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In this episode, I talk with Catherine Tan, Philosophy Lecturer at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, about Indian materialism, skepticism, and overlaps with Chinese Philosophy. April 11, 2026: This is a revised version of the original podcast. The episode now includes spoken credit for Kevin MacLeod’s music, “Brittle Rille,” which I use for the show. Further Resources Christine Tan’s website: https://tanchristineabigail.com/ Cārvāka: https://iep.utm.edu/indmat Podcast Episodes on Jayanta Bhatta’s play: Part 1: https://anchor.fm/malcolm-keating/episodes/Episode-9-Much-Ado-about-Religion--Part-1-eovu0c Part 2: https://anchor.fm/malcolm-keating/episodes/Much-Ado-about-Religion-Part-2-epn4fc Music Credits: “Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

It seems like everyone, from companies to online influencersto fitness coaches, talk about having mantras. But what are mantras,anyway? In this episode, we'll talk about how they compare to birdsong, Tibetansinging bowls, and spells at Hogwarts, as well as some ancient debates aboutwhether they mean anything, and why that matters.   Listen to more episodes of Sutras & Stuff at www.sutrasandstuff.com.   Sounds and Music All music excerpts and soundbites used with an understandingof fair use modification for educational purposes. Theme music by­ https://incompetech.filmmusic.io Kevin MacLeod’s music  Title Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ LoungeAmbient Music Loop by user orangefree sound, posted to Freesound.com on July 8,2014. https://freesound.org/people/orangefreesounds/sounds/242080/ Tibetan Chantingby user djgriffin, posted to Freesound.com on February 7, 2006. https://freesound.org/people/djgriffin/sounds/15488/ Sources Documentary Educational Resources. “Altar of Fire – Preview.”YouTube video, posted Sept 19, 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvvI3bIAgVA   Dictionary.com. “The Meanings Behind “Harry Potter” Spells.”July 29, 2019. https://www.dictionary.com/e/s/rowling-spells/   Grimes, Samuel. “Where Did ‘Tibetan’ Singing Bowls ReallyCome From?” Tricyle. Mar 4, 2020. https://tricycle.org/article/tibetan-singing-bowls/   McGill University. “Do Birdsong and Human Speech ShareBiological Roots?” YouTube video, posted Nov 22, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heMy6dlWvkQ   Staal, Frits. “Mantras and Bird Songs.” Journal of theAmerican Oriental Society 105, no. 3 (1985): 549-558.

Just keep swimming! Title Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Does what goes around always come around? And is instant karma gonna get you? In the first episode of a season devoted to Sanskrit-to-English loanwords, we’ll examine how three groups of Indian philosophers understand karma: Jains, Buddhists, and Naiyayikas (or Nyaya philosophers). Sounds and Music All music excerpts and soundbites used with an understanding of fair use modification for educational purposes. Drake featuring Bryson Tiller, “Bad Karma” Alicia Keys, “Karma” John Lennon and Yoko Ono with The Plastic Ono Band, “Instant Karma! (We all Shine On)” Taylor Swift, “Karma” Indigo Girls, “Galileo” Culture Club, “Karma Chameleon” Fox News clips: Joey Jones, July 2021 Sean Hannity, August 2017 Theme music by­ https://incompetech.filmmusic.io Kevin MacLeod’s music Title Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Bibliography and Further Reading My YouTube lecture on Milinda’s Questions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rBqC43PK8Q Bronkhorst, Johannes. Karma. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2011. http://muse.jhu.edu/pub/5/monograph/book/1739. Finnegan, Bronwyn. “Karma, Responsibility, and Buddhist Ethics.” In The Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology, by Manuel Vargas and John Doris, 7–23. Oxford University Press, 2022. McDermott, James. “Kamma in the Milindapañha.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 97, no. 4 (October - December 1977): 460-468. Hermann Jacobi’s translation of the Ācāraṅgasūtrahttps://www.wisdomlib.org/jainism/book/acaranga-sutra

