The Popperian Podcast
Interviewing academics, professionals and other experts, The Popperian Podcast is a monthly podcast where Jed Lea-Henry looks into the philosophy and life of Karl Popper.
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The Popperian Podcast #33 – Flavio Del Santo – ‘Karl Popper and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics’
04/28/2024
The Popperian Podcast #33 – Flavio Del Santo – ‘Karl Popper and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Flavio Del Santo. They speak about Karl Popper’s changing theories about, and proposed experiments for, understanding the foundations of quantum mechanics, from his earliest publications and up until his death. Flavio Del Santo is Schrödinger Fellow at the University of Geneva, the Group of Applied Physics; Faculty at Constructor University in Geneva; and Faculty of Physics at the University of Vienna. Flavio works on the foundations of quantum mechanics, quantum communication, history of modern physics; fundamental differences between quantum and classical physics; interpretations of quantum mechanics; and the social and historical development of modern science. *** Beyond Method: The Diatribe Between Feyerabend and Popper Over the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics *** Karl Popper's forgotten role in the quantum debate at the edge between philosophy and physics in 1950s and 1960s *** Genesis of Karl Popper's EPR-Like Experiment and its Resonance amongst the Physics Community in the 1980s *** The Open Past in an Indeterministic Physics The Popperian Podcast is non-profit. I am not looking to make a profit or earn a salary, and never will. But if you are interested in helping to cover the ongoing costs of the podcast – hosting fees, storage fees, recording fees, etc.: approximately $100 per month (keep an eye on the total donations and don’t contribute anything that takes us substantially over that amount) – please do so at the links below. Thank you for the help! Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #32 – Seamus O’Mahony – ‘Freud and Psychoanalysis - The Story of Science, Pseudoscience and Sex’
12/14/2023
The Popperian Podcast #32 – Seamus O’Mahony – ‘Freud and Psychoanalysis - The Story of Science, Pseudoscience and Sex’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Seamus O’Mahony. They speak about Seamus’s new book ‘The Guru, the Bagman and the Sceptic: A Story of Science, Sex and Psychoanalysis’ concerning the intertwined lives of Sigmund Freud, fellow psychoanalyst Ernest Jones, and the surgeon Wilfred Trotter. Seamus O’Mahony is a doctor and prize-winning author. He worked for many years in the NHS, returning to his native city of Cork in 2001, where he was a gastroenterologist and clinical professor until February 2020. His first book won the British Medical Association’s council chair’s choice award in 2017. His second book was published in 2019, and his book was published by Head of Zeus in March 2021. He is a regular contributor to the and the . He has written also for the Observer, the Irish Times, the Irish Independent and the Saturday Evening Post. He is a member of the Lancet commission on “The Value of Death” and is visiting professor at the at King’s College London. *** The Popperian Podcast is non-profit. I am not looking to make a profit or earn a salary, and never will. But if you are interested in helping to cover the ongoing costs of the podcast – hosting fees, storage fees, recording fees, etc.: approximately $100 per month (keep an eye on the total donations and don’t contribute anything that takes us substantially over that amount) – please do so at the links below. Thank you for the help! Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #31 – Dmytro Sepetyi – ‘The Popper-Bartley Debate’
10/27/2023
The Popperian Podcast #31 – Dmytro Sepetyi – ‘The Popper-Bartley Debate’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Dmytro Sepetyi. They speak about the debate between Karl Popper and his former student William Bartley over the irrationalism and fideism that Bartley saw within critical rationalism, and his attempt to improve upon it in the form of pancritical rationalism. Dmytro Sepetyi is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Studies at Zaporizhzhia State Medical University (Ukraine). *** Dmytro Sepetyi’s Personal Page The Popperian Podcast is non-profit. I am not looking to make a profit or earn a salary, and never will. But if you are interested in helping to cover the ongoing costs of the podcast – hosting fees, storage fees, recording fees, etc.: approximately $100 per month (keep an eye on the total donations and don’t contribute anything that takes us substantially over that amount) – please do so at the links below. Thank you for the help! Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #30 – Jamie Shaw– ‘Paul Feyerabend, Anything Goes’
09/17/2023
