What makes a good life—and have we examined the things we’re living for?

In this episode of Monday Mornings with Peace, we explore the philosophy of Socrates: recognizing the limits of our knowledge, questioning our assumptions, and caring for our character.

Through the accounts preserved by Plato, we follow Socrates from the oracle at Delphi to conversations about courage, justice, and wisdom. We apply his questioning to propaganda, consider why he believed wrongdoing harms the person who commits it, and explore his convictions through his refusal to participate in injustice, his trial, and his death.

We also question Socrates himself: is understanding what is good enough to make us act well, or can desire overpower what we know?

An exploration of ancient philosophy with a personal question at its center: when I say I want a good life, what am I calling good—and what do my everyday choices reveal about my answer?

Traversing the Strange World, with Isaiah Danberry.

What ideas shaped the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution—and how are we continuing that conversation today?

This Thursday Journal explores the philosophy behind America’s founding: John Locke’s natural rights and consent of the governed, Montesquieu’s separation of powers, and the republican tradition of civic responsibility.

We follow those ideas into James Madison’s arguments about factions, the debate over the Bill of Rights, and the struggles of people excluded from the freedoms America proclaimed. Through abolition, women’s suffrage, and the civil rights movement, later generations challenged the country to reconsider what its principles required.

Join Traversing the Strange World for a historical and philosophical exploration of liberty, justice, and equality—and our part in an unfinished American conversation.

Can you build a successful life and still become a stranger to yourself?

In this episode of Monday Mornings with Peace, we explore Søren Kierkegaard’s understanding of despair, the self, and the good life. Drawing on The Sickness Unto Death, we examine how despair can hide beneath ordinary happiness, emerge as a wish to escape ourselves, or take the form of fierce self-reliance.

Through questions of belonging, ambition, regret, and control, we consider what it means to willingly become yourself. We also explore Kierkegaard’s Christian answer: faith, accepting forgiveness, and taking responsibility for your life while acknowledging your dependence on God.

What conditions have we placed on our willingness to accept ourselves—and what possibilities might we be refusing?

A reflective conversation about philosophy, identity, faith, and living well, from Traversing the Strange World.Can you build a successful life and still become a stranger to yourself?

In this episode of Monday Mornings with Peace, we explore Søren Kierkegaard’s understanding of despair, the self, and the good life. Drawing on The Sickness Unto Death, we examine how despair can hide beneath ordinary happiness, emerge as a wish to escape ourselves, or take the form of fierce self-reliance.

Through questions of belonging, ambition, regret, and control, we consider what it means to willingly become yourself. We also explore Kierkegaard’s Christian answer: faith, accepting forgiveness, and taking responsibility for your life while acknowledging your dependence on God.

What conditions have we placed on our willingness to accept ourselves—and what possibilities might we be refusing?

A reflective conversation about philosophy, identity, faith, and living well, from Traversing the Strange World.