The best podcasts for Educating the Mind

My name is Professor J.T. - I started "Everyman Academy" as a way to externalize my process of self-education, following instructions from Susan Wise Bauer's "The Well Educated Mind". Her method of self-education expands on the previous ideas from Mortimer J. Adler in "How to Read a Book". I developed the habit of reading as a way to gain a classical education as an adult. Each episode explores a book on my reading list, 160 books in all. This list is Bauer's edition of what is commonly considered "The Western Canon". Doing this has provided me with a springboard to promote the act of skillful reading, and to follow in the footsteps of those who came before me. I am doing this to ensure we don't lose the tradition of learning by participating in this "The Great Conversation". While I have learned much along the way, expanding the mind is an individual pursuit, one cannot be spoon-fed knowledge and wisdom. The truth will set you free, and indeed the world is a dark place at times. However, tuning out negativity and reclaiming agency in the world truly is the antidote. Reading and discovering what is True, Good and Beautiful in the world, may be the only hope for humanity to come together in peace, before it is too late. I have always sought to understand the world. The internet can only take you so far. While there is much to be learned, there comes a point in time where you need to step back and learn from the past. Reading books is the true path of education, where the internet is a minefield of misinformation, psychological operations and echo chambers. While learning is important to me, educating my daughter is of the most importance. During the pandemic, I quickly realized I could never send my daughter to public school. I personally felt the masking of children was an inhumane practice, we as humans need to see each's facial expressions, it is necessary to our interpersonal connection, which activates "mirror neurons", and helps build emotional understanding of one another. Exploring options for home schooling, I quickly found the world of Classical Education. After much learning and research I quickly learned about the history of pedagogy, a long and storied history of learning by reading, the classical education method: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. This was an empowering moment for me, and I realized how much I would have gained if I had learned in this manner. Despite the recent changes in school, public schools have always been about creating obedient workers in an industrial age, rather than buildling logical philosophers. While preparing mentally to educate my own daughter, I set out to give myself a classical education, which ultimately led to "Everyman Academy".

My podcast is about skillful reading, and educating the mind, using logic and reason to discover the meaning of each book to build an understanding of the world around us. I chose the other podcasts which explore uncomfortable truths in a similar manner, unafraid to follow the truth wherever it leads, free from the trappings of group-think and political division.

Learning, self-education, expanding the mind, following truth wherever it leads. Each podcast promotes classical learning and education through reading. Exploring and understanding a particular topic with primary sources, using logic and reason to discover truth. These podcasts also follow academic inquiry in the pursuit of truth, even when faced with uncomfortable implications.