The Truth Project

Alex Kosley

The Truth Project is a long-form conversation podcast exploring truth, meaning, and reality in a post-truth age. We examine philosophy, culture, science, faith, and identity—not to push an ideology, but to challenge assumptions and recover clear thinking. These conversations are unscripted, deep, and often uncomfortable, because clarity usually is. This podcast is for seekers, skeptics, and anyone who senses that something foundational has been lost—and wants to understand what still holds.

Episodes

  1. Sep 6

    E6: The Truth Project | We Have Forgotten Who We Are

    Ask what marriage is, and most people describe a form you sign at the courthouse. Warren Edick spends this episode showing what that answer costs — and what's buried underneath it. Episode 6 opens with a question Alex can't put down: if the transcendent isn't real, on what grounds is a person worth more than a stone? Getting to an answer means going through language first. Warren argues that the nouns in a sentence are pure social convention — we agreed to call it a rock — but the words between the nouns are not. "Or," "if," "then," "and" are logical operators, and they were discovered, not invented, the same way the Pythagorean theorem was discovered. Meaning doesn't live in the words. It lives in the space between them. That opens onto what Warren calls semantic space — the world behind behind your eyeballs, where mathematical objects, moral objects, and concepts exist without being anywhere in physical space or time. Then he takes a single word and runs it all the way down. Matrimony. Through a symphony, through the architecture of a cathedral, through thirty-two years of his own marriage, through the meta-narratives of Western civilization, and finally to a burning bush and the strangest sentence a person can say about himself: I am Warren. Along the way: a Sufi in India who stopped him cold with one question, a nineteen-year-old at Baylor whose little toe refused to get out of bed, and why materialism doesn't just end in nihilism — it ends in a government's boot on your throat, and it doesn't matter which boot. This is Episode 6 of a ten-part conversation.  (00:00) Recap — the immanent and the transcendent (04:10) If we can't value a baby over a stone (09:20) Empiricism is a method, not a theory of knowledge (11:40) Immanent and transcendent, defined (17:20) Does data mean anything on its own? (20:50) What is language? (21:40) A string of nouns is not a sentence (24:30) "Or" is a conjunction, not a disjunction (33:30) Semantic space — the world behind behind your eyeballs (43:40) We have forgotten who we are (46:20) India, and the question a stranger asked (53:50) Matrimony — sign the paper, the end? (1:09:40) Symphonic action (1:16:20) What matrimony actually is (1:21:40) The burning bush and "I am" (1:23:20) "I am Warren" — which word is me? (1:42:10) Eliminativism and totalitarianism (1:47:50) The left boot and the right boot Warren Edick is the author of The Clearing in the Wood. Watch the video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e51fLV9WZ5I

  2. Aug 1

    E5: The Truth Project - You're Already Doing Metaphysics (You Just Don't Know It)

    Point at a can and say "that's matter." Simple, obvious — and already a claim about what's ultimately real. In Episode 5, philosopher Warren Edick argues you can't opt out of metaphysics. You can only do it without noticing. From there the conversation follows the origin question as far as it will go: What is space actually expanding into? Why does "it all came from the Big Bang" never really answer where anything came from? And why did one of the greatest physicists of the last century, when asked about the ultimate beginning, quietly move the goal line instead of answering? Along the way: whether the pursuit of clarity is "therapeutic," the old question of whether a thing is good because God says so or God says so because it's good, and a kind of knowledge you can't put on a scale — trust, love, and what it means to say "I believe to know." The Truth Project is a chronological series. Each episode builds on the one before it, so if you're new, start with Episode 1. Chapters:  00:00 – Intro & recap of Episode 4 (the interaction problem)  04:00 – Is philosophy worth it? Clarity as a "therapeutic" pursuit  20:30 – Good because God says so, or God says so because it's good?  33:00 – The transcendent vs. the immanent  34:30 – What is space actually expanding into?  40:30 – Why "it's just matter" is itself a metaphysical claim  57:00 – Stephen Hawking, the first domino, and moving the goal line  1:29:00 – Knowledge you can't measure: trust, love, "I believe to know"  1:40:00 – Why a community can't think without honest disagreement Watch the full video version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb_jKH1I_ig New here? Start at Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF2lJ1zi_Gg Warren Edick is the author of The Clearing in the Wood.

    E5: The Truth Project - You're Already Doing Metaphysics (You Just Don't Know It)
  3. Jun 28

    E4: The Truth Project - Can the Mind Move Matter? — The Interaction Problem

    How does an immaterial mind move a material body? Philosopher Warren Edick II calls it the interaction problem — the fault line under every modern picture of reality. In Episode 4, Warren traces it to three possible answers, and find the most common worldview in Western culture lacking a way for free will, meaning, and truth to exist. Along the way: Descartes and the pineal gland, Bishop Berkeley's proposal to keep monism but drop matter, Kant's phenomenal vs. noumenal, and Warren's hard claim that materialism, taken to its end, tends toward totalitarianism — with Marx, Stalin, and "eliminativism" as the cautionary tale. It closes on free will, meaning, and "the opportunity of a lifetime." The Truth Project is meant to be heard in order. New here? Start with Episode 1. (00:00) Welcome — start with Episode 1 (00:51) Recap: the interaction problem (05:58) Respond, don't answer: worldviews & idea vs. matter (15:45) Descartes, the pineal gland & "no magic atoms" (24:00) The three answers — and why materialism kills free will (30:00) "I am Warren": being itself (40:00) Bishop Berkeley: keep monism, drop matter (47:00) Kant: phenomenal vs. noumenal (55:00) American Transcendentalism: Emerson, Thoreau, James (1:04:00) Marx, Stalin & "eliminativism" (1:13:39) Ideas have consequences (1:17:26) Is the mind itself an idea? (1:21:10) Why materialism tends toward enslavement (1:26:43) How to "try on" idealism — "Be not afraid" (1:37:06) The opportunity of a lifetime (1:43:35) Nihilism vs. meaning Hosted/produced by Alex Kosley. with philosopher Warren C. Edick II, author of The Clearing in the Wood. New episodes monthly. Watch the full series on YouTube and Rumble.

About

The Truth Project is a long-form conversation podcast exploring truth, meaning, and reality in a post-truth age. We examine philosophy, culture, science, faith, and identity—not to push an ideology, but to challenge assumptions and recover clear thinking. These conversations are unscripted, deep, and often uncomfortable, because clarity usually is. This podcast is for seekers, skeptics, and anyone who senses that something foundational has been lost—and wants to understand what still holds.