Within Reason

Latest Episodes:

#117 Dan McClellan - The Bible Has More Than One God Aug 17, 2025

Show notes

Dan McClellan is an American biblical scholar and author of The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) About Scripture’s Most Controversial Issues.

Timestamps:

0:00 Why Does God Say “We”?
14:36 Does God Create the Universe From Nothing?
28:43 Is This Explained By The Trinity?
34:32 Is There Only One God?
47:39 Fake Idols or Gods?
1:02:50 How English Translations Mislead Us Into Monotheism
01:11:02 The Elevation of YHWH to God of the Universe
1:20:36 Polytheism in the New Testament
01:24:14 The Strongest Case For Monotheism in the Old Testament

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#116 Peter Godfrey Smith - Animal Consciousness: What Can We Know? Aug 10, 2025

Show notes

Peter Godfrey-Smith is an Australian philosopher of science and writer, who is currently Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. Buy his books here.

Timestamps:

0:00 How Many Times Has the Brain Independently Evolved? 4:36 What is a Nervous System? 7:12 The Differences Between the Human and Animal Brains 13:40 What Does an Octopus Brain Look Like? 25:21 What is it Like to be an Octopus? 35:48 Are the Mind and Body Distinct? 42:46 Panpsychism: Is Everything Conscious? 55:53 How Do Experiences Combine Into One Consciousness? 01:05:08 Which Animals Feel Pain? What is it Like? 01:16:51 Should We Make Shrimp Farming an Ethical Priority? 01:29:22 Animal Science and Animal Foods 01:35:59 The Ethics of Killing Animals 01:52:13 Are Octopuses Playful?

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#115 Phil Halper & Niayesh Afshordi - What Came Before The Big Bang? Aug 04, 2025

Show notes

Niayesh Afshordi is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo. Phil Halper is a science communicator and YouTuber. Together, they have authored a book called "Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins", an overview of the state of modern cosmology on the nature of the big bang.

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#114 Simon Blackburn - What is Ethical Emotivism? Jul 28, 2025

Show notes

Simon Blackburn is well-known both as a writer of popular philosophy introductions (like Think), and also a significant figure in non-cognitivist meta-ethics, having invented the term “quasi-realism” to describe his moral philosophy.

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#113 Sabine Hossenfelder - Superdeterminism: Why Are Physicists Scared of It? Jul 21, 2025

Show notes

Sabine Hossenfelder is a German theoretical physicist, author, science communicator, and YouTuber. She is the author of Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions.

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#112 Rick Alan Ross - Do Cult Leaders Believe Their Own Lies? Jul 13, 2025

Show notes

Rick Alan Ross is an American deprogrammer, cult specialist, and founder and executive director of the non-profit Cult Education Institute. Frequently appearing in the news and other media, discussing groups some consider cults. Ross has intervened in more than 500 deprogramming cases in various countries. (Wikipedia) Get Rick's book, "Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out" here.

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#111 Helen Bond - The Forgotten Female Disciples of Jesus Jul 06, 2025

Show notes

Helen Bond is Professor of Christian Origins at the New College, University of Edinburgh, and former head of the School of Divinity there. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In 2023, she co-authored a book with Joan Taylor called Women Remembered: Jesus’ Female Disciples. Watch the documentary version here.

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#110 The Cultural Tutor - Why Modern Love Fails and How to Rescue It Jul 01, 2025

Show notes

Sheehan Quirke is The Cultural Tutor. A writer on history, art, and architecture with millions of followers, he is also the author of the forthcoming The Cultural Tutor: Forty-Nine Lessons You Wish You’d Learned at School, which is currently available for preorder here.

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#109 David Pakman - The New Threat Donald Trump Poses to America Jun 22, 2025

Show notes

David Pakman is an American progressive political commentator and host of @thedavidpakmanshow .

Buy David's book, The Echo Machine here

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#108 Marcus du Sautoy - Do Numbers Exist? Jun 16, 2025

Show notes

Marcus du Sautoy is a British mathematician, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, Fellow of New College, Oxford and author of popular mathematics and popular science books. Buy Blueprints: How Mathematics Shapes Creativity here.

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