Kenny and I speculate as to some of the root causes of fear.

Kenny and I discuss some of the positive feelings that are associated with altruistic behavior.

Kenny and I explore some of the root causes of apathy and if our apathetic inclinations can be overcome.

Sam and I, using the folktale of Faust and the modern implication of the word 'Faustian bargain' discuss some of the ways that we might be making deals with the devil and not even realizing it.

Topics:

The devil isn't some dude in a suit and moustache...it's within you.

Corrupt deals happen a lot in politics but are a product of how society operates.

Every deal we accept brings us further away from our authentic self.

Rich and powerful people don't always have your back.

Most of our politicians are rich in power but poor in soul.

Inner mastery before outward mastery is key.

What happens when fear enters the equation.

We create our own version of Heaven and Hell right here on Earth.

I am joined with Jonathan who discusses his unique strategy in approaching people who he disagrees with.

Topics

We are attracted to what is easy and familiar.

Overcoming the language barrier.

We all put food into our mouths in the same way.

A true tourist travels to experience things not to curate things.

Always be very curious in new surroundings.

When approaching others, always bring something to the table.

Change will never come from the top.

Disagreement need not beget hate.

The leaving the room effect.

Ever look up at the stars and search for meaning? I am joined once again by Fedra who gives us a brief introduction to understanding the stars and planets.

Topics

Taking solace in the stars but not passivity.

Getting your natal chart done.

Consult Astrology but don't become too attached.

Let's make a deal...just not when Mercury is in retrograde.

We are in the age of Aquarius...a goodtime for thinkers!

Carl Jung and synchronicity

No such thing as coincidence, only people that were meant to be there.

The Universe has your back.

Checkout your natal report down below:

https://astro.cafeastrology.com/natal.php 

You can contact Fedra by clicking on the links below:

https://www.instagram.com/fedratarot/ 

https://www.facebook.com/fedratarot

Email: fedraekres@gmail.com 

https://www.thumbtack.com/ny/ronkonkoma/tarot-card-readings/fedra/service/339473884466561254?utm_medium=web&utm_source=txt&surface=sp

In light of the recent election, Claire and I discuss why we shouldn't allow politics or forces in the 'outer spheres' of life to control our mood or come in the way of our individual growth and benchmarks.

Topics

Politics is not a stand in for religion and philosophy.

Being informed without taking action, doesn't help all that much.

Understanding your priorities in life.

If you don't take care of yourself...how can you even possibly think about helping others?

Don't be too easily carried off by the winds of destiny.

Experiment but grow at the same time.

Luke and I discuss where as humans our moral code derives from.

Topics:

The family unit and morality.

Nietzsche and the Genealogy of Morals.

Slave morals versus Master morals...who knew?

No true altruism in this world.

Switching between Master and Slave mindset.

Lessons from a cheese sandwich.

Being a good person is not just being submissive.

Utilizing the full gambits of emotions justly...makes for perfection.

Context matters.

Check Out Luke's Book: Songs of Isolation

https://www.azurelorica.com/

Sam and I discuss why fear can sometimes be the most destructive force in our lives.

Topics

Having a strong sense of confidence.

The robot way of emotions is not the path of strength but of fear.

A quiet household is not a happy household.

If you can't trust your friends, they are not your friends.

How the judgements of others often prevent us from being our true self.

Alexander and I using our qualitative minds try and figure out when exactly we should be relying on our learned human experience and when we may need to consult a t-test to figure out the right answer.

Topics

The failures of using data to compare ourselves to others.

Why our value systems often triumph over empirical evidence.

The ways in which statistics can be corrupted (cherry picking variables).

The role of qualitative researchers in posing new research questions and theoretical ideas that can later be tested.

Ending the hate...for qualitative thinkers.

Scientists must forgo hubris and take a small dose of humility when speaking about universal truths.

What the path of research could look like moving forward.

This episode is the fourth part of a larger series in which I am joined by Roman Empire expert Brett Davidoff, as we discuss some of the parallels of ancient Rome to the United States and other historical instances of democratic decay. In this episode we discuss the conclusion of the civil war between Marc Antony and Octavius.

Gabby and I discuss why our houses and apartments are a bit more than giant crash pads.

Topics

Properly designed spaces can motivate you.

Know which pieces of furniture are of supreme importance.

The male versus the female mind regarding space.

Organizing can actually make you feel good.

Not unpacking a suitcase...a look into the subconscious?

Functionality is going to look and feel different to everyone.

The memories and personas forged in different spaces.

At the very least...clean your room!

Need help organizing your space? Checkout Gabby below:

https://gabriellealicia.com/

This episode is the third part of a larger series in which I am joined by Roman Empire expert Brett Davidoff, as we discuss some of the parallels of ancient Rome to the United States and other historical instances of democratic decay. In this episode we discuss the fallout after the assassination of Julius Caesar and the start of civil war in Rome.

Kenny and I discuss how the absence of nuance has lead to a deterioration in conversation and how we make sense of the world around us.

Daniel and I continue our discussion on why we as a society have stopped caring about learning and education in general.

Topics

What the data says about income and educational outcomes.

The ugly truth...are we all meant to be philosophers and high thinkers?

Is it possible to value smart people just for being smart?

Are the affluent hoarding the keys to success?

Parenting 101.

What can be done to make learning and education sexy again?

Joe and I discuss the dangers of only knowing how to do one thing and how it is not only damaging our economy but stunting human growth and potential.

Topics

A leftover byproduct of the industrial age.

Employers seeing workers as a means to an end.

Oh no...here comes the automation and new platforms.

What is the individual's responsibility in developing new skills?

What is the role of employers and the government in retraining people?

Employee rotation...a possible solution?

Even the highly educated are not immune...

Always stop and evaluate what exactly is it that you are being asked to do.

Kenny and I discuss that as time passes, the decent among us seem to be growing more and more invisible!

Topics:

The two missed calls dilemma.

Find why can't we find happiness in our respective social hierarchies?

The sex and money endgame.

Bad energy tends to roll down the pyramid.

Good people remind us of our deficiencies.

The good has now become society's new sacrificial lamb.

Should the good people start speaking up?

The artificial versus the organic good.

Check Out Kenny's Work:

https://www.amazon.com/Nigerian-Prince-Kenechukwu-Chidi-Nnoli/dp/B08B384J8N/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=kenechukwu+nnoli&qid=1604092789&sr=8-1

https://www.kennynnoli.com/

Sam shares his experience travelling America with just a handful of clothes and what lessons we can all learn from this and some of the more serious concerns of this lifestyle.

Topics:

The 3 Robe System.

How having less can free us from fear of loss.

How we project material desires onto others.

Respect for different people's lifestyle.

How to show gratitude and exercise mindfulness when relying on the generosity of others.

The power of the left behind shaving razors...

Christopher and I discuss why exactly the things that we think that we need aren't so important and how we can begin training ourselves to live without the latest and greatest.

Topics:

Your possessions may come to posses you.

How certain goods simply satisfy the ego.

Why the cheap version of things can be just as good.

The old coffee can method of saving.

The importance of mattress money.

All the things you could be doing...other than shopping.

Overcoming the stigma of where you shop.

How to overcome other people's criticisms of your material choices.

Old is not a synonym for broken.

I am joined with Jeff Nugent, as we discuss if anyone can become a leader and if so, what qualities comprise a good leader?

Topics Explored:

Unexpected leadership in a supermarket.

A leader...not with an agenda but an agenda to listen.

A great leader gives birth to many other leaders.

Leaders should be judged on legacy.

Simple steps that parents can take to raise healthy and successful children.

Jeff Augustin and I discuss if it is ever right to charity shame and some of the factors that go through our head when we make the decision to give or not to give.

Topics:

Tipping

Tales from the subway.

How do we know someone asking for help is being authentic?

Are we allowed to have choices in where we choose to help?

Should the rich be more charitable....with charities...at the dinner table?

I compare my notes as both a student and teacher in the U.S. with Daniel who grew up in Toronto, Canada. Our discussion dives into some of the things that are missing from the U.S. education system...and perhaps a thing or two that Canada can learn from us.

Topics:

It varies from place to place.

A brief look at Montessori

Can high and average kids be taught together?

Should we be training everyone to attend University?

Low expectations...the real death bullet of education.

Navigating child psychologist Piaget's hierarchy of human development, Joe and I discuss the differences between abstract thinkers and those that think concretely.

Topics Covered:

The boy and the messy kitchen.

Does punishment and reflection, induce abstract reasoning?

Is abstract reasoning above concrete as Piaget suggests?

The ideal is both!

Possible solutions and hurdles in getting these minds to work together.

Do concrete thinkers have the final laugh?

Thinking about that annoying tendency of philosophers to speak up and tell the truth at the most inopportune times, Kenny and I try and figure out key rule for when one is morally obligated to speak the truth and when one should bite their tongue for the time being.

Topics:

Timing...Timing...Timing.

Friends who don't really want to hear the truth.

Sometimes truth takes years to process.

Rules for how to take advice from someone you don't respect.

Honor versus Truth...which is more honorable?

Kenny and I discuss how emotional baggage both informs our decisions in helping us detect danger but at the same time creates giant blind spots in our thinking.

I am joined by Tarot Card reader Fedra Ekres, who gives me a brief introduction to the umbrella term 'Paganism' as we discuss the term's origin and it's practice throughout Europe and into modern day America.

Topics Covered:

It started with the Greeks!

