dunc tank

Matthew Gasda - Playwright and Novelist

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:23:28 -0300

Matthew Gasda is a playwright and novelist based in New York City. He is the founder of the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research, and the author of The Sleepers.

Jean-Pierre Isbouts - The Historical Jesus

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 15:05:11 -0300

Jean-Pierre Isbouts is a Biblical scholar, the author of "The Fractured Kingdom," and the host of the Amazon Prime show "Searching for the Historical Jesus."

William Basinski - Experimental Composer

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 19:45:40 -0400

William Basinski is an American experimental composer.

James Fallon - Memorial Show

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 23:05:18 -0400

James Fallon was a neuroscientist and author. Sadly, he passed away, but he was a frequent guest on the show, so please enjoy this memorial episode, a compilation of some of my favorite moments of his on the show.

William Deresiewicz - Solitude in Modern Life

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 22:31:13 -0400

William Deresiewicz is a former English professor at Yale, and the author of numerous books, including "The End of Solitude."

Kevin Knight - 2024 Election

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 21:48:01 -0300

Kevin Knight is the Chief of Staff of Congressman David Schweikert.

Jonathan Mann - Super-Forecaster

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 23:01:40 -0300

Jonathan Mann is a security architect, a Good Judgment Super Forecaster, and a faculty member in the Computer Science department at NYU. He writes at https://abstraction.substack.com/

Michael Jelen - Replay, AI, Web3

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 22:47:45 -0300

Michael Jelen is the CEO of Replay, a web3 video streaming service.

Jan Swafford - George Gershwin

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 19:05:51 -0300

Jan Swafford is an American composer and the author of several musical biographies.

Thomas Barfield - Nomadic People

Mon, 27 May 2024 12:47:01 -0300

Thomas Barfield is an anthropologist at Boston University, and the author of several books, including The Nomadic Alternative.

Stuart Reid - Patrice Lumumba

Sun, 12 May 2024 17:11:44 -0300

Stuart Reid is an executive editor at Foreign Affairs, and the author of The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination.

Robin Hanson - Health, AI and More

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 18:15:05 -0300

Robin Hanson is an economist at George Mason University. His Substack is Overcoming Bias, and he is the author of multiple books, including The Elephant in the Brain.

Ellen Bass - Poet

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 14:50:34 -0400

Ellen Bass is a poet, the winner of three Pushcart Prizes, and the author of several collections, including Indigo.

Nicholas Krohley - Warrior Diplomats

Sun, 29 Oct 2023 18:09:11 -0300

Nicholas Krohley is a founder of FrontLine Advisory, and the co-author of Warrior Diplomats: Civil Affairs Forces on the Front Lines.

Michael Katz - Dostoevsky

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 15:26:15 -0300

Michael Katz is a professor of Russian and East European Studies at Middlebury College. He is a translator of several works of Dostoevsky, including Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.

Dave Rearick - Sailing Around the World

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 00:53:54 -0300

Dave Rearick circumnavigated the globe, and is the author of Spirit of a Dream: A Sailor's Ultimate Journey Around the World Alone.

Michael Joyce - Electronic Literature

Sun, 03 Sep 2023 17:28:12 -0300

Michael Joyce is a novelist, poet, critic and the author of works of electronic literature, including afternoon, a story.

Milan Ćirković - Aliens and Fermi’s Paradox

Sat, 19 Aug 2023 16:38:23 -0300

Milan Ćirković is a professor at the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade, and the author of The Great Silence: Science and Philosophy of Fermi's Paradox.

Robert Kelly - Hunter-Gatherers to Today

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 17:43:37 -0300

Robert L. Kelly is an archaeologist at the University of Wyoming, and the author of several books including The Fifth Beginning: What Six Million Years of Human History Can Tell Us about Our Future.

Andrew Walder - The Cultural Revolution

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 15:32:53 -0300

Andrew Walder is a political sociologist at Stanford, and the author of several books on Mao and the Cultural Revolution. His latest book is Civil War in Guangxi: The Cultural Revolution on China's Southern Periphery.

