Struggle to Understand

In this episode, I speak with Matt Dinan and Andrew Moore. Matt has a PhD from Baylor University and is an associate professor in the Great Books program at St. Thomas University. Andrew has a PhD from Western University and is an associate professor in the Great Books program also at St. Thomas University. We explore what is a liberal arts education and how it relates to the “great books” of the Western intellectual canon, the purpose of engaging with the great texts produced by human civilization, and ultimately why liberal arts education may be understood as an education in a kind of friendship. Liberal arts education can be defined both broadly and narrowly and this episode highlights how important it is to understand both facets of liberal arts and how, ultimately, the goal is facilitating people to live a more fully human life.

Today’s episode is the next in an on-going series I am doing on this podcast on collectibles and community. In this episode of that series, I speak with TMReviews who has a YouTube channel called “TMReviews.” On this channel, TM reviews collectibles and provides discussion and commentary for the community that has developed around those collectibles. Like others who engage in this kind of review and commentary, he deals some with official products but also with unlicensed or third-party products. We discuss how his frugal youth gave him a desire to own certain kinds of collectibles, how he left collecting during his teenage and college years, and why he ultimately returned to collecting. We then discuss why he started his YouTube channel and the problems and promise that have come with it. Finally, we turn to what he considers the most important element in collecting: the community. We speak to how he sees his role within the collecting community, specifically among Transformers collectors, but also how he has gone about cultivating his own community through his YouTube channel. I will repeat here, again, the central argument of this series because it becomes more clear with each subsequent discussion: popular culture and the collectibles that have been developed around them are centerpieces for developing community.

This is an episode in an on-going series on liberal arts education. In this episode, I speak with Jonathan Marks. Jonathan has a PhD from the University of Chicago and is a Professor of Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Ursinus College. We explore what is a liberal arts education and how it relates to the “great books” of the Western intellectual canon, the conflicts that have arisen from the “battle of the books” both in the 1990s and Jonathan’s new book “Let’s be Reasonable: A conservative case for liberal education.” Our discussion is a bit broader here than the first episode in this series but this broadness helps illustrate one of the benefits that comes from engaging in this form of pedagogy and participating with this ever-evolving canon of authors and works.

This episode is the first in on-going series on classical liberal arts education and the importance that it may play in the contemporary university. In this episode, I speak with John Peterson. John has a PhD from the University of Dallas, where he is the Manager of Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs in the Braniff Graduate School of Liberal Arts. There he oversees the administration of the Humanities, Classical Education, American Studies, and Leadership programs and he is also an Affiliate Assistant Professor of Humanities and Graduate Director of American Studies at the University of Dallas. We explore what is a classical liberal arts education and how it may differ from what falls under the banner of “liberal arts” education today in many universities. We also speak to the role that such an education may play in our contemporary universities as well as the challenges that this pedagogical approach faces from competing pedagogical approaches. Our conversation serves as a terrific introduction to classical liberal arts education pedagogy and is a great launching point for this on-going series.

In this episode, I speak with Henry Paik who has a YouTube channel called “Paik4Life.” On this channel, Paik reviews collectibles and provides discussion and commentary for the community that has developed around those collectibles. Like others who engage in this kind of review and commentary, he deals some with official products but also with unlicensed or third-party products. We discuss how he came to being a collectible reviewer, the importance of collectibles to him and the community he’s developed around them, as well as a little bit of “behind the scenes” discussion about how the business side of these collectibles actually operates. We end our discussion with an exploration of why this particular era of popular culture is so defined by nostalgia and what that might mean about what we are currently valuing and not valuing. Ultimately, as I’ve said before, popular culture and the collectibles that have been developed around them are not just vapid materialism or trinkets to fill shelves; they are centerpieces for developing community.

I speak with Jon Carney. Jon is the director of bands at New Palestine High School, a suburb of Indianapolis. Jon as a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education and a Master’s in Tuba Performance and Literature. We speak about the importance of music education in public education, the role that music can play in lives, and the importance that music plays in fostering a sense of community. Perhaps the most important element that we discuss is the topic that should always be the main concern for education: the kind of person we want to develop through our curricula. Jon’s approach to music education, while certainly deeply concerned with the technical aspects of proficiency, also takes into consideration what skills are necessary for developing, and living within, a community. This was an excellent conversation that illustrates how integrated our educational structures should be and how, perhaps too often, we do not teach across the curriculum nearly enough. Here is my conversation with Jon.

