Micah Zarin Podcast

Micah Zarin
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Teenager asks smart people dumb questions. Formerly titled Elite Ball Knowledge Philosophy (EBKP).

  1. Jun 7

    Will AI Make Everything Pointless? (w/ John Baez)

    828 views May 31, 2026 Interviews Mathematical physicist John Baez (This Week's Finds, the n-Category Café) on whether human thought still means anything One of the most wide-ranging conversations I've had. Read my writing: https://substack.com/@micahzarin Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:19 Chords 04:10 Doubt 07:26 Teaching 09:23 Categories 16:32 Antimatter 22:08 Meaning 29:03 AI 47:21 Tate 49:25 Heroes 51:39 Chess 57:05 Sycophancy 1:00:03 Consciousness 1:04:42 E8 1:07:13 Advice 1:10:36 Origins

    1h 13m

  2. May 31

    Can we cure aging (w/ Aubrey de Gray)

    yeah

    1h 6m

  3. May 23

    Is Suffering Actually Bad? (w/ Richard Chappell)

    In this conversation, I talk with philosopher Richard Chappell about moral realism, suffering, moral responsibility, effective altruism, AI consciousness, digital sentience, and why our intuitions about machines may change once the machines actually arrive. Richard’s blog: https://www.goodthoughts.blog My Substack: https://substack.com/@micahzarin Timestamps 0:00 Consciousness 0:53 Realism 3:36 Reflection 9:23 Mathematics 24:41 Suffering 31:05 Consequences 41:33 Responsibility 49:29 AI 58:02 Advice

    51 min

  4. May 23

    Why Our Civilization Will Collapse Within Decades (w/ Robin Hanson)

    Robin Hanson is an economist at George Mason University, the inventor of prediction markets, and the author of The Age of Em and The Elephant in the Brain. In this conversation he argues that our civilization is failing because we broke the engine of cultural evolution, and that the only way out is to let capitalism run more things, which I pushed back on, badly. We also got into prediction markets, why we don't actually want accurate information, authenticity as hidden performance, foragers vs farmers, falling fertility, insider trading, and what young people should do with their lives. 📚 Robin's work: Overcoming Bias: https://www.overcomingbias.com The Age of Em: https://ageofem.com The Elephant in the Brain: https://www.elephantinthebrain.com 🎧 More from me: Substack: https://substack.com/@micahzarin ⏱️ Chapters: 00:00 — Hook 00:11 — Intro 01:27 — Philosophy 05:04 — Kalshi & Polymarket 13:56 — Group loyalty, and implausible beliefs 21:15 — Cultural evolution 27:14 — Why civilization is collapsing 51:41 — The incoherence of utopia 57:22 — Where I tried to defend anti-capitalism 1:16:21 — Life advice for me

    1h 18m

  5. May 10

    Does Fine-Tuning Prove God? (w/ Bentham's Bulldog)

    I sat down with Matthew Adelstein (Bentham's Bulldog) to debate one of the most popular arguments for God's existence: the fine-tuning argument. 🔗 Bentham's Bulldog: https://benthams.substack.com 🔗 My Substack: https://substack.com/@micahzarin 0:00 - Hook 0:14 - Intros 6:11 - Fine-Tuning Explained 9:10 - Independent Constants? 21:33 - Bill Gates Analogy 40:51 - Islands and Continents 1:02:06 - Why God? 1:04:06 - Advice

    1h 5m

  6. May 6

    She Paints Brain Cells Without Realizing (w/ Haleh Fotowat)

    Haleh Fotowat is a senior scientist at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, where she leads neuroscience work on a DARPA-funded program developing novel anesthetics. She trained as an electrical engineer in Tehran and Houston before getting her PhD in neuroscience at Baylor, with postdocs at McGill, Ottawa, and Harvard studying locust escape behavior, weakly electric fish, and zebrafish navigation. She is also a working abstract painter whose pieces have shown in Harvard art exhibitions. https://www.halehfotowat.com I realized "Sleepwalkers" is an essay I never posted on my Substack, but it was an assignment for a class. Here's the Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/micahzarin 00:00 — Intro 00:21 — Art & Spontaneity 16:06 — The Brain 17:40 — Electric Fish & Serotonin 29:00 — Anesthesia & Consciousness 39:05 — AI & Attention 55:04 — What Makes Art Human 01:03:53 — The Secretary Problem 01:09:51 — Advice

    1h 6m

  7. May 6

    Arguing With a Logician About Reality (w/ Graham Priest)

    Graham Priest

    1h 7m

  8. Apr 22

    Why Gen Z Can’t Connect (w/ Max Lippmann)

    00:00 Intro + phone ban and distraction 02:30 Why Gen Z feels lonely 06:15 Emotional intelligence and gender 09:58 Micro-communities and loss of shared culture 12:19 Third spaces disappearing 15:58 Doomscrolling and addiction 24:32 Why you don’t do what you want (self-sabotage) 48:07 Thinking, AI, and pure math

    54 min
See All (25)

About

Teenager asks smart people dumb questions. Formerly titled Elite Ball Knowledge Philosophy (EBKP).

Information

  • Creator
    Micah Zarin
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Micah Zarin
  • Show Website
    Micah Zarin Podcast

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