Life From Plato's Cave

Episode 28 - Medical Education with Lara Varpio

Our guide through Plato's Cave and medical education is Lara Varpio. Dr. Lara Varpio is Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Philadelphia and the Co-Director of Research in Medical Education at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She started these positions in 2022, after serving for 9 years at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS). Prior to that, She spent the first 6 years of her career at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

Dr. Varpio’s research investigates how individuals (e.g., clinicians, patients, researchers, etc.) collaborate and perform in teams and organizations; she is interested in how individuals can shape larger groups and how groups shape individuals. Dr. Varpio uses qualitative methodologies and methods, integrated with theories from the Social Sciences and Humanities. Her most recent work is related to: (i) interprofessional care teams (e.g., how interprofessional collaboration can meaningfully contribute to the landscape of practice); and (ii) health professions education scholarship units and scholars (e.g., the factors affecting the success of these units in Canada, the US, Australia, and New Zealand). Dr. Varpio mentors many individual health professions educators from several specialties (e.g., surgery, pediatrics, nursing, social work, etc.) and in a wide range of topics (e.g., experiences of shame in medical learning, professional identity formation, etc.). Dr. Varpio is internationally recognized for her expertise in qualitative research methods and methodologies, and with many different theories.

 

Sources:

Lara's website: https://www.laravarpio.com/ 

Key Literature In Medical Education Podcast: https://keylimepodcast.libsyn.com/ 

Philosophy of Science series in medical education: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31876567/

Lara on twitter: https://twitter.com/laravarpio   

 

This is an independent educational podcast and I appreciate any support you can give me me on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/lifefromplatoscave) or in other ways.

 

I hope you enjoy the episode!
Mario http://lifefromplatoscave.com/   

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave 
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave 

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

Episode 29 - Philosophy of Science with Rani Lill Anjum

Rani Lill Anjum is a philosopher at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), working in philosophy of science and medicine. She leads the Centre for Applied Philosophy of Science (NMBU CAPS), together with Yevgeniya Tomkiv. Her expertise is in the philosophy of causality, complexity, probability and risk, and other philosophical biases in science that influence choice of theory, method, policy and practice. She uses Twitter for professional networking. She loves experimenting in her teaching and she made a syllabus in podcast episodes for her Introduction to Philosophy class, to reduce screen time when teaching went digital. She has written about her experience with teaching during the pandemic for Daily Nous.

 

Sources:

We refer to this drawing of Plato's allegory

I published my first article as an independent researcher. It is about my vision on the climate crisis, and you can read it here: https://futurebased.org/topics/earthucation-using-interdisciplinary-philosophy-education-and-science-communication-to-understand-the-climate-crisis/ 

 

This is an independent educational podcast and I appreciate any support you can give me me on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/lifefromplatoscave) or in other ways.

 

I hope you enjoy the episode!
Mario http://lifefromplatoscave.com/   

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave 
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave 

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

Episode 30 - Henri Bergson’s Philosophy with Jeanne Proust

Jeanne Proust has studied Humanities, Philosophy and Visual Arts in Bordeaux, Berlin, and Paris. She has been teaching Philosophy for the last 12 years in the US. Her PhD dissertation (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) focused on the pathologies of the willpower, both in philosophical and psychological perspectives, but her interests are wide: among many fields, she does research in Ethics, Philosophy of Technologies, Bioethics, Feminist theory, and Aesthetics. While teaching at different universities in New York, Jeanne is advocating for a widening of philosophical education beyond the Academia frontiers by participating in different events open to the general public. She taught at Rikers Island as a volunteer, and regularly gives public talks in philosophy, leading her to recently produce her own podcast, "Can You Phil It?”. She also collaborates with artists on her photography, drawing and painting works. She is currently working on articles at the crossroads of philosophy and psychology, and starting a new book project about contrasting feminist views on female sexual desire. Jeanne just moved to Santa Cruz, California, to teach as a lecturer for UCSC and to get involved with the Center for Public Philosophy.

 

Sources:

https://jeanneproust.github.io/index.html

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanne-proust-74162b40/

https://www.instagram.com/can_you_phil_it_/?hl=fr

Jeanne recently published an essay about FOMO in Nouma Magazine: https://www.noemamag.com/a-remedy-for-fomo/

 

I published my first article as an independent researcher. It is about my vision on the climate crisis, and you can read it here: https://futurebased.org/topics/earthucation-using-interdisciplinary-philosophy-education-and-science-communication-to-understand-the-climate-crisis/ 

 

This is an independent educational podcast and I appreciate any support you can give me me on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/lifefromplatoscave) or in other ways.

