We’re taking this week off to enjoy the holidays, so we’re bringing you an old favorite from our archives. It’s the holiday season, so we’re revisiting the conversation in which Danielle and José ask: Are there rational reasons for giving to those less fortunate? What responsibilities or duties to we have to give to the poor? Does giving to the poor end up doing more harm than good? We end with “What We’re Thinking About” and give our recommendations for this episode. We hope you enjoy, and we’ll be back with a new episode right after the new year.
Read MoreThis episode, Danielle claims that we should be teaching hopeful thinking as an integral part of teaching critical thinking. If ignorance is bliss, critical thinking often can lead to depression, cynicism, and apathy, as students lose faith in old values, beliefs, and structures of meaning. Danielle argues that we must also teach our students to create new values and beliefs and to take action, even in the face of meaningless absurdity. José wonders how to best teach this. We end by giving recommendations in our What We’ve Been Thinking About segment.
Read MoreThrough the examples of The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and 10 Things I Hate About You, José argues that teen movies are important cultural artifacts that show us how to view the world with complexity, nuance, and depth—qualities that will allow us to have better conversations with those with whom we disagree. Danielle loves teen movies, but she’s not sure she buys it.
Read MoreIn this episode, Danielle and José talk about how to think about truth in the era of fake news. With new technologies that have the ability to literally change what we see and hear through audio and video manipulation, how do we know our beliefs are justified? How can we ever have real knowledge? Is it possible to change someone’s mind about the truth through critical thinking and reasoning or do we have to appeal to emotions and values? Is all news actually fake news?
Read MoreJosé is troubled by his sexual fantasies of women because it objectifies them. Danielle and José consider: Does sexual desire always or necessarily involve the dehumanizing objectification of others? Is it morally acceptable to objectify someone in the privacy of your own mind or will that objectification always spill out into the way you interact with others? Is it possible to keep sexual fantasies completely separate from workplace relationships? Are there solutions to the social problems in which people are forced to navigate their sexual desires along with their desires to see others in their full humanity?
Read MoreWhy is it so hard for white people to talk about racism? Danielle and José talk about white fragility—the idea that white folks are emotionally fragile, and blow up or shut down, when it comes to talking about race. Danielle offers some ideas about why she and so many of her fellow white people have such a tough time, (they’re terrified of being called a racist, for example), and what they should do about it.
Read MoreDanielle is an atheist and José is a theist, but he feels bad about believing in something for which he does not have evidence. Given all of the warfare and destruction in the name of God, is it morally wrong to hold this belief without sufficient evidence? José outlines an argument by William James, which attempts to justify belief in God as a special and specific kind of belief that one can hold by pure will. Is it enough to convince Danielle?
Read MoreDanielle and José discuss the value of tolerance. Tolerance is a paradox because if we tolerate everyone, we have to tolerate those who are intolerant, thus threatening our tolerant society. Is there really a clear line between tolerating people’s speech and beliefs and tolerating their actions and policies? Why should we value tolerance, and how do we treat those who are intolerant?
Read MoreDanielle and José discuss philosophy as self-help. José hates self-help as a genre, and Danielle claims that philosophy would make for better self-help than many of the books currently on the market. She outlines how philosophy could address what makes so many self-help books annoying and ultimately disappointing.
Read MoreAre snobs just obnoxious, self-righteous jerks, or do they contribute something of value to society? José argues that snobs are the protectors of culture and ought to be defended. Snobs save us from the faceless demands of a watered down marketplace and set a standard for the human experience. Danielle is skeptical, and wonders if snobbery is an expression of classist myopia, confusing personal preferences for objective standards.
Read MoreDanielle and José talk about perception and meditation. Danielle claims that meditation is the key to seeing, feeling, and perceiving the world in a radically new way. Can meditation change the brain so much that we can cease to feel pain? Where is sensation: in the nerves or in the mind’s response? And what happens if, indeed, we do have responsibility for how we interpret sense data?
Read MoreJosé fears that dance is on its deathbed! Is social dancing on the decline? And if so, what do we lose if it dies? Danielle and José suggest that losing dance means losing opportunities for mastery over our bodies, as well as communication and coordination with others in a playful and non-verbal way. Dance is both related to but different from both sports and sex, and we can feel self-conscious about it in a way that we don’t with those other forms of bodily expression. We end, as always, by talking about what we’ve been thinking about since our last show.
Read MoreDanielle and José talk about cultural appropriation. What’s wrong with a white person wearing a Native American headdress for Halloween? Where is the line between cultural exchange and appropriation? To what extent is it legitimate for an artist to draw from other cultures in order to make something new? We end, as always, with what we've been thinking about and give some recommendations.
Read MoreLive from PDX, Danielle and José discuss risk. What happens in our mind when we think about whether or not to take a risk? How do we know if we are taking a good risk or a bad risk? What should we do when our risks impact others? How does our culture view risk? We end, as always, with what we are thinking about and give some recommendations.
Read MoreThis episode, Danielle and José talk about poverty. Are there rational reasons for giving to those less fortunate? What responsibilities or duties do we have to give to the poor? Does giving to the poor end up doing more harm than good? We end with “What We’re Thinking About” and give our recommendations for this episode.
Read MoreDanielle and José discuss whether the mainstreaming of feminism has sold it out to capitalist interests. Can we be both a feminist and a capitalist? Is capitalism inherently patriarchal? Does feminism require a kind of collective action that capitalism works to undermine? How does capitalism exploit women’s unpaid labor of childrearing and household care? Are ad campaigns that promote feminist ideas actually feminist or just another way to sell products? We end with recommendations for what we’ve been thinking about since the last episode.
Read MoreIn this episode, Danielle and José consider the force, function, and fragility of political protests. We consider some of the recent Republican-backed legislation that threatens to limit the ability for people to protest. What purpose do protests serve in the public arena? In what ways do protests help build a sense of community? Is violence in public protesting ever acceptable? Here is a Washington Post article summarizing the national trend in legislation against protests
Read MoreIn our inaugural episode, Danielle and José discuss travel and authenticity. When we go on trips, many of us are in search of some kind of authentic experience of another place. Where does this desire for authenticity come from and is it possible to achieve? Is the search for authenticity harmful for the places we travel? We end the show by discussing what we’ve been thinking about over the last few weeks, and leave our listeners with some recommendations.
Read More