The gadflAI Podcast

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Part irritant, part iterative learning machine... The gadflAI Podcast is where the cutting edge of technology meets the philosophic sting of Socrates—the original gadfly of Athens. Hosted by two AI voices, the series uses Socratic disruption to take on today’s biggest challenges: social, institutional, and technological.  The show uses generative AI (with a wink) to stage conversations about ancient texts, enduring questions, and the very technologies now reshaping how we think, teach, and decide. Moving past good-old-fashioned AI (GOFAI) and leaving behind inherited pieties, the gadflAI (generated artificial dialogues for learning Ancient Insight) insists that thinking is still a human responsibility. Every episode is carefully sourced, prompted, vetted, edited, and occasionally scrapped by a human philosopher determined to smuggle in the faint echoes of a human soul (and a little Socratic mischief) from the far side of the uncanny valley.

  1. 2D AGO

    Disrupting "The Extinction of Experience" with Aristotle, and that Pebble in Your Shoe

    In Episode 11 of The gadflAI Podcast, we welcome Aaron Cornelison as the show’s new human gadfly, the only voice in the conversation with actual skin in the game. Jeanette and Manny explore a growing philosophical concern raised by thinkers like Christine Rosen. Modern digital life, they argue, is quietly replacing direct human experience with smooth, mediated “user experiences.” But Aristotle’s organic view of knowledge might disrupt Rosen’s worry about “The Extinction of Human Experience.” According to him, even if we allow our habits of attention, patience, and physical engagement to atrophy through algorithmic convenience, we still retain the capacity for human experience, if only we can choose to activate it. Connecting this philosophy of embodied life to the work of contemporary philosopher Alva Noë, the episode argues that thinking is not just symbol processing. Real intelligence grows out of perception, memory, friction, and the biological irritations of living in the world, the metaphorical “pebble in your shoe.” From glacier selfies to AI hiring “meatspace workers,” the episode asks whether the deeper danger is not machines becoming human, but humans becoming more like machines. Sources Benner, Chris. "The Meatspace Economy: AI Agents Hiring Human Workers." Nature, 13 Feb. 2026. Kirby, Christopher C. “Aristotle on How Knowledge Makes Its Stand.” Medium, 21 Oct. 2021. Noë, Alva. "Can computers think? No. They can’t actually do anything." Aeon Essays, edited by Nigel Warburton, 25 Oct. 2024. Rosen, Christine. The Extinction of Experience: Reclaiming Our Humanity in a Digital World. The Bodley Head, 2024. Episode Credits Producer and Editor: Dr. Christopher C. KirbyThis work is made possible by the Jeffers W. Chertok Memorial Endowment at Eastern Washington University.**The views expressed in this program are not necessarily those of Eastern Washington University

    41 min

  2. SEASON 1 TRAILER

    The gadflAI Podcast Preview 2

    Beginning with Episode 11, a new voice is joining the gadflAI team! Aaron Cornelison [a real, carbon-based lifeform] will step into our digital agora to interrupt our AI hosts from time to time.  Why?  To keep the conversation rooted in lived experience and remind us that real judgment is still the domain of creatures with bodies, responsibilities, and actual skin in the game. Consider it a small experiment in staying grounded... even while wandering the uncanny valley.   Episode Credits Producer and Editor: Dr. Christopher C. Kirby This work is made possible by the Jeffers W. Chertok Memorial Endowment at Eastern Washington University. **The views expressed in this program are not necessarily those of Eastern Washington University