 

I hope you enjoy the episode!
Mario http://lifefromplatoscave.com/   

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave 
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave 

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

Episode 31 - How to Talk to a Science Denier with Lee McIntyre

Lee McIntyre is a philosopher and a scholar of science denial. He is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and a recent Lecturer in Ethics at Harvard Extension School. Lee is the author of many books for MIT Press, I will just mention three now.

 

In The Scientific Attitude (2019), Lee argues that we can best understand what is distinctive about science not by focusing on its method or achievements, but on those instances of failure to live up to one of its most basic values —”the scientific attitude”—which is caring about evidence and being willing to change our theories on the basis of evidence. In his upcoming book On Disinformation (2023) [I mistakenly refer to this as "Truth Killers" in my intro in the episode], Lee draws on over twenty years of science denial scholarship and takes readers through the history of strategic denialism to show how we arrived at this precarious political moment and identifies the creators, amplifiers, and believers of disinformation. In this episode we will focus a lot on his book How To Talk To A Science Denier (2021). The book offers tools and techniques for communicating the truth and values of science, emphasizing that the most important way to reach science deniers is to talk to them calmly and respectfully - to put ourselves out there, to meet them face to face.

 

Sources:

Supran et al (2022) "Assessing ExxonMobil’s global warming projections" https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk0063 

New York Times, "Exxon Scientists Predicted Global Warming, Even as Company Cast Doubts, Study Find" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/climate/exxon-mobil-global-warming-climate-change.html 

Judge's verdict: "Royal Dutch Shell must reduce CO2 emissions" https://www.rechtspraak.nl/Organisatie-en-contact/Organisatie/Rechtbanken/Rechtbank-Den-Haag/Nieuws/Paginas/Royal-Dutch-Shell-must-reduce-CO2-emissions.aspx 

 

I published my first article as an independent researcher. It is about my vision on the climate crisis, and you can read it here: https://futurebased.org/topics/earthucation-using-interdisciplinary-philosophy-education-and-science-communication-to-understand-the-climate-crisis/ 

 

This is an independent educational podcast and I appreciate any support you can give me me on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/lifefromplatoscave) or in other ways.

 

I hope you enjoy the episode!
Mario http://lifefromplatoscave.com/   

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave 
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave 

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

Episode 32 - Climate Science Rebellion with Ernst-Jan Kuiper

Ernst-Jan Kuiper obtained his Master's degree in Climate Physics In 2014, after which he focused on research into the dynamics of the Greenland ice sheet. After 5 years, including 6 weeks of fieldwork on the Greenland ice sheet, he obtained his doctorate (PhD) in 2019. Ernst-Jan currently works at Milieudefensie on the appeal against oil giant Shell. He also writes articles about climate change for the Dutch program Tegenlicht and gives lectures about climate change. He also spends time on climate activism, especially with Extinction Rebellion where he is part of the Scientist Rebellion group.

 

The day before we recorded this interview he was at an Extinction Rebellion protest with 80 other scientists, where he was arrested with about 700 other protestors. I asked him to explain the climate science that is so worrying that he takes to the streets to tell the truth about climate science. And also about the fact that he, as a scientist still has hope that we can do something against climate change. I also want to know why as a climate scientist he sees the court case of Milieudefensie against Shell as the most impactful thing that he could be working on right now.

 

Sources: 

TED talk by Ernst-Jan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxRLQ-WDlRw 

Ernst-Jan asks the Minister of Climate if he believes the science and if so, when he is going to update the policies for reducing The Netherlands' emissions to reflect the science: https://dezwijger.nl/programma/rob-jetten 

 

I published my first article as an independent researcher. It is about my vision on the climate crisis, and you can read it here: https://futurebased.org/topics/earthucation-using-interdisciplinary-philosophy-education-and-science-communication-to-understand-the-climate-crisis/ 

For Dutch readers: I publish a column about climate madness on Joop: https://www.bnnvara.nl/joop/personen/V/mario-veen 

 

This is an independent educational podcast.

 

I hope you enjoy the episode!
Mario http://lifefromplatoscave.com/   

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave 
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave 

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

Episode 33 - Environmental Philosophy with Yogi Hendlin

Dr. Yogi Hale Hendlin is an environmental philosopher and public health scientist. Hendlin is assistant professor at the Erasmus School of Philosophy, and core faculy of the Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity Initiative at Erasmus University Rotterdam, as well as research associate in the Environmental Health Initiative at the University of California, San Francisco. Hendlin's research has been published in journals such as Annals of Internal Medicine, BMJ, MMWR, American Journal of Public Health, Environmental Ethics, Ambio, and Environmental Philosophy. The international press regularly features Hendlin's public health research.

Hendlin's interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research projects tackle major questions in philosophy of biology, environmental philosophy, and political philosophy. Hendlin's epistemological inquiries into public health follow the via negativa of agnotology, comprehending the systemic transmission of ignorance.

Hendlin earned a PhD in Philosophy (magna cum laude) at the University of Kiel, Germany in 2015; holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, UCLA, and the London School of Economics; and held postdoctoral research fellowships at the University of Vienna and the University of California, San Francisco. Hendlin was designated a 2020 Brocher Foundation Fellow.

Current research projects focus on the monographs Industrial Epidemics: Chronic Disease and the Corporate Determinants of Health and Interspecies Politics: Valuing Difference in the Biotic Community.

 

Sources:

Yogi's website (and weblog!): https://yogihendlin.com/ 

 

I published my first article as an independent researcher. It is about my vision on the climate crisis, and you can read it here: https://futurebased.org/topics/earthucation-using-interdisciplinary-philosophy-education-and-science-communication-to-understand-the-climate-crisis/ 

For Dutch readers: I publish a column about climate madness on Joop: https://www.bnnvara.nl/joop/personen/V/mario-veen 

 

This is an independent educational podcast.

 

I hope you enjoy the episode!
Mario http://lifefromplatoscave.com/   

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave 
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave 

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

Episode 34 - Universities in the Climate Crisis with Aaron Thierry

Dr.Aaron Thierry has a background ecological scientist, science communicator and environmental campaigner. He received his original PhD in Ecology from the University of Sheffield and went on to a position as a postdoc on a project researching climate feedbacks in the Arctic. Aaron subsequently left academia to focus his efforts on environmental activism and become a youth campaign coach working for a leading UK environmental charity. His past experiences have led him to become fascinated by the question of how to accurately convey scientific warnings of environmental risks in ways that help wake the public to action. To better understand this crucial conundrum, he has chosen to return to research and has begun a new PhD examining the interplay between reason and emotion in the communication strategies of organization’s in the climate emergency movement.

 

Sources:

Aaron's website: https://wiserd.ac.uk/people/aaron-thierry/ 

Scientists for Extinction Rebellion: https://www.scientistsforxr.earth/ 

Capstick, S., Thierry, A., Cox, E. et al. Civil disobedience by scientists helps press for urgent climate action. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 773–774 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01461-y

Gardner, C. J., Thierry, A., Rowlandson, W., & Steinberger, J. K. (2021). From Publications to Public Actions: The Role of Universities in Facilitating Academic Advocacy and Activism in the Climate and Ecological Emergency. Frontiers in Sustainability, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2021.679019 

 

Sabine Winters interviewed me for her podcast Scientific Imagination: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7i2gCNFPQ82u5EeD9Tzrol?si=7VvmCWVOTNerEz-75zjP7w&dd=1 

I published my first article as an independent researcher. It is about my vision on the climate crisis, and you can read it here: https://futurebased.org/topics/earthucation-using-interdisciplinary-philosophy-education-and-science-communication-to-understand-the-climate-crisis/ 

This is the Dutch column I refer to in the episode: https://www.bnnvara.nl/joop/artikelen/moeten-wetenschappers-zich-wel-uitspreken-in-de-klimaatcrisis 

 

This is an independent educational podcast.

 

I hope you enjoy the episode!
Mario http://lifefromplatoscave.com/   

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave 
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave 

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

Episode 35 - Rights of Nature with Jessica den Outer

Jessica den Outer has a Bachelor degree in international & European law and a Master degree in international environmental law. She has been advocating for the Rights of Nature and the interests of future generations since 2017 and received several awards for her work. In 2019, she was recognised as one of the youngest Earth-centered law experts within the United Nations Harmony with Nature network. In 2020, she was part of the top 100 most sustainable young pioneers. In 2022 Jessica was nominated as one of the 10 green voices on LinkedIn and as as one of the 35 up-and-coming professionals under the age of 35 in the field of peace and security. In 2023, Jessica published the book 'Rights for Nature'. It is a book full of examples and stories of Rights for Nature around the world. From Mother Earth in Ecuador to the Whanganui River in New Zealand. This book shows that anyone can get started with the Rights for Nature, not just lawyers.

