Templeton Ideas Podcast

About Templeton Ideas Podcast

The Templeton Ideas Podcast is a show about the most awe-inspiring ideas in our world and the people who investigate them. We sit down with thinkers like Gretchen Rubin, Ethan Kross, and David Brooks to explore how their work has transformed their lives — and how it may transform yours. These thoughtful conversations will take listeners on a journey through psychology, philosophy, physics, and more. The Templeton Ideas Podcast is a project of the John Templeton Foundation.

Publisher

John Templeton Foundation

Category

science · science

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

3 Mar 2023

Latest episode

4 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

7 of 87 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   4 Jun 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Christof Koch (Cosmic Intelligence)

   Host John Donvan interviews neuroscientist Christof Koch about the nature of consciousness and cosmic intelligence, offering insights into expanding awareness.

2. 

   21 May 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Albert-László Barabási (Collective Intelligence)

   Host John Donvan interviews network science professor Albert-László Barabási about the hidden patterns and hubs within complex systems, revealing the science behind how things connect.

3. 

   7 May 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Susan Schneider (Artificial Intelligence)

   Susan Schneider is a philosophy professor at Florida Atlantic University, and the founding director of the Center for the Future of AI, Mind, & Society. She has also worked at NASA as the chair of Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation. Susan's book, Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind, explores whether advanced AI systems could become conscious, and how we might design ways to test whether they truly are. In our mini-series on the nature of intelligence, we have talked with Simon Conway Morris about how intelligence naturally arose from billions of years of evolution. In upcoming episodes, we will also talk with Lazslo Barabasi and Christof Koch about the nature of consciousness, and how networks of individuals can produce collective intelligence that vastly exceeds the sum of its parts. Check our Templeton Ideas feed (https://www.templeton.org/podcast) for new episodes. Follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/templetonfoundation/), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/32862/), and YouTube.

Inside a recent episode

Christof Koch (Cosmic Intelligence)

Published 4 Jun 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] And, of course, you can get chat GPT and LLMs, etc., right, that look certainly to be very intelligent, but we have no evidence whatsoever that they're conscious. And at least conceptually, it's really important to differentiate artificial consciousness from artificial intelligence. And we're in an age right now where we're really sharply disentangling those two, which, as you said, are often found closely intertwined in biology. But with technology, it seems like we've made enormous strides in artificial intelligence, but we may be at only the very inklings of developing any artificial consciousness. […]

Who has been a guest on Templeton Ideas Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Christof Koch
• Albert-László Barabási
• Heather Templeton Dill
• Agnes Callard
• Robin Dunbar

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

4,775,863

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

64 ratings

Spotify

4.8 / 5

31 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 71 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

65

Social presence

0

YouTube

93

Engagement

97

Contact Templeton Ideas Podcast

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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