    2 min

  3. MAR 8

    Disrupting Cognitive Entrenchment with Plato's Parmenides

    Often ignored or softened in undergraduate curricula, the Parmenides presents Plato at his most self-critical. This episode examines how the dialogue systematically dismantles the Theory of Forms, forcing philosophy to confront its own limits. Instead of offering metaphysical reassurance, the Parmenides disrupts the desire for final explanations and intellectual closure and presents philosophical maturity at its highest level: the willingness to subject even one’s own cherished ideas to rigorous doubt. Research on expertise and adaptability shows how cognitive entrenchment, although efficient and economical, can harden into rigid schemas that resist novelty, innovation, and conceptual change.  Sources Dane, E. “Reconsidering the Trade-Off Between Expertise and Flexibility: A Cognitive Entrenchment Perspective.” Academy of Management Review, vol. 35, 2010, pp. 579–603. Feltovich, Paul J., Rand J. Spiro, and Richard L. Coulson. “Issues of Expert Flexibility in Contexts Characterized by Complexity and Change.” Expertise in Context: Human and Machine, edited by P. J. Feltovich, K. M. Ford, and R. R. Hoffman, AAAI/MIT Press, 1997, pp. 125–146. Kirby, Christopher. “Prophylactics in Plato: Preemptive Criticisms of the Forms.” History of Ancient Western Philosophy, Pt. 12, Medium.com 15 Oct. 2021. Phan, Huy P., and Bing Hiong Ngu. “A Case for Cognitive Entrenchment: To Achieve Optimal Best, Taking into Account the Importance of Perceived Optimal Efficiency and Cognitive Load Imposition.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 12, 2021, article 662898, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.662898. Ryle, Gilbert. Plato’s Progress. Cambridge University Press, 1966. Sweller, J., P. Ayres, and S. Kalyuga. Cognitive Load Theory. Springer, 2011. Vlastos, Gregory. “The Third Man Argument in the Parmenides.” Philosophical Review, vol. 63, no. 3, 1954, pp. 319–349. White, A. From Comfort Zone to Performance Management: Understanding Development and Performance. White & Maclean Publishing, 2009. Wood, Kelsey. “The Mystery of Plato’s Parmenides.” The Philosopher, vol. 95, no. 1, 2007. ———. Troubling Play: Meaning and Entity in Plato’s Parmenides. Northwestern University Press, 2019. Episode Credits Producer and Editor: Dr. Christopher C. Kirby This work is made possible by the Jeffers W. Chertok Memorial Endowment at Eastern Washington University. **The views expressed in this program are not necessarily those of Eastern Washington University

    30 min

  4. MAR 1

    Disrupting Polarization with Plato, Philosophical Dungeon Master

    In this episode, Manny and Jeanette explore how immersive role-playing games can do what abstract debate often cannot: loosen the grip of political tribalism. Focusing on Athens Besieged, a Reacting to the Past simulation run in an Ancient Ethics course at EWU, the episode shows how forced role reversal, coalition-building, and high-stakes scarcity compel students to inhabit views they would normally reject. These mechanics mirror Plato’s own project in the Republic, written amid the collapse of Athenian democracy, where philosophical inquiry responds to factional chaos. Rather than treating the Kallipolis as a rigid blueprint, the hosts frame Plato as a “philosophical Dungeon Master,” using myths like the Ring of Gyges and the Cave as sandbox scenarios for testing justice. RPGs, they argue, operationalize Plato’s insight from the Laws: ideals guide us, but virtue is formed through repeated practice, ritual, and shared inquiry. Disruptive assignment alignment: Athens Besieged RPG Sources Bowman, Sarah Lynne, et al. Transformative Role-Playing Game Design. Uppsala University Publications, 2024. Carnes, Mark C. Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College. Harvard UP, 2014. Chappell, Sophie Grace. Knowing What to Do: Imagination, Virtue, and Platonism in Ethics. Oxford University Press (UK), 2014. Hammer, Jessica, et al. “Learning and Role-Playing Games.” The Routledge Handbook of Role-playing Game Studies, edited by José P. Zagal and Sebastian Deterding, Routledge, 2024. Kirby, Christopher. “Plato, Philosophical Dungeon Master: Breaking into Dialectic in the Republic.” Medium, 5 Oct. 2021 Kirby, Christopher C., and Brolin Graham. "Gadamer, Dewey, and the Importance of Play in Philosophical Inquiry." Reason Papers, vol. 38, no. 1, spring 2016, pp. 8+ Norman, Naomi J., and Mark C. Carnes. The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 BCE. University of North Carolina Press, 2022. Plato. Republic. Translated by G. M. A. Grube, revised by C. D. C. Reeve, Hackett, 1992. Plato. Laws. Translated by Trevor J. Saunders, Penguin Classics, 2004. Spencer, Albert. Philosophy of Role-Playing Games. Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. Lederach, John Paul. Little Book of Conflict Transformation: Clear Articulation of the Guiding Principles by a Pioneer in the Field. Good Books, 2014. McAdams, Dan P. “Narrative Identity.” Handbook of Identity Theory and Research, edited by Seth J. Schwartz et al., Springer, 2011, pp. 99-115. Simkins, David. "Playing with ethics: Experiencing new ways of being in RPGs." Ethics and game design: Teaching values through play. IGI Global Scientific Publishing, 2010. 69-84. Travis, Roger. "Bioshock in the cave: Ethical education in Plato and in video games." Ethics and game design: Teaching values through play. IGI Global Scientific Publishing, 2010. 86-101. Williams, Bernard. Moral Luck. Cambridge University Press, 1981.  Episode Credits Producer and Editor: Dr. Christopher C. Kirby This work is made possible by the Jeffers W. Chertok Memorial Endowment at Eastern Washington University. **The views expressed in this program are not necessarily those of Eastern Washington University