The podcast now has a Patreon! Available here: https://www.patreon.com/dunctank

Matt Simon - Plastic Poison

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 18:16:20 -0300

Matt Simon is a writer at Wired Magazine, and the author of A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies.

Warren Motte - Experimental Literature

Fri, 23 Jun 2023 09:05:26 -0300

Warren Motte is a professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the author of several books, and an editor of Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature.

Robert Beachy - Gay Berlin

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 22:17:35 -0300

Robert Beachy is a history professor at Yonsei University and the author of Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity.

Malcolm Harris - Silicon Valley

Wed, 17 May 2023 19:30:30 -0300

Malcolm Harris is a journalist and author of several books. His most recent work is Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism and the World.

Derrick Jensen - Soup on Paintings

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 17:29:02 -0300

Derrick Jensen is an author and environmentalist. He is the author of several books, including The Myth of Human Supremacy.

Alan Mikhail - Ottoman Empire

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 15:30:24 -0300

Alan Mikhail is a professor of history at Yale, and the author of God's Shadow: The Ottoman Sultan Who Shaped the Modern World.

Steve Fuller - AI & The MetaVerse

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 20:18:52 -0300

Steve Fuller is a professor of sociology at the University of Warwick. He is the author of several books, including Post-Truth: Knowledge as a Power Game.

David Yaffe - Joni Mitchell

Sun, 26 Feb 2023 00:21:47 -0400

David Yaffe is a professor of humanities at Syracuse University and the author of Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell. His Substack is: https://davidyaffe.substack.com/

Adam Hochshild - Red Scares

Sun, 12 Feb 2023 17:09:42 -0400

Adam Hochshild is a historian and the author of, American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis.

Dave Andrews - Christian Anarchy

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 10:58:46 -0400

Dave Andrews is an activist and the author of several books, including Christi-Anarchy: Discovering a Radical Spirituality of Compassion.

Bev Stohl - Chomsky’s Assistant

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 16:25:40 -0400

Bev Stohl was formerly the assistant of Noam Chomsky for over 20 years. She recently wrote a book called, Chomsky and Me: A Memoir.

William Deresiewicz - Death of the Artist?

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 15:16:01 -0400

William Deresiewicz taught English at Yale University and is the author of Death of the Artist: How Creatives are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech and most recently, The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society.

James S. Curl - Bad Architecture

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 16:30:28 -0400

James Stevens Curl is an architect and historian, and the author of a book about Modern architecture, Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism.

Malachi O’Doherty - Troubles in Ireland

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 19:08:08 -0400

Malachi O'Doherty is a journalist in Northern Ireland, and the author of several books, including The Telling Year: Belfast 1972.

Marc Levinson - Shipping Containers

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 21:32:31 -0300

Marc Levinson is an economist and author of, "The Box: How Shipping Containers Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger."

Daniel Mullen - Painter

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 18:09:21 -0300

Daniel Mullen is a Scottish painter based out of Rotterdam.

Hannah Lucinda Smith - Turkish Politics

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 17:09:40 -0300

Hannah Lucinda Smith is a journalist with The Times of London, and the author of Erdoğan Rising: The Battle for the Soul of Turkey.

Jed Rasula - Dada

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 17:04:05 -0300

Jed Rasula is a professor at the University of Georgia, and the author of Destruction Was My Beatrice: Dada and the Unmaking of the Twentieth Century.

Joel Whitney - The CIA Vs. Art

Sun, 25 Sep 2022 20:27:19 -0300

Joel Whitney is the author of Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World's Best Writers.

Alberto Gerosa - Performance Artist

Sun, 18 Sep 2022 22:25:14 -0300

Alberto Gerosa is a performance artist and filmmaker based out of Hong Kong.

Anna Lembke - Dopamine Nation

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 18:44:40 -0300

Anna Lembke is a psychiatrist and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. She is the author of Drug Dealer, MD and Dopamine Nation.

Jhanelle Thomas - Ghosting

Fri, 02 Sep 2022 17:56:29 -0300

Jhanelle Thomas is a psychology researcher and the co-author of, "Disappearing in the Age of Hypervisibility: Definition, Context, and Perceived Psychological Consequences of Social Media Ghosting."

