Aaron Kagan is a UX Researcher at Google, and what I would call an “Industrial Phenomenologist.” Phenomenology is really just the rigorous study of experience, so who better to work on User Experience? In this episode, Aaron shares his experiences working in Big Tech, from Google to Meta and back, and we explore both the logistical and philosophical dimensions of building virtual worlds.

Beyond his day job, Aaron is a committed advocate for careers for philosophers in industry, and is currently chair of the American Philosophical Association’s Non-Academic Careers Committee, and holds regular “office hours” at the Daily Nous.

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SHOW NOTES:

• “How to Shawshank Your Way Out of Academia”
• Thanks to Ari Zazem for artwork! You can check him out here and here.

Aaron Kagan is a UX Researcher at Google, and what I would call an “Industrial Phenomenologist.” Phenomenology is really just the rigorous study of experience, so who better to work on User Experience? In this episode, Aaron walks us through the painful process of reinventing himself, a journey that leads him from NYC to the Midwest to LA, from the Ivory Tower to the Googleplex.

Beyond his day job, Aaron is a committed advocate for careers for philosophers in industry, and is currently chair of the American Philosophical Association’s Non-Academic Careers Committee, and holds regular “office hours” at the Daily Nous.

LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE:

Apple Podcasts

SUPPORT:

SPONSORED BY:

TIP JAR

Podcasting is a time-intensive labor of love. Your support is most appreciated!

$1.00

Click here to purchase.

SHOW NOTES:

• “How to Shawshank Your Way Out of Academia”
• Thanks to Ari Zazem for artwork! You can check him out here and here.

Aaron Kagan is a UX Researcher at Google, and what I would call an “Industrial Phenomenologist.” Phenomenology is really just the rigorous study of experience, so who better to work on User Experience? In this episode, Aaron walks us through his journey from philosophy to becoming a successful professional DJ, and how he parlayed his academic expertise into a career in tech.

Beyond his day job, Aaron is a committed advocate for careers for philosophers in industry, and is currently chair of the American Philosophical Association’s Non-Academic Careers Committee, and holds regular “office hours” at the Daily Nous.

LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE:

Apple Podcasts

SUPPORT:

SPONSORED BY:

TIP JAR

Podcasting is a time-intensive labor of love. Your support is most appreciated!

$1.00

Click here to purchase.

SHOW NOTES:

• Thanks to Ari Zazem for artwork! You can check him out here and here.

How can we retain our humanity in the age of A.I.? To answer that question, we first have to figure out what makes us human in the first place.

Joe Vukov is an Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at Loyola University Chicago. His research explores questions at the intersection of ethics, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind, and at the intersection of science and religion. In his new book, Staying Human in an Era of Artificial Intelligence, he shows what is missing in the conventional ways he think about the mind, and offers paths beyond the materialism and gnosticism that haunt our thinking about technology.

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SHOW NOTES:

• Thanks to Ari Zazem for artwork! You can check him out here and here.

At some point in the last decade, you’ve probably thought to yourself: “I don’t have an ideology! But that jerk on Twitter obviously does!” Ideology is always someone else’s problem.

Jason Blakely, a professor of political science at Pepperdine University, begs to differ. Our political predicament, as he argues in his new book, Lost in Ideology, is twofold: we are blind to our own ideologies, and we mistakenly see ideology in merely pejorative terms. We cannot escape ideology because we cannot escape culture, and we cannot escape culture because we are storytelling creatures.

If, like most of us, you find our current political climate confusing, Jason’s “map of maps” will help you get your bearings. He covers the terrain of modern ideologies, from liberalism to conservatism to socialism and beyond, identifying their historical and philosophical roots as well as how they show up in popular culture. As the saying goes, “politics is downstream from culture,” and Jason’s book serves as a sort of decoder ring for making sense of the culture wars.

In addition to discussing his book, we explore a question on many people’s minds these days: is the MAGA movement a form of fascism?

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You probably know John Mackey the business mogul, but you probably don’t know John Mackey the philosopher.

