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What's wrong with empathy? Is effective altruism better? How did you develop your sense of right and wrong? Is suffering necessary for pleasure? These are the questions the psychologist Paul Bloom wrestles with. Enjoy the ride.

What's wrong with empathy? Is effective altruism better? How did you develop your sense of right and wrong? Is suffering necessary for pleasure? These are the questions the psychologist Paul Bloom wrestles with. Enjoy the ride.

The world has never been more connected. Yet never more divided. We yell at each other from inside our echo chambers. But change doesn’t happen inside an echo chamber. It’s time to get out, to stretch our legs, to step on some land mines. It's time to have an uncomfortable conversation with Josh Szeps.

A DM Podcast

The world has never been more connected. Yet never more divided. We yell at each other from inside our echo chambers. But change doesn’t happen inside an echo chamber. It’s time to get out, to stretch our legs, to step on some land mines. It's time to have an uncomfortable conversation with Josh Szeps.
A DM Podcast

Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

Paul Bloom: Against Empathy

Are you defined by your identities? Where do you rank in the hierarchy of your social group, either online or in real life? How are the boundaries of your communities policed? By whom?

In an era of social-media mobs, splintering communities and anti-immigrant ideas, the way we sort ourselves into in-groups and out-groups is a fascinating field of social psycology. Professor Jetten is an expert in the psychology of inclusion and exclusion, radicalisation, social dynamics, and the ways in which “who you are” is shaped by “who you are with.”

Professor Jetten is from the Netherlands, but currently works at the University of Queensland in Australia.

Watch this conversation onYouTube. And you’re missing out on our best ad-free content if you haven’t popped over to theUncomfy Convos Substackpage.

http://twitter.com/joshzepps

http://instagram.com/joshszeps/

http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

Are you defined by your identities? Where do you rank in the hierarchy of your social group, either online or in real life? How are the boundaries of your communities policed? By whom?
In an era of social-media mobs, splintering communities and anti-immigrant ideas, the way we sort ourselves into in-groups and out-groups is a fascinating field of social psycology. Professor Jetten is an expert in the psychology of inclusion and exclusion, radicalisation, social dynamics, and the ways in which &ldquo;who you are&rdquo; is shaped by &ldquo;who you are with.&rdquo;
Professor Jetten is from the Netherlands, but currently works at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Watch this conversation on <a href="http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">YouTube</a>. And you&rsquo;re missing out on our best ad-free content if you haven&rsquo;t popped over to the <a href="https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">Uncomfy Convos Substack</a> page.
<a href="http://twitter.com/joshzepps" data-inline-card="" data-card-data="" data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="inlineCard" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true">http://twitter.com/joshzepps</a>
<a href="http://instagram.com/joshszeps/" data-inline-card="" data-card-data="" data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="inlineCard" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true">http://instagram.com/joshszeps/</a>
<a href="http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations" data-inline-card="" data-card-data="" data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="inlineCard" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true">http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations</a>

PREMIUM: "In-Groups & Out-Groups" with social psychologist Jolanda Jetten

Katy Faust is a family-values activist who campaigns against all families that don't contain a biological mother and father. A rockstar among American conservatives, she's the founder of the children's rights organization, Them Before Us. On shows like Jordan Peterson's - and in her lobbying of lawmakers - she argues for prioritising every baby's right to its biological parents over the right of adults to start a family.

At a time when Republican support for same-sex marriage is dropping fast thanks to discomfort with parts of the LGBTQIA+ agenda (especially relating to kids and transgenderism), Katy's ideas are gaining traction. Her policies would revolutionise - and in some case, criminalise - IVF, surrogacy, adoption, sperm donation, egg donation, and even divorce.

The group most targeted by biological-parenting laws would, of course, be gay parents - who, by definition, subvert the nuclear biological family.

While Katy was touring Australia, she was kind enough to stop by the Uncomfortable Conversations studios to make her case against gay parenting to one of Australia's most prominent gay dads, the host of this show.

