Twitter: @philosopher70 (followed by 246 philosophers)
Site: wisdomforlife.podbean.com
43 episodes
2020 to 2021
Average episode: 60 minutes
Open in Apple Podcasts • RSS
Categories: Broadcast Radio Programs • Two Hosts
Podcaster's summary: The Wisdom for Life show discusses Practical Philosophy – ideas, insights, and practices from philosophical traditions that can be applied to live happier, more intentional, and more productive lives. | | Join your hosts as they dive deep into the well of wisdom for your everyday benefit.
| Episodes |
| 2021-Oct-27 • 59 minutes Being Caught In The Gaze In this forty-third episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss the phenomenon that gets called "the gaze" or "the look" (le regard, in French), starting with Jean-Paul Sartre's famous analysis of it, and the examples he provides in Being and Nothingness. They then discuss the notion of the "panopticon" and how it figures into the "surveillance society", and then examine gender and power-relations in the "male gaze". Show Music is by Scott Tarulli - https://www.sco... |
| 2021-Oct-25 • 59 minutes Stoicism, Concern, and Care In this forty-second episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler tackle a common misconception of Stoic philosophy, namely that it involves withdrawing from the world and from other people, in order to insulate oneself from negative experiences and emotions. This would mean that Stoicism would be incompatible with caring or concern for other people, and that would be strange, given that classic Stoics life Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius made love, affection, and conce... |
| 2021-Oct-20 • 59 minutes AITA Cases Revisited In this forty-first episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler go back to the types of real-life moral dilemmas set out in the Reddit AITA forum. They narrate, discuss, and analyse a number of selected cases, and give their one judgements on whether anyone in these cases is acting like a jerk or not. Show Music is by Scott Tarulli - https://www.scotttarulli.com/ |
| 2021-Oct-18 • 59 minutes Truth, Society and The Marketplace of Ideas In this fortieth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler bring their discussion of the topic of truth to a close by focusing on the popular metaphor of the marketplace of ideas as a locus in which true opinions and viewpoints are likely to be discovered, and false ones revealed as such. They discuss some of the difficulties involved in discovering and articulating truth, whether the "marketplace" really works, and how our current social and political factionalization crea... |
| 2021-Oct-15 • 59 minutes The Topic of Truth Take Two In this thirty-ninth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler continue their discussion of the topic of truth. They review several of the insights and theories about truth from the previous session, including what the correspondence and coherence theories of truth are. Then they discuss another main approach, the pragmatic theory of truth, looking at some of the diverse formulations of that view, coming in particular from C.S. Pierce, William James, and John Dewey. They d... |
| 2021-Jun-21 • 59 minutes The Meaning of Truth In this thirty-eighth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss the nature, meaning, and value of something that we all talk about, but which is a bit tough to define - truth. Among the topics they range over are whether truth can be subjective or objective, whether there is a difference between moral truths about what we ought to do or what has value, and experiential truths about objects in the world. They also discuss several main theories of what truth is or ... |
| 2021-Jun-02 • 59 minutes Memory and Truth In this thirty-seventh episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss the relations between human memory and the truth or falsity of matters. Among the topics that they discuss are what memory is and how it works, how our memories work less like a camera simply recording images and more like an artist putting together a complex mosaic. They take some detours in discussing Plato's notion of the forms and their importance for knowledge, how our memories can be deceivin... |
| 2021-May-17 • 59 minutes Studying Philosophy Outside of Academia In this thirty-sixth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss some approaches and resources for studying philosophy outside of traditional academia. Among the topics that they discuss are why it is useful for non-academics to study and apply philosophy to their lives, how the cultural prominence academic philosophy is a fairly recent historical development, the variety of resources available today for independent and lifelong learners, and where and how to find t... |
| 2021-Apr-25 • 59 minutes Stoicism, Pain, Mental Health, and Lived Philosophy (featuring special guest Matt Van Natta) In this thirty-fifth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler welcome special guest Matt Van Natta for a dialogue and interview about Stoic philosophy, practices, and their applications in life. During their conversation, they discuss why practices are important to Stoicism, but that more than just practices is needed even to use the practices effectively. They also discuss applications of Stoicism to dealing with acute and chronic pain, mental health and illness, relatio... |
| 2021-Apr-12 • 59 minutes Marcus Aurelius' Meditations - Stoic Ideas and Practices In this thirty-fourth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler highlight one important work of practical philosophy, the Meditations by the Stoic Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius. The 1900-year anniversary of his birth is coming up on April 26, and several events are commemorating it. Marcus' Meditations, originally written just to himself, are an important gateway through which hundreds of thousands of people have gotten into Stoicism over the last few decades. Dan and Gre... |
