Ep. 38 - Ready Players Three - With Justin Ganser and Matt Knox
The Liberal Soul
This episode of The Liberal Soul is all about video games. I am joined by my two longtime friends Justin and Matt to list our top five favourite video games. We also chat along the way about why we love video games, what our earliest memories of them are, what they have done for our lives, and much more. Thanks for listening to the show! Twitter: Email: Direct Downloads:
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Ep. 37 - The Conservative Sensibility
The Liberal Soul
In this episode I discuss parts of the book The Conservative Sensibility by the American writer George Will. I wanted to branch out a little and read a book that is infused with Conservative philosophy to chew on. I especially was interested in Conservative philosophy that has no time for the modern manifestation of the alt right and QANON thinking; as well as a philosophy that self identifies as not needing theism. George Will manages to eschew both of those liabilities. In the book I talk about: - The universality of human nature - Natural Rights at the heart of the American founding - and...
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Ep. 36 - The Constitution of Knowledge - Part 2
The Liberal Soul
This is the second part of two on the book The Constitution of Knowledge by Jonathan Rauch. In this episode I discuss elements of the book such as: James Madison as a harbinger for the Constitution of Knowledge, the Falibilist and Empirical rules, earned authority and credibility, the reality based community is not the only community, a lesson from wikipedia, innovation in the social and political world, being thick skinned, cancelling as performance, what to say, free expression as protecting minority rights, walking away and not taking the bait, and sticking to what the reality based...
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Ep. 35 - The Constitution of Knowledge - Part 1
The Liberal Soul
This is part one of a two parter on the book The Constitution of Knowledge by Jonathan Rauch. This book is about how we socially gather knowledge, and how it is distributed and adhered to in what Rauch calls the reality based community. I conceived of this book as being related to the liberal soul in the idea that knowledge is about disconfirmation; thus is something we only have provisionally, but still with degrees of certainty. This formulation always allows for further work to be done without ever having a final goal of knowledge. In part one I discuss different backgrounds to...
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Ep. 34 - The Life Narrative Of Frederick Douglass
The Liberal Soul
For this episode I do a book that I wasn't even thinking of doing for this podcast before I started reading it. It's The Life Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. There were a number of points of this book that struck me as relevant to The Liberal Soul; so I jotted them down. In this episode I discuss: birthdays, seperation from a parent, unjust punishments, slavery and the Soviet Union, rock bottoms, bad faith actors, meritocracy and cheating. Thank you for listening to The Liberal Soul. If you are interested in the full catalogue here is the link: You can follow on Twitter...
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Ep. 33 - To Frisbee, That Is The Answer - (With Tobias Gray and Nicole Perrin)
The Liberal Soul
In this episode of The Liberal Soul I talk all things Ultimate Frisbee with my friends Tobias Gray and Nicole Perrin. We chat about our first encounters with the sport, the physicality of it, the many ways which it differs from other sports, the social and communal elements within it, and why we love to spend our free time engaged in Ultimate. This episode was a blast, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If you enjoy The Liberal Soul you can find all episodes at this link: You can follow the podcast on twitter: On Facebook: Email: Thanks again for listening, you found The...
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Ep. 32 - Free Will Revisited - (With Christian Cacibauda)
The Liberal Soul
Through no fault of my own, I am going back to Free Will! I am joined today on the podcast by Christian Cacibauda to talk once again about Free Will (with the primary text being Free Will by Sam Harris). Christian is an old friend from my Korea days and I thought it would be fun to chat with him about the concept because of our shared interest in Harris's work. We take a serpintine path in this episode, but along the way we discuss: - Historicism, Fate, many examples of Free Will not existing, our thoughts on how this would shake up our lives, how a lack of Free Will could undermine our...
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Ep. 31 - Letters To A Young Contrarian - Part Two
The Liberal Soul
Welcome to part two of my episodes on the book Letters To A Young Contrarian by Christopher Hitchens. In the continuation of the book, in this episode I talk about: being a self appointed thinker, how being a good friend sometimes means imposing yourself into your friends delusions, the universalism of people and how everywhere suffers from the narcissism of the small difference, how people everywhere just want the unquenchable sense of dignity, the uses and disuses of humor in dissidence, the next great goals for dissidents, and the importance of inspiration in mental and social life. Please...
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Ep. 30 - Letters To A Young Contrarian - Pt. 1
The Liberal Soul
In this episode I discuss the book Letters To A Young Contrarian.
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Bonus: Merry Christmas
The Liberal Soul
In this bonus episode I talk about Christmas.
info_outlineIn this short bonus episode I meditate on why Christmas is such a wonderful holiday beyond its religious affiliations.