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What Philosophy Sounds Like

Storytelling is at the heart of new philosophy podcast

Barry Lam is bringing philosophy to the world of podcasting. Photo by Megan Mendenhall/Duke Photography
Barry Lam is bringing philosophy to the world of podcasting. Photo by Megan Mendenhall/Duke Photography

Barry Lam is a podcast junkie. He’s also an associate professor of philosophy who teaches courses on epistemology, philosophy of science and philosophy of language.

The two worlds come together in Lam’s new project, a sound-rich podcast called Hi-Phi Nation that explores philosophical ideas through stories about war, inheritance, religious tolerance and more. The 10-episode series launched on Jan. 24.

Lam, an associate professor at Vassar College, is spending the 2016-2017 academic year at Duke producing and launching the podcast as a Humanities Writ Large fellow. His new podcast can be found on iTunes, Google Play and elsewhere at hiphination.org.

While at Duke, Lam is collaborating with Walter Sinnott-Armstrong in philosophy and with Duke’s StoryLab program.  The Humanities Writ Large initiative, supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aims to reimagine the role of the humanities in undergraduate education.

Here is a Vassar College story about the project.