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Join us each month as we engage in philosophical discussions about the most common-place topics with host Jack Russell Weinstein, professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Dakota. He is the director of The Institute for Philosophy in Public Life.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Everyday philosophy • ethics of suicide, addiction, madness • moral psychology: denial, self-deception, emotions • privacy, memory, saving objects • social mobility, education • political philosophy: Marx, peace, violence, evil • nature, agriculture, Indigenous thought • technology, AI, virtual reality • identity, fashion, FreudThis podcast brings academic philosophy into conversation with everyday experience through monthly, interview-driven discussions led by philosopher Jack Russell Weinstein. Across the episodes, guests from philosophy and adjacent fields examine how familiar parts of life—our choices, relationships, institutions, emotions, and technologies—raise deeper questions about meaning, responsibility, and what it takes to live well.
A recurring focus is moral psychology and the ethical pressures people face in real situations. The conversations explore topics such as suicide, addiction, and madness, considering how agency, suffering, social context, and stigma shape the way we understand these experiences. Other episodes look at how denial and self-deception work, why people may reject evident facts, and what this reveals about identity and fear. The show also treats negative emotions like shame, guilt, and anger as philosophically significant, asking how discomfort can contribute to moral development and a meaningful life, and it revisits perfectionism through the idea of living “good enough.”
The podcast also connects philosophy to public life and broad social questions. Discussions address ordinary participation in wrongdoing, nonviolence and peace activism, social mobility and the personal costs of education, and political pressures on inquiry and teaching. Historical and cross-cultural perspectives appear through engagements with influential thinkers and traditions, including Freud and Marx, as well as Indigenous philosophy as a relational framework for understanding nature and community.
Several episodes examine how we value and relate to the world around us—what we save for posterity, what agriculture is for, how fashion expresses identity, how the humanities illuminate human–nature relationships, and how privacy and forgetting affect the good life. Emerging technology and metaphysics also appear in explorations of virtual reality, consciousness, and what counts as “real.”
