The Problem with Reading

The team explores heroic societies, absurdity, and After Virtue chapter ten. When they run out of jokes about Greeks, Stephen muses about gender and coding, Sam explains how we'll never find love, and Brevin encourages us all to take a second hard look at Fun Dip. Also in the mix: ISIS brides, underpopulation, and Plato.

In this clip from episode 009, Brevin discusses the creepiness of Fun Dip.

Sam, Brevin, and Stephen choose between Nietzsche and Aristotle in After Virtue chapter nine. The crew takes a deep dive into the mystery of Florida Man, read a Cosmopolitan article on Purity Culture, and discover that we are trees, you are trees, humans and society are trees, etc. Also AI will kill us all, but we knew that.

On an unrelated note, imagine a country populated entirely with Ayn Rands and Nietzsches, and then imagine how many trains there would be.

Articles:

~wsj.com/articles/physics-biology-and-economic-inequality-11549061005

~slate.com/technology/2019/02/super-bowl-commercials-robots-sadness-terror-nervous-laughter.html

~cosmopolitan.com/politics/a26026217/sexual-abstinence-joshua-harris-purity-movement-scam/

Music: Ratata by Jeremiah Dangers

Join Stephen and Brevin and the vaunted chapter eight, where everything is unpredictable! Also in this episode: sad bad grad school, why Webster's 3rd dictionary is an abomination, and more math than you want.

Articles:

~blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-emotional-toll-of-graduate-school/

~claremont.org/crb/article/bourbon-neat/

Music: Ratata by Jeremiah Dangers

Hijinks abound as Stephen and Brevin bull-rush After Virtue chapter 7. In other news, duck livers have revealed that African democracy is not doing great, internet culture has no problems whatsoever, and bureaucrats are lizards, but still probably our friends. Have a listen.

Articles:

~foreignaffairs.com/articles/africa/2019-01-17/retreat-african-democracy

~nytimes.com/2019/01/14/opinion/call-out-social-justice.html

Music: Ratata by Jeremiah Dangers

Sam joins the gang again to discern that the trolley problem meme really does explain all of philosophy, human rights are moral fictions, and that **Managers** are truly the architype of pure evil. We also vacillate between endless crippling loneliness (because of modernity) and totally justified boundless optimism (because of modernity). Stephen talks about David Foster Wallace again, and no one is surprised. Have a listen.

Articles:

~nytimes.com/2018/11/23/opinion/loneliness-political-polarization.html

~quillette.com/2019/01/14/enlightenment-wars-some-reflections-on-enlightenment-now-one-year-later/

~scribd.com/doc/164736651/Joseph-Frank-s-Dostoevsky-David-Foster-Wallace

Music: Ratatata by Jeremiah Dangers

Stephen and Brevin are alone together this week as they tackle After Virtue Ch5 and discover that without Telos, there is no end to anything. They also speak for maladjusted millennials everywhere, decide that pre-blessed Matrimony is great, and that one should never forget strawberries.

Articles:

~buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work

~christandpopculture.com/taste-strawberries-tolkiens-imagination-good/

Music: Ratata by Jeremiah Dangers

Thomas is away, but we welcome Sam to discuss our picks of the week. As it turns out, a recent book has finally killed God, now that religion is dead we've all joined cults, the Right and Left have their drugs of choice, and Christmas should be abolished. Have a listen.

Articles:

~nytimes.com/2012/03/25/books/review/a-universe-from-nothing-by-lawrence-m-krauss.html

~nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/andrew-sullivan-americas-new-religions.html

~chronicle.com/article/Dear-Humanities-Profs-We-Are/243100/

Music: Ratata by Jeremiah Dangers

Why AirBnB Might be Okay, MacIntyre's Characters and Why He Kant Even, the Matrix and Reproduction, and the Horseshoe Theory Comes to Natalism. Have a listen.

Music: Ratata by Jeremiah Dangers

two lay catholics and an orthodox-adjacent nerd are unlikely roommates in a dystopian future where humans only exist as soundwaves. enjoy their attempts to discuss academic philosophy/words at all.