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This is a special podcast featuring host Caleb Bacon's other podcast Man School,  a show dedicated to men’s interesting, exciting, and difficult personal experiences. This episode, Caleb talks to Sullivan & Son star Roy Wood Jr. about his criminal past and how that led to his comedy career.

Roy Wood Jr. On Man School

READ BY DAN HARRIS

Nightline anchor Dan Harris embarks on an unexpected, hilarious, and deeply skeptical odyssey through the strange worlds of spirituality and self-help, and discovers a way to get happier that is truly achievable.

After having a nationally televised panic attack on Good Morning America, Dan Harris knew he had to make some changes. A lifelong nonbeliever, he found himself on a bizarre adventure, involving a disgraced pastor, a mysterious self-help guru, and a gaggle of brain scientists. Eventually, Harris realized that the source of his problems was the very thing he always thought was his greatest asset: the incessant, insatiable voice in his head, which had both propelled him through the ranks of a hyper-competitive business and also led him to make the profoundly stupid decisions that provoked his on-air freak-out.

We all have a voice in our head. It’s what has us losing our temper unnecessarily, checking our email compulsively, eating when we’re not hungry, and fixating on the past and the future at the expense of the present. Most of us would assume we’re stuck with this voice – that there’s nothing we can do to rein it in – but Harris stumbled upon an effective way to do just that. It’s a far cry from the miracle cures peddled by the self-help swamis he met; instead, it’s something he always assumed to be either impossible or useless: meditation. After learning about research that suggests meditation can do everything from lower your blood pressure to essentially rewire your brain, Harris took a deep dive into the underreported world of CEOs, scientists, and even marines who are now using it for increased calm, focus, and happiness.

10% Happier takes readers on a ride from the outer reaches of neuroscience to the inner sanctum of network news to the bizarre fringes of America’s spiritual scene, and leaves them with a takeaway that could actually change their lives.

10% HAPPIER by Dan Harris

Half of a Yellow Sun was written by Award Winning Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and is also the title of the new film by Grammy Nominated Chiwetel Ejiofor.  Set in Nigeria in the mid to late 60s, it covers political power and the struggles at the time of of war, but also captures Nigerian culture and it ultimately a love story.  Hear Chimamanda talk about the book and her feeling about the film and it's cast.    

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun

On the next Snap..."Overthrow." You give the big speech, lead the big charge, but can you take them down?

Listen to the entire Snap Judgment episode "Overthrow"

Feel No Ways - Drake

Jonathan talks with former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, about why Trump is good for Republicans, the party's problem with race and Steele's time studying for the priesthood.

Michael Steele is no 'Pied Piper.'

On this week’s podcast, we welcome basketball legend, activist, and bestselling author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who came to the Library this summer for a conversation with his hero, critically acclaimed author Walter Mosley. In this thought-provoking conversation, Abdul-Jabbar and Mosley talk about fiction, racial injustice, and the nature of truth.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Walter Mosley on Empire, English, and Beethoven

Jonathan talks to Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation about how his being African American, openly gay and raised poor inform his work in the rarefied air of philanthropy, and more including privilege, black lives matter and dancing.

Darren Walker: Using privilege to fight privilege

Franklin Sirmans, director of Perez Art Museum Miami, talks about what it takes to build a 21st century museum and breaking down the walls that separate the museum from the community it inhabits.

This is the perfect escape from the insanity of our politics today. Meet Franklin Sirmans.

As a mother who lost her son over "loud music" and a young man who survived being shot in the head, Lucy McBath and DeJuan Patterson discuss the pain of coping with the violence they've endured. This episode contains explicit language.

The everyday trauma of being a black man in America

Mark Shriver, president of Save the Children Action Network, talks about the importance of our country's children, his father, Sargent Shriver, what it's like being a Kennedy and his quest to get an interview with the pope.

Here's how to preserve the Kennedy ideal in Trump's America, from a Kennedy

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/summer-reading-list-2017.

Summer is the perfect time to dig in to deep reading. Hannah Arendt’s "The Origins of Totalitarianism" may be a bit much for the beach, but there are lots of readable classics and new titles that could make your summer reading a transformative experience.

• Stanford literature professor Josh Landy on Toni Morrison's "Song of Solomon"
• Philosophy Talk's film blogger, #FrancisOnFilm (aka Leslie Francis from the University of Utah) on Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and the new TV series based on it
• Roving Philosophical Reporter Holly J. McDede investigates the graphic novel behind this summer's blockbuster Wonder Woman movie
• Other recommendations from the Community of Thinkers

Summer Reading List 2017

Available at Timmion Records Bandcamp: http://bit.ly/2uQEnXY
and Daptone Shop: http://bit.ly/2feZrnj

Bad Education

Bad Education - Bardo Martinez & The Soul Investigators

Ken and our film blogger, #FranciscOnFilm (aka Leslie Francis, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah), find unconventional heroism in some of the movies of summer 2017.

Summer 2017 Movie Retrospective

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned By Walter Mosley - Crimson Shadow - Read By Paul Winfield

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/race-matters.

Started in the wake of George Zimmerman's 2013 acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has become a powerful campaign demanding redress for the mistreatment of African-Americans by law enforcement in the United States. But it has also inspired deep antipathy from those who claim it overemphasizes racial issues. So how much does – and should – race matter? Does #BlackLivesMatter speak for all black people? How should we respond to counter-movements like #AllLivesMatter? Ken and Debra discuss matters with Chris Lebron from Johns Hopkins University, author of "The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea."

Race Matters

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/examined-year-2017.

A new year offers an opportunity to reflect on the significant events of the previous year. But what ideas and events took shape over the past twelve months that challenged our assumptions and made us think about things in new ways? Join Ken and Josh as they celebrate the examined year with a philosophical look back at the year that was 2017, featuring a roundtable discussion with host emeritus John Perry, as well as conversations with special guests:

• The Year in Gender Relations with Laura Kipnis from Northwestern University, author of Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus
• The Year in Democracy and Social Media with Larry Kramer, President of the Hewlett Foundation

The Examined Year: 2017

More at https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/frantz-fanon.

Frantz Fanon is a thinker who has inspired radical liberation movements in places ranging from Palestine to South Africa to the United States. Most famous for his work The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon is often understood as a proponent of revolutionary violence. But is this a fair characterization of Fanon, or is it an oversimplification of a deeper and richer body of work? What exactly is Fanon’s philosophy of violence, and how does it relate to his philosophy and psychology of the colonial subject? How has Fanon shaped how we think of identity politics? The Philosophers welcome Nigel Gibson from Emerson College, author of "Fanon: The Postcolonial Imagination."

Frantz Fanon and the Violence of Colonialism

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/james-baldwin-and-social-justice.

Sometimes, we struggle to tell the truth -- especially when it's the truth about ourselves. Why did James Baldwin, a prominent Civil Rights-era intellectual and novelist, believe that telling the truth about ourselves is not only difficult but can also be dangerous? How can truth deeply unsettle our assumptions about ourselves and our relations to others? And why did Baldwin think that this abstract concept of truth could play a concrete role in social justice? The Philosophers seek their own truth with Christopher Freeburg from the University of Illinois, author of "Black Aesthetics and the Interior Life."

James Baldwin and Social Justice

As a Telephone Market Researcher, Glynn took pride in his work. And he was good at it too, until he had to find a 67 year old, caucasian male, with at least 5 bumper stickers on his car, who daily uses an aerosol cologne and routinely feeds his cat dog food. 

Sound Design: Renzo Gorrio

Song list for this story and episode can be seen here: http://snapjudgment.org/song-list-snap-414-dirt

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