Terrifying Questions Podcast

12/03/2024

Eric and his temporary co-host, Tao Ruspoli (filmmaker, co-founder of the Bombay Beach Biennale) delve deep into what it is to teach and to learn... and they ask, "Can you learn anything really important from somebody else?"
(Image Credit: Yunus Tuğ)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0KYM3U2yG4N4NLOHflCd8a?si=42712ac7effd44a4

12/03/2024

Tao and Eric are joined by author Geoff Dyer to question whether certain individuals are worthy of worship. Dyer’s many books include But Beautiful (about jazz), the novel Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi and, most recently, The Last Days of Roger Federer. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Science and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, his books have been translated into twenty-four languages. He is currently a Writer in Residence at USC. A new book Homework (a memoir) will be published in spring 2025 by FSG in the US and Canongate in the UK.

(Image Credit: Basanta Mondal)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7GGIOmpVUm4Y6ftEZ4Qe9B?si=lxegVmUXQSKse1vi22xe9A

04/03/2024

Eric Kaplan and Tao Ruspoli ask about how entertainment may or may not be "true". Tao substitutes for Taylor for the next several episodes. We've also just introduced video to the podcast! Let us know what you think.

(Image Credit: The Conjurer by Hieronymus Bosch)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1HVGiEN91sH2eylSZ0XS6u?si=v6IOPAHSSi2eBXpnYLftPQ

28/02/2024

Julia Moskin, Pulitzer Prize winning food reporter for the New York Times, joins Eric and Taylor to ask whether food is (or can be) art, and how it manages to do that while also just being yummy. Should great food taste like nothing you’ve ever tasted before or should it taste like the best ever version of its ingredients? Is culinary quality subjective or objective? Why do critics write reviews? Tune in and find out. (Image: "Water" by Giuseppe Arcimboldo)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0FZdyAUFxOTRZ4ADMZWoHr?si=GkwVLujNS-mJ1Y0vHHhAxg

09/02/2024

NEW EPISODE ALERT!!! TV writer Eric Kaplan (The Big Bang Theory, Futurama) and philosophy professor Taylor Carman (Barnard College) answer the question, "Is Philosophy Fun?

https://youtu.be/sIYX-oJUKeg

06/02/2024

NEW EPISODE OUT THURSDAY!!!

TV writer Eric Kaplan (The Big Bang Theory, Futurama) and philosophy professor Taylor Carman (Barnard College) answer the question, "Is Philosophy Fun?" Stay tuned for a special episode of our comedy philosophy podcast, TERRIFYING QUESTIONS!

Director/Editor: David Butler

Producer: Amanda Eberhardt

02/02/2024

TV writer Eric Kaplan (The Big Bang Theory, Futurama) and philosophy professor Taylor Carman (Barnard College) answer the question, "Is Philosophy Fun?

22/01/2024

Can we build a meaningful life on the shifting sands of irrational belief? Or if we refuse to make an infinite commitment, are we wasting our life, dog-paddling in a weak tea without hope or meaning? Is faith necessary or insane – or both? This week Eric and Taylor record their first ever episode before a live studio audience, namely the annual meeting of the American Society for Existential Phenomenology in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Tao Ruspoli, Iain Thomson, Mark Wrathall, Patricia and John Benner, Kaitlyn Creasy, Justin White, and B. Scot Rousse huddle together with them and ask, Is faith good? Tune in and find out.

Podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/32pXvKuXEK9ENhPKADRYHI?si=GDmh2VveR7-_1Y9NZ1yzFA

Live Video Recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciD-QPjY8Ak

18/01/2024

Is faith good? Eric Kaplan, Taylor Carman, Tao Ruspoli, Iain Thomson, Mark Wrathall, Patricia Benner and others chime in with their thoughts on the matter.

Tao attends a meeting of the American Society of Existential Phenomenology with his friends Eric Kaplan, Taylor Carman and several other illustrious philosop...

18/01/2024

Eric Kaplan, writer for Young Sheldon and author of “Does Santa Exist: A Philosophical Investigation” and host of the podcast Terrifying Questions, talks about Hanna Arendt’s contention that Martin Heidegger was stuck in a trap of his own making.

The paper was presented in Albuquerque at a meeting of the American Society of Existential Phenomenologists, in January of 2024.

Eric Kaplan, writer for Young Sheldon and author of “Does Santa Exist: A Philosophical Investigation” and host of the podcast Terrifying Questions, talks abo...

16/01/2024

Tao Ruspoli, Iain Thomson, Kaity Creasy, Justin White, Stephan Käufer, Eric Kaplan & Taylor Carman, recording a “live” episode of Terrifying Questions Podcast, which will also air (in full audiovisual format) on Tao’s podcast, Being in the World.

07/01/2024

Some things are obviously horribly bad and wrong. Is it possible to make them right? Do some people deserve satisfaction while others deserve punishment or mercy? When juries deliver verdicts and judges impose sentences, are they speaking the truth or just fumbling in the dark and settling on the least bad outcome? This week Taylor and Eric reflect on the possibility, the impossibility, and the necessity of justice.

(Image courtesy of Jan Willemsen, Milo Winter's "The Wolf and the Lamb")
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5R8fXvDBfCEt8esnQaYH5e?si=YSo09HN2S8aLFBTmTPg4sA