Scholar and philosopher Wesley Barker talks about living your life when you deal every day with complex thought—as well as the importance of getting out of your head and embracing being a beginner.

Episode artwork: Władysław Czachórski, Zadumana (Deep in Thought), 1883. US public domain image courtesy The National Museum in Warsaw and Wikimedia Commons.

Intro and outro music: "Your Love Hip Hop" courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay

Want to learn more about the books—and shows!—we talked about on this episode? Check out the list below. You can also find us on LibraryThing, Goodreads, and Mastodon—and show your support at Liberapay!

Dante Alighieri The Divine Comedy Augustine of Hippo Robert B. Brandom A Spirit of Trust: A Reading of Hegel's Phenomenology Jasmine Cobb New Growth: The Art and Texture of Black Hair Simon Critchley Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance

Larry David Curb Your Enthusiasm

Michel Foucault The History of Sexuality Michel Foucault Confessions of the Flesh

Michel Foucault "About the Beginning of the Hermeneutics of the Self" in Religion and Culture (ed. Jeremy R. Carrette)

Witold Gombrowicz A Kind of Testament

Witold Gombrowicz Ferdydurke G. W. F. Hegel The Phenomenology of Spirit Luce Irigaray Mark. D. Jordan

Norton Juster The Phantom Tollbooth Jean-François Lyotard The Confession of Augustine

Herman Melville Moby Dick Tom Nichols The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters Boris Pasternak Doctor Zhivago Philip Roth The Human Stain Antonio Zadra and Robert Stickgold When Brains Dream: Understanding the Science and Mystery of Our Dreaming Minds