Taylor Swift says karma is her boyfriend, and Boy George sings about karma chameleons. In addition to “karma,” there are lots of other Sanskrit terms which have made their way into English: yoga, dharma, mantra, guru, Buddha, swastika, and more. In this season, we’ll focus on one word an episode to get a deeper understanding of what they meant in their original contexts, and how these meanings resonate today. Episodes of Season Four will air the first Friday of every month, beginning January 6, 2023. Subscribe anywhere you can download podcasts. Music & Effects Credits: "Brittle Rille" by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3460-brittle-rille License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Title Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ "Karma" by Taylor Swift Excerpts used for educational purposes based on fair use principles Record Scratch by user luffy Link: https://freesound.org/people/luffy/sounds/3536/

In this episode, I talk with Tom Davies, Seymour Reader in Ancient History and Philosophy at the University of Melbourne, about how understanding Indian philosophy in relationship with the rest of the ancient world helps us reflect on what philosophy is, as a human activity, in different cultural contexts. Note: This is the final episode of the regular season, concluding the series of interviews with philosophers who taught Philosophy and Political Thought at Yale-NUS. Not every philosopher participated, but interviews with all those who did are now available as episodes one through ten. April 11, 2026: This is a revised version of the original podcast. The episode now includes spoken credit for Kevin MacLeod’s music, “Brittle Rille,” which I use for the show. Further Resources Tom Davies on Academia.edu: https://yale-nus.academia.edu/TomHerculesDavies Ancient Egyptian Philosophy at Philosophy Now: https://philosophynow.org/issues/128/Does_Western_Philosophy_Have_Egyptian_Roots Hannah Arendt: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arendt/ Music Credits: “Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I talk with Robin Zheng, Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, about connections between social practices and knowing in premodern Indian philosophy and contemporary feminist philosophy. April 11, 2026: This is a revised version of the original podcast. The episode now includes spoken credit for Kevin MacLeod’s music, “Brittle Rille,” which I use for the show. Further Resources: Robin Zheng’s website: https://www.robin-zheng.me/ Helen Longino: https://philosophy.stanford.edu/people/helen-longino Miranda Fricker: https://www.mirandafricker.com/ Christy Dotson: https://lsa.umich.edu/philosophy/people/faculty/kldotson.html Debating: https://sutrasandstuff.wordpress.com/2020/11/23/debating/ Questions of King Milinda, Book II (Rhys Davids): https://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe35/sbe3504.htm Music Credits: “Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I talk with Cathay Liu, Senior Lecturer at the National University of Singapore, about philosophical systems and both Indian and European philosophy in the 17th century. April 11, 2026: This is a revised version of the original podcast. The episode now includes spoken credit for Kevin MacLeod’s music, “Brittle Rille,” which I use for the show. Further Resources Rene Descartes https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes/ The Tarkasamgraha at https://archive.org/details/tarka-samgraha-ramkrishna-mission/mode/2up How to Think Like a Nyāya Philosopher, Annambhatta's Primer on Reasoning (Part 1 of 4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L14Q87r24Is The Craft of Research https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo23521678.html Music Credits: “Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I talk with Neil Mehta, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS, about what exists and what we can say about it. April 11, 2026: This is a revised version of the original podcast. The episode now includes spoken credit for Kevin MacLeod’s music, “Brittle Rille,” which I use for the show. Further Resources Neil Mehta’s website: http://www.profneilmehta.com/ Theory of Two Truths in India: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/twotruths-india/ Graham Priest’s website: https://grahampriest.net Metaphysics of grounding: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/grounding/ Nagarjuna: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nagarjuna/ Music Credits: “Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I talk with Matthew Walker, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS, about ancient philosophy, therapeutic arguments, reading practices, and the Bhagavad Gita. April 11, 2026: This is a revised version of the original podcast. The episode now includes spoken credit for Kevin MacLeod’s music, “Brittle Rille,” which I use for the show. Further Resources Matt Walker’s website: https://sites.google.com/site/mattwalker2000/home Aristotle on the Uses of Contemplation: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/aristotle-on-the-uses-of-contemplation/14962F5B7153012A256FB48B5A27CCE8 