What's the value?

Hajar cares deeply about humanity. She believes in humanity and that we can figure out ways to stop finding reasons to divide ourselves, causing suffering, and hating one another. She is also knowledgable enough to know that it won't be easy. That's why she's dedicated her life as a professor and author to try to better understand humanity and figure this thing out.

This thing is messy though. If I have learned nothing else from doing this show it is that. So we dove into the messiness of it and tried to understand together. We talked about civil rights, American Exceptionalism, poverty, human dignity, and other topics that should be front and center in all of our dialogue but often gets pushed to the side. What I appreciated most in this conversation, was Hajar's humility and willingness to try to understand those she doesn't agree with. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did.

More complete bio from Hajar-

Hajar Yazdiha is an Assistant Professor of Sociology, faculty affiliate of the Equity Research Institute, and a 2023-2025 CIFAR Global Azrieli Scholar. Dr. Yazdiha received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and is a former Ford Postdoctoral Fellow and Turpanjian Postdoctoral Fellow of the Chair in Civil Society and Social Change.

Dr. Yazdiha’s new book entitled, The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement (Princeton University Press) examines how a wide range of rivaling social movements across the political spectrum deploy competing interpretations of the Civil Rights Movement to make claims around national identity and inclusion. Comparing how rival movements constituted by minority and majority groups with a range of identities — racial, gender, sexuality, religious, moral, political — battle over collective memory, the book documents how the misuses of the racial past erode multicultural democracy.

Radell's mission is to have authentic conversations, expand people's perspectives, and find a way out of the toxic political discourse that exists in our world today. He hopes to use his podcast (https://www.purplepoliticalbreakdown.com) to show people that you can use logic, reason, and understanding to work through some of the most complex and nuanced issues that society faces.

This approach obviously resonates with me and I enjoyed digging into some of today's political issues to see how Radell's approach might help solve them. Maybe even more so, I enjoyed getting to better understand him, his value system, and why he finds this work so important.

He is also another in a long line of guests who has optimism that humanity can be better. Sadly, I find myself more pessimistic as time goes on, so we also spent time debating if we have any chance of figuring this thing out or if we are just doomed.

More complete bio from Radell-

Navigating the vast amount of bouncing around the political spectrum my entire life I have finally figured something important out. It doesn't matter. I've been religious, been in the military, went to a liberal school and all in all none of the political biases matter. We shouldn't let toxic discourse cloud our judgement and find a solution through logic and conversation. In pursuit of this mission I created this podcast to focus on these important conversations.

There are some conversations, where you feel like you are truly examining the human experience; not for any specific reason, but just because both people are so fascinated with understanding.

This discussion with Troy (https://troyhadeed.com/) was a beautiful, deep look into what this existence is really all about. Neither of us would be so naive to assume we have all the answers, but that is not the point. The point is caring enough to explore it.

Troy has lived an interesting life and has a super unique perspective. Maybe most importantly he cares a lot about humanity and the world around him. We talked about love, God, spirituality, science, nature, and life. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

A more complete bio from Troy-

Troy Hadeed was born in Trinidad, wrote his first letter to the editor at 10, has taught yoga internationally for over 15 years, and has founded several successful businesses, including a hemp store, a waste oil recycling business and a yoga studio.

I am not there yet, I know that. I want to be able to have conversations with people, like my guest Frank, and actually get to the root of it. I want to be able to understand what makes people see the world so differently. I want to understand what makes one person think racism and the aftermath of slavery still loom large in our country, whereas another person thinks it is not much of an issue at all.

It is hard though. Maybe it shouldn't be so hard, but I find myself trying to walk the line of curiosity and confrontation. Both are necessary at times, but I still find myself hesitant to push too hard. Maybe it is a good thing, because the only way to make progress on problems like these is through understanding not confrontation. Or maybe it is a bad thing, because the conversation could be so much more powerful if I didn't hedge so much.

I appreciate Frank being on and sharing his views. Some people may not agree with them, some people may. I hope after listening though, if nothing else, there is a little more insight and understanding into his psyche and how he thinks. I also hope as I keep doing these shows, I find ways to have difficult conversations like this without shying away from the heart of the matter.

More complete bio from Frank below-

Frank Salvato is an experienced multi-media production specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the online print publication and communications industry both as a managing editor and a content creator. He is currently the primary writer and editor, as well as podcast host, at UndergroundUSA.com. The podcast is syndicated on iHeart Radio, Pandora, Audible, and anywhere podcasts are heard. He just released my new book, Nullification: The Case for Decentralizing the Federal Government, which reached number one on Amazon in the Political Leadership category in its first week. His writing has been recognized by the US House International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention. I served as an Associate Editor for The Washington Dispatch in the 2000s and as Publisher and Managing Editor of The New Media Journal.

