PODCAST · society
Terrifying Questions
by Eric Kaplan & Taylor Carman
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.
Episodes
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53. Should We Fear Death?
Eric and Taylor talk about death and whether we ought be afraid of it. In this episode Taylor speaks partly from personal experience because a few years ago he had a mild brush with death. He did not die, however, which he and Eric agree was a good thing. They also agree that death is, if nothing...
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50. Have We Forgotten Being?
Have we forgotten what it means to be? Is the history of being a history of our becoming oblivious to it? Does being even have a history? Taylor and Eric discuss these terrible, wondrous, “rich and strange” subjects in anticipation of the publication of Taylor's forthcoming book, Heidegger and…
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49. Are We Insects or Angels or Both?
Are we puny and wretched or divine and transcendent? Or are we both? According to the great French mathematician, inventor, and religious thinker Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), yes. This week Eric and Taylor contemplate Pascal's proto-existentialist account of the human condition and its possible...
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48. Was Nietzsche a Proto-Fascist?
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...
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47. Are We Always at War with Ourselves?
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,...
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46. Are We Living in a Cave? (Part 2)
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.
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45. Will Intelligent Machines Destroy Us?
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…
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44. Are We Living in a Cave? (Part 1)
Are ordinary experience and everyday life hopelessly benighted and delusional, a realm of shadows, full of sound and fury 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...
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Episode 40: Is Food Art?
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...
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Episode 38: Is Justice Possible?
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...
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Episode 37: Is It Okay to Be Fat?
Do we owe it to anyone (even ourselves) to be thin? Is being thin always healthier, sexier, better looking, or somehow more praiseworthy? Is it easier to be a great philosopher or to get into heaven if you’re thin? This week Eric and Taylor are joined by philosopher Kate Manne, whose new book...
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Episode 36: Can You Succeed in the Music Business Without Selling Out?
Does the lure of fame and fortune necessarily get in the way of making great music? Or is it okay to make some fun ear candy as a way of putting food on the table? This week Taylor and Eric chat about artistic integrity and the temptations of popularity and money with singer, songwriter,...
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Episode 35: Can a Sound Look Like Something?
Synesthesia! A weird thing experienced only by unusual people, or by ordinary people on unusual drugs, or – is it something everybody has all the time? Are very low musical notes literally “dark”? Can food sound like something, like hot peppers going “ping” on your tongue? Why does it make sense…
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Episode 34: Is Revenge Inevitable?
Is revenge a dish best served cold, hot, or not at all? Should we all go on a revenge diet, or is it just too tasty? Could hitting back be so much fun that we can’t give it up? Or is the best revenge the serene feeling of being above revenge? Even if we know that vengeance inevitably leads to an...
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Episode 33: Do Things Happen for a Reason?
Things happen. Sometimes you find a $10 bill. Sometimes a bird craps on your head. Are these events just the meaningless result of previous events or is there a hidden purpose behind everything? Does God’s plan underlie the chaos of experience? Is the idea that something was “meant to be” (or not...
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Episode 32: Is Almost Everyone a Failure?
This week Taylor and Eric are joined by philosopher Kieran Setiya, author of Life Is Hard, which they agree it is. It’s especially hard if you think you’re doomed to failure. Are you? Not necessarily. But if you don’t worry about success and failure, are you just going to be swimming in a soup of...
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Episode 31: Are We Always Just Acting?
Is everything we do a kind of performance? Are we always reading from a script? And what makes bad acting bad? Do psychopaths make good actors? Do politicians make good psychopaths? And why do presidential candidates emphasize what they’re saying by pointing with their thumbs? Film and television...
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Episode 30: Was the Woke Mind Virus Created by French Philosophers?
Were poststructuralist, postmodern, postrespectable French philosophers like Michel Foucault the real masterminds behind identity politics, critical race theory, cultural appropriation, and pumpkin spice latte? Will civilization survive the rampant, unchecked questioning of grand narratives? Join...
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Episode 28: Is It Bad to Judge People?
