When David was 29, he followed Joseph Campbell's advice to ''follow your bliss'' and quit his corporate job and started writing. Now he is co-editor of the media watch website Media Lens. He is the author of ‘A Short Book About Ego... and the Remedy of Meditation’, which will be published by Mantra Books later this month. His first novel, ‘The Man With No Face’, a dystopian, Chomskyan, mystical science fiction thriller, will be published by Roundfire Books in 2026. David has published five other books on political, philosophical and spiritual themes. In 2007, Media Lens was awarded The Gandhi Foundation’s International Peace Prize. Media Lens has 72,000 followers on X.

To watch more episodes of the podcast, click here:

Here are all the books and websites we talked about:

* The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

* The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra

* The Turning Point by Fritjof Capra

* Free to be Human by David Edwards

* A Clean Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway

* Zen Buddhism by Christmas Humphreys

* Liberalism L.T. Hobhouse

* Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

* A Book of Secrets by Osho

* Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill

* Seeing Green: The Politics of Ecology Explained by Jonathon Porritt

* Reveries of The Solitary Walker by Rousseau

* The Art of Being by Erich Fromm

* The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

* The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

* Nature, Man and Woman by Alan Watts

* Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright

* Eckhart Tolle's Website: https://members.eckharttolle.com/10-day-trial/

* Osho's Website: https://www.osho.com/osho-online-library/the-books

#DavidEdwards #Media Lens #FollowYourBliss #20s #DoWhatYouLove #Meditation #LifePurpose

In this episode, my dad and I reflect on the vegan movement. Should we go vegan? Or are vegans going too far?

My dad, Torben Betts, is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. His plays include Murder in the Dark (2023); Nobody Wants to Kill You (2023); Eight Little Criminals (2022); The Illusion of Time (2021); Apollo 13: The Dark Side of the Moon (2020); Caroline’s Kitchen (2019); It Never Happened (2019); The National Joke, (2016); Get Carter (2016); What Falls Apart (2015); The Seagull (2015); Invincible (2014); Muswell Hill (2012); The Company Man (2010); Lie of the Land (2008); The Swing of Things (2007); The Unconquered (2007); The Error of their Ways (2007); The Lunatic Queen (2005); Her Slightest Touch (2004); A Listening Heaven (2001); Clockwatching (2001); The Biggleswades (2001); Five Visions of the Faithful (2000); Incarcerator (1999). He wrote the screenplays for the British independent films: Invincible (Vince Films, 2024); Downhill (Crisis Films, 2014); Guillemot, (Full Effect, 2014). His plays have been performed around the world and to date have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Slovakian, Greek, Russian, Turkish and Portuguese. Titles published by Bloomsbury Publishing. www.torbenbetts.com His latest play Murder at Midnight tours the UK from September 2025 to March 2026. It stars Jason Durr and Susie Blake and is to be produced by Original Theatre.

I hope you enjoy the fourth podcast conversation with my dad, if you like this episode please subscribe! Check out the previous episode on alcohol:

If you want to listen offline, I am on Apple Podcasts! Thanks for watching. :) #dad #veganism

In this episode, I talk to my dad about alcohol. Should we drink in our 20s? Are we missing out if we don't drink?

My dad, Torben Betts, is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. His plays include Murder in the Dark (2023); Nobody Wants to Kill You (2023); Eight Little Criminals (2022); The Illusion of Time (2021); Apollo 13: The Dark Side of the Moon (2020); Caroline’s Kitchen (2019); It Never Happened (2019); The National Joke, (2016); Get Carter (2016); What Falls Apart (2015); The Seagull (2015); Invincible (2014); Muswell Hill (2012); The Company Man (2010); Lie of the Land (2008); The Swing of Things (2007); The Unconquered (2007); The Error of their Ways (2007); The Lunatic Queen (2005); Her Slightest Touch (2004); A Listening Heaven (2001); Clockwatching (2001); The Biggleswades (2001); Five Visions of the Faithful (2000); Incarcerator (1999). He wrote the screenplays for the British independent films: Invincible (Vince Films, 2024); Downhill (Crisis Films, 2014); Guillemot, (Full Effect, 2014). His plays have been performed around the world and to date have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Slovakian, Greek, Russian, Turkish and Portuguese. Titles published by Bloomsbury Publishing. www.torbenbetts.com His latest play Murder at Midnight tours the UK from September 2025 to March 2026. It stars Jason Durr and Susie Blake and is to be produced by Original Theatre.

