DiscoverThe Heart and the Head
The Heart and the Head
Claim Ownership

The Heart and the Head

Author: Dr. Brenton G. Smith

Subscribed: 1Played: 5
Share

Description

The Heart and the Head is a podcast about changing our lives through taking up a philosophical life of seeking after truth. This is considered by examining the lives and teachings of great philosophers and thinkers throughout history.

 

This is a show about how to change everything. It is for those of us who no longer find themselves reflected in the cultural narrative of seeking happiness through pursuit of wealth, achievement, or self-expression.

 

In Republic, Plato tells a parable, imploring each of us to “turn around” from the darkness of a life lived in the ignorance of a metaphorical cave to the light of a life outside that cave. In the cave's darkness, we identify external things such as success or pleasure as most real and as the way to happiness. When we turn around and begin to exit the cave, we begin to realize that the most real things are rather internal, spiritual things, things which Plato associates with a higher power which he refers to as the Divine. 

 

Plato’s parable speaks just as much to us today as to the ancient Greeks. To take up the philosophical life means changing our whole way of living, changing what we desire and value, and committing to that change with our whole selves. This is a podcast devoted to helping us better understand how to live such a philosophical life.

https://brentongsmith.com/podcast/

9 Episodes
Reverse
In this episode, I look at Jesus's arrest and his words to Peter, "all who draw the sword will die by the sword," in the context of a culture which increasingly condones the use of force, and sometimes violence to attain one's ends. -------------- If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com The passage I’ll look at for the next show will be Jesus’s confrontation with the Pharisees about paying taxes to Caesar, ...
In this episode, I explain the new format I'll be using for the Heart and the Head going forward. New episodes of the Heart and the Head subsequently will be released with the title "The Heart and the Head - Reflecting on Scripture", and will feature Bible passages as springboards to reflection. I discuss why I am making this change and justify it in this podcast. If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com
In this show, I'll discuss the problem of polarization and identity politics. I will discuss the phenomenon of polarization: what it is, and why it happens. By first figuring out the answers this show to what polarization is and why it occurs, next show, we will move to examine how to solve it. Topics discussed are as follows: -What is Polarization? In order to discuss this topic, I will look at French Philosopher Rene Girard's conception of Mimetic desire, which will help us understand in a...
In these three episodes, I look at different ways we might respond and choose to experience suffering we encounter in our lives. This episode looks at how we might begin to find meaning in our suffering. There are a few guiding texts which I reference during this discussion: Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, Huxley's Brave New World, and the Bible's Book of Job. If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com
In these three episodes, I look at different ways we might respond and choose to experience suffering we encounter in our lives. This episode looks at an option before us when we suffer: to see our suffering as meaningless. There are a few guiding texts which I reference during this discussion: Shakespeare’s Macbeth; as well as works by Albert Camus, Friedrich Nietzsche, and William Faulkner. If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to thehearta...
In the next three episodes, I look at different ways we might respond and choose to experience suffering we encounter in our lives. ·There are a few guiding texts which I'll use for my discussions over these shows: primarily Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning; Shakespeare’s Macbeth; Bessel Van De Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score, Brene Browne’s lecture series, The Power of Vulnerability, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World; comments by the German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche on this theme...
2 - Hitting Bottom

2 - Hitting Bottom

2024-09-2734:26

In this episode, we consider the role that suffering and pain play in the philosophical life. Suffering and pain can cause us to "hit a bottom", propelling us to live differently as a result. We consider this topic through a discussion of Boethius's consolation of philosophy, also considering a diversity of resources from Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, an opinion piece by David Brooks in the NYTimes, Terrence Malick's film A Hidden Life, and the biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Let...
In the first episode of the podcast, I outline goals of the podcast, address the question of why anyone would want to live philosophically in the first place, and explain the name of the podcast - the Heart and the Head. If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com
In this episode, I reflect on the following passage from Ephesians 4:14 in the Bible: "Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, g...
Comments