Love & Philosophy

Send a love message

 Buy L&P a Coffee or Give Directly

Join the Newsletter

Navigating the Depths of Voice, Authenticity, and Love with Tim Adalin
In this episode of 'Love and Philosophy,' philosopher host Andrea Hiott engages in a profound conversation with Tim Adalin, founder of the Voicecraft Project in Australia and a philosopher and facilitator of philosophical events. They explore various themes such as the importance of voice, the distinction between holding and sharing space, and the challenges of maintaining authenticity in today's complex social landscapes. The discussion also d...

Send a love message

 Decoding the Brain: Representation and Relational Memory in Cognitive Neuroscience
Give

Support with a Subscription

This episode of 'Love and Philosophy Beyond Dichotomy,' hosted by Andrea Hiott, features a deep dive with Lynn Nadel into the complexities of representation in the brain. The discussion explores how thoughts and memories are formed and represented, beginning with a child's understanding and extending to advanced theories in neuroscience. Central themes include population coding, the relational nature of brain functions, and the embodied cognition approach. They also touch on historical perspectives f...

Send a love message

 Exploring Life's Paradoxes

Give

Support with a Subscription

In this deeply reflective episode of 'Love and Philosophy,' philosopher host Andrea Hiott converses with Parker Palmer, the founder of the Center for Courage and Renewal, about the profound truths of life. They discuss the struggles of depression, the essence of living a life of paradox, and the significance of integrating soul with role. Palmer also shares transformative insights on the nature of love, community, and solitude, and reads a poignant poem that captures the essence of enduring l...

Send a love message

 Give

Support with a Subscription

A poetic conversation at the intersection of literature, science, and technology with Katherine Hayles, a distinguished research professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Hayles discusses her ideas from her books 'How We Became Posthuman' and 'Bacteria to AI,' focusing on the need to rethink cognition and decouple it from consciousness. She describes the concept of non-conscious cognition and emphasizes the importance of understanding the integrated cognitive framework, which includes biological organisms, synthetic intelligences, and their symbiotic relationships with humans. The discussion e...

Send a love message

Give

Support with a Subscription

This episode features esteemed philosopher Lucius Outlaw, professor emeritus of Vanderbilt University. In this thought-provoking conversation, Outlaw shares his remarkable journey from growing up in segregated Mississippi to becoming a respected philosophy professor, closely acquainted with influential figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Eric Fromm. The discussion weaves through topics like double consciousness, agape love, the philosophy of Hegel, and the transformational power of language. Outlaw also reflects on how shared experiences, dialogue, and love can create a more inclusive, understanding world. Tune...

Send a love message

 Give

Support with a Subscription

Michael Garfield is a futurist polymath who has worked everywhere from the KU Natural History Museum to the Sante Fe Institute to Mozilla to the Long Now. He’s currently with the AI Capabilities and Alignment Consensus Project. Oh, and he also has twenty years experience as an artist and musician. This conversation is a bit of a song exploder, looking into one of Michael’s songs (the Big Machine) through the kaleidoscope of his other more academic interests.

Summary: A deep, multi...

Send a love message

Give

A first person exploration of the philosophy of bioregionalism, inspired by the complexity science of Donnella Meadow, with Felix de Rosen, a landscape architect and gardener. 

Felix shares his fascinating journey from studying political science at Harvard to his passion for the natural world and Bioregionalism. Andrea and Felix explore the philosophy of organizing human societies around naturally defined areas, discussing complex systems and the importance of finding community. This conversation is an exploration of the intersections of ecology, culture, and personal growth through Felix's experiences and insights o...

Send a love message

Give

Support with a Subscription

4e philosopher of cognitive science Hanne De Jaegher discusses the profound relationship between loving and knowing as intertwined processes. The first in what we hope to be many conversations about this inspirational work. With Andrea, Hanne explores the idea that thinking and feeling emerge from the same fundamental act of sense-making, which is rooted in our basic, biological existence. De Jaegher shares her personal experiences and how they led to her academic journey studying cognitive science, and then to her work on participatory sense-making...

