The Podcast For Inquiry

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is an award-winning philosopher, writer, and public intellectual. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy of science and has taught at Yale, Columbia, NYU, Dartmouth, and Harvard. In 2015, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal. Rebecca begins the conversation with a definition of The Mattering Instinct, the title of her new book. It is an exploration of how different people have different ways of being deserving of their own attention. This leads to another of Rebecca's insights - her Mattering Map, a taxonomy of how different people determine their personal mattering projects along very different lines. Composed of Transcenders, Socializers, Competitors, and Heroic Strivers, Rebecca explains how each gives individuals very different priorities and trajectories in life, while certain moral constraints - especially the Golden Rule - applies to them all. Podcast for Inquiry is hosted by Leslie Rosenblood and brought to you by the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Join today! Produced by Zack Dumont, Martin Zielinski, and Leslie Rosenblood. Support Podcast for Inquiry on Patreon: https://patreon.com/PodcastforInquiry. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected].  

Adrian Petterson is a doctoral researcher at the University of Toronto. She researches digital technologies for abortion access with a focus on the United States after the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization decision. Adrian also has abortion doula training and volunteers on the Exhale Pro-Voice after abortion support textline which provides non-judgemental support for people who have had abortions in the United States and Canada.  In today's show, Adrian defines what abortion is, and how it differs from a miscarriage. She explains the different types of abortion - pill vs. procedure based. Adrain gives us a history of women's access to abortion services, along with the legal and practical hurdles women have faced and do face for safe medical care. She also provides some insight into the deceptive practices of so-called pregnancy crisis centres. And throughout, Adrian corrects Leslie's many mistaken impressions and factual errors on these various topics.  Adrian's website is adrianpetterson.ca and the direct link to her zine: https://www.adrianpetterson.ca/after-abortion-support-zine  —  The Society of Freethinkers is hosting their third Humanism in Action conference on November 21, 2026. Details can be found at: https://sofree.ca/2026-conference/ -- Podcast for Inquiry is hosted by Leslie Rosenblood and brought to you by the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Join today! Produced by Zack Dumont, Martin Zielinski, and Leslie Rosenblood. Support Podcast for Inquiry on Patreon: https://patreon.com/PodcastforInquiry. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected].  

In today's episode, Bridget talks about her book, Little Bosses Everywhere, a deep dive into pyramid scheme companies. She starts with defining what a pyramid scheme is, and why multi-level marketing firms - to use their preferred terminology - are more like a Bernie Madoff-style Ponzi scheme than a traditional company selling products. Bridget covers how MLM firms exploit their employees financially, the psychological techniques they use to keep them engaged and invested, and the political and legal machinations that have allowed them to thrive over the decades.  Bridget Read is a features writer at New York magazine. Her subjects include the powerful and the powerless, scammers and their marks, and regular people in ridiculous circumstances. Her writing has also appeared in The Cut, Vogue, The New York Review of Books, Bookforum, n+1, The New Republic, and Vice. Find out more about pyramid schemes at pyramidschemealert.org. Podcast for Inquiry is hosted by Leslie Rosenblood and brought to you by the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Join today! Produced by Zack Dumont, Martin Zielinski, and Leslie Rosenblood. Support Podcast for Inquiry on Patreon: https://patreon.com/PodcastforInquiry. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected].    

Dr. Adam Becker is a journalist and astrophysicist. Adam is the author of What is Real, a history of quantum mechanics. His most recent book is More Everything Forever, which dismantles tech billionaires' grandiose delusions about the future of AI and humanity. In addition to his writing, Adam is the creator and host of the podcast Dreaming Against the Machine, where he hosts conversations about what a good future could look like.  In today's episode, Adam talks about the physics of Newton, Einstein, and  Quantum Mechanics. This of course leads to a discussion about Schroedinger's Cat, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, what Einstein called "spooky action at a distance". Quantum mechanics is both incredibly accurate and self-contradictory, which is why what it means - what is real - continues to be fiercely debated among physicists today.  Podcast for Inquiry is hosted by Leslie Rosenblood and brought to you by the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Join today! Produced by Zack Dumont, Martin Zielinski, and Leslie Rosenblood. Support Podcast for Inquiry on Patreon: https://patreon.com/PodcastforInquiry. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected].  

Dr. Darragh McGee (Instagram) is an academic at the University of Bath and the author of Imitation Games. He details the deceptive practices gambling companies employ to entice new customers, and how they are encouraged to place bets habitually. In-play betting is very different from simply wagering on the outcome of a match - which leads to a discussion about the nature of addiction and its relationship with problem gambling. Like many firms, gambling companies prioritize profit above people, and Darragh compares gambling firms with Big Tobacco. Darragh describes how gambling firms make it trivially easy to sign up, and deliberately challenging to leave. Podcast for Inquiry is hosted by Leslie Rosenblood and brought to you by the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Join today! Produced by Zack Dumont, Martin Zielinski, and Leslie Rosenblood. Support Podcast for Inquiry on Patreon: https://patreon.com/PodcastforInquiry. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected].  