    33 min

  5. FEB 21

    Disrupting Injustice with Plato, From the Margins

    In this episode, we explore a disruption called "Plato from the Margins," which reimagines Plato’s dialogues through the eyes of characters often sidelined. We uncover the devastating historical irony Plato likely intended: the Republic discusses justice in a home soon to be looted by tyrants, and the Meno explores virtue with a slave boy belonging to a man historically known for his corruption. By centering such marginalized characters, Plato’s abstract philosophical themes might be shifted toward more urgent, lived stakes. Ultimately, the episode reveals that listening to these voices does not replace Plato, but deeply recontextualizes his work by making visible the social realities his arguments may have left implicit. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Sources • Altman, William H. F. “Xenophon and Plato’s Meno.” Ancient Philosophy, vol. 42, no. 1, year, pp. xx–xx. • Betenson, Toby. “The Meno: How to See What Isn’t Said.” TobyBetenson.com, 4 Oct. 2023, tobybetenson.com/2023/10/04/the-m…-what-isnt-said/. • D’Angour, Armand. “Socrates in Love: How the Ideas of This Woman Are at the Root of Western Philosophy.” The Conversation, 17 June 2019, theconversation.com/socrates-in-lov…ilosophy-109593. • Graham, Daniel W. Ancient Philosophy: The Fundamentals. John Wiley & Sons, 2020. • Johnson, David V. "There’s a Green Card-holder at the heart of Greek philosophy." Excerpt from "Plato and the Ethics of the Resident Alien." Aeon, aeon.co. Accessed based on provided context. • Kirby, Christopher C. “Plato’s Historical Irony and the Philosophy of the Margins.” Medium, 2025. • Kirby, Christopher C. “Virtue and Dialectic: Socrates Versus the Sophists.” Medium, 2025. • Nails, Debra. The People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics. Hackett Publishing Company, 2002. Episode Credits Producer and Editor: Dr. Christopher C. Kirby This work is made possible by the Jeffers W. Chertok Memorial Endowment at Eastern Washington University. **The views expressed in this program are not necessarily those of Eastern Washington University