Being “judgmental” sounds like something bad, yet refraining from all moral judgment seems pathetic, and also impossible. So, what should we do? Can we be truly compassionate without also being capable of anger, resentment, and maybe some occasional Schadenfreude? This week Eric and Taylor are...
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Episode 27: Why Do We Like to Remember Things that Hurt?
Is there any pain as great as recalling past happiness from present misery? If so, why do we do it? Do we get pleasure from tormenting ourselves about losing something (or someone) we loved? Was Socrates right that living well means learning how to die? Does being comforted too quickly mean we...
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Episode 26: What Comes After Monotheism?
Does belief in God lead to intolerance and violence? Is monotheism about the number of gods or is it, as Egyptologist Jan Assmann suggests, about “having no other gods” and stamping out idol worship and superstition? Are secular atheists really just monotheists fighting a holy war against…
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Episode 24: Is Being Deep Better than Being Shallow?
What does it mean to be deep? Is profundity something good or is it pretentious and boring? Are there different kinds of deepness? Is shallowness itself a kind of depth? Is it only shallow people who try to sound deep? Are profound utterances dark oceans or plastic mirrors? Join Eric and Taylor…
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Episode 23: Are There Monsters Among Us?
What are monsters? Do they lurk among us? Are some of us monsters? How would we know? What’s really frightening about monsters – that they’re inhuman or that they’re all too human? If a shark could speak, would you climb into its tank to talk to it? And what exactly is so creepy about the dad in...
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Episode 22: Is Being Unintelligible?
What is it to be? We be, and we be jammin’ but what about other things? Is a hole a thing? Or just a lack of dirt? Unicorns aren’t real, but are they in some other way? Perhaps unicorns are, but don’t exist. But if so, what about non-existent unicorns? What’s their deal? What is the “metaphysics…
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Episode 21: Are All Human Relationships Struggles for Domination?
Was Jean-Paul Sartre right that hell is other people? Are all human relationships an attempt to beat the Other before the Other beats the Us? Is every person coming down the road a potential master of a potential slave? Is all love either masochism or sadism? Is love a war? Or is war love by…
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Episode 20: Would You Do Bad Things if You Knew You Could Get Away With It?
Actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician Fred Armisen joins Eric and Taylor this week to ponder the twin mysteries of morality and moral motivation. Do we do good only out of a fear of blame and punishment? Would most people do wrong, if they knew no one was looking? Tune in and learn what...
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Episode 19: Does Desire Lead to Suffering?
This week Eric and Taylor are joined by journalist and adult industry activist Laura Desirée as they wonder whether desire inevitably leads to suffering. Or maybe desiring just is suffering. Is desire therefore bad? Maybe some kinds of suffering are good because they keep us from becoming numb to...
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Episode 18: Does Technology Endanger Something Important About Being Human?
This week Eric and Taylor are joined by Michael Thaddeus, professor of mathematics at Columbia University, as they ponder the worrisome thought that technological progress might threaten something essential and/or precious about human existence. Are we sacrificing quality for efficiency? Are...
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Episode 17: Do We Have to Lie?
Is lying unavoidable? Should you always tell the truth, no matter what? Even if an axe murderer asks you where your sister is hiding? What if a flounder asks you, “Does this place on the sea floor make me look flat?” This week Eric and Taylor are joined by TV writer and executive producer Tara...
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Episode 16: Is It Impossible to Be Cool by Trying?
Can we try to become cool, or is trying to be cool by definition like totally uncool man? Is it like keeping yourself up trying to fall asleep? Maybe it’s impossible, like trying to look at the edge of your visual field. If you make a deliberate effort to be happy, or to be a loving person, are…
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Episode 15: Is There Any Such Thing as the Self?
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.
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Episode 14: Are We Trapped by Tradition?
Are we prisoners of the past or is radical revolution possible? Revolutionaries say we can get out. Conservatives say we shouldn’t even want to. But maybe both sides get it wrong! Do we need a past to have a future? Join Taylor, Eric, and special guest Professor Bryan Van Norden, an expert in...