Send a love message

 Give

Support with a Subscription

 Andrea shares a deeply reflective conversation with renowned journalist Shoma Chaudhury. Originally recorded over a year ago for the Synapse conference, this episode offers an intimate look into Shoma's thought process and career journey. Shoma discusses her approach to holding nuanced, meaningful conversations with a wide variety of people, including some of the most famous figures globally. The episode delves into Shoma's personal experiences of navigating public scrutiny and professional hardships. Through the lens of her experiences, Shoma elaborates on themes of curiosity, compassion, fo...

Send a love message

After Andrea’s introduction, Mirko Prokop talks to Ezequiel Di Paolo about the enactive approach in cognitive science and its roots in Francisco Varela’s work on biological autonomy. They explore the ideas of autonomy and autopoiesis, the deeper meaning of enaction, how biological, sensorimotor and social dimensions of embodiment drive the ongoing, creative process that is human becoming, and what this implies about the meaning of love, authenticity, and the importance of staying true to your questions.

Give

Support with a paid subscription

Ezequiel is a Rese...

Send a love message

 This show is about harmonizing the Dao and embracing the world's weirdness at once. Our guest is Eric Schwitzgebel, an analytic philosopher and professor at the University of California Riverside. As they unfold the Dao and the world’s weirdness, Andrea and Eric explore everything from robot consciousness, the love darts of snails, triads, axiology, and the philosophy of opening. Eric shares his journey into classical Chinese philosophy, how we understands harmonizing with the Dao, some of his writings about consciousness, and the importance of appreciating the world's inherent weirdness. This conversation offers a d...

Send a love message

 Julian Kiverstein is a senior professor at Amsterdam Medical. He's co-authored various papers about the importance of play as it relates to predictive processing, active learning, intimacy and embodied cognition.

Andrea Hiott is a philosopher at Universität Heidelberg.

Sometimes we get stuck in attractor states. Play is a form of disruption that may be able to help us get unstuck. Play seems to be far from algorithmic.

This conversation explores how playfulness is crucial for meaning and flourishing, and how building safe spaces for play (such as...

Send a love message

 Give

 Sabina Leonelli (hosted live here by Fotis Tsiroukis) is a philosopher of science and technology renowned for pioneering work in the philosophy of data & open science. As a professor at the Technical University ofMunich (TUM), she directs the Ethical Data Initiative and leads the PHIL_OS project, which develops empirically grounded frameworks for open science in under-resourced research environments. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges high theory with participatory, on-the-ground research—exemplified by her ethnographic collaborations with biologists and data scientists.

In this episode, host Fotis engages in a deep and...

Send a love message

 Andrea in conversation with fellow cognitive scientist Mark Michael James, highlighting his journey from understanding patterns of being to shaping habits and realigning health. Mark shares his experiences from Ireland, his academic pursuits, and his present work at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. This episode delves into synchronicity, embodied cognition, and the philosophies and practices of the arising 'school of way' of practice and philosophy which includes 'wayshaping' and 'waymaking' and pertains to a paper Mark has recently written with Mushfiqa Jamaluddin, Tom Froese, Aisha Belhadi, Anna Panagiotou, and Dave Snowden. I...

Send a love message

 support with a subscription

TRAILER: Bringing care into public discourse alongside critical thinking.

Hello, everyone. In today's world, we're often pushed into choosing sides and thinking in absolutes. But what if there was another way? Or rather, what if there were many other ways? Welcome to to Love and Philosophy. This is a cumulative philosophy project where we practice kaleidoscopic thinking, moving beyond either/or scenarios to embrace the complexity of existence.

Andrea Hiott, together with other hosts and contributors, gathers philosophers, scientists, and people from all w...

Send a love message

Jessica Böhme is a sustainability scientist, transformation researcher, and founder of the Institute for Practical Eco Philosophy. Jessica shares her journey of exploring the connection between inner transformation and outer change, and how this quest has influenced her personal and professional life. Andrea and Jessica delve into the concept of living philosophically, the role of relational philosophies, and how they impact sustainability. They also discuss the challenges Jessica faced in academia, the significance of personal practices, and her innovative idea of 'philosophy gyms' aimed at integrating philosophy into everyday life for better e...