Pagans...early doctors?

Coming to America...in disguise.

More of a women thing.

Fortune teller...please make me rich.

Yoga becomes Yoga and into the 2000s

You can check out Fedra or contact her by clicking on the links below:

https://www.instagram.com/fedratarot/ 

https://www.facebook.com/fedratarot

Email: fedraekres@gmail.com 

https://www.thumbtack.com/ny/ronkonkoma/tarot-card-readings/fedra/service/339473884466561254?utm_medium=web&utm_source=txt&surface=sp

Through the lens of the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken Katen and I examine how we can evaluate the life choices we've made and how exactly these decisions influence who we are.

Topics Covered

Not living with regret.

Evaluating which roads in life have served us best and reexamining those pathways.

You're never too old to start embarking down a new path or rediscovering a trail you abandoned long ago.

We are no longer living in a world of just two roads....

I am joined by Patrick as we discuss whether or not it is healthy to take life too seriously and when exactly we may wish to turn up or down our seriousness meter.

Topics Addressed:

The power of laughing at yourself.

Giving yourself a degree of wiggle room in casual conversations.

Must leaders always be serious for us to respect them?

Situations where you have choice versus no choice.

Teachers and actors.....do the serious really win at the end?

Joe and I try to figure out why we always assume the worst in people ranging from things such as small compliments to just how trustful we ought to be in life.

Topics Covered:

Assumptions about people versus reality.

How personal traumas keep us jaded.

Times in life we shouldn't be too trusting.

How to integrate new people into our lives with little risk.

When to push the eject button.

Basic trust in humanity.

Alexander and I, discuss whether other people can impart wisdom and life lessons onto others who through a lack of experience or maturity have not gone through those same formative experiences.

Topics Explored:

Telling people about life before they have reached a critical threshold in life.

The effects of traumatic events early in life in bringing about maturity.

If we could go back in time and warn ourselves would it make any difference?

Perhaps trying out new personas and having different experiences is the only way we can learn.

This episode is the second part of a larger series in which I am joined by Roman Empire expert Brett Davidoff, as we discuss some of the parallels of ancient Rome to the United States and other historical instances of democratic decay. In this episode we focus on the rise and fall of Julius Caesar and the strategies he employs in consolidating power and the turmoil this causes among the other senators living in Rome.

In the final installment of our series Gabby and I discuss why people exclude others from events, starting in childhood and lasting all the way into adulthood.

Topics:

Excluding others because of discomfort.

Omitting people to feel superior and hog the spotlight.

When your friends don't get along and someone has to go.

Creating the perfect ambience in deciding who to invite.

When friends are genuinely looking out for you versus leaving you out.

Summary of what we learned over the series.

Check Out Gabby's Organizational Services Below:

https://gabriellealicia.com/

Kenny and I discuss what it means to be a philosopher and how we view the world....and how the world sometimes views us.

Topics:

What makes someone into a philosopher?

Aloof and detached or deep in thought?

The difference between comedians and philosophers.

Philosophers need better public relations.

Be a philosopher....but be something else as well.

Through the story of Kind David, Sam and I try and dissect the details of why it's important to apologize and how one should make amends to a person that they have wronged.

Topics Covered:

Don't just be nice.....

King David did it.....why not you?

When two people wrong one another.

Is their a statue of limitations when it comes to apologies?

Dallas and I pickup from where we last left off in the case of a woman who leaves her dying husband.

Topics Discussed:

Marriage....To Death Do Us Part?

Divorce as a sometimes merciful act.

Seeing the 'soul' in soulmate.

Maintaining integrity in relationships.

Prior service record when evaluating friendships.

Kenny and I discuss the importance of being brave, in a world where cowardice and complacency have become the new normal.

I am joined by Mike Loayza, an autodidact or self-taught person who shares his story on becoming an actor and filmmaker

Topics Hit Upon:

The trouble with school.

Is incidental knowledge ever helpful?

Knowing yourself in order to know what you want to learn.

Fearing true freedom.

Check Out Mike's Work:

http://www.mikeloayza.com 

http://www.youtube.com/lowwisezahstudios 

In the second part in our series Gabby and I explore the personality traits of extroversion and introversion and discuss whether these are even real.

Topics Mentioned:

Personality tests in the workplace.

Introversion contingent upon group dynamic.

I like people.....but I just want to work alone.....

Extroversion.....fading as the day progresses.

Parental responsibility in fostering healthy social behavior.

Comic Book Boy.....loner or socially misaligned?

Check Out Gabby's Organizational Services Below:

https://gabriellealicia.com/

This is the first part my series with Gabby where we explore what exactly does it mean to be social and how the lockdown exposed some of the blind spots in the way we interact with people.

Topics Addressed:

How the hustle & bustle of socializing distracted us from the people we were hanging out with.

