Terrifying Questions

Mar 03 2025 55 ep. 53 mins 100

Terrifying Questions Podcast artwork

Eric Kaplan, a comedy writer (Futurama, Big Bang Theory) and doctor of philosophy, and Taylor Carman (Barnard College, Columbia University), a philosophy professor specializing in phenomenology, existentialism, and hermeneutics, host a podcast that addresses unsettling questions concerning human existence and the order of things with the goal of finding a path to courage using comedy, imagination, and dialogue. Along the way they occasionally grapple with the deep uncanniness of being.

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Episode 48: Was Nietzsche a Proto-Fascist?

Mar 03 2025 58 mins

Was Nietzsche a fascist? Does liking Nietzsche make you a fascist? If the bully boy heralds of MAGA are present-day fascists, does that make them latter-day Nietzscheans? Join Eric and Taylor as they distinguish several varieties of chest-thumping, bluster, and skepticism about truth. And as Nietzsche himself said, “If this podcast episode does not kill you, it will make you stro

Episode 47: Are We Always at War with Ourselves?

Feb 17 2025 58 mins

Did you ever want something and not want it, or love somebody and also hate them? If you did, does that mean there are two different things inside you and they are having a war? Or are there three? This week Eric and Taylor look at the idea of internal conflict, internal peace, what it all means, and what if anything can be done about it. They also reply to two letters from nonimag

Episode 46: Are We Living in a Cave? (Part 2)

Feb 10 2025 44 mins

Are we still living in a cave? In this sequel episode Eric and Taylor contemplate what might happen if you got out of Plato’s cave. Would the sun blind you? And if you tried to convince the other prisoners to escape, would they kill you? Also this week, replies to some letters from listeners.

Episode 45: Will Intelligent Machines Destroy Us?

Feb 03 2025 65 mins

Are computers becoming so supersmart that they might supersede all human intelligence and eat us for lunch? Or is the very idea of “machine intelligence” a sad blend of conceptual confusion, willful ignorance, magical thinking, and financial opportunism? If you’re not sure (and if you can’t get an LLM to give you a straight answer), have a listen and get back in touch with

Episode 44: Are We Living in a Cave? (Part 1)

Jan 27 2025 60 mins

Are ordinary experience and everyday life hopelessly benighted and delusional, a realm of shadows, full of spectacle and drama but signifying nothing? This week Eric and Taylor descend into the most famous four pages in the history of Western philosophy: Plato’s allegory of the cave. Tune in and overcome your fear of truth, wisdom, and the beautiful.

Episode 43: Can You Learn Anything Important from Somebody Else?

Mar 08 2024 61 mins

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?"

Episode 42: Are There Human Beings Worthy of Worship? With Geoff Dyer

Feb 29 2024 60 mins

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 t

Episode 41: Is Entertainment a Seductive Lie?

Feb 23 2024 53 mins

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.

Episode 40: Is Food Art?

Feb 10 2024 71 mins

This week 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? Wh

Episode 15: Is There Any Such Thing as the Self?

Feb 06 2024 49 mins

Another chestnut. Am I a self? Am I myself? Am I yourself? And if there is no such thing as the self, do I not exist? The Buddha and David Hume thought so – were they right? Join Taylor and Eric as they explore the conceptual labyrinth that is ourselves.