Stephen Asma is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, and co-founder of the Research Group in Mind, Science and Culture. He is author of ten books, including The Emotional Mind (Harvard University Press), The Evolution of Imagination (University of Chicago Press) and On Monsters (Oxford University Press). He has lectured at Harvard, Oxford, the Smithsonian, University of Chicago, and many more. He writes regularly for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, and Aeon magazine. Together with actor Paul Giamatti, Asma is the executive producer and co-host of the podcast “Chinwag.” Asma has lived and taught in Phnom Penh Cambodia, Beijing, and Shanghai China. As a musician Stephen has played live music with Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Bo Diddley, and many more blues and jazz artists. He has also been a part-time professional illustrator for several books, and an award winning plein air painter.