Yasmine Mohammed is a human rights activist and author of Unveiled: How the West Empowers Radical Muslims. Yasmine is one of the most prominent and vocal figures supporting persecuted freethinkers across the globe, from elevating the voices of marginalized freethinkers on her podcast, to creating a global network of allies across religious and political divides through the CLARITy Coalition. Yasmine shares how her childhood was dramatically changed when her mother became an unofficial "second wife" to a devout Muslim man, and how Canada failed to protect her due to the bigotry of low expectations. She describes her journey from non-practicing Muslim to becoming an open atheist, and how the trauma of her childhood continued to haunt her as an adult. We also discuss how countries suffer under Islamic rule, the particular hatred of Jews that is a core element of Islam, and the origin of and problems with the term Islamophobia.  Learn more about Yasmine and support her efforts:  Free Hearts Free Minds Yasmine Mohammed Podcast Unveiled: How the West Empowers Radical Muslims Clarity Coalition Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky    Podcast for Inquiry is hosted by Leslie Rosenblood and brought to you by the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Join today! Produced by Zack Dumont, Martin Zielinski, and Leslie Rosenblood. Support Podcast for Inquiry on Patreon: https://patreon.com/PodcastforInquiry. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected].  

Even as a young teenager, Dr. Steven Pinker (@sapinker) prized rationality as a virtue, and considered himself an anarchist. He changed that belief, however, when evidence indicated that anarchy was not a path to human flourishing. In this special episode, a co-production with the New Enlightenment Project, previous Podcast for Inquiry guest Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson returns as a co-host. Together, Lloyd and Leslie explore with Dr. Pinker whether universities are betraying their mission, how the human brain spectacularly fails while also working wonders, the loose connections between science and technology with social and moral progress, and what humanity needs to do to continue to thrive for the next 50-100 years.  Podcast for Inquiry is hosted by Leslie Rosenblood and brought to you by the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Join today! Produced by Zack Dumont, Martin Zielinski, and Leslie Rosenblood. Support Podcast for Inquiry on Patreon: https://patreon.com/PodcastforInquiry. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected].  

Dr. Kelly Weinersmith (@FuSchmu) is the co-author (with her husband Zach) of Soonish and A City on Mars. Kelly maintains that while having humans living off Earth would be awesome, we're simply not ready for it yet. She answers many of Leslie's questions: Why can't we go to Mars if we have the will? Why can't we all just get along? Why should we expand? Why is building a habitable space station harder than settling on Mars or the moon? What laws would apply in any off-Earth settlement? Where should we focus our space research efforts?  Kelly also goes on a rant about Helium 3.    There are two great conferences taking place in Ontario in August 2026:  World Humanist Congress August 7-9 in Ottawa https://www.worldhumanistcongress.org/  BAHACON August 21-23 in Sarnia https://bahacon.com/  Podcast for Inquiry is hosted by Leslie Rosenblood and brought to you by the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Join today! Produced by Zack Dumont, Martin Zielinski, and Leslie Rosenblood. Support Podcast for Inquiry on Patreon: https://patreon.com/PodcastforInquiry. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected].

After years of research, David Fitzgerald has come to a surprising conclusion: that all the main characters in the world's major religions are entirely the product of human imagination. While many have long doubted the supernatural feats that religious figures are purported to have done, the assumption that these are grounded in at least a kernel of historical fact is widely held. David explains how the stories we are familiar with today accreted over time, and the utter lack of evidence that any of the major figures of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, or Buddhism ever actually existed. There are two great conferences taking place in Ontario in August 2026:  World Humanist Congress August 7-9 in Ottawa https://www.worldhumanistcongress.org/  BAHACON August 21-23 in Sarnia https://bahacon.com/  Podcast for Inquiry is brought to you by the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Join today! Produced by CFIC volunteers. Support Podcast for Inquiry on Patreon: https://patreon.com/PodcastforInquiry. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected].  

All life on earth ultimately depends on energy and how it flows between biological and geochemical systems on the planet. Katherine Richardson and her team identified nine boundaries which need to be respected if our planet is to remain conducive to human thriving. Climate change is just one of them. We are exceeding six boundaries, and in recent years they are all getting worse. Katherine discusses how she and her team identified the nine planetary boundaries and why it is essential to consider how they interact, instead of viewing them as independent issues. The effects of exceeding planetary boundaries are affecting life today, disrupting air travel, causing severe flooding, and contributing to more frequent and powerful storms. (For the most up to date overview, read Planetary Boundaries guide humanity's future on Earth, published in Nature magazine on November 8, 2024.) We have the knowledge and technology to live within the planetary boundaries; the question remains whether we have the will, and the time, to implement them. The nine planetary boundaries are: Climate change Biosphere integrity Stratospheric ozone depletion Ocean acidification Phosphorus and nitrogen biogeochemical flows Land system change Freshwater change Atmospheric aerosol loading Novel entities There are two great conferences taking place in Ontario in August 2026:  World Humanist Congress August 7-9 in Ottawa https://www.worldhumanistcongress.org/  BAHACON August 21-23 in Sarnia https://bahacon.com/  Podcast for Inquiry is hosted by Leslie Rosenblood and brought to you by the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Join today! Produced by Zack Dumont, Martin Zielinski, and Leslie Rosenblood. Support Podcast for Inquiry on Patreon: https://patreon.com/PodcastforInquiry. Send your thoughts and feedback to [email protected].