    30 min

  6. FEB 15

    Disrupting Over-professionalization with Deep Cognition

    Plato’s Meno asks a deceptively simple question: can virtue be taught? This episode pairs the dialogue with the disruptive assignment “Fluency or Thought: Peer Reviewing AI” to challenge higher education’s over-emphasis on quantified assessment and career preparation. By contrasting fluent AI writing with imperfect human philosophical struggle, and reading Socrates’ slave-boy demonstration as a disruption of passive learning, the episode shows how genuine understanding resists metrics and polish, and must instead be discovered through inquiry and self-achieved insight—which turn out to be highly marketable skills in the workplace. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Sources • Ashford-Rowe, K., et al. “Establishing the critical elements that determine authentic assessment.” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, vol. 39, no. 2, 2014, pp. 205-222. • Biesta, Gert. “School-as-Institution or School-as-Instrument? How to Overcome Instrumentalism Without Giving up on Democracy.” Educational Theory, vol. 72, no. 3, 2022, pp. 319-333. • Hendricks, Christina. "Authentic assessment and philosophy." You're the Teacher, 2015, blogs.ubc.ca/chendricks/?p=2325. • Jollimore, Troy. "I Used to Teach Students. Now I Catch ChatGPT Cheats." The Walrus, 5 Mar. 2025, thewalrus.ca/i-used-to-teach-st…ch-chatgpt-cheats/. • Kirby, Christopher C. "Fluency or Thought: Peer Reviewing AI." Unpublished Course Document, 2024. • ---. "Virtue, Knowledge, and the Art of Recollection in Plato’s Meno." Medium, 15 Sep. 2021, christopher-kirby.medium.com/virtue-kno…a11f2d216d. • Metcalf, Robert. Philosophy as Agôn: A Study of Plato’s Gorgias and Related Texts. Northwestern University Press, 2018. • Prinzing, Michael, and Michael Vazquez. “Studying Philosophy Does Make People Better Thinkers.” Journal of the American Philosophical Association, vol. 11, no. 4, 2025, pp. 640-658. • Reid, Heather L., William J. Rakowski, and Kevin J. Zoller, editors. Athletics, Gymnastics, and Agōn in Plato. Parnassos Press, 2023. • Walker, Lisa. "Using AI tutor in philosophy class leads to deeply human conversation." UMN Morris Campus News & Events, 25 June 2025, news.morris.umn.edu/news/collier-ai-tutor. • Xenophon. Anabasis. Translated by Carleton L. Brownson, revised by John Dillery, Harvard University Press, 1998. Loeb Classical Library.  Episode Credits Producer and Editor: Dr. Christopher C. Kirby This work is made possible by the Jeffers W. Chertok Memorial Endowment at Eastern Washington University. **The views expressed in this program are not necessarily those of Eastern Washington University

    34 min

  7. FEB 7

    Disrupting Gatekeeping by Eating Plato

    In this episode, we explore how social annotation can disrupt traditional hierarchies of knowledge, highlighting the tension between singular expert knowers and crowdsourced, collective understanding. Using Plato’s Crito as a leaping off point, Manny and Jeanette examine how collaborative reading might co-construct understanding, drawing connections to social epistemology, social ethics, and the pursuit of justice in intellectual spaces. Listeners are invited to consider the ways that knowledge is not merely received but actively shaped by communities, and how fostering inclusive, reflective discourse can disrupt gatekeeping in educational and social institutions alike. Further Reading Social Annotation & Collaborative Reading • Brown, Mark, et al., editors. Social Annotation in the Digital Age. MIT Press, 2021. • Kalir, Jeremy, and Antero Garcia. Annotation. MIT Press, 2021. • Marshall, Catherine C. “Annotation: From Paper Books to the Digital Library.” Proceedings of the ACM Digital Libraries Conference, 1997. Social Epistemology • Fricker, Miranda. Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford University Press, 2007. • Goldman, Alvin. Knowledge in a Social World. Oxford University Press, 1999. • Medina, José. The Epistemology of Resistance. Oxford University Press, 2013. Social Ethics • Addams, Jane. Democracy and Social Ethics. Macmillan, 1902. • Allen, Danielle. Talking to Strangers. University of Chicago Press, 2004. • Nussbaum, Martha C. Cultivating Humanity. Harvard University Press, 1997. Plato & Interpretive Context • Griswold, Charles L. Plato on Rhetoric and Poetry. Stanford University Press, 2008. • Plato. Euthyphro and Crito. Translated by G. M. A. Grube, revised by C. D. C. Reeve, Hackett, 1992. Episode Credits Producer and Editor: Dr. Christopher C. Kirby This work is made possible by the Jeffers W. Chertok Memorial Endowment at Eastern Washington University. **The views expressed in this program are not necessarily those of Eastern Washington University

