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Elucidations

Elucidations

Matt Teichman 157 Episodes Jul 21, 2026

Elucidations is a philosophy podcast hosted by Matt Teichman, produced in partnership with Emergent Ventures. In each episode, Matt adopts the role of a student and asks a philosopher to explain the fundamentals of a particular topic. The show aims to make philosophical ideas accessible to a curious audience, covering a broad range of subjects through engaging conversations.

Episodes

Episode 157: Robin Hanson discusses prediction markets
Episode 157: Robin Hanson discusses prediction markets Jul 21, 2026 50:19 In this episode, Matt and Joseph sit down with Robin Hanson, Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University, to discuss prediction markets. A prediction market is a kind of betting market, wherein people place bets on whether or not some future event is going to happen by investing in market shares associated with that event. If the event happens, the people who predicted it correctly
Episode 156: Oliver Traldi discusses political expertise
Episode 156: Oliver Traldi discusses political expertise Jun 7, 2026 43:06 For this episode, Matt Teichman and Joseph Diller sit down with Oliver Traldi (University of Toledo, Mercatus Center) to talk about political expertise.What does it mean to be an expert in something? Our guest opens by noting that we use the term expert in two different ways: in the normal sense, a person is an expert in something if they know a lot about it, but in the social sense, a person is a
Episode 155: Rebecca Lowe discusses speaking freely
Episode 155: Rebecca Lowe discusses speaking freely May 1, 2026 40:28 Last episode, we talked about free speech, and this time, we sit down with Rebecca Lowe (Mercatus Center) to discuss the related but slightly different topic of speaking freely. Speaking freely: the thing you feel entitled to do when a superior says to you: “you may speak freely.” But although speaking freely is the phenomenon our guest is interested in characterizing, rather than trying to chara
Episode 154: Greg Salmieri discusses free speech, "cancel culture," and "academic freedom"
Episode 154: Greg Salmieri discusses free speech, "cancel culture," and "academic freedom" Feb 28, 2026 52:16 In the latest episode of Elucidations, Greg Salmieri (University of Texas) joins us once again, this time to discuss freedom of speech.Free speech talk has been in the air, on the internet, for the past decade. But what exactly is going on with freedom of speech? Do I have the right to criticize my alderman’s second term on my blog without getting thrown in jail? Do I have the right to p
Episode 153: Sam Enright discusses lifelong learning
Episode 153: Sam Enright discusses lifelong learning Jan 2, 2026 43:25 In the latest episode of Elucidations, Sam Enright (Progress Ireland, The Fitzwilliam) instructs us in the delicate art of learning forever. If you’re one of those people who responds well to formal education, chances are you’ve spent 10-20 years of your life as a student. When you finally graduate, it can feel jarring, like you’re kissing all this efficient infrastructure for
Epsiode 152: Luca Gattoni-Celli discusses the housing crisis
Epsiode 152: Luca Gattoni-Celli discusses the housing crisis Nov 22, 2025 43:25 This time around, Matt talks to Luca Gattoni-Celli about why it’s so expensive to buy a house.In the 80s, people from all sorts of socioeconomic backgrounds were able to afford apartments and houses in places like New York City, San Francisco, or London. Now, on the other hand, even many wealthy people are getting priced out of the city. And indeed, the issue is no longer specific to urb
Episode 151: Witold Więcek discusses statistics and academic research
Episode 151: Witold Więcek discusses statistics and academic research May 3, 2025 46:14 Note: this episode was recorded in August of 2022.In the latest Elucidation, Matt talks to Witold Więcek about the difficulties that come up for researchers who would like to draw upon statistics. Lots of academic fields need to draw heavily on statistics, whether it’s economics, psychology, sociologym, linguistics, computer science, or data science. This means that a lot of people
Episode 150: Shruti Rajagopalan discusses talent in India
Episode 150: Shruti Rajagopalan discusses talent in India Aug 20, 2024 46:43 In this episode, Matt sits down with Shruti Rajagopalan (Mercatus Center) to talk about what the future holds for India.We often have a tendency to think of the current economic and geopolitical situation as simply the way things are. Especially for people who grew up in the United States over the past 50 years, the fact that it is an economic and military superpower sorta feels set in s
Episode 149: Lainie Ross and Christos Lazaridis talk about defining death
Episode 149: Lainie Ross and Christos Lazaridis talk about defining death Apr 14, 2024 42:01 In this episode, we are joined by Lainie Ross (University of Rochester Medical Center) and (once again!) Christos Lazaridis (UChicago Medicine), this time to talk about the different ways of defining death.In our previous episode with Christos, we talked about death and the vexed history of attempts to define it. Prior to the advent of modern life support technology i
Episode 148: Christos Lazaridis discusses brain death
Episode 148: Christos Lazaridis discusses brain death Oct 20, 2023 37:57 In this episode, Matt sits down with Christos Lazaridis (University of Chicago Medicine) to chat about what brain death is and whether brain death should count as, like, death death.Modern life support technology really hits its stride in the 1960s, allowing doctors to buy themselves more time to save their patients by connecting them to machines that can assist with breathing, blood oxy
Episode 147: Gabriella Gonzalez discusses the intersection of algebra and programming
Episode 147: Gabriella Gonzalez discusses the intersection of algebra and programming Jul 15, 2023 40:01 In this episode, Matt talks to Gabriella Gonzalez about how basic concepts from the branch of math known as abstract algebra can help us simplify our computer programs and organize our thoughts.Algebra. That thing they make us do in school. What was that again? Oh yeah, that’s right; it’s where you get to manipulate equations containing variables. Like, if I have an equation th
Episode 146: Gaurav Venkataraman discusses memory in DNA and RNA
Episode 146: Gaurav Venkataraman discusses memory in DNA and RNA Mar 30, 2023 39:52 In this episode, Matt sits down with Gaurav Vankataraman (Trisk Bio) to talk about how human memory is physically realized.Where do your memories live? In the brain, right? They’re, like, imprinted there somehow? We often think of memories as analogous with recordings, like when you do an audio recording and the air vibrations get translated into an electrical signal which reorients the

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