The Wisdom Of
Kristian Urstad and Stephen Webb
In this podcast we explore great works of philosophy and literature and art, and try to pull out of them what’s most interesting and inspiring! Whether they come from the works of Plato, or Dostoevsky or Picasso, here we explore ideas that move mountains and rock the soul! So, come join us, won’t you? Come worship at the alter of ideas, and come celebrate the dancing of thought. Welcome to the Wisdom Of!
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jan 11, 2023 • 10min
Evil
In this episode I try to talk a bit about the nature of evil. I use Susan Neiman's book Evil in Modern Thought as the context.
Jan 7, 2023 • 24min
Byung-Chul Han on Fingers, Phones and the Strangeness of Socrates!
Byung-Chul Han is a south Korean born philosopher and he’s currently professor at the Berlin University of Arts in Germany. In this episode, we talk a bit about his views on phones, social media and the nature of thinking in our contemporary world!
Jan 1, 2023 • 23min
Existentialism - The Philosophy of Affirmation!
For all its focus on the struggles of the human condition and on our spiritual ailments, ultimately existentialism is a deeply affirmative and constructive philosophy!
Dec 24, 2022 • 11min
Santa and Ethics!
Should we lie to children about Santa? What about Santa's exchange of gifts for good behaviour? These are some of the questions I reflect on in this episode! Happy holidays!
Dec 23, 2022 • 19min
Nehamas's Only a Promise of Happiness - The Place of Beauty in a World of Art
Alexander Nehamas is a professor of philosophy and comparative literature at Princeton University. In this episode, we discuss some of the main themes of his book Only a Promise of Happiness.
Dec 16, 2022 • 12min
Atheism! (Part 2/2)
Dec 14, 2022 • 14min
Atheism! (Part 1/2)
In this first of two episodes, I discuss the big bad A word - Atheism!
Dec 11, 2022 • 28min
Pascal's Pensées
Pensées was written by the 17th century French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal. In this episode, we talk about Pascal's famous quote that "the heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of" and his criticism of living the distracted life!
Dec 6, 2022 • 10min
The Allure of Mystery Novels
Why are mystery novels so popular? Maybe it's because, unlike real life, they promise to explain everything!
Dec 4, 2022 • 24min
Homer's Iliad
The Iliad is one of the two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer, the other being The Odyssey. In this episode, we discuss the prophecy about Achilles: that either he'll live a long but uneventful life , or he'll live a short but glorious one!