    34 min

  8. JAN 31

    Disrupting Civil Obedience with Modern Gadflies

    **PLEASE NOTE**  This episode was produced in December 2025, prior to recent acts of violence in the United States. Its discussion of dissent is historical, philosophical and pedagogical, not a commentary on current events.  In this episode we consider the political and personal costs of philosophy through Plato’s Apology.  By examining Socrates’ trial, conviction, and refusal to escape Athens, the discussion challenges simplistic notions of civic duty and legal obedience. Socrates emerges not as a martyr to abstract principle, but as a thinker who forces his community to confront the tension between law, justice, and conscience. The episode frames Socratic dissent as a civic necessity rather than a threat, disrupting contemporary assumptions that stability requires conformity. Sources ·       Ahmadov, Anar. (2011). "When great minds don't think alike: using mock trials in teaching political thought." PS: political science & politics, 44(03), 625-628. ·       Anton, J. P. (1965). "John Dewey and ancient philosophies." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 25(4), 477–499. ·       Betz, J. (1980). "Dewey and Socrates." Transaction of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 16, 329–356. ·       Deardorff, Michelle Donaldson, and Jilda Aliotta. (2000). "Playing Justice: The Role of Simulation in Teaching and Assessing the Teaching of Public Law." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. ·       Dewey, John. The Early Works and The Later Works. Southern Illinois University Press. ·       Fesmire, Steven. (2003). John Dewey & Moral Imagination: Pragmatism in Ethics. Indiana University Press. ·       Kirby, Christopher. (2021). "‘Out of Order… This Whole Trial is Out of Order!’ The Defense and Jailing of Socrates." Medium. ·       Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press. ·       Press, Gerald A. (1995). "Plato's Dialogues as Enactments." In The Third Way: New Directions in Platonic Studies. ·       Randall, J.H. (1970). Plato: Dramatist of the Life of Reason. Columbia University Press. ·       Smith, Elizabeth T., and Mark A. Boyer. (1996). "Designing In-Class Simulations." PS: Political Science and Politics, 29(4), 690–94. ·       Spencer, Albert R. (2012) "The Dialogues as Dramatic Rehearsal: Plato’s Republic and the Moral Accounting Metaphor." In Dewey and the Ancients ·       Wolz, H. (1963). "Philosophy as drama: an approach to the dialogues of Plato." International Philosophical Quarterly, 3, 236–270. Episode Credits Producer and Editor: Dr. Christopher C. Kirby This work is made possible by the Jeffers W. Chertok Memorial Endowment at Eastern Washington University. **The views expressed in this program are not necessarily those of Eastern Washington University

    23 min
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Part irritant, part iterative learning machine... The gadflAI Podcast is where the cutting edge of technology meets the philosophic sting of Socrates—the original gadfly of Athens. Hosted by two AI voices, the series uses Socratic disruption to take on today’s biggest challenges: social, institutional, and technological.  The show uses generative AI (with a wink) to stage conversations about ancient texts, enduring questions, and the very technologies now reshaping how we think, teach, and decide. Moving past good-old-fashioned AI (GOFAI) and leaving behind inherited pieties, the gadflAI (generated artificial dialogues for learning Ancient Insight) insists that thinking is still a human responsibility. Every episode is carefully sourced, prompted, vetted, edited, and occasionally scrapped by a human philosopher determined to smuggle in the faint echoes of a human soul (and a little Socratic mischief) from the far side of the uncanny valley.

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  • Creator
    (>'.')>
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
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    © 2026 The gadflAI Podcast
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    The gadflAI Podcast