In this forty-ninth episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, we interview Matt Yglesias on the subject of "Public Philosophy and Polarization." Before starting his career as a pundit, writer, and philosophical blogger, Matt majored in Philosophy in his undergraduate studies. Matt is a Senior Correspondent and a co-founder of Vox.com, which he started with Ezra Klein and Melissa Bell in 2014. Vox.com is a popular online news publication that offers commentary and explanations about news of the day. Matt’s writings focus on politics and economic policy. He also co-hosts The Weeds podcast twice a week, a show that gets into the weeds of politics and policy. In addition to his writings for Vox, Think Progress, The Atlantic, Talking Points Memo, and The American Prospect, Matt has authored two books, including most recently, The Rent Is Too Damn High, about the policy origins of the middle class housing affordability crisis in America. Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

This forty-eighth episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast is our tenth “breadcrumb” episode so far, this time with Dr. Nancy McHugh, who was our featured guest in Episode 47. For this breadcrumb, Nancy said that she had a funny tidbit about how to read philosophy, and that the answer to the question might surprise us. We had to hear it! In addition to being chair of the Philosophy department at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, Nancy also teaches in the Inside Out Prison Exchange Program, which is some of the background that helps to understand her answer to the question of how to read philosophy. Her most recent book is titled The Limits of Knowledge: Generating Pragmatist Feminist Cases for Situated Knowing (SUNY Press, 2016).  As always, you can reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we may play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

In this forty-seventh episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, we interview Dr. Nancy McHugh on the topic of "Philosophy and Social Change." After the "Know Thyself!" segment, we talk about her recent book, The Limits of Knowledge, inspired by her experiences in Vietnam witnessing continuing victims of Agent Orange. Then, in the next segment, we ask her about her experience teaching in prison in the Inside Out Prison Exchange Program. Dr. McHugh is Professor and Chair of the philosophy department at Wittenberg University. Before publishing The Limits of Knowledge in 2015, Nancy released Feminist Philosophies A-Z in 2007. Her teaching in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program is coordinated with the London Correctional Institute in London, Ohio. Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

In this forty-sixth episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, we interview Amy Leask of Red T Media and Enable Education on the subject of "Philosophy at Home: Re-envisioning Philosophy’s Reach Beyond the Academy." Red T Media is a publisher and Web and mobile application provider for parents who want to introduce their kids to Philosophy. Among Red T Media’s most successful books is Amy’s Think About It! Series, including their most popular edition called How Do You Know What You Know? The series is subtitled “Philosophy for Kids!” Amy is an educator, writer, and children’s digital media producer from Milton, Ontario, in Canada. She is the founder of Red T Media, and co-founder of Enable Education. Enable Education is a provider of online educational content, mobile apps, as well as print and audio-visual educational material, in areas including Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, the so-called “STEM” fields from pre-school to post-secondary education. They are also industry leaders, keynote speakers, TEDx Talkers, and “edutech award winners.”  Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

In this forty-fifth episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, we interview Dr. Brian Butler of the University of North Carolina Asheville. We talk with Brian about two applications of the idea known as "democratic experimentalism" that have been at the heart of his work. One application concerns Constitutional law. The other involves the history of Black Mountain College, an experiment in democratic experimentalism applied to higher education, where art was central to education in the college. Dr. Butler is the Thomas Howerton Distinguished Professor of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at the UNC Asheville. He recently published his book, The Democratic Constitution: Experimentalism and Interpretation, with the University of Chicago Press. He was also the Project Director in 2010 for a large grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities’s “We the People” Grant program, which focused on “Black Mountain College: An Artistic and Educational Legacy.” Black Mountain College was founded in 1933 in North Carolina as was an experimental college with a central role for art in liberal arts education. John Dewey's philosophy of education was a fundamental inspiration for the college. Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