Send a love message

 Give

Support with a Subscription

The line between a psychotic break and success is not quite as clear as it once was, nor is the question of what medication, therapy, or practice is best, or in what amount. This conversation tries to unpack that liminal space with a man who knows it well and has been able to stay connected to the love in it.

In this episode of Love and Philosophy, Andrea engages in an in-depth conversation with Tom Morgan, exploring the complexities of love, philosophy, a...

Send a love message

 Give

Support with a Subscription

A heart-meets-mind discussion about complexity science and its suprising relation to Daoism, with physicist Jean Boulton. The conversation explores how stability and change are part of a reflexive interweaving of relationships, the importance of actions and behaviors in co-creating the future, and the role of compassion and love in fostering resilience. We also touch on the profound influence of spiritual practices such as Taoism and Buddhism on understanding complexity. The discussion emphasizes the necessity of integrating heart and mind, and how seemingly small, compassionate a...

Send a love message

(Kaufmann Neworks are Boolean: see here if you want to know more, but you don't need to know anything about them to understand this episode)

Please sign up for the newsletter here.

Embracing Uncertainty: Barry O'Reilly on Software Architecture and Philosophy

In this episode of Love and Philosophy, we sit down with Barry O'Reilly, a seasoned software architect with a deep background in pure mathematics and experience at top companies like Microsoft. He discusses his innovative concept, Residuality Theory, which introduces complexity theory into software development for...

Send a love message

Andrea sits down with Kevin Kelly, a true pioneer in the world of technology and futurism. Known for his foundational work with Whole Earth, Wired Magazine and definitive pieces like '1000 True Fans,' Kelly shares insights from his early fascination with science fiction to his groundbreaking contributions in understanding and shaping the digital age and technological ideas. They discuss the profound influence of science fiction on technological advancements, the humanizing impact of the internet, and the vital importance of travel and curiosity for finding meaning. Kelly explains the nuanced continuum between biology...

Send a love message

Participatory sense-making is a term coined by Hanne De Jaegher & Ezequiel Di Paolo. Both these philosophers will be featured in upcoming episodes.

Andrea Hiott hosts Rebecca Todd, Shay Welch, and Penijean Gracefire explore intricate themes of participatory sensemaking, the concept of the 'third entity,' and the impact of trauma and love on interpersonal relationships. The discussion delves into how the body acts as a data-gathering device, how sensory inputs shape our understanding of the world, and the importance of mutual sense-making in a highly complex and often overwhelming environment. Each...

Send a love message

Andrea and Fotis (a guest host of L&P) explore the intricate world of podcasting. Fotis, returning from a previous episode and getting ready to do his second podcast for L&P, asks Andrea about the podcast's growth. In this unplanned chat, the two talk a bit about what podcasts mean to them, Game B, the intersection of various disciplines, and the broader impact of podcasting as a medium. They discuss the research and connective side of podcasting and reflect on this new journey, sharing insights on authenticity, community-building, and the challenges of...

Send a love message

Ritournelle is a concept created by Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari for A Thousand Plateaus (1987.) It's the main subject of 11th plateau 1837: Of the refrain. In this episode of 'Love and Philosophy,' host Andrea Hiott engages in a deep and thought-provoking conversation with philosopher, psychologist, and poet Bayo Akomolafe. They discuss the transformative power of love, the complexities beyond binary categorizations, and the idea of life as a process filled with relational tensions and incompleteness. The discussion covers Bayo's personal journey, including reflections on his father and his book 'These Wilds Beyond Our...

Send a love message

Life is not built by blocks but by lines woven together according to Tim Ingold, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Aberdeen and a leading thinker in anthropology and philosophy. Tim Ingold and Andrea Hiott explore key themes from Tim's influential works, such as 'Anthropology: Why It Matters' and 'Lines,' discussing how life is a continuous journey along interwoven threads and traces shaped by our every action. Building on Gibson, Deleuze,  Hallowell, Merleau-Ponty, and others, Ingold's idea of 'wayfaring' as our fundamental mode of being challenges traditional distinctions between nature a...

