Continue the Discussion and Have Fun Doing It!

Hello everyone! I'm Stephen West.

I host the Philosophize This! podcast: a show where I try to get people thinking. I do my best to talk about important ideas from philosophy in a way that doesn't make people feel like they're being lectured by a second-rate elitist university professor with tenure. (We all know how that is.)

But before I ever did this for a living I was a huge fan of The Partially Examined Life. The joy and insight that these long conversations have given me is something that I truly cherish; I loved them so much that I wanted to be part of the conversation. Sure, my brain would be dwarfed by Wes and his renegade genius. And yes, I might have to sit down when I pee for the rest of the day after Mark proves who the true intellectual alpha-male of the coversation was, but I at least wanted to raise my hand and ask a question. I wanted to clarify some things. Whether it was something I didn't quite understand or a comparison I didn't quite agree with, I wanted just a few seconds to kiss their rings and glean the wisdom of my headmasters.

Turns out they can't hear me when I'm on the treadmill and ask them a question through my headphones. That's the thing about podcasts: they're a little one-sided. So when the guys reached out to me and asked me to be a regular presence in their after-show where they would continue the conversation with listeners, I said "YES!" before Mark even finished the sentence and it was a little awkward.

Thinking philosophically doesn't need to be an individual pursuit. In fact, I would argue that it's best when it isn't. It would be an honor for me to talk with my fellow PEL citizens about your take on the most recent episode of the show. We've already done one of these, it was incredibly fun, and it only stands to get better as we get better at producing these things.
Please, if you are free on Sunday the 15th of February (1pm Eastern/10am Pacific), consider signing up to join our discussion on Alfred North Whitehead. The only prerequisite is that you've listened to the PEL episode; we don't expect you to have read any of the book. There is absolutely no pressure for you to say something smart; just come hang out with me and Dylan.

Here is a link to a clip from the one we already did so you can get an idea of what to expect: Karl Jaspers Aftershow; PEL Citizens can download the whole thing from the Free Stuff page.

And here is a link where you can sign up to be a part of the next discussion if that is something you are interested in: Alfred North Whitehead Aftershow. You'll need to be a PEL Citizen to access that page and actually participate in the discussion, but we'll try to remember to post the Google On Air link to the Facebook group at the time of the discussion so that anyone can watch it in real time.

Thank you for your time,
Stephen West
Philosophize This! (Subscribe on iTunes)

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