When it comes to youth crime, simple answers often miss the deeper questions.

In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter explores the moral and social complexities surrounding youth crime, punishment, and responsibility in contemporary society.

He examines polarized responses from “lock them up” to broader social explanations and asks why societies punish in the first place. By considering agency, accountability, disadvantage, and the search for identity which can lead to such unhealthy associations as gang membership, this episode challenges listeners to rethink justice, victimhood, and the kind of society we are collectively shaping.

Connect with Dr. Laurance Splitter: LinkedIn

The challenge of balancing our intuitive “elephants” and our reasoning “riders”.

In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter expands on the role of dialogue and introduces philosophy’s “three Cs” — concepts that are common, contestable, and central. He cites the absurdist humor behind Monty Python to illustrate what happens when concepts are pushed to their extremes. Enlarging on his central theme, Laurance cites the tensions between individualism and collectivism, the private and the public, and looking inward versus looking beyond ourselves. He then discusses the housing crisis in our society, as a practical example of these tensions. 

Connect with Dr. Laurance Splitter: LinkedIn

Certainty feels reassuring but it can also shut down reasonable thinking, dialogue, and better judgment.

In this episode, host Dr. Laurance Splitter introduces the central ideas behind The Rest Is Uncertain and explains why certainty can be more limiting than helpful when navigating complex questions and challenges through what he calls a philosophical lens. He emphasizes the importance of  dialogue, and of questioning our assumptions, and introduces a recurring theme of the series: whether we see ourselves as isolated individuals or as members of something larger and why that distinction matters.

Connect with Dr. Laurance Splitter: LinkedIn