Kevin Currie-Knight (East Carolina University) chats with Wendy Syfret (VICE Asia) about her new book The Sunny Nihilist: How a Meaningless Life Can Make You Truly Happy. They talk about such things as why the modern world relentlessly seeks meaning in everything, whether nihilism is a viable or liberating response, and whether/how nihilism is reconcilable with strong belief and activism.
3:00 - What is nihilism?
10:35 - When did Wendy come to nihilsm and find it liberating?
16:48 - Why do we in the modern world "find" meaning in everything?
25:41 - Why does "finding" objective meaning satisfy more than creating subjective meaning?
30:38 - Are the young generally more nihilistic than their elders? Where is nihilism in pop culture?
38:59 - How to reconcile nihilism with activism (another thing that Wendy cares about)?
How should we define censorship? ... The sort of censorship that has no inherent moral valence ... Various ways non-state actors can censor ......
Crispin Sartwell (Dickinson College, Entanglements) returns to Sophia to talk about the issues he has with compulsory, state-sponsored k-12 education. 10:50 - Crispin’s schooling...
Robert's new book, Overdoing Democracy ... The revealing differences between Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts ... The diminishing importance of place in American culture ......