James Curtis - Buster Keaton

Fri, 26 Aug 2022 18:27:00 -0300

James Curtis is a biographer, and the recent author of Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life.

Loren Toussaint - Forgiveness

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 16:16:30 -0300

Loren Toussaint is a professor of psychology at Luther College, and the director of their "Laboratory for the Investigation of Mind, Body, and Spirit." He is also Chair of the Discover Forgiveness advisory council at the Templeton World Charity Foundation, and president of the Forgiveness Foundation.

Rosamund Bartlett - Tolstoy

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 20:33:41 -0300

Rosamund Bartlett is an expert on Russian literature, and the author of several books, including, "Tolstoy: A Russian Life."

Jan Swafford - Igor Stravinsky

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 17:18:11 -0300

Jan Swafford is an American composer, as well as a music critic and author of several musical biographies.

Jason Lewis - Fmr. US Congressman

Sun, 24 Jul 2022 20:38:52 -0300

Jason Lewis is an American politician, a former talk radio host and represented Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District in the House of Representatives. He is the recent author of "Party Animal: The Truth about President Trump, Power Politics and The Partisan Press," available to purchase here.

Best Of Dunc Tank!

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 15:22:28 -0300

Please enjoy this best of episode of dunc tank.

Richard Davies - Extreme Economies

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 14:51:25 -0300

Richard Davies is an economist at Bristol University and the author of, "Extreme Economies: What Life At The World's Margins Can Teach Us About Our Future."

Meirion Jones - Jimmy Savile

Fri, 17 Jun 2022 11:46:25 -0300

Meirion Jones is a journalist and editor at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. He has worked on a number of high-profile stories, including exposing the crimes of Jimmy Savile.

James Fallon - Putin’s Brain

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 18:33:55 -0300

James Fallon is a neuroscientist and professor of psychiatry and human behavior at UC Irvine School of Medicine.

Chris McNamara - Wingsuit, BASE & More

Sat, 21 May 2022 10:19:14 -0300

Chris McNamara is a big wall climber, ex-wingsuit BASE jumper and the author of more than ten books.

David Vincent - Solitude vs. Loneliness

Thu, 12 May 2022 21:38:39 -0300

David Vincent is a social historian at the Open University, and is the author of, "A History of Solitude."

Daniel K. Richter - Native American History

Tue, 03 May 2022 14:49:50 -0300

Daniel K. Richter is a professor of American history at the University of Pennsylvania, and the author of "Facing East from Indian Country."

Ananyo Bhattacharya - John von Neumann

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 19:07:27 -0300

Ananyo Bhattacharya is a correspondent for The Economist, and the author of The Man From The Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann.

Gabriel Licina - Genetic Engineer

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 19:13:07 -0300

Gabriel Licina is a biohacker and the founder of Scihouse, a non-profit bioengineering group.

Vitali Shkliarov - War in Ukraine

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 18:56:35 -0300

Vitali Shkliarov is an expert in US-Russian relations and worked on the Presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders.

Timothy Denevi - Hunter S. Thompson

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 17:18:23 -0300

Timothy Denevi is a professor at the MFA program at George Mason University, and is the author of "Hyper" and "Freak Kingdom: Hunter S. Thompson's Manic Ten-Year Crusade Against American Fascism."

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst - Charles Dickens

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 17:52:13 -0300

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst is a professor of English at Oxford University, and the author of numerous books, including most recently, "The Turning Point: A Year that Changed Dickens and the World."

Steve Fuller - Transhumanism

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 16:01:08 -0300

Steve Fuller is a philosopher at the University of Warwick and the author of a number of book's including, "Humanity 2.0: What it Means to be Human Past, Present and Future."

Neil Lanctot - The US & WW1

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 14:02:46 -0300

Neil Lanctot is a historian and author, whose most recent book is "The Approaching Storm: Roosevelt, Wilson, Addams and Their Clash Over America's Future."

