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The Lyceum Podcast is a production of the Lyceum Movement, a network of community learning centers, where the city comes to think about art, history, philosophy, government, and the enduring...
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The Lyceum Podcast is a production of the Lyceum Movement, a network of community learning centers, where the city comes to think about art, history, philosophy, government, and the enduring questions of human life.
show less
29 MAY 2023 · Think of your morning commute, or a trip you take all the time by car or bus. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to walk it? What it would it be like to slow down to the speed of human legs and notice all of the people, plants, and things you pass each morning? What would you learn about the characters who live near you, about the layers of history all around you, about the plants and birds that make your place home, too?
This is what Neil King did. Leaving his front door in Washington, DC, he set out to walk all the way to New York. It was 2021 and the former Wall Street Journal editor had seen a Pandemic, a capital insurrection at his backdoor, a battle with throat cancer, and the loss of his brother. His project, to detach from daily life and simply take the time to notice everything he could, to pay attention patiently to the people, history, and nature he saw along the way. He hoped that this act of slowly paying attention would help him get a sense of where he was at in life and where we were at, as a country.
The result is the very rewarding book, American Ramble. Written in the great tradition of American road stores, from Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman to Bill Bryson.
Prior to writing this book, Neil King was the Global Economics Editor for the Wall Street Journal, and spent years reporting in America and Europe on politics, terrorism, security, and more. I really enjoyed this conversation, full of the insights and stories gleaned from Neil's walk, and I think you will too.
10 APR 2023 · About a hundred years ago, Americans were gathering together, in the face of fascism and communism, to ask "Are we done with democracy?" At that time, alternatives to democracy were live options. Today, we're asking these questions again.
What do we do when democracy delivers outcomes we don't like? How do we live in a country with so many who deeply disagree with our worldview? These are questions citizens of modern democracies need to ask themselves.
To help us think through them, we're joined this week by Shadi Hamid, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a professor of Islamic Studies at Fuller Seminary, and contributing writer for the Atlantic Monthly. His new book The Problem of Democracy asks what we should do when democracy produces bad outcomes. Is democracy good because of its results, or for its own sake?
Special thanks to Ethan Beacom for composing our theme music and editing this episode.
30 MAR 2023 · In this episode, we talk with Chef Sean Sherman, winner of the James Beard Award for best cookbook and best new restaurant. Chef Sean has been at the forefront of a movement to creatively rediscover the traditional ingredients and food traditions indigenous to North America. Using only ingredients native to this continent, he has created a successful restaurant in Minneapolis called Owamni and founded the nonprofit NATIFS (North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems) which works to educate on traditional indigenous foodways and to promote food access in Native American communities.
In this episode, we discuss Sean's food philosophy and what he's discovered working with these ingredients, and why it matters for our food to be close to the land, the woods, and the waters where we live.
https://natifs.org/
https://sioux-chef.com/about/
Special thanks to Ethan Beacom for composing our theme music and editing this episode.
15 FEB 2023 · Martin Luther King Jr. was an unfaithful husband and a plagiarist, Abraham Lincoln shared many of the prejudices of his time, and many of the women who lead the charge for suffrage in America were vocally racist. There is almost no figure so revered that we can’t find some fault, major or minor, in their character. This is the human condition. And yet human beings also need people to look up to. We seem to need people in our lives, in our history, in our public life, who we can model ourselves after. Moral growth often depends on moral examples. We need an image of who to be so that we know what to strive for. In a time where we are so aware of human weakness there is a temptation toward cynicism. How do we think about the complicated nature of our heroes, how do we evaluate people who lived in different times, and how do we find moral examples in a broken world?
For more, https://www.lyceummovement.org
25 JAN 2023 · Democracy is not just a system of government, it is also a culture of free communication, one that comes with inherent risk. In an open, democratic society, communication can be a way of building relationships and sharing knowledge, but it can equally be a means of stoking tension, violence, falsehoods, and anything you can imagine. This is the risk inherent in a society that embraces free expression, but that risk can be dialed up when amplified by new media technologies.
