The Authority File

How We Define Free Time: Purposeful or Indulgent?


Listen Later

With work, family duties, household chores, who has free time? And when we do, should we zone out to Netflix and a quickly-depleting box of Cheez-Its? Or is free time better used on altruistic efforts in our own communities? How do we make our free time not only restorative, but meaningful? Conor Kelly, assistant professor at Marquette University, faces these questions in his new book, The Fullness of Free Time.  Years in the making, the text can be traced back to the logistics of a much-needed fall break getaway during his undergrad at Notre Dame. When he asked a friend if she’d like to join the group on the trip, she said a better use of her time would be spent volunteering. “What you’re talking about just seems indulgent, was basically what she got at, and I was jarred a little bit, as you might imagine. No one wants to think of themselves as indulgent, particularly when the opposite is selfless acts of service for the world around you.” In this first episode of the four-part series, Kelly discusses how that fateful conversation stuck in his mind, coalescing into a dissertation and eventual volume. Kelly also explains the interplay between moral theology and theological ethics, and how studies from psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi informed his work. Sponsored by Georgetown University Press

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Authority FileBy Choice

  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9

4.9

10 ratings


More shows like The Authority File

View all
Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

38,592 Listeners

In The Dark by The New Yorker

In The Dark

28,210 Listeners

Against the Grain - The Podcast by Annual Reviews

Against the Grain - The Podcast

4 Listeners

Up First from NPR by NPR

Up First from NPR

56,980 Listeners

It's Been a Minute by NPR

It's Been a Minute

9,114 Listeners

librarypunk by librarypunk

librarypunk

37 Listeners