 

Sources

Jessica's website: https://www.jessicadenouter.com/en 

Rechten voor de Natuur: https://lemniscaat.nl/boeken/rechten-voor-de-natuur 

The article I mentioned in the beginning is H.O. Pörtner et al. (2023) Overcoming the coupled climate and biodiversity crises and their societal impacts. Science https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl4881 

 

Sabine Winters interviewed me for her podcast Scientific Imagination: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7i2gCNFPQ82u5EeD9Tzrol?si=7VvmCWVOTNerEz-75zjP7w&dd=1 

I published my first article as an independent researcher. It is about my vision on the climate crisis, and you can read it here: https://futurebased.org/topics/earthucation-using-interdisciplinary-philosophy-education-and-science-communication-to-understand-the-climate-crisis/ 

This is the Dutch column I refer to in the episode: https://www.bnnvara.nl/joop/artikelen/is-een-vervroegd-pensioen-de-oplossing-voor-de-klimaatcrisis 

 

This is an independent educational podcast.

 

I hope you enjoy the episode!
Mario http://lifefromplatoscave.com/   

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave 
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave 

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

Episode 36 - The Natural Contract (Serres) with Aldo Houterman

We discuss Michel Serres' 1990 book The Natural Contract. Our mountain guide through Plato's Cave and the philosophy of Michel Serres is Aldo Houterman. Aldo teaches Medical Ethics and Philosophy at the Amsterdam University Medical Center and is doing his PhD research at the ESPRIT center for sports, integrity and transition at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. His book 'We are our body' is about the meaning of the body, sports and movement for human existence His area of research is the philosophy of the body: How is the body regarded in sports, in healthcare or in science? Which body images prevail in top sports and which ideas about the body are sustainable? In his work Aldo uses the interdisciplinary philosophy of Michel Serres. Aldo is also an avid cyclist and a member of the ethical committy of the cyclist union KNWU.

 

Sources:

The Natural Contract: https://www.press.umich.edu/9725/natural_contract 

ESPRIT: https://www.eur.nl/esphil/onderzoek/onderzoeksinstituten-centra-en-scholen/erasmus-center-sport-integrity-transition

Wij zijn ons lichaam (Dutch): https://www.amboanthos.nl/boek/wij-zijn-ons-lichaam/

Interview with Aldo about sport (Dutch): https://www.human.nl/lees/2021/aug/aldo-houterman.html

‘De gymles van Michel Serres’  (Dutch): https://www.academia.edu/38127298/De_gymles_van_Michel_Serres

Michel Serres Reading Guide: https://christopherwatkin.com/2020/02/27/so-you-want-to-read-michel-serres-start-here/

 

This is an independent educational podcast and I appreciate any support you can give me me on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/lifefromplatoscave) or in other ways.

 

I hope you enjoy the episode!
Mario http://lifefromplatoscave.com/   

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave 
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave 

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

Episode 37 - Technics and Time (Stiegler) with Daniel Ross

Daniel Ross obtained his doctorate from Monash University in 2002. He is the author of Violent Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2004) and Psychopolitical Anaphylaxis: Steps Towards a Metacosmics (Open Humanities Press, 2021 -free to download). He is also the co-director with David Barison of the feature documentary The Ister (rent or buy on Vimeo), which premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2004, and which won awards in Montreal and Marseille. Through that film, he met the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler, and has subsequently published eleven volumes of translation of Stiegler’s work, most recently The Age of Disruption: Technology and Madness in Computational Capitalism (Polity Press, 2019) and Nanjing Lectures 2016–2019 (Open Humanities Press, 2020 - free to download), along with the collective volume by Stiegler and the Internation Collective entitled Bifurcate: ‘There Is No Alternative’ (Open Humanities Press, 2022 - free to download).

 

In this episode, our focus is on the fourth volume in Stieglers's Technics and Time series. Here's Dan's summary (approx. 10,000 words) of the unpublished manuscript of Bernard Stiegler, Technics and Time, 4: Faculties and Functions of Noesis in the Post-Truth Age (approx. 100,000 words), which was written in 2017: https://www.academia.edu/84134776/A_Summary_of_Bernard_Stiegler_Technics_and_Time_4 

 

This is an independent educational podcast and I appreciate any support you can give me me on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/lifefromplatoscave) or in other ways.

 

I hope you enjoy the episode!
Mario http://lifefromplatoscave.com/   

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave 
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave 

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/