Podcast
Micah Zarin Podcast
Hosted by Micah Zarin · EN
Teenager asks smart people dumb questions. Formerly titled Elite Ball Knowledge Philosophy (EBKP).
20episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Will AI Ever Be Creative? (w/ Amy Kind)
5d ago01:06:14Tap to summarize00:00 What makes something creative00:42 Intros01:51 Can anything be truly novel? (psychological vs historical creativity)05:05 Influence vs originality, and music lawsuits09:34 Originality isn't enough11:01 Discovery vs creativity15:04 Combinatorial vs transformational creativity19:14 Can AI be creative?25:19 Word salad30:28 Does a painting have value if no one ever sees it?31:32 Is Baby Shark better than Beethoven?37:31 Creativity and culture42:27 Philosophy49:51 Is anything in the world without creativity?54:38 Is translation a creative act?1:00:07 Adaptation vs inspiration1:03:36 Life advice
Transcribe →Reality Is a Prediction (w/ Karl Friston)
5d ago01:42:24Tap to summarizeKarl Friston — the world’s most-cited neuroscientist and architect of the Free Energy Principle — joins me for a conversation about how brains make sense of reality, why we seek uncertainty, what beauty is, why psychedelics dissolve our usual models of the world, etcWe talk about predictive processing, active inference, surprise, Bayesian belief updating, jokes, curiosity, trauma, beauty, psychedelics, and the strange possibility that life itself is a kind of controlled hallucination.Read my Substack essay that frames part of this conversation: Beauty is a Loophole https://micahzarin.substack.com/p/bea...0:00 — Karl Friston cold open0:36 — Intro1:04 — The Free Energy Principle, briefly7:20 — Technical neuroscience27:10 —jokes 33:33 — Curiosity38:19 — uncertainty 48:24 — Goblins52:40 — Psychedelics1:13:31 — Awe, beauty, trauma, and dissolving old models1:38:10 — Curiosity1:41:29 — Karl Friston’s life advice
Transcribe →Is Moral Realism Cope (w/ Lance Bush)
5d ago01:24:34Tap to summarizegood video. subscribe and like if u enjoyed. dislike if u disenjoyed.lance:@lanceindependent lance substack: https://substack.com/@lanceindependent00:00 Cold open & intro00:38 Why moral realists annoy him06:56 Arguments for moral realism15:04 Philosophy38:22 Why anti-realists get misrepresented45:55 “So slavery isn’t wrong?”50:43 The magic beans fallacy54:49 Moral reasoning and reality57:24 Authenticity, cancellation, and tribalism1:03:05 Productive disagreement in real life1:06:01 Why care about philosophy?1:17:19 Advice for studying philosophy1:20:46 Life advice1:24:29 Closing
Transcribe →Will AI Make Everything Pointless? (w/ John Baez)
2w ago01:13:06Tap to summarize828 views May 31, 2026 InterviewsMathematical physicist John Baez (This Week's Finds, the n-Category Café) on whether human thought still means anythingOne of the most wide-ranging conversations I've had.Read my writing: https://substack.com/@micahzarinChapters:00:00 Intro01:19 Chords04:10 Doubt07:26 Teaching09:23 Categories16:32 Antimatter22:08 Meaning29:03 AI47:21 Tate49:25 Heroes51:39 Chess57:05 Sycophancy1:00:03 Consciousness1:04:42 E81:07:13 Advice1:10:36 Origins
Transcribe →Can we cure aging (w/ Aubrey de Gray)
3w ago01:05:46Tap to summarizeyeah
Transcribe →Is Suffering Actually Bad? (w/ Richard Chappell)
May 2300:51:02Tap to summarizeIn this conversation, I talk with philosopher Richard Chappell about moral realism, suffering, moral responsibility, effective altruism, AI consciousness, digital sentience, and why our intuitions about machines may change once the machines actually arrive.Richard’s blog: https://www.goodthoughts.blogMy Substack: https://substack.com/@micahzarinTimestamps0:00 Consciousness0:53 Realism3:36 Reflection9:23 Mathematics24:41 Suffering31:05 Consequences41:33 Responsibility49:29 AI58:02 Advice
Transcribe →Why Our Civilization Will Collapse Within Decades (w/ Robin Hanson)
May 2301:18:16Tap to summarizeRobin Hanson is an economist at George Mason University, the inventor of prediction markets, and the author of The Age of Em and The Elephant in the Brain. In this conversation he argues that our civilization is failing because we broke the engine of cultural evolution, and that the only way out is to let capitalism run more things, which I pushed back on, badly.We also got into prediction markets, why we don't actually want accurate information, authenticity as hidden performance, foragers vs farmers, falling fertility, insider trading, and what young people should do with their lives.📚 Robin's work:Overcoming Bias: https://www.overcomingbias.comThe Age of Em: https://ageofem.comThe Elephant in the Brain: https://www.elephantinthebrain.com🎧 More from me:Substack: https://substack.com/@micahzarin⏱️ Chapters:00:00 — Hook00:11 — Intro01:27 — Philosophy05:04 — Kalshi & Polymarket13:56 — Group loyalty, and implausible beliefs21:15 — Cultural evolution27:14 — Why civilization is collapsing51:41 — The incoherence of utopia57:22 — Where I tried to defend anti-capitalism1:16:21 — Life advice for me
Transcribe →Does Fine-Tuning Prove God? (w/ Bentham's Bulldog)
May 1001:05:09Tap to summarizeI sat down with Matthew Adelstein (Bentham's Bulldog) to debate one of the most popular arguments for God's existence: the fine-tuning argument.🔗 Bentham's Bulldog: https://benthams.substack.com 🔗 My Substack: https://substack.com/@micahzarin0:00 - Hook0:14 - Intros6:11 - Fine-Tuning Explained9:10 - Independent Constants?21:33 - Bill Gates Analogy40:51 - Islands and Continents1:02:06 - Why God?1:04:06 - Advice
Transcribe →She Paints Brain Cells Without Realizing (w/ Haleh Fotowat)
May 601:05:54Tap to summarizeHaleh Fotowat is a senior scientist at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, where she leads neuroscience work on a DARPA-funded program developing novel anesthetics. She trained as an electrical engineer in Tehran and Houston before getting her PhD in neuroscience at Baylor, with postdocs at McGill, Ottawa, and Harvard studying locust escape behavior, weakly electric fish, and zebrafish navigation. She is also a working abstract painter whose pieces have shown in Harvard art exhibitions.https://www.halehfotowat.comI realized "Sleepwalkers" is an essay I never posted on my Substack, but it was an assignment for a class. Here's the Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/micahzarin00:00 — Intro 00:21 — Art & Spontaneity 16:06 — The Brain 17:40 — Electric Fish & Serotonin 29:00 — Anesthesia & Consciousness 39:05 — AI & Attention 55:04 — What Makes Art Human 01:03:53 — The Secretary Problem 01:09:51 — Advice
Transcribe →Arguing With a Logician About Reality (w/ Graham Priest)
May 601:06:41Tap to summarizeGraham Priest
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