This episode exposes modern myths about philosophy, religion, and science. To see the truth about ourselves and our culture, we need to recognize Socrates for who he really was: a religious revolutionary.

Series 1, Origins: How Philosophy Remade Science and Religion

Socrates is perhaps our most famous philosopher. But his life and death defy our dominant ideas of reason and religion. By paying the ultimate price for his philosophy, Socrates became the West's first great religious martyr, changing his world, and ours.

Origins: How Philosophy Remade Science and Religion.

No single person has shaped history more than an obscure Jewish teacher who was executed by the Roman empire. Today, we know him as a god, a myth, a savior. In fact, he was the greatest philosopher of his time: Jesus of Nazareth.

Origins: How Philosophy Remade Science and Religion.

Since the modern age is over and modernity is a myth, what comes next? This episode offers a history of the current revolution in our greatest knowledge technology: the decline of literary and the rise of a new Aural Age. To respond to the end of reading, we need a new vision of philosophy and education. Welcome to the Becoming Human Project.

Freedom without choice is an illusion, but choice is not freedom. This episode features the first part of my series on how modernity traps us by increasing meaningless choices while destroying our freedom. Learning why we have so many choices is the first step towards accepting out situation, then transforming it with philosophy as a way of life.

Harvard Astrophysicist Avi Loeb discusses his book, Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth, which lays out his scientific hypothesis that 'Oomuamua, the first interstellar object detected in our solar system, is likely equipment from an Extraterrestrial civilization.

We discuss the state of science, why it has been closed-minded about extraterrestrial life, and what the future of science, and humanity, might be.

Makoto Fujimura is an internationally recognized artist who has developed a unique fusion of traditional Japanese painting, Nihonga, with abstract expressionism. A leading writer, speaker, and thinker on the intersection of art, faith, and culture, Fujimura published Art and Faith: A Theology of Making, with Yale University Press in 2021. In this conversation, Fujimura shares his story and his wisdom on how art is a way of becoming human, how it can help us live with suffering, and even reveal the divine world in everyday life. Topics covered include Miyazaki's vision of a post-atomic Japan, how William Blake's Jerusalem transformed the young Fujimura's life, and why the Western separation of nature and culture is foreign to Japan.

Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher and religious thinker, created one of the most consequential bodies of writing in human history.

One of the greatest literary writers, he is also widely regarded as the most important philosophers and theologians to create much of the 20th century: movements like existentialism, modern theology, and even forms of modern nihilism can be traced back to the work of Kierkegaard.

Kierkegaard is known as a delightful and difficult figure; like Socrates, he is ironic and hard to understand. He is also my first great teacher, so to honor his personal and historical influence, I am doing an 8 episode series on Soren Kierkegaard: The Poet of Existence.

Welcome to Episode One: Why Does Kierkegaard Matter?, where I ask why Kierkegaard matters, and explain his historical, philosophical, and spiritual importance today.