Hi-Phi Nation
Hi-Phi Nation is philosophy in story-form, integrating narrative journalism with big ideas. We look at stories from everyday life, law, science, popular culture, and strange corners of human experiences that raise thought-provoking questions about things like justice, knowledge, the self, morality, and existence. We then seek answers with the help of academics and philosophers. The show is produced and hosted by Barry Lam of UC Riverside.
- Update frequency
- every 14 days
- Average duration
- 43 minutes
- Episodes
- 64
- Years Active
- 2016 - 2023
Rise of the Music Machines
On this show we explore three different AI and machine-generated music technologies; vocal emulators that allow you to deep fake a singer or rapper’s voice, AI-generated compositions and text-to-musi…
00:53:06 |
Tue 16 May 2023
Effective Altruism and its Critics
Curtis is setting aside a large chunk of money to donate to charity, and it is up to us to persuade him where he should donate it. Luckily, philosophers, economists, and the nonprofit world have been…
01:01:24 |
Tue 09 May 2023
The Problem with Gig Work
Willy and Heidi were both gig workers for Shipt, the fast-delivery app for groceries or same-day shopping. In 2020, they both realised: the pay algorithm had changed. Now, they couldn’t tell what a j…
00:54:30 |
Tue 02 May 2023
Love in the Time of Replika
We explore the lives of people who are in love with their AI chatbots. Replika is a chatbot designed to adapt to the emotional needs of its users. It is a good enough surrogate for human interaction …
00:53:40 |
Tue 25 Apr 2023
Living in a Zoopolis
A zoopolis is a future society that philosophers envision where wild, domesticated, and denizen animals have full political and legal rights. What would that look like? In this episode, we look at ho…
00:47:09 |
Tue 18 Apr 2023
The Digital Future of Grief
When Justin’s mom was diagnosed with cancer, he knew he wanted to keep talking to her after she died. So together they made an AI version of her, training it on her speech patterns and memories. Now …
00:55:57 |
Tue 11 Apr 2023
Season 6 Trailer
Coming April 11, 2023, Season 6 of Hi-Phi Nation will look at the future; of work, of love and sex, life and death, our relationship with animals, creativity in music, and philanthropy. Stories inclu…
00:01:55 |
Tue 04 Apr 2023
Cannibals
In our final episode on monsters, we investigate why people who eat people are the funkiest people in the afterlife. We talk to a man who has actually eaten parts of other people, many times, about w…
00:35:46 |
Sat 12 Feb 2022
Zombies
The second in a three-part series on monsters in philosophy. We trace the cultural history of zombies from voodoo folklore, George Romero films, and the zombies used in philosophical thought experime…
00:35:18 |
Sat 22 Jan 2022
Vampires
The first in a three-part series on monsters in philosophy. We trace the cultural history of vampires from Eastern European folklore to Twilight, and even look at the practices of real vampires, peop…
00:39:37 |
Sat 08 Jan 2022
Memorials
When tragedy strikes an individual, a nation, or an entire people, artists and architects are tasked with designing a public display that memorializes the event and its victims. But how do you do tha…
00:51:18 |
Sat 18 Dec 2021
Life, Edited
The first two gene-edited species meant to be introduced into the wild are currently in their final stages of approval, with trials already underway for the Oxitec mosquito, and the ESF American Ches…
00:42:56 |
Sat 04 Dec 2021
Hi-Phi Nation Presents: Decoder Ring, The Alberta Rat War
Barry invites Willa Paskin of Slate's Decoder Ring podcast to talk about their recent episode, The Alberta Rat War, as a set up to next week's Hi-Phi Nation episode on genetic engineering. We then pr…
00:42:12 |
Sat 27 Nov 2021
The Selfless Kidney Donor
Penny Lane gave up months of wages and weeks of her life to have her kidney cut out and given to someone she never knew, and who may never thank her. She is one of about 200 people in the US a year w…
00:43:43 |
Sat 20 Nov 2021
The Man of Many Worlds IV
David Lewis steps off a plane from Australia in 2000 and falls seriously ill. In the final year of his life, he decides to take on Christianity, but does not live long enough to write a paper, leavin…
00:39:39 |
Sat 06 Nov 2021
The Man of Many Worlds III
In 1968, David Lewis decides that one truth can unify every theory he's had about the nature of the universe. It is the truth that every possible world is equally real. Lewis not only argues for this…
00:48:36 |
Sat 30 Oct 2021
The Man of Many Worlds II
What was David Lewis like as a person? The consensus is that he did not know how to converse. At Swarthmore, David Lewis discovers he has a knack for philosophy and none at all with women, leading to…
00:40:10 |
Sat 23 Oct 2021
The Man of Many Worlds I
David Lewis was one of the greatest minds of the 20th century, who few outside of academia know much about. By the time of his death in 2001, he was the greatest systematic thinker in metaphysics sin…
00:43:04 |
Sat 16 Oct 2021
Hi-Phi Nation Presents: Into the Zone (When We Were Cyber)
Barry updates listeners on what to expect in Season 5 of the show, currently in production. In the meantime, he introduces you to Into the Zone, a Pushkin podcast by writer Hari Kunzru. This episode …
00:47:22 |
Wed 21 Oct 2020
Justice and Retribution
A woman spends 40 years in and out of prison for shoplifting and finally gets a break from a judge in her late 50s. She uses the opportunity to abolish a jail and transform her city. This week we loo…
00:54:22 |
Sat 27 Jun 2020
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