213. What Is Evil?

Also: are we getting any better at assessing COVID risk? This episode originally aired on December 12, 2021. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. 

Also: how do phone cameras affect the way we experience live events? This episode originally aired on December 5th, 2021. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. 

Also: how much does confidence really matter? This episode originally aired on November 21st, 2021. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. 

<p>What is evil? Who is evil? Does evil exist? Who decides? Can we scream over turkey at grandma’s house? Let’s chat Critical Ponerology with scholar, professor, author of <i>Evil: A Critical Primer,</i> and a gem of a person, Dr. Kenneth MacKendrick of the University of Manitoba ... Show More

Menticide, or the systematic and intentional undermining of a person's conscious mind, effectively "killing" or destroying their independent thought and beliefs, is one of the most effective ways to supress revolutionary change in a society. So how do we protect our communities f ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss morality by taking a long hard look at the idea of guilt. The 18th century politician and philosopher Edmund Burke was once moved to comment: “Guilt was never a rational thing; it distorts all the faculties of the human mind, it perverts them, it l ... Show More

This episode is an upload to Spotify of my response to Abigail Thorn's "Was Nietzsche Woke?" video. This video was previously uploaded to Youtube.Watch me spend more time than the entire length of Abigail Thorn's video explaining why it is a superficial hit piece based on straine ... Show More

<p>In this episode, we discuss Alasdair MacIntyre’s landmark book <em>After Virtue</em>. MacIntyre, an ex-Marxist and committed anti-liberal, offers a defense of the Aristotelian tradition and its search for the truly common good against the dominant tendency of liberal societies ... Show More

Dr. Jennifer Frey discusses St. Thomas Aquinas's understanding of sin as a privation of good and a failure to achieve one's proper end. Aquinas attributes the causes of sin to human nature's fallen state, resulting in a darkened intellect, disturbed passions, and a disordered wil ... Show More

<p>Arthur Brooks, an economist and former head of the American Enterprise Institute, believes that there is only one remedy for our political polarization: love. In this 2021 episode, we ask if Brooks is a fool for thinking this — and if perhaps you are his kind of fool?</p><p> < ... Show More

David and Tamler tackle the topic chosen by our beloved Patreon supporters in the first VBW madness tournament – Schopenhauer. We discuss his essays "On the Sufferings of the World" and "The Vanity of Existence," their strikingly modern perspectives on human life and behavior and ... Show More