The Popperian Podcast #30 – Jamie Shaw– ‘Paul Feyerabend, Anything Goes’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Jamie Shaw. They speak about the life, the work, and the specifically epistemological anarchism of Paul Feyerabend. Jamie Shaw is a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Institute of Philosophy at Leibniz University. He received his PhD from the University of Western Ontario for his dissertation ‘A Pluralism Worth Having: Feyerabend’s Well-Ordered Science’, and he is the editor of ‘Interpreting Feyerabend: Critical Papers’. Cambridge University Press. *** *** The Popperian Podcast is non-profit. I am not looking to make a profit or earn a salary, and never will. But if you are interested in helping to cover the ongoing costs of the podcast – hosting fees, storage fees, recording fees, etc.: approximately $100 per month (keep an eye on the total donations and don’t contribute anything that takes us substantially over that amount) – please do so at the links below. Thank you for the help! Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #29 – Rafe Champion – ‘Jacques Barzun’
08/27/2023
The Popperian Podcast #29 – Rafe Champion – ‘Jacques Barzun’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Rafe Champion. They speak about the life and work of Jacques Barzun. Rafe Champion grew up on a dairy farm in the far northwest of Tasmania and studied Agricultural Science at the University of Tasmania followed by post-graduate research in Adelaide. He moved into the social sciences in Sydney but did not achieve an academic career and spent most of his professional career in policy, planning and research on health and welfare issues. His main interest after he encountered Popper’s ideas on critical rationalism, objective knowledge & etc. was to explore and explain their implications and applications. His first wife (Kilmeny Niland 1950-2009) was a talented and versatile artist and she created the beautiful to provide a platform for Rafe’s interpretation of the work of Popper, Bartley III, Hayek and others including the great psychologists Karl Buhler and Ian D. Suttie. *** The Rat House - *** Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #28 – Nicholas Maxwell – ‘Our Fundamental Problem’
07/30/2023
The Popperian Podcast #28 – Nicholas Maxwell – ‘Our Fundamental Problem’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Nicholas Maxwell. They speak about Maxwell’s agreements and disagreements with Popper, the metaphysical assumption that there is a unity of knowledge and the preference within science for unified theories, Maxwell’s theory of Aim-Oriented Empiricism, and importantly how this ought to be extended to the social sciences and the big questions of human flourishing. Nicholas Maxwell is an emeritus reader in philosophy of science at University College London, where he previous taught philosophy of science for nearly thirty years. He is the author of What’s Wrong With Science? (Bran's Head Books, 1976), From Knowledge to Wisdom (Blackwell, 1984), The Comprehensibility of the Universe (OUP, 1998), Is Science Neurotic? (World Scientific, 2004), Cutting God in Half – And Putting the Pieces Together Again: A New Approach to Philosophy (2010), How Universities Can Help Create a Wiser World: The Urgent Need for an Academic Revolution (Imprint Academic, 2014), Global Philosophy (2014), In Praise of Natural Philosophy: A Revolution for Thought and Life (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017), Understanding Scientific Progress: Aim-Oriented Empiricism (Paragon House, 2017), Karl Popper, Science and Enlightenment (UCL Press, 2017), Science and Enlightenment: Two Great Problems of Learning (Springer, 2019), The Metaphysics of Science and Aim-Oriented Empiricism: A Revolution for Science and Philosophy (Synthese Library, Springer, 2019), Our Fundamental Problem: A Revolutionary Approach to Philosophy (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020), The World Crisis - And What To Do About It (World Scientific, Spring 2021) (all available at: *** Nicholas Maxwell’s academic profile (). *** The Popperian Podcast #3 – Nicholas Maxwell – ‘More Popperian than Popper’ *** Philosophy Seminars for Five-Year Olds Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #27 – Jagdish Hattiangadi – ‘The Structure of Problems’
06/11/2023
The Popperian Podcast #27 – Jagdish Hattiangadi – ‘The Structure of Problems’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Jagdish Hattiangadi. They speak about the importance of the discovery of problems for science, philosophy, progress and for the growth of all knowledge, the relationship between problems and questions, the logical structure of problems, the need to understand their historiography, and just what it means to solve a problem, and how it is that solutions constitute knowledge. Jagdish Hattiangadi is a Professor of Philosophy at York University, Toronto. *** The Structure of Problems, (Part I) *** The Structure of Problems, Part II *** Jagdish Hattiangadi’s academic profiles: and Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #26 – Michael Munger – ‘The Calculus of Consent’
05/07/2023
