As individuals and as a society, we are steadily losing our long-term memories. Endless stimulation and “choices” have nearly turned us into the protagonist in the film Memento (2000), whose memory-loss condition puts him at the mercy of others’ manipulations. Rote memorization–unfairly maligned by modern educators–has its merits, and deserves a reconsideration.
One big frustration we can experience in life is having unrealistic expectations of other people. That is, we can want people to behave in ways that are just not within their desires or capabilities. What is the best way to deal with this? We use the example of the humanist Petrarch’s strained relationship with his son.
This podcast is a reading and commentary on the speech of Julius Caesar found in Sallust’s “Conspiracy of Catiline.” Caesar’s address to the senate made important points about the value of precedent, leniency, and how abuses of power can follow from seemingly good intentions.
In this podcast we deal with questions from two reader emails. The first question asks about mentorships. The second question deals with the concerns one guy is having about his career path.
A recent news article talks about how young, unemployed urban Greeks are leaving the city to return to agricultural work in the countryside. They’re producing and marketing their own products directly to consumers. It’s part of a wider economic trend that has a lot of positive features.
In life, you do what you have to do to survive.
This is the story of how I got robbed in Rio last month. Life is like that, sometimes. A vida é assim…you suck it up, and keep moving.
A reader who is a teacher is troubled by the fact that one of his teenage students firmly believes in fascist government. The teacher seeks advice on how to deal with this situation. He relates this situation to similar experiences he had as a soldier in Afghanistan when he was speaking with local villagers.
