Wisdom For Life Show - Episode 8 - Balancing Autonomy and Connection

My co-host, Dan Hayes, and I have now produced eight episodes of our philosophy-focused radio show, Wisdom for Life.  The latest episode focuses on a common struggle in relationships: how to balance one's own need for autonomy, and that of one's partner, with the need for connection. 

If you'd like to listen to that episode, here it is!


You can also check out all of the previous episodes as well. Each is about an hour of dialogue and discussion focused on making useful concepts drawn from philosophy accessible for a general audience, and applicable to the challenges and issues we face in daily life.

Episode 1 - Philosophy as a Way of Life
Episode 2 - Dealing With Fear in a Crisis
Episode 3 - Defining What's Good and What's Bad
Episode 4 - Setting and Maintaining Boundaries
Episode 5 - What Makes Relationships Good?
Episode 6- What Is Resiliency?
Episode 7 -The Stockdale Paradox

Riverwest Radio is a community radio station. If you'd like to support the work that Riverwest Radio does, offering a wide range of quality programming you won't hear anywhere else, consider making a donation to the station!

Wisdom for Life Radio Show Goes Weekly!

Earlier this year, my co-host Dan Hayes and I launched a new radio show.  It's called Wisdom for Life, and it focuses on taking ideas from practical philosophy and applying them to issues, challenges, and problems of everyday life.  We draw upon a number of different philosophical traditions - Stoicism, Aristotelianism, and Existentialism in particular - as well as insights from various psychological approaches.

Our latest show, episode 5 - devoted to the topic What Makes Relationships Good? - aired on Riverwest Radio (WXRW 104.1) last Saturday (you can listen to that show here).  We've been getting really positive feedback about the show itself, the topics we're focusing on, and the conversational approach that Dan and I are taking.  That's great for two reasons.

The first is that this is a rather unique radio show.  There aren't too many shows out there that discuss and apply practical philosophy with any depth or rigor and also in ways accessible to the ordinary, non-academic listener.  In fact, who are we kidding - there isn't much philosophy content out there in radio period!  So the fact that the show is getting some interest and appreciation is good for philosophy and also good for the people who listen.

The second is that Riverwest Radio is a local community radio station.  It's here to provide a diverse array of voices, interests, and programs for the Riverwest neighborhood, and also for the Greater Milwaukee community.  If that term "community radio" is unfamiliar to you, think NPR and PBS, and now imagine an even more community-centered focus.  Less for the elites, more for the person on the street.  Shows don't just have hosts.  The hosts are also the show producers.  A program like what we're doing would likely be a hard sell to NPR, but we have a home in community radio!

We started out as a bi-weekly show, but have decided during the COVID-19 crisis to step up show production to one episode a week, and we've managed to keep to that schedule now two weeks in a row!  You can listen live over the internet anywhere in the world, Saturdays, 4-5 PM Central Time.

If you'd like to hear any of the five episodes we've produced so far, here are the links.

• Wisdom For Life Episode 1 - Philosophy as a Way of Life
• Wisdom For Life Episode 2 - Dealing With Fear in a Crisis
• Wisdom For Life Episode 3 - Defining What's Good and What's Bad
• Wisdom For Life Episode 4 - Setting and Maintaining Boundaries
• Wisdom For Life Episode 5 - What Makes Relationships Good?

And if you'd like to support the work that Riverwest Radio does, offering a wide range of quality programming you won't hear anywhere else, consider making a donation to the station!

Wisdom For Life Radio Show - Questions and Suggestions

Our first episode of the Wisdom for Life radio show aired last Friday evening on Riverwest Radio - WXRW 104.1 FM - here in Milwaukee.  My co-host, Dan Hayes, and I go live every other Friday from 5 to 6 PM, discussing philosophy and its applications to challenges, problems, and issues of everyday life.

The first show went pretty well - not perfect, of course, but that's part of the fun of live radio!  We introduced the main idea of the show and ourselves as hosts, then shifted into discussing what philosophy as a way of life is and how it differs from the academic philosophy one might encounter in textbooks or classes.  We also introduced the idea of philosophical practices, and at the end of show introduced one drawn primarily from Stoicism - negative visualisation.  Between those two segments, we also looked at a real-life problem about how to make and maintain healthy boundaries.

