E51. "A Wolf On The Bus" - How do you know if you’ll protect others?

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Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: The narrator is simply going about her life riding the bus home from work. A few stops later, a wolf gets on the bus, pays the bus ticket, and has a seat. The woman has heard about wolves and is apprehensive. At the next stop a few teenagers get on the bus. They see the wolf and immediately begin teasing it. The wolf refuses to fight back until, eventually, the narrator stands up for the wolf. The teenagers get off and the woman speaks to the wolf. Police, having been notified of a disturbance, get on the bus and begin the process of arresting the wolf based on the call received. The narrator, and the other bus patrons, stand up for the wolf and explain it was the teenagers who initiated the altercation. The police leave. The wolf explains to the narrator that if he defends himself, he will be confirming the stereotypes about wolves and that it is only through others standing up on his behalf, that opinions can change.

DISCUSSION: Clearly an allegory related to racism, this is a story suited for adults, but would also work very well as a children’s story. One of our shortest podcast discussions, but just an amazing story to read and discuss. Brings up an interesting question about who are the ones able to end racism, those in power observing, or those the actions are against? Is passive resistance to show the brutality of your attackers the only way to bring moderates to your side? It’s the MLK vs. Malcolm X question regarding resistance. The story also forces us to wonder what kind of person we are? Have we ever been the person watching others be discriminated against and did nothing? What would we do if we were on the bus?

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E50. "Prey" - How do you break the cycle of living?

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Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: Jared has decided to enter a government program that, after 15 hours of counseling, will allow him to legally take his own life. Doctor Ansley is the top government therapist with 199 “saves” for the year. After several sessions it becomes clear that Jared has serious conviction about dying, but he also has a secret reason for his choice. Only after Doctor Ansley tricks him by giving him a fake test does he divulge his true reason for wanting to die. Jared believes the earth is feeding off of humans and has instilled, through chemical responses, our desire to stay alive so we will continue feeding it. In short, all humans are the earth’s food source and, only by becoming unattached from being alive, can we break the cycle. Jared completes the required sessions and dies. And Doctor Ansley now has questions as well.

DISCUSSION: A really fascinating story that brings up important questions about our core belief system, where it comes from, and the obligations others have (or do not have) to respect it. There is a case to be made that you have a moral duty to try and talk all people, regardless of belief, to not kill themselves. Or, is that a type of bias towards valuing our own belief system regarding right and wrong reasons to allow people to die? Are there valid, and invalid reasons to kill yourself? Is a story like this, that proposes the idea of “ending the cycle of living” a story too dangerous to allow the public to read? But isn’t that a violation of our liberty and our freedom to come to our own conclusions? Loads to talk about in this story, and loads more we could have talked about. A must read, and a must listen podcast.

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

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E49. "Take-em!" - When is a request from a loved one emotional manipulation?

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Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: The narrator is invited by his father to go duck hunting as part of their bonding time. The narrator wants to spend time with his father, but expresses ethical concerns about hunting ducks. The father asserts hunting is a natural part of human evolution. The debate continues as the narrator decides to go on the hunt, but is undecided if he will pull the trigger. The story ends with father and son in the blind just at the moment before the narrator must decide if he is going to pull the trigger.

DISCUSSION: This isn’t really a story about sport killing or not, at least to us. The really interesting part of the story is about how family, and those emotional ties, and those we need to be loved by and respect, might cause us to do things that we find personally morally objectionable. Here, the father gives the son several chances to not participate in the duck hunt, but it’s clear he will be disappointed, and that it might limit their future ability to have father/son time. This sort of unintentional (or intentional) manipulation happens not just with family members, but those in authority, or those who we respect and want approval from.

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

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E48. "Reach" - Should we know "the story" of the people behind the products we purchase?

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Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: Jack Benson gives his child a prototype toy from his company as a Christmas present. When they check the toy battery compartment, they find a sad poem written in Chinese. Jack decides to fly to China and visit the factory where the toy is produced. He pays an employee to read the poem over the factory floor loudspeaker. A woman on the factory line stands up in acknowledgement, then humbly returns to her work. Later, after the shift, she slips him a book of her writings, presumably, expressing more thoughts and emotions about her life.