Watch this conversation onYouTube. And you’re missing out on our best ad-free content if you haven’t popped over to theUncomfy Convos Substackpage.

http://twitter.com/joshzepps

http://instagram.com/joshszeps/

http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

Katy Faust is a family-values activist who campaigns against all families that don't contain a biological mother and father. A rockstar among American conservatives, she's the founder of the children's rights organization, Them Before Us. On shows like Jordan Peterson's - and in her lobbying of lawmakers - she argues for prioritising every baby's right to its biological parents over the right of adults to start a family.
At a time when <a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/06/26/on-its-tenth-birthday-gay-marriage-in-america-is-under-attack" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">Republican support</a> for same-sex marriage is <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-adults-views-same-sex-marriage-changed-supreme-123186450" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">dropping fast</a> thanks to discomfort with parts of the LGBTQIA+ agenda (especially relating to kids and transgenderism), Katy's ideas are gaining traction. Her policies would revolutionise - and in some case, criminalise - IVF, surrogacy, adoption, sperm donation, egg donation, and even divorce.
The group most targeted by biological-parenting laws would, of course, be gay parents - who, by definition, subvert the nuclear biological family.
While Katy was touring Australia, she was kind enough to stop by the Uncomfortable Conversations studios to make her case against gay parenting to one of Australia's most prominent gay dads, the host of this show.
Watch this conversation on <a href="http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">YouTube</a>. And you&rsquo;re missing out on our best ad-free content if you haven&rsquo;t popped over to the <a href="https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">Uncomfy Convos Substack</a> page.
<a href="http://twitter.com/joshzepps" data-inline-card="" data-card-data="" data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="inlineCard" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true">http://twitter.com/joshzepps</a>
<a href="http://instagram.com/joshszeps/" data-inline-card="" data-card-data="" data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="inlineCard" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true">http://instagram.com/joshszeps/</a>
<a href="http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations" data-inline-card="" data-card-data="" data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="inlineCard" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true">http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations</a>

“Josh vs the Anti-Gay-Parenting Activist” Katy Faust

Is it legit for tech companies to vacuum up everything humans create, to spin off A.I. content, and not to compensate humans? Will this world of creative artificial creatures promote or corrode human creativity?

In America, two tech giants just won landmark court cases over their use of copyrighted works to train A.I. models. The court found that Meta and Anthropic didn't violate copyright when they trained their large language models on books without the authors' permission.

This raises big questions. Who gets to create? What is A.I. actually doing, under the hood? How is it impacting human work? Is the famous "Turing Test" even relevant any more? And by what measure would we even know if machines are "intelligent"? Might we already have achieved Artificial General Intelligence and will only know it with hindsight?

Professor Toby Walsh is one of the most respected - and most measured - A.I. academics in the world. He studied theoretical physics and mathematics at Cambridge, and got his PhD in artificial intelligence at the University of Edinburgh. He's currently a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales, where he runs the A.I. Institute, and the former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence.

At this tipping point in the evolution of A.I., Toby and Josh wrestle with the development of artificial intelligence, its future... and where that leaves the rest of us. Toby's new book is "The Shortest History of A.I."

Watch this conversation onYouTube. And you’re missing out on our best ad-free content if you haven’t popped over to theUncomfy Convos Substackpage.

http://twitter.com/joshzepps

http://instagram.com/joshszeps/

http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

Is it legit for tech companies to vacuum up everything humans create, to spin off A.I. content, and not to compensate humans? Will this world of creative artificial creatures promote or corrode human creativity?
In America, two tech giants just won landmark court cases over their use of copyrighted works to train A.I. models. The court found that Meta and Anthropic didn't violate copyright when they trained their large language models on books without the authors' permission.
This raises big questions. Who gets to create? What is A.I. actually doing, under the hood? How is it impacting human work? Is the famous "Turing Test" even relevant any more? And by what measure would we even know if machines are "intelligent"? Might we already have achieved Artificial General Intelligence and will only know it with hindsight?
Professor Toby Walsh is one of the most respected - and most measured - A.I. academics in the world. He studied theoretical physics and mathematics at Cambridge, and got his PhD in artificial intelligence at the University of Edinburgh. He's currently a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales, where he runs the A.I. Institute, and the former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence.
At this tipping point in the evolution of A.I., Toby and Josh wrestle with the development of artificial intelligence, its future... and where that leaves the rest of us. Toby's new book is "The Shortest History of A.I."
Watch this conversation on <a href="http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">YouTube</a>. And you&rsquo;re missing out on our best ad-free content if you haven&rsquo;t popped over to the <a href="https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">Uncomfy Convos Substack</a> page.
<a href="http://twitter.com/joshzepps" data-inline-card="" data-card-data="" data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="inlineCard" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true">http://twitter.com/joshzepps</a>
<a href="http://instagram.com/joshszeps/" data-inline-card="" data-card-data="" data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="inlineCard" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true">http://instagram.com/joshszeps/</a>
<a href="http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations" data-inline-card="" data-card-data="" data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="inlineCard" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true">http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations</a>

Paul Bloom: Against Empathy

Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

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