Are rapid fire conversations socializing?

Giving up on conversations instead of giving up on people.

Should we demand a two way street with the people we are conversing with?

The balance between Relaxation Friends and Business Friends.

Should your friendship circles consist of people who are of diverse interests or homogenous?

Check Out Gabby's Organizational Services Below:

https://gabriellealicia.com/

Marketing expert Claire Bevan helps me understand the slippery road of healthy self promotion versus attention seeking behavior.

Topics Covered:

Humility versus lack of self-confidence.

Setting a goal for success.

Asking others for help.

When are you too out there?

Metrics of success.

Joe and I try and wrestle with the times in our lives where conformity is an absolute necessity for survival, from the times when not conforming is absolutely essential to our survival (paradoxical, I know).

Topics We Hit:

The Military listen or die....

Challenging something out of selfishness versus finding a better way.

You want to be the guy in a cult asking a lot of questions.

What to do when challenging the status quo might mean death.

Sam and I try to tackle the issue raised in a previous podcast about what exactly is the middle road to walk between being content in life and having higher hopes and dreams?

Some Topics Covered:

Why childhood patience is a virtue.

Dealing with missed expectations.

Important questions to always be asking yourself about where you are in life.

The voices and eyes that live inside our head.

I am joined once again with Kenny as we discuss why it is exactly that our television shows, movies, and songs have completely corroded in intellectual quality and weight over the past few decades.

Some Topics Covered:

What made artists take more chances in the 60's?

Elite filmmakers versus the masses.

Can money turn artists into sellouts?

The impact of 'high art'

Are intellectually rigorous forms of art for everyone?

I am joined with Jon Lindinger, who helps me understand why it is so essential that we as humans constantly grow.

Some of the topics we touch upon are:

Investing in one's self due to uncertainty.

Relationships where only one partner is growth oriented.

Growing in the shadows.

Being unable to help others as a result of poor choices.

For more information and self-development coaching you can visit Jon's website xenotheory.org

https://www.xenotheory.org/

I am joined once again with Joe, as we try and figure out why our smartest members in society never seem to debate one another? Some of the areas we explore are:

Why don't we value intellectual discourse like prized fights?

The stacked deck of network television debates.

Does our current population have the intellectual stamina for intellectually heavy discourse?

The social consequences of leaving your echo chamber.

I am joined once again with Alexander as we discuss, an idea floated in 2006's bestseller The Secret and work done by an organization called the Global Consciousness Project which claims to be able to measure varying amounts of consciousness in living organisms such as plants and on a global scale during cataclysmic events.

Some topics we hit upon are; healthy skepticism versus hostile rejection, pathways for fringe science to pass through the gates of scientific rigor, structural and bureaucratic limitations of science in academia, and unexplained coincidences.

Links down below:

The Secret (2006)

https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Rhonda-Byrne/dp/1582701709

The Global Project

http://global-mind.org/gcpintro.html

Kenny and I debate what is the correct balance between being feared and loved.

I am joined with Daniel as he talks about his spiritual journey attending Catholic school, getting confirmed, and how he lost and then rediscovered his spirituality in the form of eastern philosophy. I then share my own personal story of growing up Reformed Jewish, attending Hebrew school, and rekindling with my own spirituality.

Some of the topics we explore are open minded religious instructions versus strict interpretation, existential religious moments, social pressure to conform, and what happens when two religions contradict one another.

This episode is the first part of a larger series in which I am joined by Roman Empire expert Brett Davidoff, as we discuss some of the parallels of ancient Rome to the United States and other historical instances of democratic decay.

In this first part we talk about the functionality of the Roman Republic and what forces lead to it's ultimate demise....

***Historical Correction***

Although the Marian reforms did in fact result in more power being laid in the hands of the commanding generals of Rome instead of the state, the mechanism through which this occurred is different from what was originally stated. The original statement that the Marian reforms resulted in the soldiers being paid directly from the generals, remains only a partial truth. The real reform was that prior to Marius, soldiers provided their own armor, horses, and lodgings allowing only middle and upper class Romans the opportunity to become soldiers. The reforms made it so the state paid for all equipment and made the job of solider a fulltime obligation. Before the reforms, the Roman army was made up of middle to upper class roman citizens who served until a given conflict ended, and then returned to civilian life. The formation of a professional army comprised mostly of the Roman poor, who served very long campaigns and survived entirely on the paychecks they received for serving (which were paid out by their generals). In addition, after Marius, soldiers received pay in the form of land grants after fulfilling the terms of their service.

I am joined once again with Gabby as she helps me examine an instance in my life where I thought I was helping someone in need...but things didn't go exactly how I imagined....

Topics include Karma: afterlife versus present, basic manners, and what exactly constitutes a good person?