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Episode 13: What If Wisdom Does Not Make Us Blessed?
Philosopher Helen De Cruz joins Eric and Taylor this week to discuss the unsettling possibility that insight and understanding might not actually make us happier or more at peace with our existence. Maybe they just bum us out. Tune in and hear what the heretical Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza...
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Episode 12: Are We Our Bodies?
Are we our bodies? Do we also have souls? Do we have minds? Do haircuts diminish our true selves? Can our selves be hit by a bus or uploaded onto The Cloud? The French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s body couldn’t be with us for this episode, but he joins us in spirit to tell us why we…
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Episode 11: Is God Dead?
Is God Dead? If He is, did we kill Him? If God is dead does that mean Humanity is dead too -- or at least that the category of being a human being is in need of some serious re-appraisal? Taylor and Eric discuss these questions and both theism and atheism get re-evaluated. Along the way, we…
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Episode 10: What If the Best I Can Do Just Isn’t Good Enough?
This week Eric and Taylor wonder and worry about what it means to try hard and still feel like you’re falling short. Are there objective standards of excellence or does happiness require just staying in your comfort zone?
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Episode 9: Is Free Will an Illusion?
Is free will an illusion? Are we puppets? When we think we are thinking (or acting) freely, are we actually just cogs in a heartless, meaningless, deterministic cosmic machine?
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Episode 8: Do We Need Other People?
Are we utterly dependent on others or should we look inward and try to be true to ourselves? Can we do both? Or neither? This week Eric and Taylor look to Ralph Waldo Emerson for some help with this deeply unsettling question.
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Episode 7: Should Masculinity Be Abolished?
This week Eric and Taylor talk with Cristen Conger, host of the podcast Unladylike, about whether we might all be better off without masculinity, or maybe femininity, or maybe gender altogether. Would this be possible? Would it be a step forward? Tune in and find out.
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Episode 6: Is Being a Good Person Just a Matter of Luck?
In this episode Eric and Taylor grapple with the problem of moral luck. Are we in control of being decent human beings and doing the right thing or are we at the mercy of circumstance and maybe even of our own character? Listen, feel unsettled, then feel okay.
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Episode 4: Is It Possible to Have a Truly Meaningful Conversation?
In this week’s episode, Eric and Taylor wonder whether truly meaningful conversation with another person is possible, or if everything is just a matter of objective fact or subjective opinion, so that there’s nothing really to talk about. Tune in and find out what the German philosopher Immanuel...
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Episode 3: Are We Living in a Simulation?
This week Eric and Taylor wonder if we might be living in a simulation. Are we brains in a vat? Are we dreaming? Could all of our beliefs be false? Take a deep breath, tune in, and find out.
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Episode 2: Do Only Fools Fall in Love?
This week Eric and Taylor wonder whether it’s dumb to fall in love. Or maybe only a fool would refuse to fall in love. Can cool reason triumph over blind passion? How is love different from lust -- if it is? Tune in and find out.
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Episode 1: Does ChatGPT Mean Humanity Is Doomed?
In this episode, Eric and Taylor worry about whether ChatGPT might be a harbinger of total computer domination of the world and the looming obsolescence and expendability of human beings. Is that possible? Tune in and find out what it is about artificial intelligence that should really frighten you.
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Episode 0: Trailer
Eric Kaplan, a comedy writer (Futurama, Big Bang Theory) and doctor of philosophy, and Taylor Carman (Barnard College, Columbia University), a distinguished but humble authority on matters of existence and existentialism, host a philosophy podcast that addresses the most unsettling questions...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.
HOSTED BY
Eric Kaplan & Taylor Carman
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Terrifying Questions have?
Terrifying Questions currently has 45 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Terrifying Questions about?
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...
How often does Terrifying Questions release new episodes?
Terrifying Questions has 45 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to Terrifying Questions on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Terrifying Questions?
Terrifying Questions is created and hosted by Eric Kaplan & Taylor Carman.
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