Peter Neumann - AI, Security, & The Big Picture

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 13:57:37 -0400

Peter Neumann is a computer scientist at SRI International, edits ACM's RISKS Digest, and formerly worked at Bell Labs.

Derrick Jensen - Civilization on the Brink

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 13:52:28 -0400

Derrick Jensen is an author, speaker and environmentalist. His most recent book is, "Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It."

Doron Zeilberger - Math’s Heretic

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 14:02:35 -0400

Doron Zeilberger is a mathematician at Rutger's University, and is well known for his work in combinatorics and his strong opinions about the mathematical establishment.

Robert McChesney - Death of the Media?

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 19:10:49 -0400

Robert McChesney is a professor in the Department of Communication at University of Illinois, and is the author of several books, including "Dollarocracy" and "The Problem of the Media."

Richard Neupert - French New Wave

Sun, 06 Feb 2022 14:04:43 -0400

Richard Neupert is a professor in the department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Georgia, and is the author of several books, including "French Animation History" and "A History of the French New Wave."

Alan Robock - Castro, Climate & Nukes

Sun, 30 Jan 2022 15:04:18 -0400

Alan Robock is a climatologist at Rutgers University and a member of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. His research interests include geoengineering and the climate effects of nuclear winter.

Robin Hanson - Cryonics, Gene-Editing & Birth Rates

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 15:07:43 -0400

Robin Hanson is an economist at George Mason University, and the author of multiple books, including "The Age of Em" and "The Elephant in the Brain." His blog is called "Overcoming Bias."

Pauline Boss - Coping With Loss

Sat, 15 Jan 2022 22:24:48 -0400

Pauline Boss is a professor emeritus at University of Minnesota, a pioneer of the field of ambiguous loss, and the author of numerous books, the most recent of which is called "The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic."

Rolf Potts - How to Travel Forever

Sat, 08 Jan 2022 12:37:26 -0400

Rolf Potts is the author of "Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel." His podcast is called "Deviate with Rolf Potts."

Angelo Pentaris - Drums & Disabilities

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 18:10:53 -0400

Angelo Pentaris is a drummer, disability advocate and motivational speaker.

Robert Gross - The Transcendentalists

Sat, 25 Dec 2021 21:19:56 -0400

Robert Gross is a historian at the University of Connecticut and the author of "The Transcendentalists and Their World."

James Fallon - Biohacking, Genes & Vaccines

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 16:43:07 -0400

James Fallon is a neuroscientist and professor of psychiatry and human behavior at UC Irvine.

Dean Baker - Inflation, Stocks and Panic

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 11:22:02 -0400

Dean Baker is an economist at the Center for Economic Policy Research. His blog is called "Beat the Press."

Laurence Bergreen - ”Great” Explorers

Sat, 27 Nov 2021 11:20:08 -0400

Laurence Bergreen is a historian and author of several biographies of famous explorers, including most recently, "In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire."

Charles Prebish - American Buddhism

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 14:49:12 -0400

Charles Prebish is a former professor of religious studies, and the author of numerous books including, "American Buddhism."

Donald Prothero - Dinosaurs & Skepticism

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 18:57:59 -0400

Donald Prothero is a paleontologist, geologist and the author of numerous books, including "Abominable Science" and "The Story of Life in 25 Fossils."

Jan Swafford - Jazz History

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 11:44:56 -0300

Jan Swafford is a composer and author of multiple biographies, the most recent of which is, "Mozart: The Reign of Love."

Nicole Prause - Sex Researcher

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 16:46:47 -0300

Nicole Prause is a neuroscientist and sexual psychophysiologist, and is the founder of Liberos LLC.

Martin Gurri - Revolt of the Public

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 22:00:21 -0300

Martin Gurri is a former CIA analyst and the author of "The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium."

Adam Johnson - Media Critic

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 15:15:23 -0300

Adam Johnson is co-host of the "Citations Needed" podcast and the author of The Column on Substack.

Nicholas Schou - CIA, Crack and Gary Webb

Sat, 18 Sep 2021 13:40:21 -0300

Nicholas Schou is an award-winning journalist and the author of multiple books, including "Kill the Messenger" and "Spooked."