Send a love message

 "If a thing loves, it is infinite" William Blake: 

In this episode of Love and Philosophy, Andrea engages with Clive Grinyer, a renowned industrial and service designer and the director of Project Love. The discussion centers around how design can be a catalyst for fostering love, empathy, and compassion in society, and how this is a form of collective cognition. They explore various innovative projects, including a conversational bench, a heat map app, and a secular gravestone for natural beauty spots. The conversation delves into the philosophy behind design and how it...

Send a love message

 Give

Support with a Subscription

'Needful Freedom' comes from the work of philosopher Hans Jonas and though this podcast is not about Jonas, Andrea and Mike discuss this term towards understanding the skill of the future.

Mike's bio: "Ex-tech exec, now a reluctant Cassandra. Penning dispatches from democracy's peril at notesfromthecircus.com. Unmasking the unholy alliance of Silicon Valley and aspiring despots. 2+2=4, even when power insists otherwise."

Cognitive Revolution: Mike Brock on Love, Truth, and the Future of Democracy:

In this deep and t...

Send a love message

#paradox of #love and #agency Yogi aka. Johannes Jaeger like to fashion himself as a natural philosopher. After having his own lab and being the director of an institute in Vienna he left academia for pursuing intellectual production independently. He is part of an science-art collective in Vienna called The Zone. His focus has been primarily focused on his book, Beyond the Age of #Machines, which he had been publishing incrementally in digital form. Fotis Tsiroukis is a cross-disciplinary researcher interested in the intersection between humanities, science and new media. Also a cyborg...<...

Send a love message

 Elena Clare Cuffari is a Professor at Franklin and Marshall College. Shay Welch is a professor at Spelman College in Atlanta. In this episode, they discuss embodied cognition and participatory sensemaking in relation to marginalized body epistemologies. They share insights from a recent conference that brought together diverse perspectives on how embodied cognition intersects with issues of race, gender, and activism. Welch emphasizes that she never separates her scholarship from her personal life, seeing philosophy as inherently connected to her lived experience. Cuffari highlights the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of her work with c...

Send a love message

Support the show

In this episode, which was recorded in the autumn of 2024, Andrea Hiott talks with environmental philosopher and public intellectual Rupert Read. They delve into Read's realization that 'this civilization is finished,' his engagement with Wittgenstein's philosophy (especially the book he edited with Alice Crary), his subsequent involvement with Extinction Rebellion, how he has come to understand crisis as inflections of love, and the 'moving forward' work of the Climate Majority Project. The conversation explores themes of crisis, consciousness, intergenerational solidarity, and the liberating power of love and...

Send a love message

 Decoding the Empowerment Measurement in AI and Robotics with Dari Trendafilov. Dari has a PhD in Computing Science from the University of Glasgow, UK. His research interests are situated at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Human–Computer Interaction. He specialized in probabilistic information-theoretic modelling of complex systems and analysis of computational and interactive cognitive systems in the context of social and human–robot interaction. Towards his aim of establishing the fundamental information processing principles driving decision-making in living organisms, he has developed information-theoretic models and tools for the study of human senso...

Send a love message

  Exploring Human Embodiment and Conviviality with Thomas Fuchs, the Karl Jaspers Professor of Philosophy and Psychiatry, Heidelberg University, Germany

Join Andrea for an insightful conversation with Thomas Fuchs, a philosopher and psychiatrist at Universität Heidelberg, as they delve into his book, 'In Defense of the Human Being.' Explore the profound questions about our distinctiveness from machines, the concept of 'conviviality,' and the essence of human embodiment. They discuss the oscillation between self-aggrandizement and self-contempt and how intersubjectivity and embodied experiences are central to understanding what it means to be...

Send a love message

 Give

Support with a Subscription

 Mark Solms | Part 2 | Can love bring us beyond traditional divides?

Mark Solms is a professor in the Department of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town: "My early research focused on the brain mechanisms of sleep and dreaming led to an interest in consciousness, which is currently my major focus. My emphasis is on brainstem mechanisms of consciousness and the foundational role of affect, emotional affect in particular. This work has included applications to various neuropsychiatric disorders, such as anosognosia an...