In this forty-fourth episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, Dr. Anthony Cashio decides that "turn-about is fair play." He had been the guest in the very first episode of the show, and in this episode, he turns the tables and grills co-host Dr. Eric Thomas Weber as the guest for the day. The show focuses on Weber's 2013 book, Democracy and Leadership, and then relates Weber's theory of democratic leadership to his work as Executive Director of the Society of Philosophers in America, a.k.a. SOPHIA.  Dr. Weber is the author of four books, including most recently Democracy and Leadership (2013) and Uniting Mississippi (2015). In 2015 he was awarded the Mississippi Humanities Council's Humanities Scholar Award in their Public Humanities Awards program. At the University of Mississippi, he was associate professor of public policy leadership from 2007 to 2016. In 2016, he moved to the University of Kentucky, where he is visiting associate professor in the philosophy department. In 2017, SOPHIA was awarded the major prize from the APA and the Philosophy Documentation Center for excellence and innovation in philosophy programs.  Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

This forty-third episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast is a special new show format, more of a round-table discussion than usual, and with a new theme: The Stories of Our Day. In this first "Stories of Our Day" episode, we're talking about The Game of Thrones! For this discussion, we knew that we wanted to bring Dr. Shane Courtland back on the show, given his specialty in Thomas Hobbes's somewhat bleak philosophy, which has a lot to tell us about the harshness and quasi-realism (if you focus on human beings rather than the dragons) of Game of Thrones.  Dr. Courtland was our guest once before, in Episode 8 of the show, on "Selfish Ethics?" Dr. Courtland is director of the Center for Free Entreprise at Western Virginia University. His recent book is titled Hobbesian Applied Ethics and Public Policy, and was released with Routledge Press in 2017.  Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

This forty-second episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast is a second “breadcrumb” episode with Dr. Larry A. Hickman, who was our featured guest in Episode 40. In that episode, Larry spoke about democracy and education in the United States today. While he was with us, we asked him to comment on a question that we received from a listener earlier this year. Larry, Anthony, and Eric each live or have lived in states that are sometimes prejudged and stigmatized for characteristics you might call "redneck," being significantly rural and agricultural. Jason Fultz had called a few weeks before and asked us to comment on what one can do to overcome stigma for your state. So, we played his question and asked Larry what he thought. Then, we all thought about it and a few answers emerged that may prove helpful for "Overcoming Redneck State Stigma." We especially want to thank Jason for calling in and leaving us a great voicemail and question. Of course, we're grateful to Larry also, who is the former Director of the Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University and who is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy there. It is worth noting also in particular that Larry brought up progress that the state of Mississippi has made especially given the leadership and example that the University of Mississippi, affectionately called Ole Miss, has offered for the state. He also kindly mentioned Eric's book on leadership and higher education in Mississippi, Uniting Mississippi: Democracy and Leadership in the South.   As always, you can reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

This forty-first episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast is a special "breadcrumb" episode with Dr. Larry A. Hickman, who was our featured guest in Episode 40. In that episode, Larry raised a question for listeners for which he said he has an answer: "What's the meaning of life?"  It's the age-old question, the stereotypical philosophical question, yet Larry believes that there can be serious, meaningful answers to it. And, he said that he has one! We want to know our listeners thoughts, of course. At the same time, we couldn't resist and had to hear Larry's answer to the question of the meaning of life. Enjoy this short breadcrumb episode that takes a stab at one of the great questions for all of our lives.  As always, you can reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

This fortieth episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast features an interview with Dr. Larry A. Hickman, former Director of the Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University, talking with co-hosts Eric Weber and Anthony Cashio about John Dewey's rich ideas about democracy and education, as well as what we can say about the state of each today. Dr. Hickman is a prolific scholar, who has written on countless social issues from gay rights to school funding. He and his colleague Dr. Tom Alexander co-edited a two-volume set of some of the greatest resources available for studying Dewey's philosophy, The Essential Dewey, Volumes 1 and 2. Larry also directed the Center for Dewey Studies for many years, obtaining grant after grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and creating an incredible set of digital resources collecting and digitizing Dewey's works and the works of his contemporaries. In this episode, Larry presents some sobering concerns about the state of education in the United States today, as well as what that and other problems mean for democracy here.  Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.