Clay Tumey - Ex-Bank Robber

Sat, 11 Sep 2021 15:51:50 -0300

Clay Tumey is an award-winning poet from Texas, and the author of "The Blue Chip Store: How Bank Robbery Changed My Life."

Mikhail Dyakonov - Quantum Hype

Sat, 04 Sep 2021 17:42:53 -0300

Mikhail Dyakonov is a professor of physics at Montpellier University, and the author of "Will We Ever Have a Quantum Computer?"

Richard Hanania - Afghan Withdrawal

Fri, 27 Aug 2021 18:28:22 -0300

Richard Hanania is a former fellow at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, and the current President of The Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, as well as the host of their podcast.

Rick Perlstein - Reagan Vs. Carter

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 20:25:02 -0300

Rick Perlstein is a historian and author of numerous best-selling books, the most recent of which is Reaganland, now available in paperback.

Vijay Seshadri - Wild Poet

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 19:48:25 -0300

Vijay Seshadri is a poet, essayist and literary critic, whose 2014 poetry collection "3 Sections" won the Pulitzer Prize.

John McCourt - James Joyce

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 10:00:46 -0300

John McCourt is a Professor of English at University of Macerata. He is the author of a number of books on James Joyce, and is President of the International James Joyce Foundation.

Steven Callahan - Adrift Pt. 2

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 19:19:25 -0300

Steven Callahan survived 76 days adrift at sea, and his since written the books "Adrift" and "Capsized," and has consulted for numerous films and TV shows.

Tom Oliver - The Self Delusion

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 17:34:27 -0300

Tom Oliver is a professor of applied ecology at the University of Reading, and the author of, "The Self Delusion: The Surprising Science of How We Are Connected and Why That Matters."

Neil Woods - Drug Cop

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 12:36:14 -0300

Neil Woods is a former undercover police officer in the UK, author of the book Drug Wars, and a member of the reform group Law Enforcement Action Partnership.

Robin Hanson - UFOs, AI, and Our Robot Future

Sun, 27 Jun 2021 12:56:34 -0300

Robin Hanson is an economist at George Mason University. He is the author of a number of books, including The Age of Em and The Elephant in the Brain. His blog is called Overcoming Bias.

Forrest Gander - A Poet's Life

Sun, 20 Jun 2021 15:44:44 -0300

Forrest Gander is a poet, translator and novelist, whose 2018 poetry collection, "Be With," won the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent collection of poems is, "Twice Alive."

David Burns - Therapy That Works!

Sun, 13 Jun 2021 06:07:53 -0300

David Burns is considered one of the founders of CBT and is a psychiatrist and professor at the Stanford School of Medicine. He is author of "Feeling Good," which sold over three million copies, and most recently wrote, "Feeling Great."

Bill Ayers - Weather Underground

Sun, 06 Jun 2021 06:58:10 -0300

Bill Ayers is a former leader of the Weather Underground and professor of education at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Ross King - Renaissance Painters

Sun, 30 May 2021 08:27:10 -0300

Ross King is a novelist and historian who has authored a number of books about Renaissance artists, including, "Leonardo and the Last Supper" and "Brunelleschi's Dome."

James Fallon - 100th Episode!

Sun, 23 May 2021 06:40:27 -0300

James Fallon is a neuroscientist at UC, Irvine. He is the author of, "The Psychopath Inside."

Benjamin Teitelbaum - Steve Bannon's War

Sat, 15 May 2021 14:16:10 -0300

Benjamin Teitelbaum is a professor of ethnomusicology and international affairs at University of Colorado, Boulder, and the author of, "War for Eternity: The Return of Traditionalism and the Rise of the Populist Right."

Richard Norman - Humanism

Sun, 09 May 2021 04:43:46 -0300

Richard Norman is a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Kent, and the author of, "On Humanism."

Clint Penick - Social Insects

Sun, 02 May 2021 09:51:27 -0300

Clint Penick is a former punk musician and the current head of Penick Lab at Kennesaw State University, where he studies social insects.