If you missed the show and would like to give it a listen - or if you were one of the people who tuned in live worldwide, and would like to hear it again - here's two places you can do so:

• Riverwest Radio's archived recording of the show - listen here
• My YouTube channel video - added bonus - you can listen or watch here

I've no doubt that the show is going to evolve over time, but for now, we're planning on sticking to the format we've got so far

• a bit of banter at the start
• a half-hour of back and forth discussion of some key topics
• roughly ten minutes of in-depth examination of a common problem
• another ten minutes or so about a philosophical practice and how to use it
• signing off

Dan and I are meeting today to go over the first episode and think about what else we might want to talk about or do on the show - and how to improve bits of it - so here's my two invitations to you:

• If you've listened to the show, and have suggestions about what you'd like to see in upcoming episodes, go ahead and send them to me.
  
• Whether you've listened to the show or not, if you've got a problem, challenge, or issue in your life, and you'd like to see what philosophy might contribute to dealing with it, send me that as well, and we might discuss it on the air

You can send suggestions or questions to me in Twitter, on my Facebook page, or by email.

Wisdom for Life Radio Show Coming Up - Questions Welcome!

In the last few years, I've done ethics consulting work and a number of guest appearances with a local radio station, WXRW-Riverwest Radio. This is a community radio station, so there's a considerably wider variety of shows than on most other radio stations and networks.  They've been asking for some time whether I'd be interested in producing a philosophy-focused show for the station. And starting at the end of the month, that is going to be the case!

The new show is called Wisdom for Life, and will be focused on how insights and practices derived from philosophy can help people understand and deal with problems and issues arising in the course of life.  One of my fellow co-organizers of the Milwaukee Stoic Fellowship, Dan Hayes, is also the co-producer of this show. We did a 2-hour special fundraising show for Riverwest Radio, focused on generosity and giving, back in December. And earlier this month, we completed our training at the station.  So we are now ready to go on the air live!

The show will run every other Friday from 5-6 PM Central Time, starting on February 28. If there's sufficient interest, and if Dan and I manage to find the available time in our schedules, we'll consider turning it into a weekly show.  There's certainly enough topics available that we'll never run out of material to discuss.

In the very first episode, we'll introduce ourselves and briefly present the broad outlines of what the show is about.  We'll also devote a good bit of discussion to how it is that philosophy - which many people encounter as an abstract subject, rather detached from everyday life - turns out to have a lot to contribute to thinking about our lives.  And, by practical applications, to living better lives as well.

We're also planning for each show to have a segment during which we'll tackle questions coming from listeners.  We can't do call-in on-air, so we'll take questions provided to us prior to the show, and then try to work out some decent answers to them.  You can send them to me by email, in Twitter, or on the Facebook event page for the episode.  

Five New Guest Appearances

I'm long overdue for another roundup of my recent appearances on radio shows, podcasts, and video channels. I make these lists every so often, as the appearances accumulate.  I also have a more comprehensive list of most of my appearances in the last seven or eight years over at my company website, if you'd like to check any of those out.

I get fairly regular requests to talk about a variety of topics because of my philosophy-focused YouTube channel, my business ReasonIO, and my work as editor of Stoicism Today. If you'd like to invite me for a television, radio, video, or podcast appearance - or even for a live, in-person event, feel free to contact me.

