The Wisdom Of

In this episode, we discuss the artistry and beauty of sports. 

Charles Baudelaire was a french poet and art critic who was born in 1821. His most famous work, published in 1857, was The Flowers of Evil.  The Flowers of Evil, explores, among other things, the good, the bad and the ugly of modern city life. In this episode, we explore themes like the connection between beauty and morality, and beauty as the commonplace. 

A little something to get you going on those sluggish mornings! 

The 1955 novel Lolita was written by the Russian American writer Vladimir Nabokov. The story’s about a European middle aged professor, Humbert, who’s obsessed with a 12 year old American girl, Dolores, whom he nicknames Lolita. In this episode we explore themes like beauty, desire and youth. 

The Dispossessed is a science fiction novel written by the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. It was published in 1974. The story is about radically different societies on two twin planets, Urras  and Annares. Urras is in part a capitalist economy, while Annares is without a government and anarchistic. In this episode, we explore the themes of promise-keeping, beauty, and environmental degradation. 

Brave New World was written by the English writer Aldous Huxley. It’s a dystopian novel and it was published in 1932. The story is set in a London six hundred years in the future. In this episode, we explore the themes of consumerism, pleasure and happiness. 

The Next Generation is a TV series created by Gene Roddenberry, which first aired in 1987. The show follows the adventures of the ship the USS Enterprise, as it explores the Milky Way galaxy, with captain Jean Luc Picard at the helm. In this episode, we discuss how it is Star Trek tries to make us aware of the shortcomings of the values we hold today, specifically, values centered around work and the pursuit of wealth.  

Friedrich Nietzsche  was a German philosopher born in 1844.  His most famous and probably greatest work is Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In this episode, we take a look at some of the things he has to say about science and truth. 

They discuss the connection between Hamlet and Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground. The underground man challenges conventional notions of happiness and success. This chapter explores the theme of perfection. They examine the presence of madness in the human spirit.

The Handmaid’s Tale was written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, published in 1985. It’s a dystopian novel, set in a patriarchal, religious totalitarian state known as the Gilead Republic. The protagonist is a woman named Offred, who’s belongs to the group of handmaids, a group of women who are forcibly assigned to produce children for the ruling class of men.