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you as we mentioned have an amazing
podcast called mindscape it's as I said
on my favorite podcast sort of both for
your explanation of physics which a lot
of people of and when you venture out
into things that are beyond your
expertise but it's just a really smart
person exploring even questions like you
know morality for example it's very
interesting I think you did a solo
episode and so on I mean there's a lot
of really interesting conversations that
you have what are what are some from
memory amazing conversations that pop to
mind you've had what did you learn from
them something that maybe changed your
mind it just inspired you or just what
did this whole experience of having
conversations what stands out to you
it's an unfair question totally unfair
that's okay that's alright you know it's
often the ones I feel like the the ones
I do on physics and closely related
science or even philosophy ones are like
I know this stuff and I'm helping people
learn about it but I learn more from the
ones have nothing to do with physics or
philosophy right so talking to Wynton
Marsalis about jazz or talking to a
Master Sommelier about wine talking to
will Wilkinson about partisan
polarization and the urban-rural divide
talking to psychologists like Carol
Tavarez about cognitive dissonance and
and how those things work scott
derrickson who is the director of the
movie dr. strange I had a wonderful
conversation with him where we went
through the mechanics of making a
blockbuster
superhero movie right and he's also not
a naturalist he's a he's a evangelical
Christian so we talked about the nature
of reality there I want to have a couple
more you know
discussions with
highly educated theists who know the
theology really well but I haven't quite
arranged those yet I would love to hear
that I mean that's how comfortable are
you venturing into questions of religion
well I'm totally comfortable doing it
you know I did talk with Alan Lightman
who is also an atheist but he he is
trying to rescue the sort of spiritual
side of things for atheism and I did
talk to very vocal atheists like Alex
Rosenberg so I need to talk to some I
talked to some religious believers and
he talked more how have you changed
through having all these conversations
you know part of the motivation was I
had a long stack of books that I hadn't
read and I couldn't find time to read
them and I figured if I interviewed
their authors before me to read them
right and that's that is totally worked
by the way now I'm annoyed that people
write such long books I think I'm still
very much learning how to be a good
interviewer I think that's a skill that
uh you know I I think I have good
questions but you know there's the
give-and-take that is still I think I
could be better at like I want to offer
something to the conversation but not
too much right I've had conversations
where I barely talked at all and I have
conversations where I talked half the
time I think there's a happy medium in
between there so I think I remember
listening to without mentioning names
some of your conversations where I wish
you would have disagreed more yeah as a
listener
it's more fun sometimes it well this is
that's a very good question because you
know my everyone has an attitude toward
that like some people are really there
to basically give their point of view
and the they're their guest is supposed
to you know respond accordingly I want
to sort of get my view on the record but
I don't want to dwell on it when I'm
talking to someone like David Chalmers
who I disagree with a lot you know I
want to say like here's why I disagree
with you but you know I want we're here
to listen to you like I have an episode
every week and you're only on once a
week right so I have not coming podcast
episode with Philip golf who is much
or dedicated pants I kissed and so there
we really get into it I think that I
probably have just disagreed with him
more on that episode than I ever have
with another podcast cast but that's
what he wanted so it worked very well
yeah yeah that kind of debate structure
is beautiful when it's done right like
when you're when you can detect that the
intent is that you have fundamental
respect for the person yeah that and
that's for some reason it's super fun to
listen to when two really smart people
are just arguing and sometimes lose
their a little bit if I may say
well there's a fine line because I have
zero interest in bringing I mean like I
mean it may be maybe you implied this I
have zero interest in bringing on people
for whom I don't have any intellectual
respect like I constantly get requests
like you know bring on a flat earth or
whatever and really slap them down or a
creation isn't like I'm a zero interest
I'm happy to bring on you know a
religious person a believer but I want
someone who's smart and can act in good
faith and can talk not a charlatan or a
lunatic right so I will only I I will
happily bring on people with whom I
disagree but only people from whom I
think the audience can learn something
interesting so let me ask the idea of
Charlton is an interesting idea you
might be more educated on this topic
than me but there's um there's folks for
example who argue of various aspects of
evolution sort of try to approach and
say that evolution sort of our current
theory of evolution has many holes in it
as many flaws and they argue that I
think like Cambridge came Cambrian
explosion that which is like a huge
added variability of species doesn't
make sense under our current description
of evolution to a theory of evolution
sort of if you had were to have the
conversation with people like that how
do you know that they're the difference
being outside the box thinkers and
people who are fundamentally
unscientific
yeah even bordering on charlatans it's a
great question and you know the further
you get away from my expertise the
harder it is for me to really judge
exactly those things and you know yeah I
don't have a satisfying answer for that
ones I think the example you use of
someone who you know believes in the
basic structure of natural selection but
thinks that you know this particular
thing cannot be understood in the terms
of our current understanding of
Darwinism that's a perfect edge case
where it's hard to tell right and I
would have to I would try to talk to
people who I do respect and who do know
things and I would have to you know
given that I'm a physicist I know that
physicists will sometimes be too
dismissive of alternative points of view
I have to take into account that
biologists can also be too dismissive of
alternative points of view so yeah
that's a tricky one have you gotten heat
yet yeah he all the time like there's
always something I mean it's it's
hilarious cuz I do have I try very hard
not to like have the same topic several
times in a row I did have like to
climate change episodes but they were
from very different perspectives but I
like to mix it up that's the whole plus
when I'm having fun and every time I do
an episode someone says oh the person
you should really get on to talk about
exactly that is this other person like
well I don't but I did that now yeah I
want to do that well I hope you keep
doing it you're inspiring millions of
people your books your podcasts Sean
it's an honor to talk to you thank you
so much thanks very much like
you