1. nihilism

Does knowing we’ll all be gone eventually sometimes make you feel like everything is meaningless? I don’t mean to bum anyone out, but if I can’t figure out an answer to “why bother?” how can there be a second episode? (Spoiler alert: There will be a second episode.)

2. beauty

Is it good to be good-looking? Does it screw you up? Or is that just envy and sour grapes from a plain podcaster? This is part one of two. Next episode… The Beast!

3. the beast

Part Two of the beauty series. This time we focus on the beast’s side. How do beautiful people see beasts and vice-versa? What does being beastly do to a person?

4. escape

Part 1 of another 2-parter, this time on role-playing games. Where are we all going when we escape into games, and why? What do games do for us, and how do they do it?

5. addiction

Part 2 of the Gaming series! In this episode, we look at the dark side of games, how they hook us, the damage they can do, and where they might be taking us.

6. enemies

Why can’t we all just get along (and why do people think that question is funny)?

8. eating animals

The ethics of eating animals is considered with help from a chef, a slaughterer, a hunter, a scientist making lab-grown meat, a vegan, an undercover slaughterhouse investigator, a Humane Society VP, an animal behaviorist, ranchers, a doctor, an ecologist, three comedians, and a Buddhist!

9. sex

In this episode Dan tries to reconcile his romantic ideals with his baser instincts. Is it okay to be a hedonist? Is romance dead? Is monogamy tenable? What does sex mean? Take a break from all the porn and think it over…

10. evil

We know people do horrible stuff, but why? Is there really such a thing as evil, or are bad people just sick? If so, how do we handle them?

11. the long view

What do we see when we zoom out? Daniel gets at various long views – universal, historic, and personal, and once again dodges despair.

12. race

What is race? You might be surprised to know what has happened because of this made-up concept. Where do we go from here? To try to get a little bit less dumb on the issue, Dan talks to psychologists, educators, anthropologists, a World War 2 vet, and a comedian.