Exus the Podquest

By a show of hands, how many of you who are living in the West know anything at all about Hinduism? That’s what I thought - pretty much no one. But even though that’s the case, how many of you pretty much dismiss or ignore Hinduism as not being relevant to your lives? Yeah, that’s what I thought, too - pretty much all of you. And by “all of you,” I mean me, too, if I’m being honest. That is, until I spent a ...

This episode of Exus The Podquest presents what appears to be a very basic question: Why Don’t More People Just Fall Over Dead? Simple, right? Maybe, maybe not. Obviously, survival is a critical aspect of evolution. But could there be something more “purposive” at play here? Could a “life force” be one of the several interacting forces that drives evolution? If so, perhaps the survival of living things is stitched into the fabric o...

Author, mathematical physicist, and cosmologist Frank Tipler proposes that, trillions of years in the future, life will fill the universe, take control of the cosmos, and cause everything in existence to contract into a singularity. And if that’s not not compelling enough, he predicts that the energy associated with the contraction will allow for the resurrection and immortality of everything that was once living — including you an...

Will Artificial Intelligence bring an end to evolution? Or will it be a necessary “next step” in the inexorable march to what Pierre Teilhard De Chardin called “The Omega Point” - the universe’s maximum state of development? We were thrilled - and honored - to spend a captivating hour talking about those questions with theologian, author, and professor, Ilia Delio, whose Center For Christogenesis (https://christogenesis.org/) works...

Do we really need to look for magic in the skies (UFOs), or in the pyramids, or in the myths from antiquity that have somehow survived into modernity? No, we don’t. There’s no actual magic there. To engage with real magic, we need only peer into the foundational depths of our cell phones, and our cars, and our clothing, and our … everything else. That’s where the true magic is. And it’s also in our origins, and our evolution, and t...

Could there be a fifth fundamental force in the universe? And could it be “life?” Could life itself be stitched into the very fabric of reality by “life particles?” Dr. Ian Walters believes that the answer to each of those questions is “yes,” and that he has the science to prove it! We were honored to have Dr. Walters on our show to discuss his extraordinary, potentially transformative ideas. If he’s right - and he most certainly p...

If A Tree Falls In The Forest And No One’s There To Observe It, Does It Make A Turkey Reuben Sandwich? Talk about covering a lot of territory! Author Larry Gottlieb joined us to examine the Observer Effect, Consciousness, the double-slit experiment, the double-door experiment, existence, illusions, and yes, trees falling in forests and turkey reuben sandwiches (stay with us on this one - it works)! So go ahead and click the start b...

We took a deep dive into the fascinating world of Zen Buddhism in our lively interview with two monks, (Venerable) Hoden Sunim and Rev. Koshin of the Dharma Gate Zen Center. Our discussion covered the nature of Zen, its guiding principles, and the awesome benefits of "zazen," or "sitting meditation." Zen Buddhism might not hold the answers to "life, the universe, and everything," but it most certainly offers powerful insight into t...

Are people inherently good or evil? How do we determine that? And what’s the proper standard for measuring morality in general? Those are the questions that we explore on today’s show, with an eye toward further developing the subject and formulating a theory of our own. To be clear, we don't focus on Hitler alone—Mother Teresa makes a cameo appearance to balance things out. So, settle in, but don’t settle back as we intrepidly cro...

Mary-Jane Rubenstein, professor of Religion and Science in Society at Wesleyan University, joins Exus the Podquest host Bryan Marcus for an in-depth conversation about Pantheism, Panentheism, and all of the other members of the extended “Pan-ism” family. And what an interview! Professor Rubenstein, being both a world-class scholar and a wildly relatable communicator, delivered it all — a glossary, a history lesson, and an enthralli...

Before the Big Bang … and beyond! We interviewed theoretical astrophysicist Dr. Ethan Siegel to learn about the current state of the Big Bang Theory. And we learned a lot! Most importantly, we now know what science believes happened BEFORE the “Hot Big Bang,” as it’s known in modern scientific circles. Cosmic inflation, Inflaton Fields, mysterious unknown primordial beginnings. We cover it all in approximately 60 minutes with one o...