Wisdom at Work

Marci Baranski destroys greenhouse gases for a living. After getting her PhD in biology and society, Marci became a Presidential Management Fellow and pursued a career as public servant, working for the US Department of Agriculture as a climate change specialist. Due in part to the Trump administration’s systematic rollback of climate policies, Marci transitioned … Continue reading "Ep...

Conventional wisdom regards the “STEM” disciplines as diametrically opposed to the humanities in general, and philosophy in particular. But Zachary Pirtle is living proof that this view is wrong headed. After studying philosophy and engineering as an undergraduate, Zach went on to receive an MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Arizona State University and … Continue re...

What can philosophy tell us about immigration and identity? Amy Reed-Sandoval, assistant professor of philosophy at UNLV, is the founder of two Philosophy for Children (P4C) initiatives: one in Oaxaca, Mexico, and one at the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso. She is the author of the new book, Socially Undocumented: Identity and Immigration Justice. Amy … Continue reading "Episode #14: Amy Reed-...

Tim Richardson is a Washington, DC based multi-client government affairs and mediaconsultant. After extensive political and business publishing and two congressional aidestints, Richardson has become the nation’s only private sector consultant that has workedon Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon oil spill restoration. In addition, he has servedas Wildlife Forever’s Washington, DC representative si...

Tim Richardson is a Washington, DC, based multi-client government affairs and mediaconsultant. After extensive political and business publishing and two congressional aidestints, Richardson has become the nation’s only private sector consultant that has workedon Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon oil spill restoration. In addition, he has servedas Wildlife Forever’s Washington, DC representative s...

With the possible exception of William Bennett, Andrew Light is the first philosopher to work in a presidential administration. Andrew has two interrelated careers. One is as an academic. He is University Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy, and Atmospheric Sciences, and Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at George Mason University. In his … Continue reading "...

Over the last decade, Greg Sadler has emerged as the “YouTube philosopher.” Someone was inevitably going to fill that role, but the title is well deserved: Greg has produced around 1400 videos, has 84,000 subscribers and, at this writing, has received almost 8,000,000 views. After leaving a conventional academic career as a philosophy professor, Greg … Continue reading "Episode #...

Over the last decade, Greg Sadler has emerged as the “YouTube philosopher.” Someone was inevitably going to fill that role, but the title is well deserved: Greg has produced around 1400 videos, has 84,000 subscribers and, at this writing, has received almost 8,000,000 views. After leaving a conventional academic career as a philosophy professor, Greg … Continue reading "Episode #...

Episode 8: Dan Fincke (Part 2) In the second part of our conversation (Part 1 here), Dan walks us through his period of experimentation in starting an online teaching business, and how he learned to think like an entrepreneur and business person. We end by diving into his brilliant interpretation of the Star Wars saga, and how Nietzsche can help us make sense of The Last Jedi.

Dan Fincke is a “Rogue” par excellence. An expert in ethics and the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, he runs an online teaching business and offers philosophical counseling from his home in France. Of all the people I met in graduate school–including myself–Dan Fincke is the one who most deserves the title “real philosopher.” His personal … Continue reading "E...

One night, after completing a doctorate in philosophy at Oxford University and wondering what he was going to do with his life, Matthew Stewart was shooting pool with a group of graduating seniors. They were going on about the jobs they were about to begin in something called “management consulting.” For lack of a better … Continue reading "Episode #6: Matthew Stewart"

David Brendel wears many hats–philosophical counselor, executive coach, and psychiatrist. After catching the philosophy bug reading the Great Books at Yale, David pursued a medical career at Harvard Medical School. Refusing to choose between medicine and philosophy, he enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Chicago, where he did pioneering work in the … Continue reading "Episod...

A “philosophy company” might sound like an oxymoron, but Ryan Stelzer had the audacity to found one. After studying philosophy at the University of Chicago, Ryan landed a Presidential Management Fellowship, and went to Washington to work in the White House as a management consultant. Torn between returning to the academy to complete his PhD … Continue reading "Episode #4: Ryan St...

I’m thrilled to announce that Wisdom at Work is officially a member of Lyceum! Lyceum is a new app whose hand-curation cuts through the noise of a million podcasts to help people find great educational shows and have great conversations about them, right in the app. Download the app at lyceum.fm and then check out … Continue reading "Introducing Lyceum"

A “philosophy company” might sound like an oxymoron, but Ryan Stelzer had the audacity to found one. After studying philosophy at the University of Chicago, Ryan landed a Presidential Management Fellowship, and went to Washington to work in the White House as a management consultant. Torn between returning to the academy to complete his PhD … Continue reading "Episode #3: Ryan St...

After studying philosophy and training to become a Jesuit at Fordham in the early ’90s, Sal moved to San Francisco. Here, he served as a hospital chaplain for the dying, at the veritable ground zero of the AIDS plague. Years later, he left the Jesuits and academia, and went on to a successful career in … Continue reading "Episode #2: Sal Giambanco (Part 2)"

If I had to pick the most interesting person I’ve ever met, it would probably be my friend and mentor Sal Giambanco. When we first met over ten years ago at our common alma mater, Fordham University, he described what he did for a living as “philosophical counseling for CEOs.” Needless to say, he had … Continue reading "Episode #1: Sal Giambanco (Part 1)"

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