Hi-Phi Nation

February 23, 2017 1:05 PM

Hi-Phi Nation is a new podcast that uses narrative storytelling to explore ideas in philosophy, featuring thoughtful interviews with philosophers and nuanced storytelling, created by philosopher Barry Lam.

Episode 1, The Wishes of the Dead, uses the weird case of Milton Hershey, a 19th century industrialist who constructed the oddest business structure to ensure that his idiosyncratic wishes would be fulfilled hundreds of years after his death. The story raises questions about why we give the dead so much power over our lives.

Episode 4, The Name of God uses the story of one woman's gesture of good will toward Syrian refugees which incurred the wrath of evangelical Christians on social media to ask: Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?

posted by latkes (9 comments total)

I've been really enjoying this podcast - I particularly liked episodes 2 and 3 about Soldier Philosophers. I had no idea US military officers studied philosophy, and I thought it was really interesting that so many academic philosophy positions are enabled by the military.
posted by fever-trees at 1:26 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Queued! Thank you.
posted by OrangeDisk at 1:31 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Relatedly, from back in the day (YT Playlist)


Bryan Magee
2 BBC series:
Men of Ideas (1978)
The Great Philosophers (1987)

posted by Buntix at 4:16 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Magee is still living, and I think he published a book a couple of years ago. His autobiography, Confessions Of A Philosopher, is fascinating.
posted by thelonius at 4:20 PM on February 23, 2017

This looks awesome. I need more non-news podcasts in my life right now.
posted by noneuclidean at 5:27 PM on February 23, 2017

[this is good]
posted by unliteral at 5:02 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

There's definitely a discussion to be had about to what extent we should honor the wishes of the dead, but in fairness, Hershey was setting up a charitable foundation. I don't think it's egregious in the same way as say, the Albert Barnes bequest was.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:12 AM on February 24, 2017

Thanks for the listens and the comments everyone! Chrysostom, I didn't come across the Barnes bequest in my research but that is really fascinating! The show focuses on charitable foundations in particular but in the bonus content, we talk about bequest and finally the "Dynasty Trust" which allows people to grow an enormous amount of tax-exempt money for just their descendants, and that money isn't even subject to creditors!

People mentioned episodes 1, and 4, which are my favorites, but the fifth episode is about the aesthetics and philosophy behind mashups, the weirdest genre of pop music. Upcoming episodes will involve pseudo-science, philosophy and love, philosophy and masculinity, and more. Its a one-season run at this point. Hi-Phi Nation
posted by HiPhiNation at 3:32 PM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

The Larycia Hawkins and Wheaton College (as featured in ep4) previously on the blue.
posted by noneuclidean at 5:52 AM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]