Some Questions Regarding Life (SQRL)

I’m back with Daniel Hulse, who reflects on life and love with the same depth he brings to guiding students. In this second part of our conversation, we zoom out: are humans truly unique, or just another animal with fancier tools?

Episode in a 🌰:We explore the biology and philosophy of what makes us human — from parental instincts and animal mourning rituals to birth control, AI, and whether dolphins might have us beat. Mr. Hulse challenges the assumption that humans are “more evolved,” and together we ask: what really separates us from the rest of the living world, if anything?

In season 2, I highlight one-to-one chats with teachers, professors, and mentors. The primary question for this entire season will remain the same: What makes a human, human?

TIMESTAMPS

[00:00:34] Family love, biology, and parental instincts

[00:06:43] Animal mourning and the raw instinct to protect

[00:09:05] Do humans love differently than animals?

[00:14:59] Love, marriage, and not having children

[00:18:41] Seahorses, survival instincts, and evolution

[00:19:46] Birth control and whether humans are becoming “obsolete”

[00:20:35] AI as a new species — creators vs. creations

[00:24:16] Animal emotions, pain, and human assumptions

🥜 🥜 Hypothetical Nuts of the Day

1. ​If humans aren’t the most evolved species, what actually makes us unique?
2. ​Could AI count as a new “species” in the story of evolution?

Hope you enjoyed the ep!

I’m joined by Daniel Hulse, who until recently was Associate Director of College Counseling at Mercersburg Academy. Beyond guiding students, Mr. Hulse has spent years reflecting on what love, compromise, and authenticity really mean — in marriage, work, and family.

Episode in a 🌰:In this first part of our conversation, we put aside the central question and instead dive into love. In all its everyday messiness, love goes from tattoos and Shakespeare to farting in front your partner. Mr. Hulse shares what it means to build a relationship that is equal parts friendship and hard work, and why knowing your “non-compromisables” is just as important as compromise itself.

In season 2, I highlight one-to-one chats with teachers, professors, and mentors. The primary question for this entire season will remain the same: What makes a human, human?

TIMESTAMPS

[00:00:16] Mr. Hulse on Shakespeare and love beyond the surface

[00:04:40] Discovering a true “connection of the mind”

[00:07:05] Comfort in silence, farting, and being real

[00:09:49] Marriage as hard work and compromise

[00:13:29] Authentic disagreement vs. constant pleasing

[00:17:09] Compromise vs. self-betrayal at work and in life

[00:20:21] Family as a non-compromisable

🥜 Hypothetical Nut of the Day:

If soulmates don’t exist, how do you know when you’ve found the right person?

Hope you enjoyed the ep!

In part 2 of my conversation with Paul Galey, we shift from imagination to choice. If AI can think, adapt, and maybe even imagine, what’s left that makes us human?

Episode in a 🌰:

We dive into Viktor Frankl’s idea that our will to choose defines us, and test it against the rise of artificial intelligence. Can a machine ever claim humanity? What happens if technology evolves faster than our philosophies? From Star Trek court cases to nuclear buttons, we wrestle with the ethics of invention and the urgency of asking these questions now.

In season 2, I highlight one-to-one chats with teachers, professors, and mentors. The primary question for this entire season will remain the same: What makes a human, human?

TIMESTAMPS

Hope you enjoyed the ep!

I meet with Paul Galey -- teacher, former school minister, and creator of Mercersburg Academy’s Nature and Meaning course -- during the summertime, the best time to talk philosophy.

Episode in a 🌰:
We focus on a magical concept: imagination. Is imagining uniquely human? We explore how it fuels both Einstein’s physics and Buddhist philosophy, and where it touches Descartes and dolphins. We wonder: can animals imagine realms beyond survival, and what happens if a human loses their ability to imagine?

In season 2, I highlight one-to-one chats with teachers, professors, and mentors. The primary question for this entire season will remain the same: What makes a human, human?

TIMESTAMPS

00:00:00 — “I imagine, therefore I am"

🥜🥜 Hypothetical Nuts of the Day

1. If imagination is what makes us human, what happens when someone loses it?

2. Are humans the only species that can go against their own evolutionary drive to survive?

   
   

Hope you enjoyed the ep!

I’m joined by Judge Shawn Meyers, President Judge of Pennsylvania’s 39th Judicial District. Beyond the courtroom, Judge Meyers is a thoughtful mentor whose perspective bridges law, philosophy, and lived experience.

Episode in a 🌰: We talk about a myriad of answers to the question: foresight, invention, unpredictability, and the quest for objectivity. Along the way, we compare human reasoning to AI’s “hallucinations,” explore the role of law in shaping fairness, and wonder whether any other species has systems of law.

In season 2, I highlight one-to-one chats with teachers, professors, and mentors. The primary question for this entire season will remain the same: What makes a human, human?

TIMESTAMPS

​[00:00:14] Many possible answers to the human question

[00:02:00] Reasoning, memory, and the uniqueness of choice

​[00:05:15] Human foresight, invention, and unpredictability

​[00:07:26] AI vs. human unpredictability

​[00:10:39] Law, rules, and accuracy in reasoning

​[00:15:21] The challenge of striving for objectivity

​[00:18:23] Why humans need community and rules

​[00:21:24] Judge Meyer's struggle with objectivity

​[00:25:34] Final reflections on the diversity of answers

🥜 Hypothetical Nut of the Day

If other species could strive for objectivity the way humans do, how would their societies look different?

Hope you enjoyed the ep!

I'm with Ari Goldman, professor emeritus of journalism at Columbia University and former New York Times reporter. He has spent decades teaching and writing about the intersection of storytelling, faith, and empathy.