Sean, at one time in his life, was angry, overweight, drinking too much, and not the person he wanted to be in life. There were various reasons for these issues, but if you had to sum them up, it was that he never really believed he was capable of anything different. Sean was raised a certain way and started to form certain beliefs/habits that seemed impossible to break.

This isn't some magical story of transformation, where someone went on a quest to find themselves (not there is anything wrong with that). There was no spiritual awakening or near death experience that prompted the change. Sean was just a person, who eventually realized life could be better than what it was. He realized he could be a better person, husband, and dad than he had been. And through thoughtfulness, dedication, and hard work he turned his life around.

Maybe the most fascinating part of this discussion, which I am not sure we came to a complete conclusion on, was why some people like Sean never figure out how to change/improve? There are so many of us that can resonate with parts of his story, but for some reason some of us never find a way out.

More complete bio from Sean here-

Sean Robinson is a thirty-seven year old Author, Speaker and Motivator who focuses on self-improvement, mindset shifting and habit forming. He works in the construction industry, is a volunteer firefighter. and lives with his wife & three children in Ontario, Canada. Going Dry: My Path to Overcoming Habitual Drinking is his first book.

A solo session where I reflect on some of the things I am learning, examine the value of cynicism, and explore how we (humans) might be better.

Jamie is developing a philosophy called sentientism (as hard to write as it is to say), which is based on the idea of using evidence and reason to determine what living beings are sentient and then showing compassion for them. This is one of those concepts that seems so obvious and hard to argue, until you get into the weeds of it. As with any philosophy, there are aspects of it that become subjective. How are we defining sentient, how are we defining compassion, what is the underlying rationale for needing to show compassion?

As I spoke with Jamie I realized there was a strong theme of trying to overcome our "human nature" to live a better, more compassionate, more ideal existence. In many ways, despite the lack of religious underpinnings, the concept of sentientism seems to be trying to do what so many religions have tried to do. They are trying to convince people that our natural instincts don't always serve us well and that there is a better way. This was a really interesting discussion about one view of what it means to be a "good person."

More complete Bio from Jamie-

Jamie is developing and building a global movement around a new philosophy called Sentientism = Evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings (mostly human and non-human animals - but possibly even sentient AI). You can find his podcast appearances so far here: https://sentientism.info/what-is-sentientism/podcasts. The site also has some video discussions and published articles. They are also on Twitter at @Sentientism.

Daniel is a philosopher with a strongly held belief that western philosophy is one of the most important contributions in the history of humanity. This is obviously directly in my wheel house so I was excited for this discussion, although I know for some people deep philosophical conversations can feel abstract or tough to follow. For that reason I tried to ask questions that brought the abstract concepts back down to practical terms, to make sense of how valuable they really are to humanity.

Daniel has a deep base of knowledge and some really well thought out view points on how Western Philosophy has and will continue to shape our lives. Although I see a ton of credence to that belief, I still do wonder often if there is really any practical value to it. Is it possible the ultimate irony is that we are equipped with minds that can't help but explore and seek meaning, but we live in a world where it is impossible to find any concrete meaning? Daniel and I did our best to try to answer that question.

More complete bio from Daniel-

Daniel is the founder of “planksip® (a philosophy and culture media outlet), Philosopher, Vlogger, Content Creator, Interviewer, and Cultural Journalist.

Dale is someone who is concerned that America is forgetting its history and as a result is dooming its future. He has a strong belief in his faith and because of that he feels compelled to speak out and take action to try to help.

I do this show to have conversations with people that have strong opinions or viewpoints, because I want to take the time to understand what is really underneath them. It is very easy in today's world to see a conservative, older white male who thinks we need to get back to our history and assume you know exactly who they are and what they think.

I don't like making those assumptions. I like actually talking to the people to try to better understand them. I find life is much more interesting that way and I think it gives us a much better chance to reach better outcomes, even with those who see the world differently than we do.

A more complete bio from Dale is below:

Dale is a retired substance abuse counselor, chef, and now a podcaster. He loves history, talking about it, and trying to learn from it. Dale is a life long Conservative life long and devout Christian, with a website called Coffee Time Again (https://coffee-time-again.com/)

Brian is a strong believer in libertarianism and the idea that both parties have their obvious flaws therefore the only thing that makes sense is minimizing government and allowing people to be free to be who they want to be.

The idea of libertarianism is always intriguing to me theory, so it was really interesting to pressure test and examine what it really means, how it works, and how tolerant it actually is.

Bio Provided by Brian:

Brian McWilliams is a native Philadelphian currently living in Los Angeles. He’s a communications and public relations expert, comedian and writer. His passion and concern for liberty was realized during Ron Paul’s 2008 campaign, which shed light on the troubling initiatives our government was embracing that infringed on the tenets that the United States was founded upon. Brian is the host and producer of “Mean Age Daydream,” the Lions of Liberty Network’s weekly Wednesday look at current events, culture and comedy through a liberty lens.