Best thinkers by Gregory B. Sadler Podcasts (2025)

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Plutarch, On Being A Busybody - Developing Self-Control Over Curiosity - Sadler's Lectures 17:26

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9m ago17:26

17:26

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Being A BusybodyThis episode focuses specifically on he importance of developing self-control (enkrateia) in order to curb excessive and harmful curiosity. We do this in general through habituation, training, and to some degree learning…

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David Hume, Essays Moral, Political, and Literary - The Epicurean 15:52

8h ago15:52

15:52

David Hume, Essays Moral, Political, and Literary - The Epicurean by Lectures on classic and contemporary philosophical texts and thinkers by Gregory B. SadlerBy Lectures on classic and contemporary philosophical texts and thinkers by Gregory B. Sadler

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Plutarch, On Being A Busybody - Curiosity And Lack Of Self-Control - Sadler's Lectures 15:16

2h ago15:16

15:16

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Being A BusybodyThis episode focuses specifically on his discussions bearing on the role lack or loss of self-control (akrasia in Greek) plays in the sort of problematic curiosity he criticizes in this work. Plutarch claims that lack of…

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Plutarch, On Being A Busybody - Redirecting Curiosity to Better Topics - Sadler's Lectures 15:15

1h ago15:15

15:15

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Being A BusybodyThis episode focuses specifically on one of the general practices he suggests to wean oneself away from this vice, namely deliberately redirecting one's attention from the usual objects of morbid curiosity towards better…

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Plutarch, On Being A Busybody - Curiosity, Secrecy, and Privacy - Sadler's Lectures 13:37

18h ago13:37

13:37

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Being A BusybodyThis episode focuses specifically on one of the features of the sort of curiosity or inquisitiveness central to being a busybody, namely that the person exhibiting it attempts to dig into other people's secrets, to find …

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Plutarch, On Being A Busybody - Curiosity As A Vicious Disposition - Sadler's Lectures 15:44

2d ago15:44

15:44

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Being A BusybodyThis episode focuses specifically on why the sort of curiosity, inquisitiveness, meddlesomeness, or being a busybody he discusses is actually a vicious disposition, rather than something good. It involves a desire to lea…

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Alasdair MacIntyre, Designing Our Descendants - A New Table Of Virtues 24:32

2d ago24:32

24:32

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th and 21st century philosopher and moral theorist, Alasdair MacIntyre's short address "Designing Our Descendants: Seven Traits for the Future", a presentation to the 1978 general meeting at the Hastings Center.MacIntyre first discusses how intentionally designing descendants is a matter that has politica…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Ubik, God In A Spray Can - Sadler's Lectures 18:37

8d ago18:37

18:37

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on the mysterious and miraculous substance Ubik that gets referenced in advertisements at the start of every chapter of the work (except the final one) as well as by Runciter in a video …

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Travelling To And Around Des Moines - Sadler's Lectures 15:36

5d ago15:36

15:36

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on the city of Des Moines, Iowa, where Glen Runciter's body has been transported for his memorial. As it turns out, the team of surviving inertials (since by then Wendy and Al have died)…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Runciter's Interventions and Manifestations - Sadler's Lectures 20:36

7d ago20:36

20:36

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on the many points in the novel, after the surprise attack on Glen Runciter, Joe Chip, and the entire team of the inertials, where a seemingly dead and in cold-pac Runciter breaks throug…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Coldness, Exhaustion, and Death - Sadler's Lectures 20:08

9d ago20:08

20:08

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on the experience of bone-chilling cold, exhaustion and fatigue, and eventual death of a particularly gruesome sort that several of the characters experience once they are in cold-pac an…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Reversion, Obsolescence, and Spoiling - Sadler's Lectures 20:04

11d ago20:04

20:04

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on one main theme of the novel, which is the characters noticing a pattern of objects at first being spoiled or worn out, then reverting to earlier obsolete forms, eventually affecting n…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Stanton Mick, Ray Hollis, and The Trap - Sadler's Lectures 17:16

14d ago17:16

17:16

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on the ambush that Ray Hollis engineers, using Stanton Mick's company, based on the moon, as a potential new client for Runciter Associates. Glen Runciter, Joe Chip, and a team of 11 ine…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Runciter's Team of Inertials - Sadler's Lectures 14:05

17d ago14:05

14:05

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on the team of eleven "inertials," that is anti-psionic talents assembled by Glen Runciter to go to the lunar location of businessman Stanton Mick's company, and do a job eliminating the…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Ella Hyde Runciter - Sadler's Lectures 15:50

18d ago15:50

15:50

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on one of the seemingly background characters who turns out to be very important by the end of the story, Ella Hyde Runciter, who died at just 20 years old and has been in half-life for …

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Jory, The Malignant Force - Sadler's Lectures 18:04

19d ago18:04

18:04

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on one of the characters who is seemingly minor early on in the novel, but who turns out to be a character of major importance within the plot. Jory Miller is a young man in half-life wh…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Pat Conley, A New Talent - Sadler's Lectures 18:23