In this episode, I speak with Bobby “Skullface”. Bobby has a YouTube channel where he reviews collectibles and provides discussion and commentary for the community that has developed around those collectibles. Primarily, his work deals with what are called third-party figures,  Third party figures are those that are not made by the owner of the intellectual property nor officially licensed products. When Bobby says that he is known best for his evaluation of Third Party collectibles, he is often reviewing high-end products that appeal to a particular group of collectors but ones that are not produced by Takara-Tomy nor directly licensed by them. With this in mind, we discuss what draws Bobby to these “nerdy” things, why that ultimately led him to creating a YouTube channel, and the relationship his family has with collecting in general. I also want to highlight one important element about collecting that is too often overlooked by those who do not collect – the collectibles serve a function, often a mixture of nostalgia and completionism, but are also a means to an end, specifically, the creation of a community. We end our discussion by turning to community and the importance that cultivating and participating in a community is for living a good life. 

In this episode, I speak with Scott Johnson, a high school science teacher who lives in Plainfield, Indiana. Scott has been a science educator for nearly 20 years with nearly a decade of that educating advanced and ambitious students in his anatomy and physiology courses. We speak about how he came to the teaching profession, what lessons he has learned from his experience as a classroom teacher – both positive and negative, and then turn to a conversation about how our educational systems often too often do not provide the kinds of outcomes we desire from them. In tandem with this, we discuss his experience of teaching through COVID, the constraints and opportunities the pandemic forced upon him, and how he believes the experience has made him a better teacher – and his students into better students. Given the centrality of public education in our lives today, we often become mired in discussions on how to fix teaching, fix teachers, fix schools, etc. but rarely spend enough time speaking to those who have dedicated their lives to seriously helping others improve their lives through education. As we discuss toward the end of this discussion, public educators have to teach the public and, In this way, they are civil servants engaging with a serious civic duty. Perhaps if we spent more time trying to understand what kinds of citizens we want to live with, and less time with what kind of workers we want to hire or what kind of consumers we want to fill our marketplace, we might be able to better tackle the challenges that come with teaching an increasingly diverse student population. Maybe this will better help us understand the public facet of public education a bit better and may, by extension, improve our collective lives as well.

I speak with Angel Eduardo, a staff writer for idealist.org and a columnist for the Center for Inquiry, who is also a musician, photographer, and designer who lives in New York City. Angel has a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts and Creative Writing so we spend time discussing the role of arts in how we communicate and also the art of communicating, specifically using a term he coined, star-manning. As Angel will explain more fully, star-manning is an extension of the intellectual exercise of steel-manning someone else’s argument; that is to say, to present an argument in its strongest form to deal with it in the most serious way. The conversation then turns to something that is far closer to my heart: superheroes. Angel has a particular affinity for the DC character Superman, so we speak at some lengths about the importance of such characters for kids and then how those same characters continue to have meaning well into adulthood. Both facets of this conversation, the art of communication and then communicating through the arts, are vital pieces for engaging in a shared life together. This conversation exemplifies both facets well and I hope you find it to be meaningful.

In this episode, I speak with Alex Priou, who teaches at the Herbst Center at the University of Colorado - Boulder. Alex has a PhD from Tulane University and his research focuses on Plato and the Pre-Socratics. This is the first conversation on my podcast that is dedicated to political philosophy and some of the questions inherent to the study of political philosophy. To that end, we spend quite a bit of time exploring questions like: what is political philosophy? Why study the liberal arts? Why take up questions of Platonic political philosophy? We also spend quite a bit of time exploring Leo Strauss and his impact on the way that we think about political philosophy and perhaps how this tradition can help us address the pressing questions of our time. Alex is a fantastic interlocutor and this conversation was a joy. 

In this episode, I speak with Iona Italia. Iona has a PhD in literature from Cambridge University and is an editor at Areo Magazine and currently lives in London. We speak about her background, both personally and academically, including her experience living in multiple countries and how that has shaped her worldview, how to be a good writer and issues that emerge from academic training, the humanities and the Enlightenment, and the importance of literature in our lives. Iona is a charming and humorous interlocutor and it was a joy to spend this time with her. 

Today, I speak with Xavier Bonilla, who has a doctorate in psychology and is a professor of psychology in Maryland. We speak about a wide range of topics including reacting to the seditious mob invading the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, then transitioning to conversations about political centrism, how to find meaning in a world that seems so often to be meaningless, and questions of how to explore themes and narratives in films or other elements in popular culture. Xavier is an excellent interlocutor and this conversation was a joy. 

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Alex Natale, who is a professor of physics. We talk about fundamental elements in physics, including dark matter, dark energy, and neutrinos, and the role they play in giving an account of nature, the relationship between physics and political philosophy, and the nature of the university and how we educate students. I decided not to break this conversation into multiple episodes because so much of the conversation is self-referential and integrated that there did not seem to be a natural break in the conversation. Having conversations like this one, where people who have interests in different facets of human knowledge discuss their experiences with trying to understand but such conversations push against the trend in the university. We need to invest in more conversations like this one. 