Our guest today, Zac Gershberg, lays out this dilemma in his recent book with journalist Sean Illing, The Paradox of Democracy: Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion. Zac is a professor of Journalism and Media studies at Idaho State University, and I’m excited to have him here to help us think through this very timely topic.
learn more at www.lyceummovement.org
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo146792768.html
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297276/amusing-ourselves-to-death-by-neil-postman/
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297276/amusing-ourselves-to-death-by-neil-postman/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjCtnM050dQ
https://Divine%20Art,%20Infernal%20Machine%20The%20Reception%20of%20Printing%20in%20the%20West
6 JAN 2023 · In the last year, Gallup has conducted a slew of polls to take the temperature on American hope, and the results are clear–Americans are more likely to say they are “extremely worried” about the future than that they are hopeful for the future. This might not come as a surprise, given how many of our public conversations, especially in politics, are shaped by words of doom and despair.
What is the role for hope in a time that feels, to many Americans, not very hopeful? What is the virtue of hope, and how might it help us to live better, and live better together?
To help us think through these questions, I am pleased to welcome Michael Lamb, a friend of the Lyceum, to the show today. Michael is the F. M. Kirby Foundation Chair of Leadership and Character, Executive Director of the Program for Leadership and Character, and Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at Wake Forest University.
He holds a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University, a B.A. in political science from Rhodes College, and a second B.A. in philosophy and theology from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.
He is the author of many articles on politics and philosophy and, most recently, a book,https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691226330/a-commonwealth-of-hope.
A political theorist with experience in practical politics, Michael has served as chief of staff for campaigns for state senate, Governor, and U.S. Congress in his home state of Tennessee. At the University of Oxford, he helped to launch thehttp://oxfordcharacter.org/, which helps graduate students in various fields – including government, law, medicine, business, and academia – think about the role of ethics in their professions.
1 DEC 2022 · Today we're joined by Zohar Atkins, a rabbi, scholar, theologian, poet, podcast host, and more. Zohar shares his insights, drawing on his own tradition, but in a way accessible to people outside of that tradition, on the changing place of faith in the public sphere. We talk about why people are leaving religious communities, where they are going instead, and what that means for America.
4 NOV 2022 · Dr Andrew Gustafson is a philosopher, a professor of business ethics at Creighton University’s Heider College of Business, a business owner, and a home renovator.
I’ve invited Andy on today because, as you can tell from his titles, he’s got a really well-rounded view of work. He’s thought hard about work and what makes it dignified and meaningful as a philosopher, as a teacher, and as a businessperson and boss. Andy spoke at the Des Moines Lyceum last winter and was a hit, and I’m excited to have him help us think through this question of what makes work satisfying, what makes it meaningful, and what is it missing when it is dull, soulless, and a chore.
30 JUL 2022 · Michael Sacasas, who writes under the pen name LM Sacasas, is a widely respected commentator on digital technology and the way it is shaping our habits, our perceptions of the world, and the nature of our communities.
In this interview, we talk with Michael about the importance of agency, mastery, and awareness of the material world in a time when digital technology plays an increasingly dominant role in our life.
You can learn more about Michael by listening to his New York Times interview with Ezra Klein: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-lm-sacasas.html
By reading his essay The Materiality of Digital Culture: https://comment.org/the-materiality-of-digital-culture/
And by following his newsletter, The Convivial Society: https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/
The Lyceum Podcast is a production of the Lyceum Movement, a network of community learning centers, where the city comes to think about art, history, philosophy, government, and the enduring...
show more
The Lyceum Podcast is a production of the Lyceum Movement, a network of community learning centers, where the city comes to think about art, history, philosophy, government, and the enduring questions of human life.
show less
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| Author | The Lyceum Movement |
| Organization | Nat Beacom |
| Categories | Society & Culture |
| Website | - |
| lyceummovement@gmail.com |
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