The Popperian Podcast #26 – Michael Munger – ‘The Calculus of Consent’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Michael Munger. They speak about James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock‘s book The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy, and how it is that rational individuals agree to be coerced by consenting to the rules which define their political system. Michael Munger is a professor of economics and political science, and former department chair of political science, at Duke University. His research interests include the study of ideology, legislative institutions, elections, and public policy, especially campaign finance. Michael received his PhD in economics from Washington University in St. Louis in 1984, and authored, co-authored and coedited multiple books. These can be found, along with Michael’s other works, at: *** Special Interest Groups - Public Choice Theory - Michael Munger *** The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #25 – Donald Gillies – ‘The Philosophy of Medical Discovery’
03/26/2023
The Popperian Podcast #25 – Donald Gillies – ‘The Philosophy of Medical Discovery’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Donald Gillies. They speak about Donald’s time at the London School of Economics, his personal and professional experiences with Karl Popper, Imre Lakatos and Paul Feyerabend, the importance of an historical approach to philosophy, specifically how we should understand truth in medicine, and the history of medical discovery. In 1966 Donald Gillies became a graduate student in Karl Popper’s department at LSE, doing a PhD with Imre Lakatos. Since then he has carried out research in the philosophy of science and mathematics broadly in the tradition of Popper, Lakatos and Kuhn, while being strongly influenced by Frege, Russell and Wittgenstein. He focussed much of his research on the philosophy of probability, which, with the invention of Bayesian nets etc, extended into causality. And then went on to work on the philosophy of AI, the philosophy of medicine, and in the application of history and philosophy of science to questions of research assessment and organisation. He is currently retired as Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Science and Mathematics at University College London. *** Donald Gillies’ full biography and academic work can be found at: Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #24 – Nimrod Bar-Am – ‘The Life and Philosophy of Joseph Agassi’
02/12/2023
The Popperian Podcast #24 – Nimrod Bar-Am – ‘The Life and Philosophy of Joseph Agassi’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Nimrod Bar-Am. They speak about the life of the philosopher Joseph Agassi (1927-2023), where his work continued from and diverged from that of Karl Popper, Agassi’s historiography of Science, the important and central role that Agassi gave to metaphysics in understanding scientific development, how ethics should be understood as a direct implication of individual autonomy and critical rationalism, and how critical rationalism can help us to make sense of various issues such as mental illness and nationalism. Nimrod Bar-Am is a senior lecturer of logic and rhetoric at the Communication department of Sapir academic college, Israel. He is the author of In Search of the Simple Introduction to Communication (Springer 2016), and of Extensionalism: The Revolution in Logic (Springer 2008), as well as various papers on the history of logic and the philosophy of communication. *** Nimrod Bar-Am’s resume and publications can be found at: *** Nimrod Bar-Am’s books can be found at: *** Joseph Agassi’s resume and publications can be found at: *** Joseph Agassi’s books can be found at: *** The Popperian Podcast #18 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Karl Popper’s Hopeful Monsters’ *** The Popperian Podcast #19 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Rules of the Game’ Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #23 – Paul Levinson – ‘W.W. Bartley and Pancritical Rationalism’
12/04/2022
The Popperian Podcast #23 – Paul Levinson – ‘W.W. Bartley and Pancritical Rationalism’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Paul Levinson. They speak about the philosophy of W.W. Bartley, the history of comprehensive rationalism, Karl Popper’s critical rationalism, why Bartley thought that all such theories were inadequate and unnecessarily opened the door for irrationalism, and how Bartley’s own theory of pancritical rationalism corrected these errors. Paul Levinson is an American author, singer-songwriter, and professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York City. His novels, short fiction, and non-fiction works have been translated into sixteen languages. He is frequently quoted in news articles and appears as a guest commentator on major news outlets. He is also a songwriter, singer, and record producer. *** *** *** In Pursuit of Truth: Essays on the Philosophy of Karl Popper on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #22 – Elyse Hargreaves – ‘The Open Society and Its Enemies, and Happiness’
11/13/2022
