Robinson's Podcast

Latest episodes

Showing 20 · updated from the feed

290 - Nicholas Humphrey: Why Does Beauty Exist?

Why Is the World So Beautiful?: https://a.co/d/0d3LsupA Nicholas Humphrey is a theoretical psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the London School of Econ

Sep 13
1 h 17 min

289 - Joe Henrich: How Culture Made Humans Weird

Joe Henrich is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. His research focuses on cultural evo

Sep 6
1 h 01 min

288 - Richard Wrangham: How Humans Caught Fire

Richard Wrangham is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology, Emeritus, at Harvard University. A primatologist and biological anthropologist, he has studied wi

Aug 30
1 h 14 min

287: Daniel Lieberman: Evolution and the Human Diet

Daniel Lieberman is the Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, where he studies the evolut

Aug 23
1 h 12 min

286: Adam Mockler: Trump, Newsom, and the Dark Future of American Politics

Adam Mockler is a liberal political commentator, YouTube host, and digital media creator who has become one of the most prominent Gen Z voices in American political media

Aug 16
1 h 02 min

285 - Richard Wolff & Michael Hudson: The Destruction of Modern Nations

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the

Aug 9
1 h 59 min

284 - Steve Keen: The Economics of Global Warfare

Steve Keen is an economist and was most recently Head of the School of Economics, History and Politics at Kingston University in London. He has done research on a wide va

Aug 1
2 h 02 min

283 - Timothy Snyder: Donald Trump and the End of America

Timothy Snyder holds the inaugural Temerty Chair in Modern European History at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Snyder’s

Jul 19
1 h 05 min

282 - Richard Wolff: China, Russia, Iran, and World War III

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the

Jul 12
2 h 03 min

281 - Michael Hudson: How Debt Destroys Empires

Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Econo

Jul 6
1 h 49 min

280 - David Albert & Jacob Barandes: Debating the Foundation of Quantum Mechanics

David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and

Jun 29
2 h 32 min

279 - Paul Davies: The Second Quantum Mechanics Revolution

Paul Davies is a theoretical physicist and Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University. Paul works on quantum mechanics, astrophysics, and cosmology, with emphasis on

Jun 14
1 h 20 min

278 - Priyamvada Natarajan: The Mystery of Dark Matter

Priyamvada Natarajan is the Joseph S. and Sophia S. Fruton Professor of Astronomy and Professor of Physics at Yale University, where she is also the Chair of Astronomy. P

May 31
1 h 30 min

277 - Tim Maudlin: What Is Philosophy?

Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. In this episode, Robinson and Tim discus

May 17
2 h 00 min

276 - Craig Callender: Lab-Grown Meat, De-Extinction, and the Tolman-Ehrenfest Effect

Craig Callender is Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Institute for Practical Ethics at UC San Diego, where he is a leading philosopher of science and physics

May 3
1 h 31 min

275 - Nate Soares: AI Will Kill Us All If We Don’t Change Course

Nate Soares is the President of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, and plays a central role in setting MIRI’s vision and strategy. Soares has been working in th

Apr 19
2 h 03 min

274 - Norman Finkelstein: Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, and the War in Iran

Norman's Upcoming Book, Gaza's Gravediggers: https://orbooks.com/catalog/gazas-gravediggers/ Norman Finkelstein received his PhD from the Princeton University Politics D

Mar 29
1 h 35 min

273 - Richard Wolff: Iran, Israel, and the End of the American Empire

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the

Mar 22
2 h 04 min

272 - Michael Hudson: Iran, Israel, and World War III

Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Econo

Mar 15
1 h 56 min

271 - Sara Imari Walker & Lee Cronin: Quantum Physics, Time, and the Origin of Life

Sara Imari Walker is Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, where she is Deputy Director of the Beyond Center. Sara is an ast

Mar 1
1 h 58 min

Chart trend

Position in the Natural Sciences chart (US), last 90 days.

#1#30#59JunJulAugSep

all-time peak

days in the top 10 since Nov 2024

Chart positions

Where Robinson's Podcast ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Sep 18, 2026).

#22 ▲ 1 Natural Sciences US

#139 ▲ 3 Science US

What listeners say

A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.

This is one of my favorite podcasts I’ve ever listened to. The interviewees are often people who explain their ideas for a living, so they can talk about even quite complicated things in very clear, understandable ways. Instead of simplifying ideas, they clarify their communication. The interviewer also has a background in philosophy and it shows. It stands out from the majority of podcasts about academic topics, because it gets into the meat of specific ideas rather than introducing broad topics. You’ll leave feeling like you actually have a grasp of the idea at hand.

wild monarch · Mar 2026

I discovered this podcast while looking for AI information from outside the usual (albeit valuable) tech silo. I’ve been delighted to find the discussions here so deep and wide-ranging. Excellent interviews. I rank this alongside Sean Carroll’s Mindscape and the better Lex Friedman stuff. I play new episodes as fast as they drop, and am gleefully working through the back catalog.

Jinx Dinkum · Jun 2025

Robinson is free to choose his guests in whatever way he wishes. That said, it’s worth noting that of his 250 episodes so far, only 13% feature women. As his guests are primarily from the fields of philosophy, mathematics and economics, the gender disparity of his podcast could be explained by the existing male dominance of these fields. But, of the academics working in those fields, approximately 25%- at least- are women. So, Robinson features even less women than the average percent of women in the field, which is already quite small. The best research on why this disparity exists rightfully concludes that it’s complicated, and there’s no way to know. Arguments about whether the male brain is predisposed to the types of thought required by these fields, or arguments about implicit bias or explicit hostility (which are generally anecdotal and cannot be proven)- each of these explanations fall apart under scrutiny, thetefore I can’t make any assumptions about Robinson’s reasoning for having so few women on his show. Maybe gender is not an important consideration in deciding who to platform. Or maybe women are not interesting. Maybe he invites them but they don’t want to talk to him, out of fear of stereotype threat. Maybe he doesn’t think about it, implicit bias. Maybe, and I doubt this but there’s no way to know, maybe he has an explicit hostility towards women. Again, on this issue, one can only conclude “there’s no way to know” and “we’re not sure it’s even important” and “for whatever reason, Robinson, who has full control of who he chooses to speak with, overwhelmingly chooses to speak to men”. I enjoy aspects of the podcast, and am not writing this with intent to smear, cancel or even persuade him to have more women guests (again, it’s his choice), but only to say the disparity is unusual and significant enough to be worth noting.

Lizzzzzzxxxxxxxxxxxxx · Apr 2025

The best podcast episode of any podcast I’ve listened to this year, Loewer and Robinson. Excellent questions and the responses will leave me researching through 2025.

AltasDad · Dec 2024

Please consider lowering the volume of commercials during the show. They are so much louder than the content that they significantly detract from a great podcast. I can’t listen with earbuds because they are so loud.

ixnu · Dec 2024

This podcast was once a unique place that one could hear academic philosophy discussed in depth with experts. Now it seems to be one of several dozen other podcasts that covers politics. It’s not necessarily bad, it just seems to be losing some of what made it special.

SeaJayy!!$ · Oct 2024

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