Shows / The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast
Life is complicated. It is afflicted with more big questions than big answers. As one is tested by the suffering and irrationality of life, the questions become more compelling and imperative, and the answers become more urgent and necessary in order to be a good person and to live a happy life. What does it mean to be a good person? What is a happy life? What is love? Who am I before I was told who I am? Why haven’t I found myself yet? Why do I have regrets? Is the world just? Everything seems…
Episodes
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“At what age do you stop being a child?”
“At the age you forgive yourself. Stop worrying. Treat good and bad times just the same. Own yourself. Hope for something. See differences as differences. Live…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Remember your dreams?”
“Your life is like a ship. Your dreams are your compass. Forget your dreams and you will be lost, run aground, and sink.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Is it okay to be yourself?”
“Think like a loner. Trust your inner voice. Be yourself, but always, be a better friend to yourself.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Was Michael Corleone right to kill his brother Fredo?”
“Was Michael’s decision to order Fredo’s death moral or immoral? What does Kantianism say? What would Kant do?”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“What are the 10 best philosophy jokes?”
“Here are just some of my favorite philosophy jokes. I have more than 10, but I’m not trying to be Thoreau.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Is social media bad for you?”
“Be a rebel! Don’t dance. Be extremely honest! Don’t pray. Be insanely happy! Don’t wait. Be what you’re good at! Don’t try.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Can people change?”
“Human behavior is stubborn. Humans don’t easily change. Still, Scrooge changed. Three revelations drive personal change.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Is quitting the answer?”
“You will always have troubles. Don’t quit! Start over! Suffering with purpose is not suffering.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Are you killing your life? (Part 2)”
“Don’t fear solitude! Don’t confuse the price of something with its value! Don’t kill your life!”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Are you killing your life? (Part 1)”
“Don’t be afraid to think for yourself! Don’t fear your individuality! Don’t be afraid to go your own way!”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“How perfect are you?”
“You not only do your best, but you wear yourself out in tireless pursuit of unnatural, unattainable, and insatiable perfection.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Should you change the past?”
“Your life is an unfolding of the past. The past is not dead. You are here and now. The past is not fixed, but it can be fixed. You can change the past in the…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Should your life have a purpose?”
“Living is your only reason for being. You were not born to be a means to an end. You were not created for a purpose. Follow this eight-fold path to your…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Should you just blow along with the wind?”
“No matter how ferociously you rebel against it, you can’t stop change. Nothing you do will keep you safe and protect you from it. Change is inevitable. Go…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“What is your relationship with money?”
“Why isn’t enough, enough? We can’t get enough of what we don’t really want. We focus on what we don’t have rather than on what we do have. You can choose your…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Do you need to be alone?”
“Your only duty in life is to be yourself. Only in solitude are you free to find and experience your true self. Solitude is not empty. It is full of answers.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Do you want more freedom in your life?”
“What is the best way to live in order to possess both the negative freedom of Diogenes and the positive freedom of Aristippus?”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Do you have as much freedom as you want in your life?”
“Choose your relationships. Conquer yourself. Embrace your other half. Be in charge of your own freedom.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Are you a good person?”
“Does Christianity make a difference? Is your society a better place because of the influence of religion? Are you a better person?”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“What would you do today if you didn’t need money?”
“Life is complicated with serious challenges. Growth and change are a response to challenges. We begin to live by not running away from the very things you…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Is Democracy Doomed?”
“We are living through Vico’s final stage of history, the age of the individual. This will lead to a war of all against all, barbarism, and the…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“What is the best Golden Rule to live by?”
“The Golden Rule is a sensible path to follow to be a good person. But which one? Positive or negative? Jesus or Confucius?”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“When you’re old, how will you wish you spent more time?”
“When you’re 80, you will regret that you didn’t love more, forgive more, and dream more.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Should you fear death? (Part 2)”
“Should you fear God? How does death feel? How does eternity feel? Is life too short? In death, what can you take with you? Is it normal to think about death?”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Should you fear death? (Part 1)”
“Why should you go on living? What is the purpose of life? Is there another kind of life after death? Is your fear of death real or imaginary?"
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Did God write a book?”