I hope you enjoy the third podcast conversation with my dad, if you like this episode please subscribe!

Check out the previous episode on relationships:

If you want to listen offline, I am on Apple Podcasts! Thanks for watching. :) #dad #alcohol #drugs #advice

In this episode, I talk to my dad about relationships. Is there such a thing as a soulmate? How do we find love? And why is working on ourselves so important for successful relationships?

My dad, Torben Betts, is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. His plays include Murder in the Dark (2023); Nobody Wants to Kill You (2023); Eight Little Criminals (2022); The Illusion of Time (2021); Apollo 13: The Dark Side of the Moon (2020); Caroline’s Kitchen (2019); It Never Happened (2019); The National Joke, (2016); Get Carter (2016); What Falls Apart (2015); The Seagull (2015); Invincible (2014); Muswell Hill (2012); The Company Man (2010); Lie of the Land (2008); The Swing of Things (2007); The Unconquered (2007); The Error of their Ways (2007); The Lunatic Queen (2005); Her Slightest Touch (2004); A Listening Heaven (2001); Clockwatching (2001); The Biggleswades (2001); Five Visions of the Faithful (2000); Incarcerator (1999). He wrote the screenplays for the British independent films: Invincible (Vince Films, 2024); Downhill (Crisis Films, 2014); Guillemot, (Full Effect, 2014). His plays have been performed around the world and to date have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Slovakian, Greek, Russian, Turkish and Portuguese. Titles published by Bloomsbury Publishing. www.torbenbetts.com His latest play Murder at Midnight tours the UK from September 2025 to March 2026. It stars Jason Durr and Susie Blake and is to be produced by Original Theatre.

I hope you enjoy the second podcast conversation with my dad, if you like this episode please subscribe!

If you want to listen offline, I am on Apple Podcasts!

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...

Thanks for watching. :) #dad #20s #advice

In this episode, I talk to my dad about his 20s. How do we cope when we feel lost after graduation? How should we spend our 20s? And why is mindfulness so important?

My dad, Torben Betts, is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. His plays include Murder in the Dark (2023); Nobody Wants to Kill You (2023); Eight Little Criminals (2022); The Illusion of Time (2021); Apollo 13: The Dark Side of the Moon (2020); Caroline’s Kitchen (2019); It Never Happened (2019); The National Joke, (2016); Get Carter (2016); What Falls Apart (2015); The Seagull (2015); Invincible (2014); Muswell Hill (2012); The Company Man (2010); Lie of the Land (2008); The Swing of Things (2007); The Unconquered (2007); The Error of their Ways (2007); The Lunatic Queen (2005); Her Slightest Touch (2004); A Listening Heaven (2001); Clockwatching (2001); The Biggleswades (2001); Five Visions of the Faithful (2000); Incarcerator (1999). He wrote the screenplays for the British independent films: Invincible (Vince Films, 2024); Downhill (Crisis Films, 2014); Guillemot, (Full Effect, 2014). His plays have been performed around the world and to date have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Slovakian, Greek, Russian, Turkish and Portuguese. Titles published by Bloomsbury Publishing. www.torbenbetts.com

His latest play Murder at Midnight tours the UK from September 2025 to March 2026. It stars Jason Durr and Susie Blake and is to be produced by Original Theatre. I hope you enjoy my first ever podcast conversation, if you like this episode please subscribe!

If you want to listen offline, I am on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!

Spotify:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...