20d ago18:23

18:23

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on one important character we meet early on in the work, Pat Conley, who has a seemingly new psionic talent, the ability to go back and change the past, which then alters the present, al…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Joe Chip, Abilities Tester - Sadler's Lectures 16:15

24d ago16:15

16:15

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on one of the most central characters of the novel, Joe Chip, who we get introduced to in chapter 3 and who features in every chapter of the novel subsequent to that. We discuss in parti…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Glen Runciter of Runciter Associates - Sadler's Lectures 16:12

24d ago16:12

16:12

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on one of the important characters we meet early on in the work, Glen Runciter, the aged but very dynamic head of Runicter Associates, a "prudence organization", which he heads, getting …

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Herbert Schonheit Van Vogelsang - Sadler's Lectures 12:38

25d ago12:38

12:38

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on one of the characters we meet early on in the work, the owner of the Beloved Brethren Moratorium in Zurich, Switzerland, Herbert Schönheit Von Vogelsang. He seems to be a rather unct…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Prudence Organizations And The Society - Sadler's Lectures 13:48

26d ago13:48

13:48

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on the role that "prudence organizations", that is companies that employ anti-psionic talents or "inertials" to block or combat psionic talents, play in the world of the novel. These pru…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Homeostatic Machines And Payments - Sadler's Lectures 16:51

27d ago16:51

16:51

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on one of the main aspects of the worldbuilding in the novel, namely that there are intelligent machines of all sorts that serve human beings, but mostly for a price. They charge for the…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Psionic and Antipsionic Talents - Sadler's Lectures 17:28

29d ago17:28

17:28

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on one of the central themes involved in the plot and worldbuilding of the story, namely the existence of psionic talents such as telepathy and precognition, and the existence of anti-ps…

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Death, Cold-Pac, and Half-Life - Sadler's Lectures 20:26

1M ago20:26

20:26

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on one of the key features of the narrative world Dick develops in the story, namely the technology of Cold-Pac, which allows people who have experienced bodily death to be kept at cold …

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Philip Dick, Ubik - The Ubik Advertisements - Sadler's Lectures 12:45

1M ago12:45

12:45

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th Century American science-fiction short story writer and novelist, Philip K. Dick's novel UbikIt focuses specifically on the advertisement copy framing Ubik as a variety of different commodities and services that begin nearly each chapter of the novel. Most of them also include cautions that the product…

Thinkers By Gregory B. Sadler Podcasts

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Sadler's Lectures

Lectures on classic and contemporary philosophical texts and thinkers by Gregory B. Sadler

1
Plutarch, On Being A Busybody - Developing Self-Control Over Curiosity - Sadler's Lectures 17:26

1
David Hume, Essays Moral, Political, and Literary - The Epicurean 15:52

1
Plutarch, On Being A Busybody - Curiosity And Lack Of Self-Control - Sadler's Lectures 15:16

1
Plutarch, On Being A Busybody - Redirecting Curiosity to Better Topics - Sadler's Lectures 15:15

1
Plutarch, On Being A Busybody - Curiosity, Secrecy, and Privacy - Sadler's Lectures 13:37

1
Plutarch, On Being A Busybody - Curiosity As A Vicious Disposition - Sadler's Lectures 15:44

1
Alasdair MacIntyre, Designing Our Descendants - A New Table Of Virtues 24:32

1
Philip Dick, Ubik - Ubik, God In A Spray Can - Sadler's Lectures 18:37

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Travelling To And Around Des Moines - Sadler's Lectures 15:36

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Runciter's Interventions and Manifestations - Sadler's Lectures 20:36

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Coldness, Exhaustion, and Death - Sadler's Lectures 20:08

1
Philip Dick, Ubik - Reversion, Obsolescence, and Spoiling - Sadler's Lectures 20:04

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Stanton Mick, Ray Hollis, and The Trap - Sadler's Lectures 17:16

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Runciter's Team of Inertials - Sadler's Lectures 14:05

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Ella Hyde Runciter - Sadler's Lectures 15:50

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Jory, The Malignant Force - Sadler's Lectures 18:04

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Pat Conley, A New Talent - Sadler's Lectures 18:23

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Joe Chip, Abilities Tester - Sadler's Lectures 16:15

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Glen Runciter of Runciter Associates - Sadler's Lectures 16:12

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Herbert Schonheit Van Vogelsang - Sadler's Lectures 12:38

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Prudence Organizations And The Society - Sadler's Lectures 13:48

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Homeostatic Machines And Payments - Sadler's Lectures 16:51

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Psionic and Antipsionic Talents - Sadler's Lectures 17:28

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Philip Dick, Ubik - Death, Cold-Pac, and Half-Life - Sadler's Lectures 20:26

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Philip Dick, Ubik - The Ubik Advertisements - Sadler's Lectures 12:45