Podcast

You Have No Right To Turn Away (Podcast)

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In an 1842 letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle chastised Emerson, saying, “A man has no right to say to his generation, turning away from it, ‘Be Damned!’ It is the whole past and the whole future, this same cotton-spinning, dollar-hunting, canting and shrieking, very wretched generation of ours. Come back into it, I tell you.” What did he mean by this? And what importance does Carlyle’s admonition have for us today? It turns out that it has a great deal of importance. We discuss.

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The Aftermath Of Battle (Podcast)

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In this podcast I describe unforgettable images that have emerged from the aftermaths of certain battles. We discuss Livy’s description of the battlefield after Cannae, a scene in Dante, and an anecdote from the American Civil War.

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In The Same Meadow (Podcast)

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In this podcast we take a quote from Seneca, discuss its meaning, and apply it to some modern life lessons.

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The Story Of Akulka’s Husband (Podcast)

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In this podcast we discuss the story of “Akulka’s Husband,” which is found in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel The House of the Dead. What does the story mean, and what conclusions can be drawn from it?

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When Someone Else Has Control Of Your Work, Problems Inevitably Arise (Podcast)

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When you give control of your work to third parties, you must take care that they do not alter, corrupt, or destroy what you have created. We use the story of the development and issuance of the M16 rifle in the U.S. military in the early 1960s as a tragic example.

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When A Neighbor’s House Burns, Neglected Fires Tend To Gain Strength (Podcast)

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In this podcast, we discuss the real meaning of a few verses from the poet Horace (Epistles I.18.84-85). The quote is: “When a neighbor’s house burns, neglected fires are in the habit of gaining in strength.” These lines are important, and merit comment. We are all connected, and the evil that happens to one man in one place, can easily be experienced by another man somewhere else.

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Sometimes Winning Is Not Enough (Podcast)

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Sometimes even a decisive victory is not enough. The victory may create entirely new landscapes, obstacles, and challenges that test you to the ultimate limit. There is no such thing as reaching a safe “end zone.” We discuss the Battle of Cunaxa in 401 B.C., where the Greek mercenaries of Cyrus won the battle, but immediately realized that their fight for survival had just begun. One man, a natural leader named Xenophon the Athenian, then stepped forward to assume the responsibility of command.

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Book Review: “General Eoin O’Duffy: The Political Life Of An Irish Firebrand” (Podcast)

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This podcast is a book review of General Eoin O’Duffy: The Political Life Of An Irish Firebrand, by Jack Traynor. This book is a scholarly but brief political biography of a key figure of Irish politics from the War of Independence through the end of the 1930s. We discuss the book and its subject matter, and venture some thoughts. What does O’Duffy’s life teach us about the influence of character on a man’s fate?

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A Conversation With Dr. Massimo Pigliucci (Podcast Video)

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In December 2024, I had a great conversation with Dr. Massimo Pigliucci, a professor of philosophy at City College in New York City, an evolutionary biologist, a scholar of Greco-Roman practical philosophy, and an authority on Stoicism. He is also the author of How to Be a Stoic and The Quest for Character. We covered a wide range of topics, and the full dialogue can be found in the link below:

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If You’re Not Losing, You’re Not Learning

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If you encounter someone who claims to have a perfect record, and says he has never lost in some field of endeavor, take the claim with a grain of salt. Statements like this can be misleading, and often do not tell the whole story. If you want to learn and grow, you need to know that you’re going to lose. And you will lose a lot! Someone with a perfect record may not have taken sufficient risks. If you cherry-pick all your battles, and never challenge yourself, you’re not going to learn and grow.

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