“A divine being that is all-knowing, all-good, and all-powerful would not write a book. And if God wrote a book, then God is not a god.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“What do you really want? (Part 2)”
“You don’t know what you want because your desires are fleeting and impermanent. Forcing your life to fit your desires is like forcing your head to fit your…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“What do you really want? (Part 1)”
“If you don’t know why you need it and you just want more of what can’t make you happy and what you already have enough of, then perhaps you don’t really want…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Chasing a dream? Walk, don’t run!”
“Life’s most precious possessions are not found by striving, but by waiting. Waiting gives space to the unexpected that it needs to happen.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Is there one right way to be happy?”
“Yes, 2 plus 2 can only equal 4. But not only 2 plus 2 can equal 4, just as there is more than one right way to happiness. Start by not looking for it.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Why do good people commit evil acts?”
“You are at war with yourself. Your personality is home to two warring egos, one is evil and imprisoned in the shadows, and the other is good and free in the…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Are you trying too hard?”
“Life’s most precious gifts are not found by searching and struggling, but by waiting. Surfers don’t make waves. They just wait, and the waves come to them.”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Why is good good and bad bad?”
“Why is fast good and slow bad? Why is new good and old bad? Why is forward good and backward bad? Why is tomorrow good and yesterday bad?”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“What do you fear? (Part 2)”
“Are you afraid of who you really are? Do you fear life? Do you fear death? Are you afraid of being afraid? Fear not!”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“What do you fear? (Part 1)”
“Do you fear freedom, conformity, individuality, personhood, or parenthood? Fear not!”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Why is now not now and prayer not prayer?”
“Our mind deceives us. What we refer to as the present is really the past. Prayer is unnecessary, since even before we pray, our prayers already have been…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Is life a game?”
“In a game, winning is everything. But how does one win at life? The game of life is filled with suffering, the future is uncertain, and things just happen for…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Is everything you?”
“Solipsism is so convincing, there should be more solipsists. What you think, becomes. Nothing exists separate from the awareness it appears within. You are…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“What would Satan do?”
“What must you do to be a good person? You cannot apply one ancient rule to everything that happens to you, no matter how golden it is. Figuring out right from…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Why don’t you feel at home in this world?”
“Do you live in a just world? Is your life fair or unfair? We must believe in a just world or life is not worth living. Yet, it is nonsense to ask questions…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Are you taking your time?”
“Time passes differently as we age. Time seems to pass more slowly when we are young and speed up as we enter adulthood. Why, and what is the effect on human…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Are you suffering successfully?”
“It is better to roll the stone up a hill only for it to roll down every time it nears the top, than to just stop pushing. Surrender and be unhappy, or suffer…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Are you happy to be unhappy?”
“Human behavior happens for no reason. So, to appear logical and rational, your life is either/or and must be either half-full or half-empty, good or evil…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“What is truth?”
“Truth is not determined by the individual, by many people, or by most people. It is not what we don’t dream or make up, or what is left after we go away…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Are you waiting for something?”
“Lao-tzu and Jesus, the philosophical founders of Taoism and Christianity, respectively, walk into a bar ...”
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Does philosophy matter?”
“At his trial, the principle of counterfactual causation, by philosophers David Hume and David Lewis, could have been used to save Mr. Pimental from five…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Notes for a dissenting commencement speech?”
“It is an honor to be invited to speak at your graduation ceremony. I wish I could tell you what you want to hear. But I can’t lie. You need to hear the truth…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Do you know how to survive?”
“Survival requires sustenance, society, and philosophy. Sustenance means more than material comfort. Social relations means more than other persons. Philosophy…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Are you burned-out?”
“Happiness and success don’t always go together. Being less successful by choosing a simple, modest, and less exhausting life will make you even more happy…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Why can’t you find happiness?”
“Happiness is not a goal. You cannot achieve happiness by aiming for it. Yet entrances to happiness are everywhere. Not one of your footsteps leads away from…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“What would Jesus really do?”
“Jesus made up his own mind. He chose to think and reason for himself. Your life can be just as individual and extraordinary. The ball is in your hands. The…
The Laughing Philosopher's Podcast“Does life have meaning?”
“Life is neither meaningful nor meaningless. Freedom of choice has very little to do with how we live. Heaven means fear, doubt, and uncertainty. Justice may…