The Popperian Podcast #22 – Elyse Hargreaves – ‘The Open Society and Its Enemies, and Happiness’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Elyse Hargreaves. They speak about chapter 10 of Karl Popper’s The Open Society and Its Enemies, the nature and often well-meaning origins of totalitarianism, the fall of Athens to Sparta, the betrayal of Socrates and Athenian democracy by Plato and the oligarchical class, and the one factor that Popper had neglected until then in his analysis – happiness, specifically the tyrannical dangers of trying to make people happy. Elyse Hargreaves is an ardent student of Popper, passionate about advancing the cause of the open society; for freedom, rationality and humanitarianism. Upon finding Popper in her early 20’s, she has since been determined to popularise his ideas in whatever medium she can. Since then, she has released a free audiobook version of Popper’s Conjectures and Refutations on YouTube which you can find here: and has recently released an audiobook version of Rafe Champion’s Guide to the Open Society and Its Enemies which you can find on Audible here: Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #21 – James Kierstead – ‘The Paradox of Tolerance’
09/30/2022
The Popperian Podcast #21 – James Kierstead – ‘The Paradox of Tolerance’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with James Kierstead. From The Open Society and Its Enemies, later essays, and private letters, they speak about the meaning behind Karl Popper’s ‘paradox of tolerance’: “Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them…We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.” James Kierstead is a Senior Lecturer in Classics at Victoria University and a Research Fellow at the New Zealand Initiative. Together with Michael Johnston he co-hosts Free Kiwis!, a podcast dedicated to issues to do with freedom and free speech in a New Zealand context. He tweets @Kleisthenes2 *** The Limits of Toleration *** Free Kiwis! (). *** You can follow James Kierstead’s ongoing work at: and Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #20 – Susan Blackmore – ‘Memes - Rational, Irrational, Anti-Rational’
08/14/2022
The Popperian Podcast #20 – Susan Blackmore – ‘Memes - Rational, Irrational, Anti-Rational’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Susan Blackmore. They speak about her book , and David Deutsch’s anti-rational meme hypothesis from his book . Susan Blackmore is a psychologist, lecturer and writer researching consciousness, memes, and anomalous experiences, as well as a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth. Her full resume and publications can be found at *** The Meme Machine *** The Beginning of Infinity Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #19 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Rules of the Game’
07/31/2022
The Popperian Podcast #19 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Rules of the Game’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Joseph Agassi. They speak about the place for argument and debate, how criticism should and should not look, why so much of this energy is futile and why we have such high hopes for debate/argument/criticism regardless, as well as wonderful asides such as lessons in how to brainwash people and how to avoid being a victim of it. Joseph Agassi is Emeritus Professor at Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, and York University, Toronto. He studied under Karl Popper at the London School of Economics and has authored over twenty books and 600 articles. His full resume and publications can be found at *** Joseph Agassi’s books can be found at: *** The Popperian Podcast #18 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Karl Popper’s Hopeful Monsters’ Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #18 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Karl Popper’s Hopeful Monsters’
06/29/2022
The Popperian Podcast #18 – Joseph Agassi – ‘Karl Popper’s Hopeful Monsters’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Joseph Agassi. They speak about Joseph’s background as a student of Karl Popper, his life and his philosophy, his interactions with people such as Imre Lakatos, Paul Feyerabend, John Watkins, and Thomas Kuhn, and most importantly Joseph’s criticisms of various aspects of their philosophy. Joseph Agassi is Emeritus Professor at Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, and York University, Toronto. He studied under Karl Popper at the London School of Economics and has authored over twenty books and 600 articles. His full resume and publications can be found at *** The book we primarily speak about in this interview is The Gentle Art of Philosophical Polemics. Along with Joseph’s other books it can be found at Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #17 – Rafe Champion – ‘Karl Popper’s Social Turn’
05/06/2022
