Episode 143: Mark Linsenmayer discusses alternative models of education
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What is the definition of “normal” education and how does the guest contrast it with podcasts?
Mm-hmm. Yeah, my dog.
Hello and welcome to Elucidations, an unexpected philosophy podcast. I'm Matt Teichman, and with me today is Mark Linsenmeyer, creator and lead host of the partially examined life, Nakedly Examined Music, Pretty Much Pop, and Philosophy versus improv podcasts, and author of Philosophy for Teens. He is here to discuss alternative models of education. Mark Linsonmeyer, welcome. Thanks for having me, Matt. The phrase alternative models of education seems to suggest that Like it's alternative to the normal kind of education. So what would normal education be and and then what are some alternatives to it?
Well the main alternative that both of us have this experience with is podcasting. So that is Uh and I've been exploring that in a few different ways um with this book, with tutoring, uh but the traditional model would just be Going to university. You have to have an expert there explaining things to you. You have to have uh discussion sections where you are held to account, where you are forced to write. And That's wonderful. I wouldn't be where I was where I am now if I had not done that. I got all the way through graduate school. I abandoned it during the dissertation process, as did my partial exam in like co-hosts. And that is the connecting tissue, is that the three of us who started it were all in the same class at U Texas Austin.
Yeah, and all of us uh got out, we're in the real world, and so felt like we missed philosophy. We wanted to have an excuse to talk about some of these texts, uh reread some of these things. We've now been doing it for over thirteen years, about the same length that you've been doing this show. Indeed. So I remember when it appeared on iTunes right next to my show. Yes. And It's basically a reading group. Uh, we also knew from experience from being TAs and things back in the day that The best way to learn something is to have to teach it. So to have to not just have a conversation, but have a conversation self consciously for an audience. And so really the the listener, the student, at least to start, was
Of secondary interest to us, we didn't talk about who is the target audience. What How much I mean we have ground rules, like we Don't wanna just name drop. Like we wanted something that would be truly accessible. But uh You know, to start we were some of it was that commentary on academia, the fact that we weren't in academia, we're not actually so qualified to talk about academia because we're not academics. We d we interact with them with some frequency now. But as time has gone on, of course, we keep thinking about the project. I recall you talking on some past episode of Maybe this was about Peter Adamson's podcast about how uh you appreciated that he was actually just giving Increasing one's s scholarly knowledge, whereas we
I always found that that The explicit aims of scholarship. They put up barriers, right?
How do college classes create a feedback loop that intensifies learning?
If the point is don't say anything. That is not going to be a Correct. That's not going to be what the scholarly consensus is on this figure, then you don't end up saying anything. So by talking through, by struggling, by being Letting the audience witness us struggle with these texts. Almost never as experts. Occasionally we'll have an expert come on, but we I guess I'm leaving it as an open question as to whether the way that I do it or the way that you do it of having experts come in and basically give their spiel, but you're peppering them and making them clarify and really elucidating so it's not just as if they were watching a lecture on YouTube or hearing the same spiel that this person has given on the lecture circuit again and again.
Yeah, have definitely had people had somebody just on Twitter the the other day saying I think somebody had uh posted something saying The way you have to learn is by writing, by being held to account. It's you don't learn passively. And this and somebody responded, Well, I learned to talk. By listening to the Parsley Exam in Life. You know, of course I I hope I know what he means that A certain level of discourse is
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the definition of “normal” education and how does the guest contrast it with podcasts?
0:13–3:26
2
How do college classes create a feedback loop that intensifies learning?
3:26–7:22
3
Why does the guest consider podcasts an ongoing alternative to formal education?
7:22–11:11
4
What teaching methods does the Partially Examined Life use to make philosophy accessible?
11:11–15:26
5
How does the “reading‑group” format help listeners become active learners?
15:26–20:57
6
What inspired the creation of the Philosophy vs Improv podcast and how does it work?
20:57–27:30
7
What challenges and strategies were involved in writing the book *Philosophy for Teens*?
27:30–32:38
8
How does the idea of a “perpetual student” shape the guest’s view of lifelong learning?
32:38–44:06
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Elucidations
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