| 2021-Apr-03 • 59 minutes Living a Meaningful Life In this thirty-third episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler engage in a wide-ranging discussion centered on what living a meaningful life is, what the challenges, obstacles, or misunderstandings that stand in the way can be, and useful perspectives and practices for keeping, finding, or developing meaning on one's life. Some of the approaches and thinkers they discuss include Existentialists like Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Friedrich Nietzsche;... |
| 2021-Mar-17 • 59 minutes One Year In To The Show In this thirty-second episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler celebrate hitting the milestone of being on the air together, producing the Wisdom for Life show, for a year. They discuss a number of topics, including the backstory for the show itself, lessons they have learned (sometimes the hard way), their favorite episodes, why community radio is so important (and how you can support it), and what they'd like to do with the show this coming year. Show Music is by Scot... |
| 2021-Feb-14 • 59 minutes Philosophy As A Way Of Life (With John Sellars) In this thirty-first episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss the topic of Philosophy As A Way Of Life. This was a common, recurring, and traditional approach in philosophy until roughly the last two centuries. For this episode, Greg and Dan interviewed one of the present-day experts in this field, John Sellars, one of the co-founders of Modern Stoicism, ltd, professor of philosophy at Royal Holloway College in London, and the author of many books and articles on t... |
| 2021-Feb-04 • 59 minutes AITA Posts As Everyday Moral Dilemmas In this thirtieth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss an advice forum on Reddit called AITA (Am I The A-Hole), which has 2.5 million members, and allows people to post their accounts of moral conflicts they are in or anticipate being in, and then advice and judgements from readers. Dan and Greg introduce and describe the forum, and discuss the usefulness and morality of having such a forum, and then go on to examine several of their favorite cases found in th... |
| 2021-Jan-24 • 59 minutes Asymmetric Knowledge Problems In this twenty-ninth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss the notion of "asymmetric knowledge problems", that is, situations in which some of the people involved have significantly more knowledge or information than others, who typically ought to be provided with that information.Dan and Greg discuss and examine a number of common situations in which these sorts of information imbalances arise, and what we can do within the scope of our lives and society about t... |
| 2020-Dec-08 • 59 minutes The Paradox of Choice In this twenty-eighth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss the "paradox of choice", which is the idea that having a greater range of options - usually looked at as a good thing - often makes people less able to choose and less happy with the choices they make.They discuss Barry Schwartz's conception of this in terms of consumer purchasing in his book titled "The Paradox of Choice, and then broaden consideration of this problematic to a number of other fields. A... |
| 2020-Nov-09 • 59 minutes Doing Well in a Polarized Society In this twenty-sixth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss how people can use resources and insights from philosophy to do well in the sort of polarized society we have been becoming for decades, and which was revealed as such even more in our recent 2020 election. They discuss a number of ways in which our political processes are fractured and how people are often alienated from each other, from their political representatives, and from an increasingly contenti... |
| 2020-Oct-20 • 59 minutes Professional Sports, Fandom, and A Rational Life In this twenty-fifth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler are joined by special guest, Michael DeVito, former defensive end for the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs, and the topics they discuss revolve around the issue of being a fan of professional sports. Since retirement, Michael has earned two Masters degrees in philosophy and is currently a PhD student in philosophy at the University of BirminghamThere are many examples of fans behaving badly due to their emoti... |
| 2020-Oct-04 • 59 minutes The Season of Stoicism In this twenty-fourth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler revisit their previous discussions of Stoic philosophy, not least because October and November are the "Season of Stoicism", with Stoic Week, the main Stoicon conference, and a number of Stoicon-X conferences coming up. They discuss a number of practices and insights from Stoic philosophy, and a recent case of a person who wrongly used Stoicism as a pretext for bad behavior in the workplace. They also addre... |
| 2020-Sep-14 • 59 minutes What Else We Can Learn From Thought Experiments In this twenty-third episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler continue their conversation from the last show, when they began examining philosophical thought experiments to see what we can learn from them to improve our lives or to better understand ourselves. They engage in in-depth discussion of the Teletransportation Paradox, Searle's Chinese Room, Rawl's Veil of Ignorance, and Nozick's Experience Machine. Show Music is by Scott Tarulli - https://www.scotttarulli.com/... |
| 2020-Sep-08 • 59 minutes What We Can Learn From Thought Experiments In this twenty-second episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler examine philosophical thought experiments to see what we can learn from them to improve our lives or to better understand ourselves. They first discuss what a thought experiment is, and how it differs from other kinds of fictions, counterfactuals, or "what if"s.They then turn to in-depth discussion of trolley problems, the Ring of Gyges, the Ship of Theseus, and Roku's Basilisk. After that, they discuss how on... |