In his new memoir, The Whole Story, Founder and Former CEO of Whole Foods Market John Mackey discusses his life’s journey, from existentialist to grocer to conscious capitalist. John shares the latest developments in his new venture, Love.Life, which aims to do for doctor’s offices what Whole Foods did for grocery stores.

John articulates his philosophy of conscious capitalism, which tries to steer a middle way between the “shareholder” theory of Milton Friedman, on the Right, and the recent ESG movement, on the Left. He conveys the power and promise of integral theory and the developmental worldview in business and in life.

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Charlie Gilkey is an author, consultant, and executive coach focused on helping people build great teams. Why is belonging so important to an organization’s success, and why is it so hard to build? Charlie draws on his experience as an Army officer, his training in philosophy, and his 15 years of experience working with organizations to help answer questions like this and offer people the practical tools they need to acheive what he calls “productive flourishing.” Atomic habits are great, but team habits are better.

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SHOW NOTES:

• Productive Flourishing
• Books:

According to the recently released World Happiness Report, all four Nordic nations are in the top 10, with Finland and Denmark leading the way. What is the secret to their success?

In 2020, David Brooks asked the same question:

Progressives say it’s because they have generous welfare states. Some libertarians point out that these countries score high on nearly every measure of free market openness. Immigration restrictionists note that until recently they were ethnically homogeneous societies.

None of these explanations, it turns out, is sufficient. The answer is education, specifically, education policy guided by an understanding of human nature and development captured by the German word Bildung.

Lene Rachel Andersen is a futurist and cultural philosopher who not only tells the Nordic success story, but explains how Bildung can and must be adapted for the 21st century. Can Bildung provide the cultural and institutional DNA for a new Renaissance?

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SHOW NOTES:

• Lene’s Website
• David Brooks, New York Times, “This is How Scandanavia Got Great”
• Lene’s Books:

During my trip to the global climate talks in Glasgow in 2021, I had a most serendipitous encounter.

I was there as a member of Boston College’s first delegation to the United Nations Conference of the Parties (“COP”), and on day three, I bumped into the science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson, whose novel, The Ministry for the Future, I had recently assigned in my course on the ethics of climate change. Robinson is generally acknowledged as one of the greatest science fiction writers of our time. Ministry even made Barack Obama’s best books list of 2020.

I was expecting a photo and maybe a brief comment about his experience of the COP; instead, he gave me his email and, a few days later, over an hour of his time.

We sat on the floor in the “Action Zone,” one of the main lounges, ducking beneath the din of the conference, and talked about the climate, the future, the power of stories, and what he likes to call the science fiction novel we are currently all living within.

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Lou Marinoff helped pioneer and popularize philosophical counseling and authored the international bestseller Plato not Prozac. His work has been featured in The Economist and the The New York Times, and beyond his work as a professor and counselor, he has consulted with many organizations all over the world, including the World Economic Forum.

In our latest dialogue, Lou spells out his diagnosis of the pathological extremes in American culture, and offers the Middle Way of the “ABCs”–Aristotle, Buddha, and Confucius–to help us make sense of and work through our troubled times.

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SHOW NOTES:

• Lou’s Website

• “Socrates, For Pleasure and Profit,” The Economist, June 22nd, 2000
• “The Socratic Shrink,” New York Times, March 21st, 2004
• Lou’s Books:

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Jared Woodard is head of the Research Investment Committee and director for Global
Investment Strategy at Band of America Global Research. In this role, he offers insights on global asset allocation and key market trends to the firm’s institutional, government and retail clients.

Jared also holds a PhD in Philosophy from Fordham University, where he was a classmate of mine. How does someone shift from a PhD in philosophy to a successful career in finance? Tune in to find out. Beyond his own career transition story, Jared and I discuss metaphysical nihilism, the challenges of the 21st century economy, and the enduring value of the liberal arts.

Note: The views discussed in this episode are Jared’s own and do not reflect those of his employer.

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• Jared on CNBC:

• Jared on Bloomberg: