Podcast

I love puddings of all kinds and I also love a bit of gardening. I am not ashamed to say I fancy Monty Don from Gardeners’ World or that I think James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) is actually really good and I CAN’T WAIT for the sequels. I am currently studying for a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with a particular focus on the environment. I don’t know much about philosophy, but I find spirituality, and the growing research into psychedelics and how they can be used to treat depression, PTSD, and other mental illnesses, very, very intriguing...

I think I began studying philosophy seriously in 1987 when Optimus Prime died seemingly for nothing at the hands of Megatron. Twenty years later I finally earned a Master’s degree, but I never did work out whether it was Hot Rod’s fault for intervening in the fight or Optimus Prime’s for not taking the shot when he had the chance. Consequently, these days I am quite the cocktail purist. The one real regret in my life is that I once saw someone order a gin martini on the rocks and I did absolutely nothing to stop it.

I did a BA in Mathematics and Philosophy at Lancaster University, followed by an MPhil in Philosophy at the University of Warwick. I spent a lot of time studying Kant (his first Critique), the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. My favourite philosophical idea is Quine's idea that the common-sense theory about physical objects and the gods of Homer are both just posits; the only difference is that the theory of physical objects turned out to be more efficient – that was the last idea to truly blow my mind.