://bit.ly/4oUJQaf But citing contemporary neuroscience, philosopher Hilary Lawson argues that it is we who are responsible for the objects that we take to be reality. #philsky

Thomas Nagel asked what it’s like to be a bat - arguing subjective experience can’t be reduced to physical facts. | https://bit.ly/4c3a2vI Now Ricky Williamson turns the question back on us: what is it like to be human? In the age of AI, the answer may be less obvious than we think.

Is democracy really the engine of prosperity, or is that just a comforting myth as authoritarian economies surge ahead? | https://bit.ly/48B91bM Watch Curtis Yarvin, Aaron Bastani, and Hélène Landemore to head to head over the new economic order now.

Heraclitus famously argued that you can't step into the same river twice. | https://bit.ly/43WwWjL Here, philosopher JB Manchak, argues that the whole universe is like that - and that such a universe has some interesting knock-on consequences.

"'Growth, growth, growth' is the most persistent political mantra of the post-war era," writes Ecological economist Tim Jackson. | https://bit.ly/4curBVv Tap the link to read more about why growth-at-all-costs capitalism really runs on disappointment.

We tend to think there is a fundamental nature to reality, that if you go deep enough you hit some bedrock of existence. | https://bit.ly/4t70hCQ But in this debate between philosopher of science James Ladyman and philosopher of mind Susan Schneider, this idea is challenged.

From Western-centric visions of the liberal world order to the Enlightenment story of history as Reason’s onward march, we rightly distrust grand narratives. | https://bit.ly/41U3tpb But, argues Ayşe Zarakol, without them we struggle to make sense of the world.

What if consciousness isn't something the brain produces, but something more fundamental than matter itself? | https://bit.ly/4t4PGs4 In this interview, Alex O'Connor argues that materialism can't explain how physical processes give rise to subjective experience.

Nature is no longer the only source of life. | https://bit.ly/4cbodgX With scientists having now created an artificial species designed entirely by AI, Adrian Woolfson argues generative biology could transform medicine, agriculture, and evolution itself.

Western thought has held that science and technology, and now green tech, can improve our circumstances. But the reality is messier. | https://bit.ly/4bXILe8 Is technology our greatest miracle, or does it inevitably exploit the natural world? Erik Swyngedouw, Sheila Jasanoff, and Paul Stein debate.

What is the difference between human and machine? Embodiment has been a go-to answer, but the tension between metal and flesh is heightening. | https://bit.ly/47C131V In this article, Gigla Gonashvili questions what it means to be embodied at all.

Many researchers have questioned the implications of the block universe theory, which states that time doesn't pass. | https://bit.ly/4dZ8R1q David Kyle Johnson argues the implications are radical, touching everything from our experience of death to the foundations of religious belief.

Once Citibank's top trader, Gary Stevenson now campaigns to highlight wealth inequality. | https://bit.ly/41NUqpC Join Stevenson for a conversation on why the powerful often gain increasingly more power, and how we can restructure our economy and society to prevent this.

Bertrand Russell had little patience for American pragmatism. | https://bit.ly/4dlKJWH But philosopher John Kaag argues Russell’s arguments rest on a caricature; the pragmatists were far more rigorous than he gave them credit for.

We assume physics and cosmology are piecing together a complete picture of the universe, and that a theory of everything is just a matter of time. | https://bit.ly/4scXUgn Astrophysicist Jo Dunkley challenges this assumption, making the case that some mysteries may be permanently beyond our reach.

“We seem to be curious and perversely fascinated by the evil, horrible, and disgusting.” | https://iai.tv/articles/the-morality-of-loving-villains-auid-2838 Panos Paris delves into the ethics and aesthetics of our attraction to immoral characters and why it can be a good thing.

The Nazis wouldn't have been such an effective fighting force without Methamphetamine, argues Norman Ohler. | https://bit.ly/47cFCEV In this interview, Ohler explains how the drug was both an asset to the Nazis, but also contributed to their ultimate failure.