Subscribe to Elucidations: Note: episode 158 was recorded in February of 2026. In this episode, Matt sits down with Marshall Abrams, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, to talk evolutionary theory. Click here to download Episode 158 of Elucidations. One phrase sometimes associated with the theory of evolution is “the survival of the fittest.” Organisms evolve traits through random mutation, and then the organisms that lack the traits that are fittest get killed off, leaving behind the organisms with traits that are less fit. But what does it really mean to be fitter? Marshall Abrams points out that a lot of the answers you hear people give to this question are on the lines of: being fitter is surviving. That answer sounds kind of okay in isolation, but when you plug it back into the original phrase, it starts to sound kind of loopy: according to the theory of evolution, the organisms who survive are the ones that survive. Wut? It’s hard to imagine a biology teacher teaching that. ...
Transcript: Episode 147 with Gabriella Gonzalez on the intersection of algebra and programming
Subscribe to Elucidations: Episode post here. Transcription by Prexie Miranda Abainza Magallanes. Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations, an unexpected philosophy podcast. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today is Gabriella Gonzalez, creator of the Dhall Programmable Configuration Language, longtime evangelist for the Haskell Programming Language, author of the Haskell for all blog, and Engineering Manager at Arista Networks. She is here to discuss the intersection of algebra and programming. Gabriella Gonzalez, welcome. ...
Transcript: Episode 157 with Robin Hanson on prediction markets
Subscribe to Elucidations: Episode post here. Transcription by Prexie Magallanes. Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations, an unexpected philosophy podcast. I’m Matt Teichman. Joseph Diller: I’m Joseph. Matt Teichman: With us today is Robin Hanson, Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University, co-host of the Minds Almost Meeting podcast, and author of The Age of Em and The Elephant in the Brain, and he’s here to talk about prediction markets. ...
Fully Statically-Linked OCaml Executables
What’s kicking, internauts? This is a blog post explaining how to build fully statically-linked OCaml executables in a Docker environment, then copy them out of your Docker environment into your filesystem.1 Prerequisites This post assumes an “I run Linux on my computer” and “I write sofware in a programming language that compiles to machine code” level of tech-savviness. Although I develop in OCaml on Arch Linux, this post is nonetheless likely to be of interest if you are a developer who isn’t on Arch Linux, and it may very well even be of interest if you don’t use OCaml. If you have no idea what any of these computer words mean, please feel free to get in touch with me and I’ll be happy to write a follow-up post explaining whatever you’d like to know about. ...
Episode 157: Robin Hanson discusses prediction markets
Subscribe to Elucidations: Note: episode 157 was recorded in September of 2022. Full transcript here. In this episode, Matt and Joseph sit down with Robin Hanson, Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University, to discuss prediction markets. Click here to download Episode 157 of Elucidations. ...
Transcript: Episode 156 with Oliver Traldi on political expertise
Subscribe to Elucidations: Episode post here. Transcription by Prexie Magallanes. Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations, an unexpected philosophy podcast. I’m Matt Teichman. Joseph Diller: And I’m Joseph Diller. Matt Teichman: With us today is Oliver Traldi, postdoc at the James Madison Program at Princeton University, and visiting assistant professor at the University of Tulsa Honors College. He is here to discuss political expertise. Oliver Traldi, welcome. ...
Transcript: Episode 155 with Rebecca Lowe on speaking freely
Subscribe to Elucidations: Episode post here. Transcription by Prexie Magallanes as Trans-Expert. Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations, an unexpected philosophy podcast. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today is Rebecca Lowe, Philosophy Senior Research Fellow and Director of Emerging Scholars at the Mercatus Center, and she’s here to discuss speaking freely. Rebecca Lowe, welcome to Elucidations. ...
Transcript: Episode 148 with Christos Lazaridis on brain death
Subscribe to Elucidations: Episode post here. Transcription by Prexie Miranda Abainza Magallanes. Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations, an unexpected philosophy podcast. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today is Christos Lazaridis, a neurointensivist at the University of Chicago, and he’s here to discuss brain death. Christos Lazaridis, welcome. ...
Transcript: Episode 149 with Lainie Ross and Christos Lazaridis on defining death
Subscribe to Elucidations: Episode post here. Transcription by Prexie Magallanes. Matt Teichman: Hello and welcome to Elucidations, an unexpected philosophy podcast. I’m Matt Teichman, and with me today are Lainie Ross, Carolyn and Matthew Bucksbaum Professor of Clinical Ethics at University of Chicago Medicine, and Christos Lazaridis, Associate Professor of Neurology at University of Chicago Medicine. They are here to talk about defining death. Lainie and Christos, welcome. ...
Episode 156: Oliver Traldi discusses political expertise
Subscribe to Elucidations: Note: episode 156 was recorded in June of 2024. Full transcript here. For this episode, Matt Teichman and Joseph Diller sit down with Oliver Traldi (University of Toledo, Mercatus Center) to talk about political expertise. Click here to download Episode 156 of Elucidations. ...