The Popperian Podcast #17 – Rafe Champion – ‘Karl Popper’s Social Turn’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Rafe Champion. They speak about the social (institutional) theme within Karl Popper’s philosophy of science as well as his approach to politics. Popper argued that objectivity in science does not come from the impartiality of scientists, but rather from the social/institutional aspect of the scientific method. This is a theme that has been largely overlooked by Popper scholars (and even by Popper himself), but which was brought to life by the later scholarship of Ian Jarvie and Gordon Tullock. Rafe Champion grew up on a dairy farm in the far northwest of Tasmania and studied Agricultural Science at the University of Tasmania followed by post-graduate research in Adelaide. He moved into the social sciences in Sydney but did not achieve an academic career and spent most of his professional career in policy, planning and research on health and welfare issues. His main interest after he encountered Popper’s ideas on critical rationalism, objective knowledge & etc. was to explore and explain their implications and applications. His first wife (Kilmeny Niland 1950-2009) was a talented and versatile artist and she created the beautiful to provide a platform for Rafe’s interpretation of the work of Popper, Bartley III, Hayek and others including the great psychologists Karl Buhler and Ian D. Suttie. *** The Rat House - *** Popper’s Institutional Turn *** Reason and Imagination: Some thoughts of Karl Popper and William W Bartley *** The Organization of Inquiry by Gordon Tullock *** The Republic of Science by Ian Jarvie Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #16 – Michael Ignatieff – ‘Finding Consolation in Truth’
02/06/2022
The Popperian Podcast #16 – Michael Ignatieff – ‘Finding Consolation in Truth’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Michael Ignatieff. They speak about Michael’s new book On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times, and the important role that truth plays in consolation. Between 2006 and 2011, Michael Ignatieff served as an MP in the Parliament of Canada and then as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition. He is a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and holds thirteen honorary degrees. Between 2012 and 2015 he served as Centennial Chair at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York. Between 2014 and 2016 he was Edward R. Murrow Chair of the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Michael Ignatieff was until recently the Rector and President of Central European University in Budapest. He stepped down at the end of July 2021, to stay as a Professor in the History Department. *** On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times and Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #15 – Jagdish Hattiangadi – ‘Defending Baconian Induction’
01/24/2022
The Popperian Podcast #15 – Jagdish Hattiangadi – ‘Defending Baconian Induction’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Jagdish Hattiangadi. They speak about the induction of Francis Bacon, why Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn rejected it, how this rejection was based on a misunderstanding/misreading of Bacon, and importantly how this rejection of induction opened a space for “the belittlers of science” to “undermine the social acceptability of scientific research.” Jagdish Hattiangadi is a Professor of Philosophy at York University, Toronto. *** Jagdish Hattiangadi’s forthcoming book is tentatively titled: ‘Skeptical Knowledge: The Theory and Craft of Breaking Through in Science’ *** Popper and Kuhn: A Different Retrospect *** Jagdish Hattiangadi’s academic profiles and Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #14 – Anthony O'Hear – ‘Whiffs of Induction’
12/20/2021
The Popperian Podcast #14 – Anthony O'Hear – ‘Whiffs of Induction’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Anthony O'Hear. They speak about Anthony’s book ‘Karl Popper: The Arguments of the Philosophers’, and its central claim that: “Popper’s attempt to dispense with induction is unsuccessful. We have found that inductive reasoning, removed from one part of the picture, crops up in another.” *Induction (definition): “the doctrine of the primacy of repetitions” – Karl Popper Anthony O'Hear is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Buckingham, the former Head of the Department of Education, and the former Honorary Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. Anthony has served as a special adviser to the British government, was prominent and influential during the Prime Ministerships of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and in 2018 was awarded an OBE. *** You can find Anthony’s books on Karl Popper, the philosophy of science, and much more at: Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #13 – Ken Gemes – ‘Karl Popper vs. Friedrich Nietzsche’
10/25/2021
The Popperian Podcast #13 – Ken Gemes – ‘Karl Popper vs. Friedrich Nietzsche’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Ken Gemes. They speak about the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, how that philosophy intersects and diverges with the philosophy of Karl Popper, what both men got right and what they got wrong, how the philosophies and legacies of both men will continue into the future, as well as looking into Ken’s own thoughts on the philosophy of science. Ken Gemes is a Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. His primary interests are Friedrich Nietzsche and the philosophy of science. Ken earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1990 with a dissertation in the philosophy of science working with Clark Glymour and Wesley Salmon. He taught at Yale University for ten years before moving to Birkbeck in 2000. Ken is also the editor (with Simon May) of Nietzsche on Freedom and Autonomy and (with John Richardson) of The Oxford Handbook of Nietzsche. *** You can access the articles spoken about in this interview at: Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #12 – Jonathan Rauch – ‘The Constitution of Knowledge’
