Segment One: Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions describes two conflicting visions: constrained and unconstrained. William Godwin and the Marquis de Condorcet fall in the unconstrained. The Catholic Church and Postmodernism fall in the constrained?

Segment Two: Lightning Segments: Jane Austen's lost books, other.

Segment Three: St. Francis de Sales and "weave a little nosegay." Spray a lot of Axe. No matter how you do it, just keep out the smelly thoughts.

Another saint of the desert: St. Macarius.

Why all the saint days in January? It's cold. The desert is hot.

But January is a lot like the desert. Desolate. Forbidding . . . Silent.

Russia has a long history of hermits. "Mystics of the Northern Forests."

Russia has a long, weird religious history in general. I flush it out here in summary form.

Lightning Segments

Music for Lighting Segments: Sky Hawk Beach by Blue Wave Theory. Used pursuant to the Attribution Share-Alike License 4.0.

Theme song: Skinnin’ Lynyrd by Greg Scheske, a bespoke expert. Email him here: [email protected]

Segment One: Feast Day of St. Anthony is coming up. Everything you need to know about the desert monastic movement of the 4th century.

Segment Two: Some quotes from St. Anthony and their application to today's world.

Segment Three: Lightning Segments.

Segment Four: Logic and reason tell us God and the World don't exist. What do you do with that information?

Discussion about how a libertarian can support a porn ban. . . and the real reason why a libertarian may not support a porn ban.

Lightning Segments; The existential threat hangover, the Symbolic World's interview with Sevilla King, Game of Thrones.

Philosophy 101: Logic and reason always fall short. There is an act of faith at the beginning of every logical endeavor . . . and it’s an act of faith that can’t be reasoned to. It’s why Zen is wrapped in absurdity and possibly why Thomas Aquinas grew silent at the of his life.

Lightning Segments: Southwest Michigan, Time Restricted Eating, Gavin McInnes

I lived near Hillsdale for 50 years but never stepped foot on its campus. Now that I have, I'm kicking myself for not doing so much sooner. 

I back off my philosophy advice from the previous episode. If you're going to pursue philosophy, you need to believe there's truth. If you don't believe that, don't bother. Unfortunately, I suspect most colleges and universities have philosophy departments filled with PhDs who don't believe in truth.

Lightning Segments: Rogan with Matt Taibbi, winter weight gain, other.

Existentialism v. Essence-ism. Two aborted books . . . one living insight. I being to flush it out here.

Advice for a college freshman who is interested in philosophy.

Lightning Segments: Chambermaids, smiling, health care.

Wasting time and existence.