The 7 Best Ministry of Ideas Podcast Episodes
1) Flickers of Light: Meaning and Nihilism
The realization that our lives are incredibly brief and we are almost certainly not going to be remembered by anyone 100 years from now can cause deep angst—but it can also liberate us to abandon work...Show More
aliceko recommended:
Wow. A death meditation. This is truly a real talk podcast episode.
AUDIO REMOVED: The podcast creator has removed the audio for this episode.2) You Don't Have To Be Special: Meaning and Self-Conception
Feelings of meaninglessness often are caused by how we understand ourselves. If we change how we think about our worth, we’ll discover radiant meaning can be found in even the most ordinary aspects of...Show More
You Don't Have To Be Special: Meaning and Self-Conception
11:40 | Nov 30th, 2021
3 recommendations
1 playlist
lll recommended:
The irony is that this idea about not being special is special and oddly radical and comforting.
AUDIO REMOVED: The podcast creator has removed the audio for this episode.3) Public Thinking: Social Media and the New 'Public Intellectual'
We have usually relied on public intellectuals to provide facts, ideas, and cultural leadership--though not all have lived up to the ideal of “speaking truth to power.” Today, however, online networks...Show More
Public Thinking: Social Media and the New 'Public Intellectual'
31:01 | Jun 10th, 2021
2 recommendations
mm recommended:
The history of public intellectuals from the powerful few to all of us now.
AUDIO REMOVED: The podcast creator has removed the audio for this episode.4) Subjectivity and Significance: Engagement and Meaning
We have a tendency to view our lives as meaningful only if we are involved in heroic acts of service, creativity, or achievement. But this is misguided. Even when we are ordinary, we are all, as livin...Show More
Subjectivity and Significance: Engagement and Meaning
17:44 | Mar 8th, 2022
1 recommendation
1 playlist
mm recommended:
Do we all have to be like Mother Theresa in order to lead a meaningful life? Do animals lead meaningful lives? Interesting episode on the re...Show More
AUDIO REMOVED: The podcast creator has removed the audio for this episode.5) Love, Work, and Play: Neuroscience and Meaning
Though life’s ultimate meaning may be elusive, the goods of love, work and play are so deeply rewarding that for most people they are sufficient for creating a happy life. And with new advances in neu...Show More
mm recommended:
The essence of life is love, work and play!
AUDIO REMOVED: The podcast creator has removed the audio for this episode.6) Nothing Matters
Between the Buddhist doctrine of ‘emptiness,’ the Jewish idea of Ayin, and the quantum mechanical zero-point energy of a vacuum, it turns out there’s quite a lot to be said about Nothing. Guests Jane...Show More
7) White Balance
Understanding race in America requires understanding its relationship to class. Guests Joshua Bennett, writer and poet Julian Bourg, Professor of History at Boston College Nancy Isenberg, author of...Show More
8) Genealogies of Modernity Episode 8: The Enemy of Morality Is Not Modernity, It’s Me
The great English essayist and linguist Samuel Johnson was writing during the Enlightenment – the period some historians identify as the beginning of the modern age. American author and philosopher Da...Show More
Genealogies of Modernity Episode 8: The Enemy of Morality Is Not Modernity, It’s Me
44:19 | Dec 20th, 2023
9) Genealogies of Modernity Episode 7: A Genealogy of Gun Violence
The problem of gun violence is as old as guns themselves. According to historian Priya Satia, America’s present epidemic of gun violence has its roots in the industrial revolution. Satia tells the sto...Show More
10) Genealogies of Modernity Episode 6: A Medieval Anti-Racist
What if racism shared an origin with opposition to racism? What if the condemnation of injustice gave rise both to an early form of anti-racism and to the racial hierarchies that haunt the modern era?...Show More