Long-form questions for serious curious minds.
The Dissenter treats interviews as extended inquiry rather than quick commentary. Ricardo Lopes begins with definitions, lets scholars build their frameworks, and follows the argument into questions about culture, politics, mental health, science, and human history.
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The Dissenter is a large, intellectually serious interview series centered on patient explanation. Ricardo Lopes speaks with academics and experts across philosophy, anthropology, history, psychology, neuroscience, politics, ethics, and biology. The show usually begins with a definitional question. What is feminism. What counts as sex work. What can cultural anthropology say about mental illness. Why does indoctrination matter. Those openings are not throat-clearing; they are the method. Each conversation builds from a basic conceptual frame toward harder questions about power, knowledge, institutions, stigma, evidence, and social consequence. Recent episodes show the range clearly. Serene Khader discusses feminism, white feminism, oppression, and the risk of using a faulty definition. Jessica Flanigan treats sex work as labor and considers its ethical and legal disputes. Roy Richard Grinker places mental illness inside historical and cultural contexts, including differing expressions of distress across places and eras. Sophie Scott-Brown revisits the 1950s as a contested period in activist politics rather than a simple story of conformity. Chris Ranalli examines indoctrination as a threat to education, intellectual development, and responsiveness to reasons. Timothy Winegard connects mosquitoes, disease, economies, armies, and ancient history. Paul Thagard discusses misinformation by first asking what information is and how people decide which sources deserve trust. Nicole Rust looks at why progress in neuroscience has not straightforwardly produced cures for brain and mental disorders. The show does not hurry these subjects into slogans. It allows a guest to lay out categories, complications, and historical background before the next follow-up arrives. The tone is steady, analytical, and often demanding. It is best for listeners who enjoy hearing an argument constructed in public, step by step.
Made for: For listeners who want academic conversations with room for definitions, mechanisms, history, and disagreement. It especially suits people drawn to philosophy, social science, mental health, culture, and the politics of knowledge.
What sets it apart: The show stands out through its scale and patience: more than a quick expert chat, it gives each guest enough time to build a framework. Ricardo Lopes favors precise opening questions and sustained follow-ups over performance or hot takes.
My name is Ricardo Lopes, and I’m from Portugal. Thank you for visiting my podcast.Over the past few years, I have conducted and released more than 900 interviews and talks with experts and academics from a variety of areas and disciplines, ranging from the Arts and Philosophy to the Social Sciences and Biology. You will certainly find a subject of your interest covered here.New interviews are released on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
The Dissenter connects brain science, psychology, disease, and belief through patient interviews that keep asking how knowledge becomes evidence.
Ricardo Lopes builds interviews from first principles, asking guests to define their terms before following the evidence into harder questions.
Ricardo Lopes asks what an intelligence test measures before you get to trust its name.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
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A clear, careful look at why measuring intelligence does not settle what intelligence is.
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Research conversations without the shortcut.
Policy books, examined with care.
Serious China scholarship, lecture by lecture.
Human origins, close to the evidence.
This episode features an interview with social psychologist Dr.
This episode features an interview with Dr.
This episode features an interview with Dr.
This episode features an interview with Dr.
This episode features an interview with Dr.
This episode features an interview with philosopher Dr.
This episode features an interview with philosopher Jessica Flanigan discussing the ethical dimensions of sex work, including definitions, philosophical approaches, and feminist perspectives.
This episode features an interview with anthropologist Dr.
This episode features Dr.
This episode features a discussion with philosopher Dr.
Nicole Rust joins Ricardo Lopes to examine why decades of brain research still have not produced a clear path to treatments and cures for brain and mental disorders.
Ricardo Lopes interviews Dr.
["Ricardo Lopes talks with Dr.