Today, in the second of two episodes, I continue my conversation with Roc, a data and systems analyst who currently lives in New York City. In this discussion, we discuss how talking to academics can be a struggle and perhaps why that is the case, what it means to be part of a community and the weight that may or may not come along with it, how we structure moral codes without religious belief, and we end with a way of viewing the value of currency in how we prioritize the values in our lives. Perhaps the most enjoyable part of this conversation for me was our discussion of mercy and the importance that mercy has to play in our relationships with others but also in our relationship with ourselves. 

In the first of two episodes, I speak with Roc, a data and systems analyst who currently lives in New York City. In this episode, we discuss Roc's life living in various places in the United States and the unique perspective this generates as well as having a fairly long exploration of our relationship with social media. 

Today, in the third of three episodes, I continue my conversation with Dr. Damir Kovačević who is a professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and with Dr. Martin Claar who is a lecturer of Political Science at Loyola University – Chicago. We take up two primary questions in this final episode: How stable is a multi-polar system in international relations? Is the instantiation of norms the “end of history”? Meaning, is a world defined by compliance to the liberal world order the ultimate state of human political development. It is fitting that we end this conversation on these two questions because they ask us if the current global system of norms is worth preserving and if it is, does it represent the best system we can create to manage the capriciousness of political dynamics.

I should make one final note: we recorded this conversation before the United States presidential election so there is some speculation about the future of the American presidency that has now been settled by that election.

Today, in the second of three episodes, I continue my conversation with Dr. Damir Kovačević who is a professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and with Dr. Martin Claar who is a lecturer of Political Science at Loyola University – Chicago. We build on our prior conversation and then move on to explore why norms fail, is compliance to these norms a result of domestic or international pressure, and the use of chemical agents in regulating domestic disturbances. Specifically, the issue raised by the use of tear gas asks us how should domestic governments handle civil unrest without succumbing to treating such unrest as acts of war. These topics are salient currently given the domestic state of politics in America but they are perennial topics for living within a liberal world order.

Today, in the first of three episodes, I speak with Dr. Damir Kovačević who is a professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and with Dr. Martin Claar who is a lecturer of Political Science at Loyola University – Chicago. We speak about the various theories of international relations, the uses and norms surrounding chemical weapons, and the stability of the international norm structure. Having both Drs. Kovačević and Claar on together creates a unique dynamic to this conversation, with both scholars adding to one another’s knowledge, while also providing complementary explanations through their own specializations. This provided me with another opportunity to learn more about international relations and its dynamic nature and I hope you find it rewarding as well.

Welcome back. Today, in the third of three episodes, I speak with Dr. Nicole Loring. Dr. Loring is an assistant professor of political science at Rivier University. We continue our discussion of Aung Sang Syu Ki and the controversies surrounding her support of human rights, on why we should care about international relations even given the domestic concerns in every political system, and the way that we can evaluate the way in which the world is democratizing or not and the significance it has in how we live today.

Welcome back. Today, in the second of three episodes, I speak with Dr. Nicole Loring. Dr. Loring is an assistant professor of political science at Rivier University. We discuss who is Aung Sang Syu Ki and her importance to Myanmar, the legacy of colonialism and the growth of human rights, and the contradictions that are raised by applying principles of universal rights into particular regimes. This conversation raises controversial and intractable problems and we certainly do not provide any answer to them. But exploring the questions themselves is valuable particularly because they ask us, as individuals, how much our values are valuable to us. Exploring these kinds of first principles are essential for worthwhile discussion, but they are also particularly salient in our time because we are having disagreements about first principles. 

This is the first of three episodes where I speak with Dr. Nicole Loring. Dr. Loring is an assistant professor of political science at Rivier University. This conversation lays out broad themes taken up by political scientists who study international relations including things like what is international relations, what is the distinction between authoritarian and democratic regimes, and then we begin our exploration of Burma/Myanmar and its complicated political history which we then continue in our subsequent conversation. These conversations are a fascinating exploration of Southeast Asian politics and the difficulties that surround studying international relations.

My discussion today with Dr. Stewart builds on our prior one but shifts focus away from just the Civil War by expanding into questions of the Second Amendment, the cost of citizenship, and then, even more broadly, to the importance of learning history. This does not mean learning from history but to learn history; to learn about people in the past for the sake of learning about people in the past.

In today's episode, I speak with Dr. Stewart about conscription, specifically about conscription during the Civil War and the way it can help us better understand the nature of that conflict. We also discuss the ways in which conscription was resisted during the Civil War, which can help us better understand why the draft has been historically unpopular in America. 

In this second episode from our discussion, Dr. Kushner and I continue our discussion of Cherokee political thought, the ways that American political thought conflicts with Cherokee thought, and perhaps what we might learn from examining both systems.

In this first of two episodes, Dr. Kushner and I discuss Cherokee political thought, the ways that American political thought conflicts with Cherokee thought, and perhaps what we might learn from examining both systems. 

Welcome to the Struggle to Understand.