Aristotle https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/ Zhu Xi https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/zhu-xi/ Emotions in Indian Philosophy https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concept-emotion-india/ Music Credits: “Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I talk with Jay Garfield, Professor of Philosophy at Smith College, about the Buddhist philosopher Candrakirti and how teaching Indian philosophy at Yale-NUS impacted his understanding of Western philosophers like Hume. April 11, 2026: This is a revised version of the original podcast. The episode now includes spoken credit for Kevin MacLeod’s music, “Brittle Rille,” which I use for the show. Further Resources Jay Garfield’s website: https://jaygarfield.org/  David Hume: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/ The Concealed Influence of Custom (Jay Garfield): https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-concealed-influence-of-custom-9780190933401 Candrakirti and Hume on the Self and the Person (Jay Garfield): https://jaygarfield.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/candrakicc84rti-and-hume-on-self.pdf Madhyamaka philosophy (and Chandrakirti): https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/madhyamaka/ https://iep.utm.edu/madhyamaka-buddhist-philosophy/ Music Credits: “Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I talk with Kathryn Muyskens, Philosophy Lecturer at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, about the Buddhist philosopher Shantideva and bioethics, health care, and compassion. April 11, 2026: This is a revised version of the original podcast. The episode now includes spoken credit for Kevin MacLeod’s music, “Brittle Rille,” which I use for the show. Further Resources Kathryn Muyskens’ papers on Philpapers: https://philpeople.org/profiles/kathryn-muyskens Shantideva: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/shantideva/ https://iep.utm.edu/santideva/ YouTube video on Shantideva with Connie Kassor and Stephen Harris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQVLrbk0yKM Music Credits: “Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/“Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/“Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/“Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/“Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Content note: There's one instance of the "F-word" in English towards the end of the interview. In this episode, I talk with Andrew Bailey, Associate Professor of philosophy at Yale-NUS College in Singapore about the Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna and analytic metaphysics, Gandhi on technology, and Nyaya philosophers on inference. April 11, 2026: This is a revised version of the original podcast. The episode now includes spoken credit for Kevin MacLeod’s music, “Brittle Rille,” which I use for the show. Further Resources Andrew Bailey’s website: https://www.andrewmbailey.com/ Nagarjuna: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nagarjuna/ David Lewis: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/david-lewis/ Peter Van Inwagen: https://philosophy.nd.edu/people/emeritus/peter-van-inwagen/ Gandhi's Hind Swaraj: https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/hind_swaraj.pdf Annambhatta lecture (1 of 4): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L14Q87r24Is Music Credits: “Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode, I talk with Bryan Van Norden, Professor of philosophy at Vassar College in the United States about how he came to Indian philosophy, what he enjoys about teaching it, as well as connections between ideas about knowing in Indian and Chinese philosophy. April 11, 2026: This is a revised version of the original podcast. The episode now includes spoken credit for Kevin MacLeod’s music, “Brittle Rille,” which I use for the show. Further Resources Bryan Van Norden’s website: http://www.bryanvannorden.com/ “Less Commonly Taught Philosophies” bibliography: http://www.bryanvannorden.com/suggestions-for-further-reading The Questions of King Milinda: My YouTube videos on this text start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rBqC43PK8Q Mengzi (Mencius) https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mencius/ https://iep.utm.edu/mencius/ Mozi and Mohism https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mohism/ https://iep.utm.edu/mozi/ Music Credits “Brittle Rille,” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

How does a 9th century Nyaya philosopher addresses the intersection of religious conflict and ruling power in India? Are feelings of offense reason to exclude certain religious practices? What lessons can we take from Nyaya philosophers on religious toleration, and are they internally consistent here? To read the whole play, get the Clay Sanskrit Library translation of Much Ado about Religion by Csaba Dezsö, published 2005 by NYU Press. https://nyupress.org/9780814719794/much-ado-about-religion/ Maniacal laugh sound effect from: https://freesound.org/s/367738/