| 2020-Aug-24 • 59 minutes A Deeper Dive into Negative Visualization In this twenty-first episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler do a deeper dive into discussion of a practice that they have mentioned on the show previously - Negative Visualization, sometimes called "premeditatio malorum". This is a practice derived from Stoic philosophy which has proven useful for many people over two millennia for dealing with anxiety, anger, and other emotions, and for developing resilience.They also discuss what visualization in this sense is, how it ... |
| 2020-Aug-12 • 59 minutes Hitting the 20-Episode Milestone and Answering Listener Questions In this twentieth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler take a pause from their normal topic-focused in-depth discussions to talk about what the Wisdom for Life show is about and how they got it started, what challenges they ran into with producing the show in COVID-19 times, and what they have learned by producing the show for nearly half a year. They also answer a number of questions provided in advance by listeners to the show. Show Music is by Scott Tarulli - h... |
| 2020-Aug-03 • 59 minutes Free Speech: From Rights to Responsibility In this nineteenth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss a topic of seeming perennial interest - freedom of speech - but attempt to shift the focus from framing it in the usual terms of rights, rules, or overall social benefit towards thinking about speech in terms of one's own responsibility. The conversation ranges over how people think about freedom of speech, or portray it in the demands they make about it to others, what genuinely responsible exercise of... |
| 2020-Jul-19 • 59 minutes Giving In To Doing The Wrong Thing : In this eighteenth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss a puzzle arising early on in ancient literature and continuing on down to the present - if we know right from wrong, and we’re in possession of our faculties, why do we sometimes give in and do the wrong thing instead of the right one? In ancient Greek, this was called “akrasia” - literally lack of self-mastery. It is a kind of ethical or moral failure that we can call lack or loss of self control, or “w... |
| 2020-Jul-12 • 59 minutes Pitfalls to Labelling People Good or Bad In this seventeenth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss some of the problems and pitfalls that arise when labeling people as entirely good or entirely bad. Most people fit somewhere in between being perfectly good or bad, so a realistic assessment of other people - or of oneself - would avoid categorizing people uncritically along those lines. This is somewhat of a meandering conversation, ranging over topics such as the Stanford Prison experiment, insights ... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes What Is Stoicism? In this sixteenth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss one of the main philosophical traditions they draw upon in the show – Stoicism – doing a deeper dive on its theory and practice, and discussing the massive interest in Stoicism that has developed in the last two decades. They discuss some of the main ideas, insights and techniques of Stoicism. These include living in accordance with nature, the social and rational nature of human beings, the dichotomy of ... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes Work, The Future, and Meaning In this fifteenth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss some of the issues on the horizon facing us in terms of the types and availability of work. As further developments in robotics, automation, artificial intelligence, surveillance and logistics take place, the jobs and careers of many people are not just at risk, but likely to be phased out in the coming decades. They discuss a number of the scenarios projected as possible by different theorists , includin... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes Freedom, Facticity, and Existentialism In this fourteenth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss some key ideas and issues arising within people’s lives that are illuminated by Existentialist philosophy. They focus particularly on the concepts of freedom, facticity, responsibility, anxiety or anguish, and meaning, and use concepts and insights from Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Martin Heidegger, and Soren Kirkegaard to make sense of these. Without denying that many factors are outside of our... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes The Social Contract Today In this thirteenth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss the Social Contract, a classic philosophical concept that plays a key role in American politics and everyday ethics, and which also bears on recent nationwide protests over police misconduct and aggression. They discuss first what the social contract is and whether or not it has been broken for many Americans, referencing the recent short talk given by Kimberly Jones. They also look at what ideas from cl... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes Protests and Policing In this twelfth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss the recent nationwide protests over police misconduct and aggression towards African-American citizens, and the variety of police responses to these. They look at the assessment that we are witnessing and taking part in an important historical event, during which a genuinely popular movement starts a course towards reform of policing in America. They also focus the discussion on the ethical dimensions of pro... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes Technology and the Good Life In this eleventh episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler examine what role contemporary technology – particularly mobile technology, the internet, social media, and AI/robotics – can play in “the good life”. They discuss several ideas drawn from philosophers such as Aristotle, Gabriel Marcel, Martin Heidegger, and Michel Foucault as well as from speculative fiction authors such as Iain Banks, Isaac Asimov, and William Gibson, that bear upon the technology that we use eve... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes Is Lying Ever Good? In this tenth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler examine a common matter in everyday life – lying. What is a lie, and what counts as “lying”? Can lying ever be something good, right, required, or even just all right? They discuss different ways we can classify and understand lies, including the distinction between white, black, and blue lies. Moral theories help us to understand and evaluate the rightness or wrongness of lies – and why they are right or wrong, good ... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes Circles of Care and Concern In this ninth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler examine a common image of concentric circles used to understand relationships with other people towards whom we might have affection, care, or moral obligations. The smallest circle is that of close friends and family, while the largest extends to all humanity, and potentially beyond. They discuss how differing philosophical and wisdom traditions, including Stoicism, Buddhism, and Utilitarianism have used this image,... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes Balancing Autonomy and Connection In this eighth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss one main challenge to personal development within relationships. How does one balance one’s own autonomy – and respect for the autonomy of others – with the desire for genuine connection within the framework of relationships. It might appear that the two of these are at odds with each other, and within come types of relationships, they typically are, to the detriment of both partners. Using resources from pr... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes The Stockdale Paradox In this seventh episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler discuss what has come to be called the “Stockdale Paradox”, named after Admiral James Stockdale’s application of Stoic philosophy while confined and tortured as a POW during the Vietnam War. Stockdale noted that the prisoners who survived the difficult conditions combined realism about their challenging situation with faith that they could come through it. This was then formulated and popularized as a paradox by Jim... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes What Is Resiliency? In this sixth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler use insights from philosophy to discuss what resiliency is, why it is important to develop it, why it is good for us and others, and how we can approach it. Bringing in ideas and approaches from Stoic philosophy and contemporary psychology and leadership, they flesh out this concept. They also examine a common question: What should you do when people you’re connected with haven’t developed resiliency? Should you try ... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes What Makes Relationships Good In this fifth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler use insights from philosophy to discuss features of good and bad relationships, including friendships, romantic relationships, collaborative partnerships, and familial relationships. How much should we demand or expect from those we are in relationships with? Drawing upon ideas from Aristotle, Epictetus, Seneca, Cicero, Rilke, and other philosophers they explore what makes relationships good or bad, and what partners ... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes Setting and Maintaining Boundaries In this fourth episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler use insights from philosophy to discuss why setting and maintaining boundaries is important, in personal relationships, in the workplace, and with neighbors. Drawing upon ideas from Aristotle, Epictetus, Seneca, Cicero, and other philosophers they explain how to set boundaries, why boundaries are important, and common misconceptions people often have about them. They also address some issues arising in the present, de... |
| 2020-Jul-04 • 59 minutes Defining What's Good and What's Bad In this third episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler use insights from philosophy to discuss what is genuinely good as opposed to merely appearing to be good, and what is genuinely bad as opposed to merely appearing to be bad. They also discuss how to prioritize between the better and the less good, the worse and the less bad, and common reasons people get mixed up about these matters. they also discuss several rival conceptions of what is good, bad, and indifferent, part... |
| 2020-Jun-20 • 59 minutes Dealing With Fear During A Crisis In this second episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show, hosts Dan Hayes and Greg Sadler use insights from philosophy to discuss how to deal with fear and anxiety provoked by the coronavirus crisis. They answer a contributed question about what to do in the crisis, and they also introduce the philosophical practice of "taking a pause", found in many different philosophical traditions. |
| 2020-Jun-20 • 59 minutes Philosophy as a Way of Life The first show. – Intro to the show. – Introducing Dr. Greg Sadler and Dan Hayes – Why is practical philosophy becoming popular – Philosophy as a way of life – Spiritual Practices – Q&A : Setting Boundries – Spiritual Practice: Negative Visualizat... |
| 2020-Jun-20 • 119 minutes Why It's Good To Give This was our first time on the radio together before we formalized Wisdom for Life. Enjoy our early discussion/fund-raiser for our host radio station WXRW-LP 104.1 in Milwaukee WI. Greg Sadler and Dan Hayes discuss philosophical insights about genero... |