Episode in a 🌰:

We explore the tension between objectivity and empathy in journalism, the purpose of telling other people’s stories, and how faith traditions can expand our perspective without erasing our own. Along the way, we reflect on obituaries, pluralism, and the “third eye” of wisdom.

In season 2, I highlight one-to-one chats with teachers, professors, and mentors. The primary question for this entire season will remain the same: What makes a human, human? (The exceptions are episodes with special guests, where we might deviate from this topic.)

TIMESTAMPS:

[00:00:00] The conflict between empathy and objectivity
[00:04:24] Ari’s path into journalism — stories, obituaries, and religion reporting

[00:10:15] Why storytelling matters beyond just recounting events

[00:12:24] Faith, pluralism, and learning from other traditions
[00:15:18] Empathetic objectivity and its place in journalism
[00:17:08] Opening to other religions while staying rooted in your own

[00:19:01] Our mentor relationship

Hope you enjoyed the ep!

Part two of my conversation with Mike Conklin turns to education, art, and community. The common thread is the value of process.

Episode in a 🌰:

We discuss grades, art, social media, and Saturday Night Live, asking whether shortcuts are erasing the process that makes us most human. From Ship of Theseus to mortality keeping us grounded, we linger on creativity, collaboration, and the joy of being together.

In season 2, I highlight one-to-one chats with teachers, professors, and mentors. The primary question for this entire season will remain the same: What makes a human, human? (The exceptions are episodes with special guests, where we might deviate from this topic.)

TIMESTAMPS

[00:00:51] School as means vs. ends

[00:02:07] AI art and the irreplaceable value of process

[00:04:56] Survival vs. meaning: can you treasure the means if the world values ends?

[00:07:23] AI in creative industries and the threat to livelihoods

[00:08:27] Collaboration, comedy writing, and our humanity in process

[00:10:12] Ship of Theseus

[00:13:00] Biology, mortality, and the essence of humanness

[00:16:57] Can AI make mistakes or have moods?

[00:20:16] Nostalgia, cell phones, and rediscovering community

[00:23:30] The joy of thinking aloud with someone else

🥜 Hypothetical Nut of the Day:

If an AI could perfectly imitate human conversation, would it be the same as talking to a person?

Hope you enjoyed the ep!

In this first half of my conversation with Mike Conklin, we drift into fields related to the central question such as consciousness and AI.

Episode in a 🌰:

We start by diving into the reason behind asking the question, and then look at reasons vs passions, AI's "consciousness," the loss of human connections, and how these trends are reflected in the college process for students.

In season 2, I highlight one-to-one chats with teachers, professors, and mentors. The primary question for this entire season will remain the same: What makes a human, human? (The exceptions are episodes with special guests, where we might deviate from this topic.)

TIMESTAMPS

[00:01:16] Why this question? dinner table debates on AI & consciousness
[00:04:19] : ANSWER TO THE Q: Manipulating our environment + empathy

[00:06:01] David Hume: reason is a slave to the passions
[00:08:56] Can AI generate something truly new?
[00:13:09] Motives, free will, and the horror movie version of AI

[00:17:02] AI as another “social media moment”
[00:21:45] Technology outpacing philosophy
[00:25:31] Shrinking attention spans and the loss of long-form narrative

[00:28:50] Neutral tools and human motives
[00:34:27] College counseling tends - outsourcing reasoning vs. doing the hard work ourselves

[00:35:47] Means vs. ends in school, AI, and life

🥜 Hypothetical Nut of the Day:

If AI could act with its own free will, would it still be “just a tool,” or would it cross into being human?

Welcome back to SQRL season 2! Today I'm with longtime Mercersburg teacher David Bell to look at the central question of season 2: What makes a human, human?

Episode in a 🌰:

From empathy and altruism to Kant, Peter Singer, and even Tom Cruise, we trace the gray spaces between selfishness and selflessness. Along the way, we detour into puns, lobsters, and whether dolphins might secretly be more human than us.

In season 2, I highlight one-to-one chats with teachers, professors, and mentors. The primary question for this entire season will remain the same: What makes a human, human? (The exceptions are episodes with special guests, where we might deviate from this topic.)

TIMESTAMPS

[00:00:00] What makes us human? Mr. Bell's one-word answer

[00:01:20] MAPS, ambiguity, and asking better questions [00:07:00] Kant, empathy, and whether “good” acts need to be pure

[00:13:20] Compromise, polarization, and politics today [00:19:40] Can empathy be taught? Nature, nurture, and practice

[00:23:30] Does true altruism exist—or are we all selfish? [00:30:00] Lobsters, vacations, and empathy for animals [00:32:45] Love, responsibility, and final reflections

🥜 Hypothetical Nut of the Day

If empathy can be taught to humans, could it also be taught to non-human animals?

Hope you enjoyed the ep!

Before diving into Season 2 of SQRL, join me for a cinematic recap of the questions that made up Season 1. From debating grades and success to wrestling with pain, privilege, God, authenticity, and music, each highlight brings back the voices of friends and classmates who wondered out loud together.

Season 1 ended not with answers, but with questions that we ask and discuss together.

Now, Season 2 takes a new direction: one-to-one conversations with teachers, mentors, and storytellers. We circle one guiding question: What makes a human, human?

Whether you’ve been here since Episode 1 or you’re just joining the conversation, this recap & launch episode is for you to catch up, reflect, and step into the next season.

[Featuring the new Season 2 theme music, Through the Crackling Air, created by Suno and Audrey Hua]