Sep 14, 2026 · 1 hr 32 min · 17 segments
My guest this week is author, philosopher, and environmental lawyer, Tam Hunt, here to share all about his newest book, *The Hippies Were Right - About Consciousness and Everything Else.* We had…
Tam HuntGuest
Martin BallHost
And actually maybe before getting into the book, let's just start with the, the general resonance theory of consciousness, and this is where the, with the association with, uh, UCSB and sort of this investigation into consciousness as, uh, resonant patterns of energy, uh, because that's a major theme of the book.
And this is what might be surprising if somebody was just like going by the title, oh, The Hippies Were Right, so this is gonna be a bunch of hippie stuff, but there's a lot of deep philosophy and science that's involved in this book.
Um, but so maybe explain a little bit about that 'cause it really shapes and forms the overall trajectory of the book.
I tried to strike a balance between being, you know, a popular book accessible to anyone but also presenting cutting edge rigorous philosophy and neuroscience, and I, I'm a kind of a, a strange bird in that I do straddle many worlds in my work.
Like I said, I'm a lawyer by day, um, philosopher by night, academic at UC Santa Barbara at, on a part-time basis for like 13 years now, and published many peer-reviewed papers, a number of books now.
And so, you know, our approach called general reson- general resonance theory is catching on.
Our primary paper has gotten now over 200 citations, which is a lot for an academic paper, and it, it was a slow burn, so it's kind of getting there, and I think it's gonna have probably 500 before, you know, another couple years is done.
So not to brag, but just to kind of let your listeners know that this is taken seriously in neuroscience and philosophy, and the theory does bridge both.
It's basically a, a neuroscience informed theory of consciousness, and we are branching out through the lab I'm part of, which is a psychology lab at UC Santa Barbara into experimental work, and also working with other labs to do experiments to test the theory.
So it's not, quote, unquote, "just philosophy." But the book basically talks about, um, my journey in coming to this theory, and I met my collaborator, uh, Professor Jonathan Schooler way back in, oh, man, it would've been like 2008 or '09 at a bar in Santa Barbara 'cause I, I'd lived there since 2001.
I got my first, uh, law firm job in Santa Barbara after finishing law school in 2001, and just met him through mutual friends, and we kind of were just chatting about stuff and philosophy at the bar literally over a drink.
And I was like, "Oh, so you are like a grad student?" He's like, "No, I'm a, I'm a fucking professor, man." And I'm like, "Oh, my bad." You know, and so he's actually now a distinguished professor, which is the highest level you can get to in the UC system.
So he's a, he's kind of a big wig, and he invited me after a year or two kind of having these conversations to be a visiting scholar in his lab.
Um, and I was like, "Well, sure, you know, why not?" And so I've been in that role now for a long time.
It's just kind of a title, but it's real and I am, you know, affiliated with that lab at UC Santa Barbara.
It acknowledges basic physics that all things resonate, and this is just true physically.
All things have a tiny hum, a vibration, a frequency at which they resonate, and it changes based on temperature.
So this is not controversial We then say all things have a mote, an iota of awareness, and that is more controversial.
And actually maybe before getting into the book, let's just start with the, the general resonance theory of consciousness, and this is where the, with the association with, uh, UCSB and sort of this investigation into consciousness as, uh, resonant patterns of energy, uh, because that's a major theme of the book.
And this is what might be surprising if somebody was just like going by the title, oh, The Hippies Were Right, so this is gonna be a bunch of hippie stuff, but there's a lot of deep philosophy and science that's involved in this book.
Um, but so maybe explain a little bit about that 'cause it really shapes and forms the overall trajectory of the book.
I tried to strike a balance between being, you know, a popular book accessible to anyone but also presenting cutting edge rigorous philosophy and neuroscience, and I, I'm a kind of a, a strange bird in that I do straddle many worlds in my work.
Like I said, I'm a lawyer by day, um, philosopher by night, academic at UC Santa Barbara at, on a part-time basis for like 13 years now, and published many peer-reviewed papers, a number of books now.
And so, you know, our approach called general reson- general resonance theory is catching on.
Our primary paper has gotten now over 200 citations, which is a lot for an academic paper, and it, it was a slow burn, so it's kind of getting there, and I think it's gonna have probably 500 before, you know, another couple years is done.
So not to brag, but just to kind of let your listeners know that this is taken seriously in neuroscience and philosophy, and the theory does bridge both.
It's basically a, a neuroscience informed theory of consciousness, and we are branching out through the lab I'm part of, which is a psychology lab at UC Santa Barbara into experimental work, and also working with other labs to do experiments to test the theory.
So it's not, quote, unquote, "just philosophy." But the book basically talks about, um, my journey in coming to this theory, and I met my collaborator, uh, Professor Jonathan Schooler way back in, oh, man, it would've been like 2008 or '09 at a bar in Santa Barbara 'cause I, I'd lived there since 2001.
I got my first, uh, law firm job in Santa Barbara after finishing law school in 2001, and just met him through mutual friends, and we kind of were just chatting about stuff and philosophy at the bar literally over a drink.
And I was like, "Oh, so you are like a grad student?" He's like, "No, I'm a, I'm a fucking professor, man." And I'm like, "Oh, my bad." You know, and so he's actually now a distinguished professor, which is the highest level you can get to in the UC system.
So he's a, he's kind of a big wig, and he invited me after a year or two kind of having these conversations to be a visiting scholar in his lab.
Um, and I was like, "Well, sure, you know, why not?" And so I've been in that role now for a long time.
It's just kind of a title, but it's real and I am, you know, affiliated with that lab at UC Santa Barbara.
It acknowledges basic physics that all things resonate, and this is just true physically.
All things have a tiny hum, a vibration, a frequency at which they resonate, and it changes based on temperature.
So this is not controversial We then say all things have a mote, an iota of awareness, and that is more controversial.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.