Thanks for watching. :) #dad #20s #advice

In this video, I look at Seneca's third letter to Lucilius: On What Makes a Good Friend. In this letter, Seneca explains the importance of friendship. How do we know what makes a good friend? And how do we know when a friendship isn't working?

🔸 How we should trust and judge our friends

🔸 When we should end a friendship

🔸 Why we should be friends with ourselves

🔸 Why a friend is someone we can be ourselves with Seneca is urging us to re-define friendship, so we can spend time with people who we can trust and feel comfortable with.

✉️ Letter 3 - On What Makes a Good Friend

“Dear Luclilius. You gave letters to a friend of yours—so you write—to bring to me, and then you advise me not to tell him all your affairs, since you yourself are not in the habit of doing so. Thus in one and the same letter you have said both that he is your friend and that he is not. Well, if you used that word not with its proper meaning but as if it were public property, calling him a friend in the same way as we call all candidates “good men” or address people as “sir” when we don't remember their names, then let it go. But if you think that a person is a friend when you do not trust him as much as you trust yourself, you are seriously mistaken; you do not know the meaning of real friendship. Consider every question with a friend; but first, consider the friend. After you make a friend, you should trust him—but before you make a friend, you should make a judgment.

People who love someone and then judge that person are mixing up their responsibilities: they should judge first, then love, as Theophrastus advised. Take time to consider whether or not to receive a person into your friendship; but once you have decided to do so, receive him with all your heart, and speak with him as candidly as with yourself. Live in such a way that anything you would admit to yourself could be admitted even to an enemy. Even so, there are things that are customarily kept private; with a friend, though, you should share all your concerns, all your thoughts. If you believe him loyal, you will make him so. Some people teach their friends to betray them by their very fear of betrayal: by being suspicious, they give the other person the right to transgress. He is my friend: why should I hold back my words in his presence? When I am with him, why is it not as if I am alone?

There are those who unload their worries into every available ear, telling anyone they meet what should be entrusted only to friends. Others are reluctant to confide even in those who are closest to them; they press every secret to their chest, and would keep it even from themselves if they could. Neither alternative is appropriate—to trust everyone or to trust no one; both are faults, but the former is what I might call a more honorable fault, the latter a safer one. Similarly, there is reason to criticize both those who are always on the move and those who are always at rest. Liking to be in the fray does not mean that one is hardworking; it is only the hustle and bustle of an agitated mind. Finding every movement a bother does not mean that one is tranquil; it is just laxity and idleness. So let’s keep in mind this saying I have read in Pomponius: Some flee so far into their dens that they think everything outside is turmoil. There should be a mix: the lazy one should do something, the busy one should rest. Consult with nature: it will tell you that it made both day and night. Farewell. Seneca''

I hope you enjoy the third episode of my Seneca series. :)

#Stoicism #Seneca #Letters #RitualizeWisdom #Time #Virtue #Philosophy #InnerPeace #Values

🔗 Resources & Links:

👉 My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/RitualizeWisdom

👉 Follow me on Substack: https://ritualizewisdom.substack.com/ 👉 Read Seneca's Complete Letters: https://archive.org/details/letters-o...

👉 Listen to the podcast: https://tr.ee/iHw4RCpkth

👉 Need video editing work? Check out my Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/ ~01881ad53b5c0b8cd5?mp_source=share

In this video, I look at Seneca's second letter to Lucilius: On Reading Better. In this letter, Seneca explains the importance of having a reading program to make the most of your reading. How do we know what books to read? And how do we remember what we read?

🔸 Why we should try to settle our minds

🔸 Why we should be more focussed with our reading

🔸 Why we should stop buying books

🔸 Why we should make notes

🔸 Why we should incoporate wisdom from our reading

Seneca is urging us to slow down and read properly. If you don't know what to read next, this episode is for you.

✉️ Letter 2 - On Reading Better

“From your letter and from what I hear, I am becoming quite hopeful about you: you are not disquieting yourself by running about from place to place. Thrashing around in that way indicates a mind in poor health. In my view, the first sign of a settled mind is that it can stay in one place and spend time with itself. Be careful, though, about your reading in many authors and every type of book. It may be that there is something wayward and unstable in it. You must stay with a limited number of writers and be fed by them if you mean to derive anything that will dwell reliably with you. One who is everywhere is nowhere. Those who travel all the time find that they have many places to stay, but no friendships. The same thing necessarily happens to those who do not become intimate with any one author, but let everything rush right through them. Food does not benefit or become part of the body when it is eaten and immediately expelled. Nothing impedes healing as much as frequent change of medications. A wound does not close up when one is always trying out different dressings on it; a seedling that is transplanted repeatedly will never grow strong. Nothing, in fact, is of such utility that it benefits us merely in passing. A large number of books puts a strain on a person. So, since you cannot read everything you have, it is sufficient to have only the amount you can read.

“But I want to read different books at different times,” you say. The person of delicate digestion nibbles at this and that; when the diet is too varied, though, food does not nourish but only upsets the stomach. So read always from authors of proven worth; and if ever you are inclined to turn aside to others, return afterward to the previous ones. Obtain each day some aid against poverty, something against death, and likewise against other calamities. And when you have moved rapidly through many topics, select one to ponder that day and digest. This is what I do as well, seizing on some item from among several things I have read. Today it is this, which I found in Epicurus—for it is my custom to cross even into the other camp,” not as a deserter but as a spy: Cheerful poverty is an honorable thing. Indeed, it is not poverty if it is cheerful: the pauper is not the person who has too little but the one who desires more. What does it matter how much is stashed away in his strongbox or his warehouses, how much he has in livestock or in interest income, if he hangs on another’s possessions, computing not what has been gained but what there is yet to gain? Do you ask what is the limit of wealth? Having what one needs, first of all; then, having enough.''

I hope you enjoy the second episode of my Seneca series. :)

#Stoicism #Seneca #Letters #RitualizeWisdom #Time #Virtue #Philosophy #InnerPeace #Values

🔗 Resources & Links:

👉 My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/RitualizeWisdom

👉 Watch the video version on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtwSM6kLJur8gT2aE-PVj3Q

👉 Read Seneca's Complete Letters: https://archive.org/details/letters-o...

👉 Listen to the podcast: https://tr.ee/iHw4RCpkth

👉 Need video editing work? Check out my Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/ ~01881ad53b5c0b8cd5?mp_source=share

Here is the full letter: Do that, dear Lucilius: assert your own freedom. Gather and guard the time that until now was being taken from you, or was stolen from you, or that slipped away. Convince yourself that what I write is true: some moments are snatched from us, some are filched, and some just vanish. But no loss is as shameful as the one that comes about through carelessness. Take a close look, and you will see that when we are not doing well, most” of life slips away from us; when we are inactive, much of it—but when we are inattentive, we miss it all. Can you show me even one person who sets a price on his time, who knows the worth of a day, who realizes that every day is a day when he is dying? In fact, we are wrong to think that death lies ahead: much of it has passed us by already, for all our past life is in the grip of death."

And so, dear Lucilius, do what your letter says you are doing: embrace every hour. If you lay hands on today, you will find you are less dependent on tomorrow. While you delay, life speeds on by. Everything we have belongs to others, Lucilius; time alone is ours. Nature has put us in possession of this one thing, this fleeting, slippery thing—and anyone who wants to can dispossess us. Such is the foolishness of mortal beings: when they borrow the smallest, cheapest items, such as can easily be replaced, they acknowledge the debt, but no one considers himself indebted for taking up our time. Yet this is the one loan that even those who are grateful cannot repay.

You ask, perhaps, what I am doing—lI, who give you these instructions. I am a big spender, I freely admit, but a careful one: I have kept my accounts. I cannot say that nothing has been wasted, but at least I can say what, and why, and how; I can state the causes of my impoverishment. But it is with me as with many others who have been reduced to penury through no fault of their own: everyone forgives them, but no one comes to their assistance.