The Wisdom Of
Episodes
Science & Tech - The Dispossessed
14 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 d...
Science & Tech - Brave New World
07 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 s...
Science & Tech - Star Trek
31 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 Enterpr...
Science & Tech - Nietzsche
24 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher born in 1844. His most famous and probably greatest work is Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In this episode, ...
Science & Tech - Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground
18 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Listener Requests - Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
11 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Handmaid’s Tale was written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, published in 1985. It’s a dystopian novel, set in a patriarchal, religious tot...
Listener Requests - Lord of the Flies
03 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 a...
Listener Requests - Shakespeare's Hamlet
26 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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,...
Listener Requests - Dostoevsky's The Possessed
18 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ca...
Ancient Happiness
12 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we compare modern versus ancient conceptions of happiness.
Listener Requests - Emily Dickinson
06 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 affi...
A Thanks to the Listeners!
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tragedy - Moby Dick
21 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Moby Dick was written by the American writer Herman Melville, and it was published in 1851
Tragedy - Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents
15 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Civilization and its Discontents is a book by the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, published in 1930.
Tragedy - Euripides' Bacchae
08 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 traged...
Tragedy - Waiting For Godot
31 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Waiting for Godot is a play composed by the incomparable Irish writer Samuel Beckett, first written in French in 1948.
Films - Rashomon
24 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Rashomon is a groundbreaking 1950 film directed by the master Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.
Films - The Tree of Life
17 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Tree of Life is a 2011 film directed by the incomparable Terence Malick.
Q&A in the Deep Dark Forest!
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We finally try to answer listener questions in our first group discussion!
Greek Hospitality
04 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Schweitzer's Reverence For Life
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Films - Fight Club
27 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Fight Club is a 1999 American film directed by David Fincher. In this episode, we discuss the consumer life, Marcuse' s one-dimensional man, Niet...
Films - Fellini's 8 1/2
19 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
8 1/2 is a 1963 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini.
Films - Star Wars
11 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Star Wars is a science fiction movie from 1977. In this episode, we discuss Zoroastrianism, fairy tales, the Tao, and the character of Odysseus.
Empedocles' Cosmic Powers
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Paintings - Van Gogh's Starry Night
29 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch painter who was born in 1853 and died in 1890. In 1889, plagued by depression and illness, Van Gogh committed himself t...
Paintings - Frida Kahlo
22 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter who has become one of the most significant artists of the 20th century.
Paintings - Munch's The Scream
15 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Scream is a painting by the Norwegian Edvard Munch. It's a forerunner of the Expressionist movement.
Seneca on the WIDE life!
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Paintings - Picasso's The Young Ladies of Avignon
08 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Created in 1907, The Young Ladies of Avignon is the single most important turning point in the evolution of modern art.
Masks
01 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Paintings - The Lascaux Cave Paintings
01 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Lascaux Cave Paintings belong to the Paleolithic Age and are some of the oldest paintings in the world.
Authenticity - Camus' The Stranger
24 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Season 5 Authenticity - The Stranger is about a young man who commits a murder without motive or explanation.
Carl Jung and Rollo May on the power of words and symbols!
19 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Oh my, how much of our horizon do we lose when we impoverish our language!
Authenticity - Alice Munro
17 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Season 5 Authenticity - Alice Munro is a Canadian short story writer.
Aristotle on Friendship
12 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Authenticity - Salinger's Catcher in the Rye
11 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Season 5 Authenticity - Catcher in the Rye is about a young adolescent seeking authenticity.
An ode to Dogs!
04 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For you dog lovers!
Authenticity - Joyce's Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
03 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Season 5 Authenticity - Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man is about a young man who leaves his religion and his family to try to become an artist.
Authenticity - Bob Dylan
28 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Season 5 Authenticity - Bob Dylan is an American singer song-writer born in 1941.
Authenticity - Kafka's Metamorphosis
20 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Season 5 Authenticity - The Metamorphosis is about a traveling salesman who wakes up as an insect.
Morality - Rousseau's Emile
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Season 4 Morality - Rousseau's Emile is about the education of a small child in nature.
Morality - Conrad's Heart of Darkness
06 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Season 4 Morality - In the Heart of Darkness the central character Marlow tells the story of his journey up the Congo River where he meets Kurtz, an...
Morality - Gide's The Immoralist
28 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gide's The Immoralist describes a confessional account of a man seeking the truth about his own nature.
Morality - Sophocles' Oedipus Rex
20 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sophocles' Oedipus Rex is a Greek tragedy about Oedipus, who is fated to kill his father and marry his mother.
Morality - The Story of Abraham and Isaac
13 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis is about God's command to Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac.
Morality - Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment
06 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It's about a man who commits a murder and has to deal with his guilt.
Happiness - John Keats
30 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
John Keats is a Romantic poet. In this episode, we discuss a letter he wrote in 1817 where he talked about something he called "Negative Capabili...
Happiness - F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
24 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, the novel depicts narrator Nick Carraway&...
Happiness - Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus
16 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay about the absurd, published in 1942.
Happiness - Tolstoy's Anna Karenina
10 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Anna Karenina is a story of love and adultery set against the background of aristocratic society in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
Happiness - Epicurus' Letter to Menoeceus
02 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Epicurus’ Letter to Menoeceus is a brief summary of his philosophy of happiness, to his friend and disciple of the letter’s name.
Happiness - Herodotus
29 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In The Histories, Herodotus tells the story of the encounter between King Croesus and Solon. They discuss what it means to be happy.
Love - Thomas Mann's Death in Venice
23 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mann's Death in Venice is about a great writer who visits Venice and becomes obsessed with a beautiful youth.
Love - Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov
19 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov is a story of patricide, and it centers around the clashes of values and world views of the Karamazov family.
Love - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
09 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Frankenstein sets out to create a person in what is one of the most unusual scientific experiments ever conceived...
Love - Homer's Odyssey
06 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Homer's Odyssey is about the Greek hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the Trojan War where his wife Penelope and son Telemachus await ...
Love - Sappho
29 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sappho was a greek poet from the island of Lesbos in the Aegean sea. Sappho's sensual poetry often centred around the overwhelming power of love ...
Love - Plato's Symposium
28 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Symposium is one of Plato's greatest dialogues. It's one of the most influential texts on love in the western world. In this episode, we...
Meaning - Cervantes' Don Quixote
15 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Don Quixote is a book written by Miguel de Cervantes published in 1605. It's about an everyday man who one day turns into a knight errant and dec...
Meaning - Hemingway's A Clean Well Lighted Place
14 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is a five page short story written by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1933. It’s about three people and their individual ...
Meaning - Camus' The Plague
03 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Plague is a book written by Albert Camus, published in 1947. The story is about a deadly plague that ravages the town of Oran, and the people who ...
Meaning - Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra
31 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a book written by Friedrich Nietzsche, published in 1883. The story chronicles the sayings and the travels of the sage Zarat...
Meaning - The Book of Job
30 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Book of Job is a book from the Old Testament. It was written around the 6th century BC. The story is about Job, a completely innocent and upright ...
Meaning - The Epic Of Gilgamesh
24 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest known story we have. It’s from Mesopotamia and it dates back all the way to around 1800 BC. The story is about G...