09/01/2021
The Popperian Podcast #12 – Jonathan Rauch – ‘The Constitution of Knowledge’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Jonathan Rauch. They speak about Jonathan’s books Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought and The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth, the Popperian influence within them both, where (and how) the message of Karl Popper remains resonant and important today for the societies we live in, how Popperian epistemology can and should be stretched into the social sciences and humanities, the problem of institutional arrangements and how Popper overlooked this aspect of knowledge creation, and importantly how we can build on this (through Madisonian epistemology) to create a more robust system of turning disagreement into truth – The Constitution of Knowledge. Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, is the author of eight books and many articles on public policy, culture, and government. He is a contributing writer for The Atlantic and recipient of the 2005 National Magazine Award, the magazine industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. His latest book, published in 2021 by the Brookings Press, is The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth, a spirited and deep-diving account of how to push back against disinformation, cancelling, and other new threats to our fact-based epistemic order. *** The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth *** Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought, Expanded Edition Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #11 – David Edmonds – ‘Wittgenstein's Poker’
07/28/2021
The Popperian Podcast #11 – David Edmonds – ‘Wittgenstein's Poker’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with David Edmonds. They speak about David’s book Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers. Blurb: “On October 25, 1946, in a crowded room in Cambridge, England, the great twentieth-century philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper came face to face for the first and only time. The meeting -- which lasted ten minutes -- did not go well. Their loud and aggressive confrontation became the stuff of instant legend, but precisely what happened during that brief confrontation remained for decades the subject of intense disagreement.” David Edmonds is a multi-award winning presenter/producer at the BBC and the host of He is the author of many books, including and (with John Eidinow) the international best-seller . His latest book (co-written with Hugh Fraser), is a children’s book He’s a Distinguished Research Fellow at Oxford University’s and a columnist for the With Nigel Warburton he produces the popular podcast series which has had over 40 million downloads. He also runs and presents . *** Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #10 – Richard Landes – ‘Deutsch's Theory of the Pattern - The Widespread Compulsion to Legitimise Hurting Jews’
06/25/2021
The Popperian Podcast #10 – Richard Landes – ‘Deutsch's Theory of the Pattern - The Widespread Compulsion to Legitimise Hurting Jews’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Richard Landes. They speak about the history of antisemitism, its unique characteristics and intensity throughout centuries and millennia, the strange ability of ordinary people to uncritically accept nearly any claim against the Jews (no matter how farfetched it is), the lethal narratives that are told about the Jews and how they are consistently used as a projection for the moral failings of their enemies, and importantly how all this hatred is best explained by The Pattern which David Deutsch describes in his upcoming book as the need to preserve the legitimacy of hurting Jews… simply for being Jews. Professor Richard Landes was trained as a medievalist at Princeton University (MA 1979, PhD 1984). His work focused on apocalyptic beliefs and millennial movements (Heaven on Earth, 2011), initially around the year 1000 (Peace of God, 1986; Relics, Apocalypse and the Deceits of History, 1996; Apocalyptic Year 1000, 2003). He has increasingly focused on contemporary movements (Paranoid Apocalypse, 2006), and especially Global Jihad. He made a series of documentaries in 2005/6 titled “According to Palestinian Sources…,” which document the extensive staging of footage (Pallywood), the staging of the Al Durah footage (Making of an Icon), and the impact of that fake, broadcast as “news” by Western news media (Icon of Hatred). In 2015, Richard retired from Boston University where he was a Professor in the History Department, and now resides in Jerusalem. You can follow Richard at: And keep up to date with his blog at: Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #9 – Jeremy Shearmur – ‘Karl Popper, Friedrich Hayek and the Future of Liberalism’
06/14/2021
