May was a very busy month, involving the end of the academic semester, my oldest child’s graduation from college, travel out to Wyoming as an invited speaker for a Stoic Camp out there, bringing the local Philosophy Eats series (partnering with the Womens Club Of Wisconsin) to a successful close, and a lot of video production, podcast editing, course building, and writing work. June is going to be just as busy for me, but perhaps a bit more routinely scheduled and structured, you might say. There’s a lot in the works for me to tell you about!
I’m a bit behind on some of the changes and additions to this Substack site, which I’d intended to work on last month, but I’m planning to get those done this month. So, you’ll likely see a somewhat new look and more material and functions here in the coming weeks. So, on to the updates and news!
Online Classes
On Saturday, June 15, 10 AM Central Time, we have the first class session in a new synchronous, open-enrollment online class, Rene Descartes’ Meditations, Objections, and Replies. This is a great opportunity to study a massively important and influential philosophical work with a guide that has been reading, studying, and teaching it for more than three decades. If you’d like to find out more about it, or to enroll in the class, check out the course site.
I’ll also have at least one new asynchronous class being offered in the Study With Sadler Academy, starting with a course on lass on Plato’s dialogues Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo. That’s a class that doesn’t have class meetings, and which you can work through at your own pace. So stay turned for announcements about that later on this month!
Online Events
Perhaps the biggest event I’ve got coming up this month is this first one.
Thursday, June 6, 12 PM Stoicism And Grief: Classic Stoic Teachings On Loss, Sadness, and Grieving. This is a live-streaming presentation that will reprise the invited talk I gave recently at Wyoming Stoic Camp. I’ll be discussing what classic Stoic thinkers thought and taught about whether and how we ought to grieve for lost loved ones - https://youtube.com/live/yqZx7Rmr0_Y
Saturday June 8, 12 PM - Worlds of Speculative Fiction: Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy - YouTube video premiere in my channel with live chat, followed by Zoom videoconferencing - link will be posted after video is produced
Thursday, June 13, 12 PM - Self-Directed Study: Thomas Aquinas - providing advice for self-directed study of this important Medieval thinkers through a YouTube video premiere and live chat in my channel - link will be posted after video is produced
June 22, 12 PM - Understanding Anger 2.0 Class Session 12: Seneca's On Anger book 1 - we continue our study of ancient philosophical, literary, and religious viewpoints on the emotion of anger, starting our study of Seneca’s classic work On Anger - https://youtube.com/live/JawRTal1iXs
June 27, 12 PM - Storytime With Gregory Sadler: C. M. Kornbluth's The Marching Morons - livestreaming of me reading one of my favorite short stories, then discussing it with participants - https://www.youtube.com/live/6mJAHInPhJQ
June 29, 12 PM - Classic Metal Class Session 28: What Makes A Band’s Album “Greatest” or “Best” - Zoom videoconferencing for students enrolled in the free class (they get the Zoom link there) - https://reasonio.teachable.com/p/classic-metal-class
Video And Podcast Production
This month, I plan to produce Mind & Desire podcast episodes roughly once a week for my paid subscribers here (released later on to the public). I’ve already got some ideas percolating in my mind that I’m looking forward to sitting down and recording.
In my other, much more long-established podcast, Sadler’s Lectures, the plans for the month are to produce and release episodes on:
Plutarch’s How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend (already in progress)
Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus
Franz Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks
Ursula K Leguin’s Earthsea novel Tehanu
You can find all of the 1,100+ Sadler’s Lectures episodes released so far in this resource page with links to all the playlists of the downloadable episodes.
I have a lot of plans for video production, some of which are already in the works. One of those is returning to my Speculative Fiction Studies series, this time with a set of videos on H.P. Lovecraft’s classic cosmic horror story The Call of Cthulhu.
I also found two videos I had produced for an online Introduction to Philosophy class I taught a few years back at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. I’ve uploaded them to my main channel, and will be releasing them later this month.
Last month, I didn’t get to some of the video production I had intended, so this current month is the time to finally make good on those. One of the biggest priorities is producing long-promised Sadler’s Honest Book Review videos
Another holdover from last month is an updated version of this video about the 10 philosophical books I’d bring to a desert island. I’ll also be producing the first (and maybe second or third) review video of one of the non-alcoholic beers I enjoy.
Several Personal Updates
Wyoming Stoic Camp last month was very interesting and enjoyable, but also a bit physically challenging due to the high altitude. I went from about 600 feet above sea level to 8,500 for roughly five days, so that meant dealing with a constant need to hydrate, some mild headaches, more joint pain than usual, and a bit of fatigue. The activities, discussions, and fellowship of the camp, though, were really quite excellent, and I got a lot of good fodder for thinking and writing out of the experience.
We had a big milestone in my family last month as well. My oldest child, Cat, graduated with honors and a degree in theater from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Cat is working a lot, both some local gigs in theater and film and other types of work as well, and has moved into an apartment near campus. So it’s great to have one child cross a kind of threshold into adulthood.
My health continues to improve. I’d say that the effects from my surgery back in March all all behind me, including the occasional fatigue that was cutting into my work, reading, and exercise. I haven’t yet got back to weight-lifting, but I’ve been taking walks, and got back out to one of my favorite places to hike, Lapham Peak State Park before I headed off to Wyoming (where I hiked a good bit as well, despite being a bit short of breath due to the altitude).
We had a week off at Almost Home Cat Rescue, since all of the cats in the shelter ended up being adopted (which is a measure of success), so we closed to the public and got some cleaning and maintenance in. Last weekend, I helped welcome and socialize five new arrivals to Almost Home, who came from a shelter in Waupaca, Wisconsin: Marla, Ghost, Tootsie, Homer, and Bitsy. I’m happy to say that Tootsie already has an adoption pending. We’ll be getting a brood of kittens coming in to the shelter soon as well.
That’s it for now. If you’d like to know more, or you’re particularly excited about, about any of these things going on, feel free to leave a comment!