Send a love message

 Logic, Self-consciousness, and the continuity of mind and life: This episode is with Karen Ng, author of Hegel's Concept of Life, and an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Andrea and Karen discuss Hegel's concept of life, self-consciousness, and the problem of contradiction, emphasizing how life and love are fundamental to understanding his ideas. The episode moves through Kant's influence on Hegel, internal and external purposiveness, and how these philosophical concepts relate to our modern understanding of the mind, nature, and meaning. Karen shares her journey and insights on making Hegel’s com...

Send a love message

  Happy 2025 ❤️ everyone.
Philosopher Evan Thompson discusses 'The Blind Spot' which delves into the complexities of human perception, science, and the interconnectedness of nature. Together Andrea Hiott and Evan Thompson explore themes such as the impact of idealized scientific models on our understanding of reality, the importance of integrating arts and humanities with STEM disciplines, and the urgency of addressing ecological and meaning crises. The episode also touches on the historical context and influences behind Thompson's work, including his upbringing around pioneering thinkers like Lynn Margulis, Francisco Varela and Gregory Bateson. Evan wrote The B...

Send a love message

  Karl Friston has ranked as 'the most influential brain scientist in the world' and been called a genius (as in the WIRED magazine piece), though many find his work mysterious. The melody of this unique conversation between Karl and Andrea, however, is the concept of 'flow' and how it relates to making the right choices within a constantly changing world. Andrea and Karl also explore Friston's significant contributions, including active inference and the free energy principle, discussing how these models might provide a first-principles account of sentient behavior. The conversation covers a wide r...

Send a love message

A look into the ideas of ecological psychology with legendary Harry Heft. Known for his renowned contributions to environmental and ecological psychology, Heft discusses the concept of affordances, a term coined by JJ Gibson, and its application across various fields. Heft traces the intellectual lineage from William James to Gibson, emphasizing a relational rather than dualistic approach to understanding perception and action. The conversation spans affordances in cultural contexts, the significance of immediate experience, the importance of teaching and the dynamic relationship between humans and their environment.
Video here.
Show notes...

Send a love message

Neuroscience, AI, and Philosophy with Paul from Brain Inspired
Can we think about education (and age) differently? Was it worth it to give up academia, move into an RV and create a podcast?
Can we think differently about computation and representation?

Paul Middlebrooks is no gadfly but as you'll hear, the one thing he knows is that he does not know (as Plato quotes Socrates: "All I know is that I know nothing.") He quit academia and started a podcast and has since become an important voice to many...

Send a love message

Minna Salami is a Nigerian-Finnish and Swedish feminist author, social critic and currently Program Chair at THE NEW INSTITUTE. She is the author of Can Feminism Be African? (forthcoming Harper Collins) and Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone (Bloomsbury 2020) which has been translated into multiple languages. Minna is a leading voice of contemporary feminism, she has drawn over a million readers to her multiple award-winning blog MsAfropolitan.com.
In this episode, Andrea Hiott has a profound conversation with author and philosopher Mina Salami about her influential book, 'Sensuous Knowledge...

Send a love message

Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Ludwig Wittgenstein, dualism, physics, and more.
"John Koethe was born on December 25, 1945. He began writing poetry in 1964 during his undergraduate years at Princeton University and went on to receive a PhD in philosophy from Harvard University.

Give

Support with a Subscription

Koethe’s Ninety-fifth Street (Harper Perennial, 2009) won the 2010 Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets. He has published numerous other books of poetry, including Cemeteries and Galaxies (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025); Walking Backwards: Poems 1966–2016 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018); The Swim...

Send a love message

Exploring Perspectival Realism: Are there many paths to the right place?
In this episode, Andrea talks with Michela Massimi, a philosopher renowned for her book 'Perspectival Realism.' They look at what these terms mean, discussing the relevance of perspectivism in the philosophy of science and its implications for understanding scientific models, realism, and pluralism. The conversation explores how different perspectives can coexist in scientific inquiry without leading to relativism, and the role of local and experiential knowledge in contributing to scientific understanding. Massimi also shares her personal journey into philosophy and...