In this podcast we explore great works of philosophy and literature and art, and try to pull out of them what’s most interesting and inspiring! Whether they come from the works of Plato, or Dostoevsky or Picasso, here we explore ideas that move mountains and rock the soul! So, come join us, won’t you? Come worship at the alter of ideas, and come celebrate the dancing of thought. Welcome to the Wisdom Of!
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Heidegger - The death of the LOVE LETTER in the time of the digital message!
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14:08Send us a text The love letter has become an extinct species! This is a symptom of a much larger problem - at least according to Heidegger!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Send us a text In our world of more and faster and louder, we might do well to remember that less is often more! Just ask Miles!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Tolstoy vs. Dostoevsky - Some major DIFFERENCES!
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17:51Send us a text These giants of literature, they're often viewed as similar from afar. But they're not. Especially when it comes to how they see the human soul and the road to salvation!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Buddhism and NON-ATTACHMENT - Some Objections!
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16:20Send us a text Is human well-being and flourishing really all about detachment? I would argue, no!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Send us a text Inspired by Gabriel Marcel and Martin Buber, I argue that being a good father requires the invisible labor of presence.By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Byung-Chul Han and Plato on the POWER of BEAUTY!
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11:20Send us a text Modern beauty has become tepid and smooth. It lacks the depth and friction and power of genuine beauty! Or so say Han and Plato!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Foucault and Kierkegaard - Where the heck has YOUTHFUL REBELLION gone?
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19:22Send us a text When I was growing up teenage rebellion seemed to be everywhere! Where is it now? At the heart of this decline: social media and technology!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Socrates - Power and Stupidity: A Destructive Combination!
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13:50Send us a text Socrates argues that ignorance is the worst of all evils! Especially in the service of power! Ring any bells today?By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Simone De Beauvoir and Hannah Arendt - A Happiness of ENGAGEMENT!
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13:15Send us a text De Beauvoir and Arendt both argue against passive forms of happiness! Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Pascal and Kierkegaard on the SUPERFICIAL LIFE - Owning up to one's SELF!
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14:42Send us a text One could argue that we live more superficially than ever before. Pascal and Kierkegaard are particularly relevant here!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Why Plato wrote dialogues - Let's bring back the power of real conversation!
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13:35Send us a text Plato chose not to write essays. He wrote dialogues instead. Why? And how is this relevant for us today? Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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The Myth of Icarus and Daedalus - Melting the wings of our children!
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19:26Send us a text I think this ancient myth is more relevant today than ever before! Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Send us a text According to Nietzsche, cultures can be healthy or decadent. How do we see the culture today?By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Erich Fromm - Submission to Authoritarianism!
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19:20Send us a text The psychologist Erich Fromm argues that we tend to willingly submit to authoritarianism! Relevant today?By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Carl Jung - UFOs and their PSYCHIC SIGNIFICANCE!
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13:32Send us a text Carl Jung believed that UFOs have their basis in a vital psychic need! Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Camus's The Rebel - Helping us to find MEASURE in a time of EXTREMES!
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14:47Send us a text What Camus has to say in The Rebel is very relevant to our current trend towards absolutist and binary thinking!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Send us a text Scary times...By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Kierkegaard - We've forgotten how to exist! Passion in the age of apathy!
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13:09Send us a text Kierkegaard spends a lot of time talking about the connection between existence and passion! We'd do well to listen to him!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Dostoevsky - Kiss the earth! Why the soil matters!
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15:09Send us a text The archetype of the earth is crucial for understanding Dostoevsky's view! Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Byung-Chul Han and Aristotle - Why real friends shouldn't be afraid of conflict!
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15:12Send us a text As friends we gratify and pamper too much, or so these philosophers say! Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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The Beat Writers - If it ain't got that swing, it don't mean a thing!
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20:52
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20:52Send us a text The Beats were a group of poets and writers who emerged after WWII. What was their philosophy all about? Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Send us a text The Ancient Greeks had two words for time - chronos and kairos. What is this distinction and how might it be important for us today? Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Send us a text Apart from the death of Jesus, no death has been discussed more than that of Socrates. And for very good reasons! Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Send us a text How do we take the sting off of death? How about a little less ego, a little more selflessness! Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Kant's "What is Enlightenment?" - Emancipate your thinking!
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13:13Send us a text Dare to know and think! This was Kant's calling in his famous 1784 essay "What is Enlightenment?" Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Send us a text The words “know thyself” were carved into stone at the entrance to the revered temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece. What does it mean? Well, the Greek playwright Sophocles and the philosopher Socrates interpret it in their own way!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Bertrand Russell - Why I am not a Christian
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22:27Send us a text In 1927 the philosopher Bertrand Russell gave a lecture called Why I am not a Christian. Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Dostoevsky and Heidegger - How to escape the algorithm!
