By Robert Lawrence Kuhn

Year-ends herald retrospectives and reflections. During Closer To Truth’s hectic year, I‘m preparing for upcoming interviews or focused on future projects. I’ve grown to appreciate my end-of-year reports to you, our global community. Without you, there would be no Closer To Truth. CTT co-creator and producer/director Peter Getzels and I start with our heartfelt “thank you” for your loyal viewership and, when you are so moved, your candid feedback.

CTT viewers come from every country, religion, race, ethnicity, age, gender, educational background, and economic level. Even so, you never mention these differences, only our shared passion for exploring the grand questions of astonishing existence and human sentience. Such expressions of global unity, no matter how small, strengthen our commitment to continue developing new CTT content and to continue globalizing CTT.

Major CTT productions broadcast in 2025: “Global Philosophy of Religion”, “Philosophy of Biology”, and “Landscape of Consciousness” (forthcoming). Each series premieres on PBS TV stations in the U.S. and then streams on the Closer To Truth website and Closer To Truth YouTube channel (subscribers: >660,000). Each features leaders in their fields. To Peter and me, these 2025 series are among CTT’s best and most meaningful.

CTT’s extensive, in-depth, multi-part online series featured: Sir Roger Penrose, Stephen Wolfram, Richard Swinburne, and Peter van Inwagen (forthcoming). Special discussions included: Priya Natarajan, Dean Radin, James Tabor, Raymond Tallis, Vlatko Vedral, Daniel Whiteson.

CTT partnered with MindFest 2025, led by philosopher Susan Schneider and the Center for the Future Mind at Florida Atlantic University, on a number of interviews on AI consciousness, transhumanism, and virtrual immortality.

We filmed Closer To Truth in Paris at the world-renowned Bibliothèque Mazarine (Mazarin Library, within the Palais de l’Institut de France): discussions with continental philosophers and scientists on consciousness, philosophy, philosophy of science, epistemology, and metaphysics/ontology (why is there anything at all?): Michel Bitbol, Jean-Pierre Changeux, Markus Gabriel, Silvia Jonas, and Lucia Melloni.

Continuing CTT’s multi-year “Art Seeking Understanding” project, we produced new TV episodes on “Mind, Art, Transcendence”; investigative fieldwork with leading experimenters; and the remarkable documentary, “Mind, Art, Transcendence: Explorations of Awe”.

Closer To Truth at “The Science of Consciousness” conference in Barcelona included: Stuart Hameroff, Imants Barušs, Thomas Brophy, Deepak Chopra, Federico Faggin, Alex Gomez-Marin, Philip Kurian, Nao Tsuchiya, more.

Closer To Truth partnered with the Institute of Art and Ideas (IAI) at their world-renowned HowTheLightGetsIn festival in Hay (UK) to produce diverse videos, including here and here.

CTT launched the Landscape of Consciousness website, which presents over 350 theories of consciousness and has become a standard in the field. Access all theories: Landscape Grid, Landscape Categories, All Landscape Theories, Landscape Map, and Interactive Visualizations. Issues of deep sentience, such as AI consciousness, virtual immortality, meaning/purpose, life after death, free will, cannot be understood except in the light of particular theories of consciousness.

New Scientist, one of the world’s premier science magazines/websites, featured Landscape and CTT. I did several interviews: Essentia Foundation (with Hans Busstra), MindChat (with philosophers Keith Frankish and Philip Goff), and Mind-Body Solution (with Tevin Naidu).

When we witness the disputations and conflicts of our troubled world, we can grow discouraged. When there are brutal wars, ethnic violence, political hatred, and endemic poverty, we may wonder whether CTT is out of step with global needs. CTT could seem of no consequence. We push back. Every day, we see CTT breaking down barriers and forging shared values. Superficial human differences melt and become meaningless in light of our communal human longings. We want CTT to do more.

We remember with great fondness and admiration our dear CTT colleagues and friends who died in 2025: Christopher Brewer, Helen De Cruz, Michael Ruse.

Once again, Peter and I, and our entire CTT team, express our deep appreciation to all of you, our CTT global community, for your interest, feedback, and support. You inspire and energize us.

All best for 2026 and beyond,

Robert