The Wisdom Of

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...

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. 

Notes from the Underground is a novella, written by the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was published in 1864. The novella presents itself as an excerpt from the meandering thoughts and memories of a stewing, secluded and unnamed narrator who’s a retired government bureaucrat living in St. Petersburg.

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.

Lord of the Flies is a novel by the English author William Golding, published in 1954. It’s a book about a group of boys whose airplane crashes on an uninhabited island somewhere in the Pacific ocean. The story is about their attempt to govern themselves without any adults around.

William Shakespeare was an English playwright born in 1564. Some of his most famous works include Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, Macbeth and Hamlet. His plays, which include tragedies, comedies and histories, have been translated into nearly every language and they’re performed more than any other playwright. He’s often considered to be the greatest writer in the English lang...

The Possessed, or Demons, is a novel written by the Russian writer Dostoevsky and it was first published in 1871. It’s a story concerned with the catastrophic consequences of the political and moral nihilism that were becoming more prevalent in Russia in the 1860s. 

In this episode we compare modern versus ancient conceptions of happiness.

Emily Dickinson was an American poet, born in Massachusetts, in 1830. In this episode, we explore her views on death, nature, the senses, and the affirmation of life. 

Moby Dick was written by the American writer Herman Melville, and it was published in 1851

Civilization and its Discontents is a book by the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, published in 1930.

The Bacchae was written by the Greek playwright and tragedian Euripides around 410 BC. It’s no doubt one of his most provocative and dreadful tragedies.

Waiting for Godot is a play composed by the incomparable Irish writer Samuel Beckett, first written in French in 1948. 

Rashomon is a groundbreaking 1950 film directed by the master Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.

The Tree of Life is a 2011 film directed by the incomparable Terence Malick.

We finally try to answer listener questions in our first group discussion! 

Fight Club is a 1999 American film directed by David Fincher. In this episode, we discuss the consumer life, Marcuse' s one-dimensional man, Nietzsche's death of God, and our tendency to submit to authority. 

8 1/2 is a 1963 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini.