Author: Matt Payne

Emma Allen-Vercoe on the importance of microbes to human health

Posted on By Matt Payne

Dr. Allen-Vercoe (@EmmaAllenVercoe) talks with Leslie about how to think of microbe populations across different people, and why they are important for digestion and overall health. They discuss research on the microbiome of the Yanomami, and why it is important. The role of serendipity in scientific progress is often underemphasized, and Emma shares how one…

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Steven Pinker on Rationality and Humanist Values

Posted on By Matt Payne

Even as a young teenager, Dr. Steven Pinker (@sapinker) prized rationality as a virtue, and considered himself an anarchist. He changed that belief, however, when evidence indicated that anarchy was not a path to human flourishing. In this special episode, a co-production with the New Enlightenment Project, previous Podcast for Inquiry guest Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson…

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Howard Doughty on Academic Freedom and Post-Secondary Education

Posted on By Matt Payne

Howard Doughty has been a college professor for over 40 years and has grave concerns about the changes he’s seen in colleges and universities. Howard describes the nature, scope and limitations of academic freedom, and how that has changed over the decades. The increasing corporate influence in universities has in some cases supplanted the original…

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