Struggle to Understand

Welcome back. Today’s episode features two returning guests:  Xavier Bonilla and Angel Eduardo. Xavier has a doctorate in psychology and is a professor of psychology in Maryland. Xavier is also the host of a podcast called "Converging Dialogues" which can be found here. Angel is an Advisory Board member and Director of Messaging and Editorial for the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR). In addition, Angel is a co-host of the FAIR perspectives podcast with Melissa Chen and a columnist at the Center For Inquiry.

This conversation is a marathon - both in length and subject matter. Trying to construct a cohesive summary of the contents would require a laundry list of subjects that would only add to the impressive run-time of this conversation. But a few highlights include a rather lengthy conversation about fandoms - including a rather protracted discussion of Star Wars and its fandom. We also discuss, as we did in prior conversations, topics surrounding identity, representation, and the role of art in constructing meaning and the truth. As the podcast comes to a close, we discuss some elements of identity politics and the pitfalls that may befall those who argue that demography is destiny, particularly among Latino voters in the United States.

It was wonderful having Xavier and Angel back on to give their shared perspectives on salient topics in our seemingly never-ending cultural quagmire. I hope you enjoy our marathon conversation!

Xavier can be found on Twitter @xaverbonilla87.

Angel can be found on Twitter @StrangelEdweird

Introductory music was written by Alex Yoder. Find him here

Please consider supporting the podcast here and following it on Twitter. Thank you for your support!

In this episode, I speak with Matt Dinan and Andrew Moore. Matt has a PhD from Baylor University and is an associate professor in the Great Books program at St. Thomas University. Andrew has a PhD from Western University and is an associate professor in the Great Books program also at St. Thomas University. We explore what is a liberal arts education and how it relates to the “great books” of the Western intellectual canon, the purpose of engaging with the great texts produced by human civilization, and ultimately why liberal arts education may be understood as an education in a kind of friendship. Liberal arts education can be defined both broadly and narrowly and this episode highlights how important it is to understand both facets of liberal arts and how, ultimately, the goal is facilitating people to live a more fully human life.

Introductory music was written by Alex Yoder. Find him here

Please consider supporting the podcast here and following it on Twitter. Thank you for your support!

Today’s episode is the next in an on-going series I am doing on this podcast on collectibles and community. In this episode of that series, I speak with TMReviews who has a YouTube channel called “TMReviews.” On this channel, TM reviews collectibles and provides discussion and commentary for the community that has developed around those collectibles. Like others who engage in this kind of review and commentary, he deals some with official products but also with unlicensed or third-party products. We discuss how his frugal youth gave him a desire to own certain kinds of collectibles, how he left collecting during his teenage and college years, and why he ultimately returned to collecting. We then discuss why he started his YouTube channel and the problems and promise that have come with it. Finally, we turn to what he considers the most important element in collecting: the community. We speak to how he sees his role within the collecting community, specifically among Transformers collectors, but also how he has gone about cultivating his own community through his YouTube channel. I will repeat here, again, the central argument of this series because it becomes more clear with each subsequent discussion: popular culture and the collectibles that have been developed around them are centerpieces for developing community.

TMReviews can be found here. 

Introductory music was written by Alex Yoder. Find him here

Please consider supporting the podcast here and following it on Twitter. Thank you for your support!

This is an episode in an on-going series on liberal arts education. In this episode, I speak with Jonathan Marks. Jonathan has a PhD from the University of Chicago and is a Professor of Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Ursinus College. We explore what is a liberal arts education and how it relates to the “great books” of the Western intellectual canon, the conflicts that have arisen from the “battle of the books” both in the 1990s and Jonathan’s new book “Let’s be Reasonable: A conservative case for liberal education.” Our discussion is a bit broader here than the first episode in this series but this broadness helps illustrate one of the benefits that comes from engaging in this form of pedagogy and participating with this ever-evolving canon of authors and works.

Find Jonathan's book here. 

