A podcast by Theodore Lashmet
Art belongs in core curriculum because the practices that make people good artists — sustained attention, comfort with ambiguity, honest revision — are the same practices that make people good at almost anything
Episodes
Philosopher/Cognitive Scientist · Six cuts from one session · Episodes 1–6
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Episode 1: When the Data Runs Out, Philosophy Begins
A philosopher at an engineering school on what happens when empirical data can't settle the question — and why the tools that remain are closer to art than science.
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Episode 2: What Makes Something Count as Art?
Dr. Ferguson traces art's definition from Duchamp's urinal to generative AI, arguing that intention is what makes something count as art.
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Episode 3: What Math and Sculpting Share
Dr. Ferguson discusses how sculpting and mathematics feels the same, and how mastering the rules of any discipline allow you to break them.
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Episode 4: Is Everything Art?
Dr. Ferguson arrives at the conclusion he dreads — that everything might be art. Theo offers a contrasting opinion on that take.
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Episode 5: Defining Art Breaks Its Definition
A philosophy professor and a physics student spend an hour trying to define art and leave less certain than when they started — which turns out to be the point.
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Episode 6: Logic, Creativity, and the Lines We Draw
A philosopher and logician on why creativity is the one capacity that cuts across every human endeavor — from formal reasoning to the factory floor.
Author of "Behind Closed Eyes" · Six cuts from one session · Episodes 7–12
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Episode 7: Crossing Borders to Find the Story
Elena Li Chow, an accomplished author, on how living across six countries and learning to read every room taught her how to access to other people's inner lives.
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Episode 8: Writing in the Gray Areas
Elena Li Chow, author of "Behind Closed Eyes", on why moral ambiguity isn't a weakness in fiction — and why refusing to resolve a story is itself a form of artistic rigor.
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Episode 9: Belonging as a Decision You Make
Elena Li Chow, an author and entrepreneur who has lived across Argentina, China, and the United States on why belonging is a decision — and what bicultural identity makes possible in art and in life.
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Episode 10: Art Is a Choice You Make
Elena Li Chow, author of "Behind Closed Eyes", on why making art is a decision, not a gift — and what that distinction means for anyone who thinks the door is already closed to them.
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Episode 11: What AI Cannot Synthesize
Elena Li Chow, author of "Behind Closed Eyes", on why AI can produce beauty but not soul — and what that distinction reveals about what human artmaking actually is.
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Episode 12: Every Experience Feeds the Work
Elena Li Chow, author of "Behind Closed Eyes", on why every unglamorous job — the desk work, the negotiation, the contract reading — eventually feeds the writing, and why financial stability is not the enemy of creative freedom.