# Episode 136: Michael Golding on Mental Illness and Universal Explainers Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episode-136-michael-golding-on-mental-illness-and-universal-explainers Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episode-136-michael-golding-on-mental-illness-and-universal-explainers.md Podcast: [The Theory of Anything](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886) Published: 2026-03-31T11:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/four-strands/episodes/Episode-136-Michael-Golding-on-Mental-Illness-and-Universal-Explainers-e3h51q1 Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/14b6fc10/podcast/play/117654785/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-2-29%2Fb1cc33c8-db2b-b51c-bac8-c312eb1c107e.mp3 Processing state: processed JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episodes/episode-136-michael-golding-on-mental-illness-and-universal-explainers Duration seconds: 7771 ## Resource 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 ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episodes/episode-136-michael-golding-on-mental-illness-and-universal-explainers/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episode-136-michael-golding-on-mental-illness-and-universal-explainers.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.