The Popperian Podcast #9 – Jeremy Shearmur – ‘Karl Popper, Friedrich Hayek and the Future of Liberalism’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Jeremy Shearmur. They speak about the time that Jeremy spent working with Karl Popper at the London School of Economics, the seeds of classical liberalism within Popper’s epistemology, the role for free markets as constant feedback mechanisms for the consent of people, the failure of politics to achieve this level of responsiveness, how Friedrich Hayek’s views differ from Popper’s and where Popper was influenced by Hayek, the problems/challenges that face classical liberalism, and the future direction of classical liberalism. Jeremy Shearmur was educated at the London School of Economics, where he also worked as Popper’s assistant. He subsequently taught philosophy at Edinburgh, political theory at Manchester, and was Director of Studies at the Centre for Policy Studies in London. He then worked as a Research Associate Professor at the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, and subsequently taught political theory and then philosophy at the Australian National University. He is now retired from the ANU as an Emeritus Fellow and is living in Dumfries in Scotland, where he is still very much engaged in academic work. He is the author of ‘Hayek and After’ and ‘The Political Thought of Karl Popper’, and for anyone interested in his ongoing lecture series on Karl Popper and critical rationalism, Jeremy can be reached at: For enquiries not related to the lecture series or upcoming conferences, please instead use: Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #8 – James Kierstead – ‘New Zealand and the Authoritarianism of Plato’
05/31/2021
The Popperian Podcast #8 – James Kierstead – ‘New Zealand and the Authoritarianism of Plato’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with James Kierstead. They speak about Karl Popper’s work The Open Society and Its Enemies, the years that Popper spent in New Zealand writing this book, what Popper thought about his adopted country, Popper’s attack on Plato for his “unmitigated authoritarianism”, how valid this attack was, the controversy surrounding the book and how we should examine it today in light of new scholarship, and the importance of freedom of speech and freedom of expression for the Open Society. James Kierstead was born into a Canadian army family and grew up in Canada, Germany, and England. He got the chance to learn Greek and Latin at Sherborne School in Dorset after winning a scholarship and subsequently studied classics (Literae Humaniores) at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and ancient history at King's College London. After that, James moved to California, where he studied political theory and wrote a PhD thesis on Athenian democracy under Professor Josiah Ober. Since coming to Wellington in 2013 he has continued to research and teach in the field of ancient Greek democracy, and he also oversees the Victoria Ancient Theatre Society (VATS), which produces an ancient play every year. James also spent a little time in Athens over the years; in 2016 he was an Early Career Fellow at the British School at Athens, and also spent time at the American School and the German and Canadian Institutes, as well as volunteering with the Agora Excavations and Museum. *** Karl Popper's Open Society and its Enemies, and its Enemies (). *** Free Kiwis! (). *** You can follow James Kierstead’s ongoing work at: and Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #7 – Oseni Taiwo Afisi – ‘Karl Popper and Africa’
05/24/2021
The Popperian Podcast #7 – Oseni Taiwo Afisi – ‘Karl Popper and Africa’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Oseni Taiwo Afisi. They speak about Karl Popper’s book The Open Society and Its Enemies, the ideas and history behind the work, the place for the Open Society and Popper’s epistemology within the African context, how the communalism and collectivism in traditional Africa does not make it analogous to the repressive and totalitarian societies that Popper argued against, the difficult line between group rights and individual rights, the question of tribalism and Africa’s development, Popper’s concept of piecemeal social engineering in the African milieu, and the challenges of multiculturalism and heterogeneity to the Open Society in postcolonial Africa. Oseni Taiwo Afisi is the current Head of the Department of Philosophy, Lagos State University, Nigeria. His areas of competence include critical thinking, logic, political philosophy and Philosophy of science with a special interest in Karl Popper’s critical rationalism. He received his Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Philosophy from the University of Lagos, Nigeria, and later proceeded to the University of Canterbury, New Zealand where he wrote his thesis on Karl Popper’s Critical Rationalism and the Politics of Liberal-Communitarianism, and obtained a PhD. degree in philosophy. He was a visiting academic to the Australian National University in 2011. *** Karl Popper and Africa: Knowledge, Politics and Development (). *** You can follow Oseni Taiwo Afisi’s ongoing work at: Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #6 – Steve Fuller – ‘Karl Popper vs. Thomas Kuhn’
04/11/2021