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17:39Send us a text Both Dostoevsky and Heidegger, in their own way, look for ways to salvage some deeper meaning and experience in the midst of our increasingly technological and rational-scientific world! Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Cormac McCarthy's The Road - Each the other's world entire!
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33:48Send us a text One of the most emotionally powerful novels ever written! A father and son try to make their way across a post-apocalyptic America trying to get to a better place.By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Byung-Chul Han and Gabriel Marcel on Hope!
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18:15Send us a text Is there anything more important than hope, especially today? These two profound philosophers have lots to say about this!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Send us a text Selfie-ism permeates our world culture! Do we have cause for concern? What would the existentialists think?By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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What the heck happened to integrity and character?!
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19:28
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19:28Send us a text What's going on? Why don't we care about character anymore? This is very troubling.By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Marinetti and Futurism - Welcome to the machine!
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20:31Send us a text The Italian futurist Marinetti called for the absolute glorification of everything new and modern, a worship of everything machine! What resonance all this has today!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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The lost art of reading! And why reading makes us truly happy!
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23:27
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23:27Send us a text Reading has become nearly obsolete in our age of momentary gratification. This is a great loss as reading engenders all sorts of important qualities that benefit us!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Send us a text Lying seems to be on the rise, especially in the political world! I don't think we realize how dangerous and how morally problematic it is!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Why the existentialists hate the bourgeois!
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14:38
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14:38Send us a text The French existentialists have a problem with bourgeois morality and relationships! What's their beef all about? Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Aristotle, Leisure and AI - Outsourcing our humanity!
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18:30Send us a text For Aristotle, leisure is the most important human activity. Unfortunately we're contracting out our leisure activities to AI, and with it, our humanity!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Send us a text Why do we feel so disturbed by dolls and robots that are human-like? Why do we really fear AI? Freud has an answer!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Send us a text Dostoevsky said that if God is dead, then everything is permitted. In other words, morality depends on religion. Is that true? I don't think so!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Horace and Carpe Diem - What this famous phrase REALLY means!
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14:44
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14:44Send us a text Carpe Diem is usually translated as seize the day. But that's not quite accurate, and it's a reflection of our times! Sit back and enjoy, like a good Epicurean!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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The Presocratic philosophers - From myth to matter!
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17:02Send us a text The Presocratics, the first philosophers and scientists, rejected traditional mythological explanations in favour of rational ones! Huge turning point! Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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The THREE most important things I learned from graduate school!
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18:37
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18:37Send us a text Going to graduate school gave me some important abilities and approaches to things that have proven beneficial for my life as a whole!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Kierkegaard's The Present Age - Why Kierkegaard would have HATED the internet!
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14:29Send us a text What would Kierkegaard have thought of our age of the internet? The philosopher Herbert Dreyfus argues that he'd be no fan, to say the least! Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Karl Jaspers - Boundary situations and Transcendence!
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11:33Send us a text The philosopher Karl Jaspers argues that we only truly self-realize when we learn to confront the inevitable hardships of life properly! Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Send us a text Did Socrates really die the way Plato describes it? And Socrates may have been a philosophical martyr but did he give much consideration to his FAMILY when he decided to take his life? Important questions!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Callicles versus Socrates - On sound and leaky barrels!
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23:18Send us a text Apart from Socrates, Callicles is Plato's most formidable character. And he doesn't hold back! He thinks happiness is all about the full throttle pursuit of desires! Is he right? Has Socrates finally met his match? Find out more!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Byung-Chul Han's The Crisis of Narration - Why information is not enough!
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20:45Send us a text There's a crisis of narration today, Han argues. Instead of narrative, we have information. And, unlike narrative, information can't give us any direction or meaning! We need to bring back narrative!By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Love's Resurgence - Part 3 - Love as an Activity!
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31:52
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31:52Send us a text This is Part 3 of a 3 Part series on love! It should be listened to in sequence! In it, I explore the state of love today and what, if anything, we might learn from some of the great writers, poets and philosophers who take love very seriously.By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Love's Resurgence - Part 1 - The Fall of Eros!
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52:42
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52:42Send us a text This is Part 1 of a 3 Part series on love! It should be listened to in sequence! In it, I explore the state of love today and what, if anything, we might learn from some of the great writers, poets and philosophers who take love very seriously.By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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Love's Resurgence - Part 2 - Love as Expansion!
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50:06Send us a text This is Part 2 of a 3 Part series on love! It should be listened to in sequence! In it, I explore the state of love today and what, if anything, we might learn from some of the great writers, poets and philosophers who take love very seriously.By Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
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