Introductory music was written by Alex Yoder. Find him here

Please consider supporting the podcast here and following it on Twitter. Thank you for your support!

This episode is the first in on-going series on classical liberal arts education and the importance that it may play in the contemporary university. In this episode, I speak with John Peterson. John has a PhD from the University of Dallas, where he is the Manager of Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs in the Braniff Graduate School of Liberal Arts. There he oversees the administration of the Humanities, Classical Education, American Studies, and Leadership programs and he is also an Affiliate Assistant Professor of Humanities and Graduate Director of American Studies at the University of Dallas. We explore what is a classical liberal arts education and how it may differ from what falls under the banner of “liberal arts” education today in many universities. We also speak to the role that such an education may play in our contemporary universities as well as the challenges that this pedagogical approach faces from competing pedagogical approaches. Our conversation serves as a terrific introduction to classical liberal arts education pedagogy and is a great launching point for this on-going series.

Introductory music was written by Alex Yoder. Find him here

Please consider supporting the podcast here and following it on Twitter. Thank you for your support!

In this episode, I speak with Henry Paik who has a YouTube channel called “Paik4Life.” On this channel, Paik reviews collectibles and provides discussion and commentary for the community that has developed around those collectibles. Like others who engage in this kind of review and commentary, he deals some with official products but also with unlicensed or third-party products. We discuss how he came to being a collectible reviewer, the importance of collectibles to him and the community he’s developed around them, as well as a little bit of “behind the scenes” discussion about how the business side of these collectibles actually operates. We end our discussion with an exploration of why this particular era of popular culture is so defined by nostalgia and what that might mean about what we are currently valuing and not valuing. Ultimately, as I’ve said before, popular culture and the collectibles that have been developed around them are not just vapid materialism or trinkets to fill shelves; they are centerpieces for developing community.

Find Paik here, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Introductory music was written by Alex Yoder. Find him here

Please consider supporting the podcast here and following it on Twitter. Thank you for your support!

I speak with Jon Carney. Jon is the director of bands at New Palestine High School, a suburb of Indianapolis. Jon as a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education and a Master’s in Tuba Performance and Literature. We speak about the importance of music education in public education, the role that music can play in lives, and the importance that music plays in fostering a sense of community. Perhaps the most important element that we discuss is the topic that should always be the main concern for education: the kind of person we want to develop through our curricula. Jon’s approach to music education, while certainly deeply concerned with the technical aspects of proficiency, also takes into consideration what skills are necessary for developing, and living within, a community. This was an excellent conversation that illustrates how integrated our educational structures should be and how, perhaps too often, we do not teach across the curriculum nearly enough. Here is my conversation with Jon.

Introductory music was written by Alex Yoder. Find him here

Please consider supporting the podcast here and following it on Twitter. Thank you for your support!

In this episode, I speak with Bobby “Skullface”. Bobby has a YouTube channel where he reviews collectibles and provides discussion and commentary for the community that has developed around those collectibles. Primarily, his work deals with what are called third-party figures,  Third party figures are those that are not made by the owner of the intellectual property nor officially licensed products. When Bobby says that he is known best for his evaluation of Third Party collectibles, he is often reviewing high-end products that appeal to a particular group of collectors but ones that are not produced by Takara-Tomy nor directly licensed by them. With this in mind, we discuss what draws Bobby to these “nerdy” things, why that ultimately led him to creating a YouTube channel, and the relationship his family has with collecting in general. I also want to highlight one important element about collecting that is too often overlooked by those who do not collect – the collectibles serve a function, often a mixture of nostalgia and completionism, but are also a means to an end, specifically, the creation of a community. We end our discussion by turning to community and the importance that cultivating and participating in a community is for living a good life. 

Bobby can be found on YouTube , on Twitter, or on his podcast, Nerd Rage Radio. 

Introductory music was written by Alex Yoder. Find him here

Please consider supporting the podcast here and following it on Twitter. Thank you for your support!