About this episode

The episode features an interview with psychiatrist Michael Golding discussing mental illness through the lens of critical rationalism and universal explainers.

This week we had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Golding, M.D, who is a psychiatric physician. He is also heavily influenced by the philosophical ideas of David Deutsch and Karl Popper. At one point he calls himself a proponent of homeschooling and Taking Children Seriously. Together we wrestle with what critical rationalism and the universal explainer hypothesis suggests about mental illness and human creativity. Steven Peck's "My Madness" ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: @mgoldingmd

People in this episode

Hosts: Bruce Nielson, Peter Johansen

Guest: Michael Golding

Topics covered

• mental illness
• universal explainers
• critical rationalism
• human creativity
• homeschooling

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: My Madness

More episodes of The Theory of Anything

• Episode 137: Ray Scott Percival on Incurable Mind Viruses · April 15, 2026 · 2h 8m
• Episode 135: Coercion and Critical Rationalism · March 10, 2026 · 1h 42m
• Episode 134: The Deutsch Slot Machine · February 24, 2026 · 2h 24m
• Episode 133: The Constitution of Knowledge · February 10, 2026 · 41 min
• Episode 132: Roughly Testable Theories (and Ancaps) · February 3, 2026 · 1h 5m
• Episode 131: Knowledge as a Concept · January 27, 2026 · 24 min

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