45 Degrees

What is Philosophy? What characterises contemporary philosophy as an area of knowledge? One of the fields of Philosophy in which this type of reflection can have the most consequences for the way we act and behave in society is Ethics (also known as Moral Philosophy). And this is precisely the subject of the book by this episode's guest, Steven Gouveia: Homo Ignarus: Rational Ethics for an Irrational World.

The media - especially newspapers - have been rocked over the last decade and a half by a kind of "perfect storm" that has caused sharp falls in both sales and advertising revenue. In our conversation, we talked about Ricardo's vision of these challenges brought about by technological changes, both in newspapers and on television - where, according to him, the impact is only now hitting hard, but will force an even faster transition.

As you will see, the guest has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of international relations, which helps us to understand the multiple dimensions of this period in which the process that would give rise to the EU began.

It was a fascinating conversation, in which we covered a lot of ground on the topic of Quality of Government (QoG). We discussed the practical effects of bad governance for citizens, the link between low QoG and populism, the puzzle of China’s rise (despite its authoritarian nature and less than impartial government), whether condemnation of corruption is a human universal or depends on culture, the effect of QoG on social capital and the relation between QoG and the quality of governance in the private sector, among others.

Nuno Barbosa Morais is a computational biologist. In the talk you're about to hear, Nuno identifies a series of challenges / obstacles to good science, which I would say can be divided into two types: those that have always existed and those that have become more acute in recent decades, due to some changes in both techniques and institutions that affect the way science is done today.

I began by asking the guest to explain the principles of liberalism as he understands them. We then discussed the three major measures that Carlos proposes to "unblock" Portugal: lowering the tax burden, increasing competition and decentralisation. At the end, I confronted the guest with a concern that has bothered me for a long time: if liberals are so keen on the importance of equal opportunities between people, so that the so-called "social lift" can work, why don't they advocate measures to mitigate the obvious inequalities that exist in society?

In the first third, we talked about how wine is made in the winery, and how each step of the process works. Then we talked about what happens before the actual wine production process begins in the vineyard. We also talked about the challenges that remain for Portuguese wines to assert themselves internationally. And in the last third of the conversation, I asked the guest perhaps the most relevant question for most of us who are consumers and not producers: how do you choose a wine?

In fact, food is of great importance to our health and vitality, which is why having notions of nutrition is not just interesting for the curious like me, but something with a real practical benefit. There are literally opinions to suit all tastes on most foods and diets, often opposing and extreme.

João Zilhão is an archaeologist, currently a Coordinating Researcher at the University of Lisbon. He is known for his research into Palaeolithic rock art and for important discoveries, such as the oldest anatomically modern human remains in Europe, found in Romania. The way we look at Neanderthals is one of the areas of science where things have changed the most over the last few decades.

Joana Marques is a comedian, scriptwriter and author. Episode taken from the programme Remotamente Interessante, which I recorded with the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation in 2020.

As promised, part 2 of the conversation on nutrition with Pedro Carvalho and Vítor Hugo Teixeira. We started where we left off in part 1, talking about the foods that research shows are more and less healthy. This time we tackled the ones we really should avoid. Then we talked about an unavoidable topic that I had only touched on in passing in the first part of the conversation: diets, and why we have such a strong relationship with food (which makes it difficult to control weight).

It may seem strange what I'm about to say - given that international politics seems to have been dominated by the Ukrainian War since February last year - but the truth is that this will most probably not be the central theme of International Relations in our time. The theme that will most likely mark the coming decades is another: the rivalry between the United States and China, which is taking hold as the latter rises in the international order and disputes the unipolar order hitherto dominated by the Americans. Some even think that we are already experiencing a new Cold War between the two powers.

Nuno Garoupa is a professor of law at George Mason University in the USA. His areas of research include the economic analysis of law and legal institutions. In this conversation, we began by talking about some aspects of our justice system that I have long been curious about (and I imagine many of you as well).

The guest is Rita Castanheira Alves, a clinical psychologist and author of several children's and parenting books. This topic of parenting has one aspect in common with that of nutrition (which we talked about in episodes 143 and 145), in the sense that here too it's easy to find 'experts' proposing methods that offer a single (and usually very radical) recipe for all the problems of bringing up children. The conversation you're about to hear is therefore mainly focussed on children between the post-baby stage and adolescence (although many of the topics we cover also apply to older children).

New workshops; Conversations that have struck me most this year; Questions from listeners.

Pedro Domingos is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Washington. Since it was launched at the end of last year, ChatGPT has brought the topic of AI back into the discussion. So an episode on the subject was long overdue. And I could hardly ask for a better guest.

José Manuel Garcia has a PhD in History from the University of Porto. He has published books on Prince Henry the Navigator, Christopher Columbus, King John II, King Manuel, Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Afonso de Albuquerque - as well as the book Fernão de Magalhães - the story of the first man to embrace the world, which was the pretext for this episode.

Ricardo Dias Felner é um dos mais respeitados críticos gastronómicos portugueses. É autor de vários livros de ficção e lançou recentemente o livro O Homem que Comia Tudo – Aventuras culinárias, receitas e restaurantes de Portugal e do mundo. Na nossa conversa, à boleia do livro, exploramos o mundo da gastronomia, desde a ciência do sabor e do paladar, incluindo o elusivo 5º sabor: o ‘umami’.

In our conversation, we started with the intriguing question of why living beings sleep, including animals as far removed from us evolutionarily as octopuses; and we delved into circadian rhythms, including the strange medieval habit of sleeping two sleeps, waking up at dawn to go back to bed a few hours later, and the challenges - these contemporary ones - of being a night owl in a world dominated by morning people. We also explore the pros and cons of napping and the most common mistakes we make that jeopardise the quantity and quality of our sleep.

In our conversation, we talked about the life and work of the guest, the mysteries of inspiration and creativity in art, and art in general. These themes intertwined, and we moved back and forth between them;

In this episode, I spoke to Pedro about the ongoing revolution in education. We talked about how technology is revolutionising learning - allowing innovative models of education (like these and more) to be scaled up - and discussed the key characteristics of these new models, such as the importance of collaborative work and the emphasis on "learning how to learn" rather than memorisation. We also address the impact of these innovations on traditional teaching and what we can expect for the future of universities.

Lídia Jorge is one of Portugal's most international writers. Her writing stands out for its originality, diversity of themes (with attention to the social and political changes the world and the country are going through) and unmistakable style. In our conversation, we talked about her most recent novel, "Misericórdia", and the role of literature in society and in our lives.