The Messiness of Meaning Satyan Devadoss & Stuart Firestein

Meaning can be straightforward — a red octagon means “Stop!”, a hand wave with a smile means “Hello,” or adding two and two equals four. But meaning is often more complicated — a friend saying they’ll eat “whatever” for dinner or a significant other texting, “We need to talk.” In this episode, our speakers invite you into the messiness of meaning — and discuss how best we can search for it. You’ll hear a conversation between mathematician Satyan Devadoss (U San Diego) and biologist Stuart Firestein (Columbia). Satyan and Stuart bring their scientific backgrounds and religious perspectives as they explore the role of reason in the search for meaning, what can and can’t be taken at face value, and what strategies can help us find truth — from the scientific method to literary analysis to religious tradition. This Forum was held at Columbia University in 2014. Thanks to the forums planning team at Columbia for making this event possible. Find additional resources and quotes on the podcast episode page here .

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The Messiness of Meaning Satyan Devadoss & Stuart Firestein is an episode from The Veritas Forum by The Veritas Forum.

This episode is 36:28 long.

This episode was published on Mar 19, 2026.

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