The Popperian Podcast #6 – Steve Fuller – ‘Karl Popper vs. Thomas Kuhn’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Steve Fuller. They speak about Steve’s book Kuhn Vs. Popper: The Struggle for the Soul of Science, how Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn each regarded the scientific method, the differences between these two conceptions, the significance of the arguments involved and how they defined both science and public opinion (and continue to do so), the history of science and how it should be understood, the moral implications and responsibilities associated with each man’s theory, how the disagreement played out over time, and what happened at the infamous 1965 Popper-Kuhn debate at Bedford College, University of London. Steve Fuller holds the Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick. He is the founder of the research program of social epistemology, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the UK Academy of Social Sciences, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Breakthrough Institute, the leading ‘ecomodernist’ think-tank, and an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, the leading ‘transhumanist’ think-tank. Steve is the author of twenty-five books, which have been translated into more than twenty languages. *** Kuhn Vs. Popper: The Struggle for the Soul of Science (). *** You can follow Steve Fuller’s ongoing work at: and . Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #5 – Maarten Boudry – ‘Diagnosing Pseudoscience - Why the Demarcation Problem Matters’
03/31/2021
The Popperian Podcast #5 – Maarten Boudry – ‘Diagnosing Pseudoscience - Why the Demarcation Problem Matters’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Maarten Boudry. They speak about how we distinguish between science and pseudoscience (otherwise known as the demarcation problem), Karl Popper’s famous solution involving falsifiability, why the demarcation problem persists and remains a live issue and how Popper’s solution might be inadequate, Maarten’s alternative solution that naturalises the problem and focusses on what pseudosciences have in common and how they operate, the epistemology of conspiracy theories, the limits of science and what constitutes scientism, the interesting question of when is it rational to accept falsehoods, and why the demarcation problem still matters today. Maarten Boudry is a postdoctoral fellow of the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO) and current holder of the 'Etienne Vermeersch Chair' at Ghent University. In 2011, he defended his dissertation on pseudoscience, Here Be Dragons. Exploring the Hinterland of Science. He is the author of more than 40 academic papers, published in journals such as Philosophy of Science, Philosophia, Quarterly Review of Biology, Science & Education and Biology & Philosophy. Together with Massimo Pigliucci, he edited two academic volumes: Science Unlimited? On the Challenges of Scientism (2018) and Philosophy of Pseudoscience. Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem (2013). His research interests include atheism and naturalism, evolutionary epistemology, beneficial misbeliefs, reasoning fallacies, and the conflict between science and religion. He is also the author of four popular books on science and philosophy (in Dutch). *** You can follow Maarten Boudry’s academic work, and find the articles mentioned in this podcast, at and and . Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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The Popperian Podcast #4 – Robin Attfield – ‘Pre-echoes of Popper - Xenophanes and Parmenides’
02/21/2021
The Popperian Podcast #4 – Robin Attfield – ‘Pre-echoes of Popper - Xenophanes and Parmenides’
This episode of the Popperian Podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Robin Attfield. They speak about the life and work of the pre-Socratic philosophers Xenophanes and Parmenides, how Xenophanes in particular has been unjustly disparaged and misunderstood over the years, how Karl Popper rehabilitated Xenophanes’ image and his philosophy, the place of both Xenophanes and Parmenides as earlier exponents of Popper’s critical rationalism and falsificationism, the method used by Popper to interpret Herodotus in support of his conjectures about Xenophanes, whether it is possible to consider Xenophanes and Parmenides as ‘Popperian’, and whether Popper’s own study of Xenophanes is strictly ‘Popperian’. Robin Attfield is Professor Emeritus at Cardiff University where he taught philosophy from 1968. He is the author of 'Environmental Ethics: A Very Short Introduction' (), ‘Environmental thought: A Short History’ (), ‘The Ethics of the Global Environment’ (), ‘Wonder, Value and God’ (), and 'Ethics: An Overview' (). Pertinent to this podcast Robin is also the author of: ‘Popper and Xenophanes’ () and ‘Popper's Parmenides’’ (). You can follow Robin Attfield’s academic work on Research Gate at: (). Support via Patreon – Support via PayPal – Shop – Support via Bitcoin - 31wQMYixAJ7Tisp773cSvpUuzr2rmRhjaW Website – Libsyn – Youtube – Twitter – RSS - *** Underlying artwork by Arturo Espinosa
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