With no further ado, here are those new appearances:

Guest Appearance on Riverwest Radio's Another Morning show - (starting at the 23:00 mark), hosted by Martin and Joe, discussing modern Stoicism, philosophies as ways of life, psychotherapy, happiness, and the Stoicon-X event - you can listen here

Guest Appearance on the Sunday Stoic podcast:  hosted by Steve Karafit, discussing my background in philosophy, expanding reading lists beyond the big three Stoics, and some of the odd Stoic paradoxes that we often ignore - you can listen here

Guest Appearance on the Enter The Void podcast: discussing public philosophy, the current state of academia, how practical philosophy can help us live through tough situations, and past and present science fiction - you can listen here

Guest Appearance on the Seize the Moment podcast: hosted by Leon Garber and Alen Ulman, discussing how practical philosophy can be used to help us overcome negative emotions - you can watch or listen here

Guest Appearance on the Death Hangout podcast:  hosted by Olivier Lavor and Keith Clarke, discussing what we know about philosophers' last wills and testaments, what the significance of wills are, and how we approach what happens after our own demises - you can watch or listen here

Four New Appearances

It's about time for another roundup of my recent appearances on radio shows, podcasts, and video channels. The last list I made was in November, and several new ones have aired since then.  There are several other appearances and episodes either scheduled for recording, or already recorded and waiting to be released.

I get fairly regular requests to talk about a variety of topics because of my philosophy-focused YouTube channel, my business ReasonIO, and my work as editor of Stoicism Today.  If you'd like to invite me for a television, radio, video, or podcast appearance - or even for a live, in-person event, feel free to contact me.

With no further ado, here are those new appearances:

Interview on the Intellectual Explorers Club podcast: hosted by Peter Limberg, discussing Stoicism past and present, philosophical counseling, intentional living, and how to make philosophy practical - you can listen here

Interview on the Tom Richey Podcast: hosted by Tom Richey, discussing Alexis de Tocquevilles' work Democracy in America, models of democracy, intermediate institutions, soft despotism, and the current state of our democracy - you can listen here

Interview with Faith Colloquium podcast: hosted by Shebuel Varghese, discussing what ancient and medieval philosophers have to tell us about anger and how to manage it successfully - you can listen here

Guest Appearance on RiverWest Radio's Image For Hire show: hosted by the Skrauss, discussing the works and thought of H.P. Lovecraft, after a long warmup discussing the nature of philosophy, teaching classic philosophical works to students of all sorts, and the intersections between philosophy and other fields - you can listen here

Nine Recent Appearances

It's about time for another roundup of my recent appearances on radio shows, podcasts, and video channels. The last list I made was back in April, and nine new ones have aired since then.  There are a few others either scheduled for recording, or already recorded and waiting to be released.

I get fairly regular requests to talk about a variety of topics because of my philosophy-focused YouTube channel, my business ReasonIO, and my work as editor of Stoicism Today.  If you'd like to invite me for a television, radio, video, or podcast appearance - or even for a live, in-person event, feel free to contact me.

With no further ado, here are the nine new appearances:

Image For Hire Guest Appearance

Last night, I ventured out into the cold Milwaukee night and drove up to the Riverwest neighborhood.  I had a 9:00 PM appointment to go on as a guest on the Image for Hire radio show, hosted by The Skrauss on 104.1 FM.  That's Riverwest Radio, a community station here in Milwaukee that broadcasts on the radio locally and over the internet worldwide.

It was a great conversation, but before I go any further, here's the link - if you want to hear the conversation, click here.

I really like that central idea motivating The Skrauss' show - all about images, how affect and image go together, and how they can be used to "hack reality".  We don't usually talk about it in those terms, but that what moral philosophy - when it is done, studied, and applied in practical (rather than just academic) ways - aims to accomplish. 

The human person is part of reality, after all, and we use images not only to make sense of who we are, but also as models that allow us to make choices about who we are.  So, understanding, evaluating, and applying images winds up being a good part of what we do as practicing - or as Skrauss put it, "freelance" philosophers working with clients, students, or organizations.

We delved into a lot of topics:  Plato's allegory of the cave and a bit of Martin Heidegger's interpretation of it, what philosophical counseling is and how I use it with clients, whether philosophy and mysticism have any overlap (which depends on what we mean by "mysticism"), my work producing philosophy-focused YouTube videos, even our Worlds of Speculative Fiction talk series and online class (which you can enroll in here). Those are just a few!

A very fun and far-ranging conversation - and I'm looking forward to going on again sometime later this year!  And, a special thanks to my Patreon backers - their support underwrites my engagments in public philosophy!