Reading the Presocratics: Parmenides (part 1)

In this episode, Hale and Brandon begin reading the surviving passages of Parmenides' poem, unpacking the novel idea that "it is."

with:

Hale Rothery (Vancouver Island University)

Brandon Brownlee

Recorded September 1, 2024

Reading the Presocratics: Heraclitus

Description: In this episode, Hale and Brandon introduce and read through a selection of the fragments of Heraclitus, especially those concerned with his paradoxical ontology.

with:

Hale Rothery (Vancouver Island University)

Brandon Brownlee

Recorded August 18, 2024

Reading the Presocratics: Pherecydes and Xenophanes

Description: In this episode, Hale and Brandon bring together Pherecydes and Xenophanes to read them each as criticising and revising the inherited theological picture of the Ancient Greek world.

with:

Hale Rothery (Vancouver Island University)

Brandon Brownlee

Recorded August 4, 2024

Reading the Presocratics: Pythagoras

In this episode, Brandon and Hale introduce and discuss Pythagoras, a religious and political leader whose Pythagorean community would go on to have an enormous influence on Ancient Greek philosophy. We relate him to the intellectual climate at the time and read through a selection of the various sayings and anecdotes attributed to Pythagoras.

with:

Hale Rothery (Vancouver Island University)

Brandon Brownlee

Recorded July 21, 2024

with:

Aaron Wang (Vancouver Island University)

Brandon Brownlee

Recorded July 26, 2024

with:

Aaron Wang (Vancouver Island University)

Brandon Brownlee

Kyra Tianen (Vancouver Island University)

Recorded July 13, 2024

Reading the Presocratics: The Melisians part 2

with:

Hale Rothery (Vancouver Island University)

Brandon Brownlee

Recorded July 4, 2024

In this episode, Hale and Brandon begin reading the Presocratic philosophers, starting with the Milesians. They introduce the Milesians and the context which gave rise to their philosophical project, and work through some of the ideas and deeds attributed to Thales.

with:

Hale Rothery (Vancouver Island University)

Brandon Brownlee

Recorded June 28, 2024

Special guest Jillian Maguire discusses the fight to clean up public pensions in British Columbia  and the importance of climate action on a massive scale.

Jillian Maguire is a BC public school teacher who co-founded the BCTF Divest Now campaign with Kim Benson. The BC Teachers’ Pension Plan is a subsidiary of BCI (British Columbia Investments). BCI has holdings in fossil fuels, weapons of mass destruction, big banks and logging. Given the existential threat the world is facing due to runaway climate change, teachers are demanding that the government stop pilfering teachers’ paycheques to prop up these future-destroying industries and start funding ethical, sustainable solutions.

with:

Michael Robert Caditz  (University of British Columbia)

Jillian Maguire, BC School Teacher

Recorded June 22, 2024

In this episode, Brandon and Hale explore Martin Heidegger's philosophy with a focus on the experience of presence. We begin with an article by Lawrence Berger outlining the experience Heidegger wants to illuminate and its relation to our modern scientific perspectives, before turning to his essay Building Dwelling Thinking to take a closer look at how Heidegger understands how our experience of presence is structured.

with:

Hale Rothery (Vancouver Island University)

Brandon Brownlee

Recorded June 14, 2024