AMA | May 2026

Hello everyone, welcome to the May 2026 Ask Me Anything edition of the Mindscape podcast. I'm your host, Sean Carroll. I am recording this intro after I recorded the rest of the AMA on Saturday, May 2nd of 2026, and I I mentioned that because Tonight is game seven in the first round series of the NBA playoffs between my beloved Philadelphia 76ers and the hated Boston Celtics. And I mention this because there's really nothing else on my mind right now.

I'm actually working on my book while I'm not doing this, uh, the AMA. But really in the back of my mind, it's basketball that is taking up most of my mental space. And this is the intro to the AMA, so I can talk about whatever I want. I know that a lot of people are not especially uh fascinated by this topic, so you can skip ahead to the AMA itself because I might as well explain where my mental space is at. And

I've talked about before how I admit that sports fandom is largely irrational, or at least a rational. It's not irrational in the sense that you're making a mistake to root for one team over another, but it's non-rational in the sense that there's no real moral calculus or ethical considerations that go into choosing which team to root for. It depends on where you were born. Right? I think this is very harmless and in fact fine, right?

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