Season 2, Episode 6: Jules Evans – The Art of Losing Control

After a spontaneous Near Death Experience, Jules Evans finds philosophy and puts his life back together in his hit book “Philosophy for Life.” But the ecstasy he experienced in his NDE always haunted him and in his second book “The Art of Losing Control” he sets out in search of it in all the ways people seek ecstatic experiences. We discuss this new book and all the blessings and dark sides of seeking and sometimes finding ecstasy.

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Buy: The Art of Losing Control 

Author Website: https://www.philosophyforlife.org/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 2, Episode 5: Elizabeth Minnich – The Evil Of Banality

Elizabeth Minnich has spent the last few decades studying how genocides happen and her findings may surprise you. It turns out to pull off the biggest evils, you need a very particular kind of person, a thoughtless kind that is dependable and does his or her job. Genocides take logistics. This conversation is a ringing clarion call to bring thoughtfulness into all aspects of life.

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Buy: The Evil of Banality

Author Website: https://www.aacu.org/contributor/elizabeth-minnich

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 2, Episode 3: Todd May – A Fragile Life

Todd May is a philosopher at Clemson University who consulted on the hit show The Good Place. We talk about death in philosophy and in living today. We also talk about all the practical philosophies like Stoicism, Buddhism and Taoism that promise to make us impervious to suffering and why Todd, at least, doesn’t want to escape his vulnerability. And also why despite not believing in their ultimate aim, he borrows heavily from them anyway.

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Buy: A Fragile Life

Author Website: https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo25468985.html

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 2, Episode 2: Ann Neumann – The Good Death

Ann Neumann takes us on an exploration of dying in America in this episode of The WeCroak Podcast. We talk about how death in America today is a system fraught with contradictions and failures that don’t serve the dying. We also talk about some of the movements trying to change the system for the benefit of all of us.

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Buy: The Good Death: An Exploration of Dying in America

Author Website: http://www.annneumann.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 2, Episode 1: Hugh Ryan – When Brooklyn Was Queer

Hugh Ryan is a writer and historian who works on issues of queers politics and culture. In his book we talk about a queer subculture that thrived along the waterfront in Brooklyn for over a hundred years, had its own lingo and values and inspired some of America’s greatest literature along the way. Then it disappeared and was almost entirely forgotten until Hugh pieced together what was left. We chat about life, death, and how even a whole culture can disappear in a blink of an eye.

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Buy: When Brooklyn Was Queer

Author Website: http://www.hughryan.org/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Episode 9: Heather Havrilesky

Heather Havrilesky writes the advice column Ask Polly for New York magazine’s The Cut. Her writing is about looking closely at the culture we are living in and taking apart the delusions we are so close to we don’t see them. It’s why she makes a great advice columnist and why her new book of essays “What if This Were Enough?,” is so fun to talk about.

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Buy: What If This Were Enough?

Author Website: http://havrileskywebsite.wixsite.com/mysite

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Episode 7: Sharon Salzberg

Sharon Salzberg is as influential a meditation teacher as you’re likely to find. She is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society and has written nine books on mindfulness and meditation, including The New York Times best-seller Real Happiness. In this podcast, we discuss her newest book, Real Love and how death affects loving and being loved fully.

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Buy: Real Love

Author Website: https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Episode 6: Jaron Lanier

Jaron Lanier’s new book, Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, is opening the world’s eyes to the consequences of social media’s business models, which promote addiction and maximum distraction. This goes way beyond wasting the precious hours of your life; Lanier makes a compelling case that these social media platforms degrade us. But can we give them up? Jaron Lanier is the author of several best selling titles on technology and how they shape our world, so it’s worth listening when he raises the alarm.

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Buy: Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

Author Website: http://www.jaronlanier.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Episode 5: Frank Ostaseski

Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher, a visionary cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, and the founder of the Metta Institute. In this episode, we talk about his new book The Five Invitations: Discovering what Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully. This book is based on his years of caring for dying people and the unexpected joys that come when the knowledge of death is near.

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Buy: The Five Invitations: Discovering what Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully

Author Website: https://fiveinvitations.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Episode 4: Adam Cayton-Holland

Adam Cayton-Holland was named a top 25 comic to watch by Esquire and creates, writes and stars in the hit show Those Who Can’t. He also just came out with his first book, Tragedy + Time: A Tragic Comic Memoir about his sister’s life and suicide. We sat down to discuss his family and how he found laughter even when the worst things were happening. 

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Buy: Tragedy + Time

Author Website: https://adamcaytonholland.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Episode 3: Alan Lightman

Alan Lightman is a theoretical physicist, author of six novels, meditator and professor who has served at both Harvard and MIT. His latest memoir Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine is as much about finding beauty in the natural world as understanding the science behind how it changes all the time. On the WeCroak podcast we get deep into the science of how everything is going to disappear given enough time.

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Buy: Searching for Stars on an Island In Maine

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Episode 2: Sallie Tisdale

Sallie Tisdale is the author of nine books and today we are talking about her most recent Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them). Tisdales writing has also appeared in Harper’s, Antioch Review, Conjunctions, Threepenny Review, The New Yorker, and Tricycle, among other journals. As a palliative care nurse, meditator and writer, this WeCroak podcast episode is about what we do and don’t do when death is near.

Support this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Buy: Advice for Future Corpses

Author’s website: www.sallietisdale.com

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Episode 1: Massimo Pigliucci

Massimo Pigliucci is the professor of philosophy at City University of New York who wrote the book How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life. It’s about the author’s own journey finding the right practical philosophy for living in today’s modern chaos by listening to voices from early Rome and Greece. In this episode we discuss why ancient reminded themselves every time they kissed their spouse that they loved a mortal and much much more.

Support this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Buy: How To Be A Stoic

Author’s website: https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/