November Newsletter For That Philosophy Guy
getting back on track after the big move
We’re three days into the new month, so I’m just a bit behind in putting out this newsletter for November. But that’s better than September, when it took me a week, and October when I didn’t get a newsletter out. Still not quite what you want to use as benchmarks! At any rate, here it is.
As many of you know, we moved from our apartment to both a new living space and a new office space at the very end of September. The office is about 90% unpacked and set up. We can’t say the same for our living space. There’s a lot of unpacking yet to do. But I will say that I am really enjoying working in the new office, and having my work life and my home life separated by a 4/10 of a mile walk is imposing a bit more work-life balance that I find myself needing.
My class at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design is a much shorter walk, about 3 blocks from our home. I have a longer walk to my classes at Marquette University, but the 1 1/2 miles isn’t too bad (we’ll see how I feel about it when it’s snowing, sleeting, or freezing rain).
As you might have seen if you follow my social media, I’ve been doing open house shifts at Almost Home Cat Rescue more or less weekly, and sometimes coming in at other times just to visit with the cats and my fellow volunteers. I even wrote a piece last month, Loving And Letting Go, about some of the emotional challenges involved in volunteering at a cat shelter (which I hope to write a followup to later on this week).
In two days, we have an election of major importance here in the USA, and my home state of Wisconsin is one of the “battlegrounds”. So we’ve been inundated with political ads, and visited by both presidential candidates, which produces traffic snarls due to security and involves helicopters endlessly circling over our city. My wife Andi and I will be at the Central Count here in downtown Milwaukee on Tuesday, volunteering as ballot counters. That, we imagine, may be a very long day, going well into the night.
So, what do we have coming up this month of November? (Besides our national holiday of Thanksgiving)
Online and In-Person Events
I’m not entirely back in my usual groove yet, where I host events every single weekend, but we do have quite a few things coming up that you might find interesting. And depending on how I feel, I might also add an event or two into the mix. Here’s what we have scheduled so far.
Wednesday, November 13, 6 PM Central Time: Philosophers In The Midst Of History: Iris Murdoch. This is an in-person event in this quarterly series, hosted at the Frank Weyenberg Library in Mequon, Wisconsin. I’ll be discussing the life, works, thought, and influence of this great 20th century philosopher and novelist. We’ll be recording the session, and posting it in this resource page on the series.
Saturday, November 16, Noon Central Time: Understanding Anger 2.0: Seneca’s On Anger Book 2. This is a monthly online study of ancient philosophical, literary, and religious viewpoints on the emotion of anger, continuing our study of Seneca’s classic work On Anger, moving on now to book 2 (I’ll be adding a link once I create a new online event in Streamyard a bit later this month). You don’t have to have read this book to participate.
Saturday, November 23, Noon Central Time: Worlds Of Speculative Fiction Session 85 - Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn Trilogy (part 1). We’re resuming this monthly series with the first session on this fantasy trilogy (the second session on it will be in December). We start with a video premiere and live chat, and then continue the conversation in a Zoom session. You don’t have to have read Williams’ books to participate.
Depending on how ambitious I get, I might also do a Storytime with Sadler or a Self-Directed Study event. If that’s the case, you’ll see announcements about any additional event.
Video And Podcast Production
As you’ve likely noted, I’ve resumed production of the Mind & Desire podcast, and I’m hoping to get new episodes out weekly this month. I’ll also be releasing the episodes I produced last month for paid subscribers to the general public. Recently, I submitted the RSS feed for Mind & Desire and Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and several other podcast sites.
It looks to be quite a month for the Sadler’s Lectures podcast. Right now, my plans are to release podcast episodes on:
H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “The Call of Cthulhu”
John Wisdom’s seminal article in the philosophy of religion, “Gods”
Jorge Luis Borges’ short stories
I also have a video that will soon be released specifically about my two podcasts, addressing some common questions I get asked about podcasts more generally.
What’s coming up in my main YouTube channel this month? There are quite a few videos I’ve been meaning to get to for quite a while, but which have been on hold. These include:
several Ideas That Matter interview videos
some Sadler’s Honest Book Reviews videos
a Sadler’s Soapbox “rant” video about the economics and ethics of academic layoffs
at least one Non-Alcoholic Beer Review video
My plans also include production of a number of other videos, including:
more Core Concept videos on Max Scheler’s work Ressentiment
videos of selected parts of the videorecording of my Stoicism and the Cardinal Virtues class sessions
more Quick Takes videos providing useful advice about studying philosophy
additional Sadler’s Stories videos about memories and past experiences
a video or two about Almost Home Cat Rescue
more YouTube shorts featuring the kittens and cats from Almost Home, and scenes from Milwaukee
We’ll see what else I manage to get to this month. We continue to unpack and settle in to our new home. I’m looking forward to a bit of down time and catching up with friends and family over Thanksgiving break. And then getting back to the work that needs to get done!