DISCUSSION: The obvious question for this story is, of course, do we have an obligation to know more about where our products are sourced and the labor that is being used to build them? His child shows the very disposable way we look at products of cheap labor. Also, it may have been irresponsible on the part of the narrator to put the poem writer at risk. What if she had been fired? She didn’t specifically ask for help. In some ways he seems trapped in his wealthy life as well, just trapped in a different way.

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

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E47. "Echo" - What natural rights does a human in an artificial body deserve?

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Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: Martha dies. She wakes up three years later with her consciousness put into the body of an android. She did not ask for this, it simply happened. She is forced to accept that Martha is dead, and that she must live out her new life as Echo. As an android, she has limited rights. She cannot see her former family or friends. She can only work for minimum wage. She cannot interact with any technology. She cannot go to the same location more than twice in a week. She cannot meet other androids for prolonged periods of time. She is not even allowed to terminate her own existence. Her only friend is a journalist who is trying to get the “android story” out. He does this by using an override switch that paralyzes Echo and allows him to download her complete data set since her inception.

DISCUSSION: Story brings up wonderful points about what rights you are born with and what it is about you that earns you those rights. Is it your body, or something else? Is it inevitable that there are always lower class people to do the hard work and have limited rights? She was perfectly happy to take rights away from the androids until she was one. Even the person that is helping her takes her memories without her permission. The question we are wholly not qualified to answer is, when is AI “alive?”

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E46. "Sienna's Monster" - How do you escape the monster inside you?

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Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: Sienna is living with a “Monster,” in this case, her father. He does not hit her, but he does yell, and rant, and breaks things. Sienna grows up always on edge that the “monster” will lash out at her. Over time, she builds up equally toxic defense mechanisms. She learns to yell back and to be as hate-filled as her father. This all changes when she goes to college and meets her roommate Clara. Clara does not lash out. She does not accuse. She does not go into conversations prepared for battle. She listens, she is empathetic. She does not “keep score” in their friendship. Sienna assumes Clara has an alternative motive, and continues to be skeptical. Eventually, Sienna comes to see Clara for what she is, a decent human being. Armed with her new knowledge, Sienna heads home for Thanksgiving and confronts her father. Her father credits himself with “breaking the cycle” and being a good father by not physically abusing Sierra that way his father was to him. Sienna is frustrated, and resolves to never speak to him again. Over the Christmas holiday, Sienna decides to visit Clara’s family. Sienna’s mother asks if she, and only she, can come visit. Sienna reluctantly agrees. Her mother arrives, father in tow. The story ends with Sienna in jail, having killed her father.

DISCUSSION: Interesting story that brings up outstanding questions about the cycle of abuse and what is “getting better.” Sienna’s father is better than his father was to him, and it would be hard to expect much more from him outside of him independently deciding to get help. We already see Sienna taking on the horrible traits of her father and, were it not for her roommate, would probably end up just like her father. Perhaps everyone is the hero in their own story?

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

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E45. "Bill And The Tooth Fairy" - When is it wrong to have a sincerely held belief?

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Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: (Not suitable for children.) Bill believes in the Tooth Fairy. He is 28 years old. His girlfriend finds this odd, and sometimes socially awkward, but otherwise harmless. This changes, however, when Bill has his wisdom teeth removed and places them under his pillow with the expectation that the Tooth Fairy will accept his offering and provide him her payment as her showing of appreciation. To appease his belief system, Bill’s girlfriend decides to take the teeth and leave Bill some money, but unknowingly does not leave him payment in the “right” amount. Bill interprets this to mean the Tooth Fairy is unhappy with his offering of teeth and tries leaving a tooth from a denture. The tooth fairy never comes. Frustrated, Bill knocks out his own teeth so as to make another, and what he sees as proper, offering.

DISCUSSION: Interesting story about how we decide what belief systems are acceptable, and unacceptable. Why is a belief in the tooth fairy more or less valid than one in God, the Devil, or that professional wrestling is real. Do we have a duty to be permissible of all other beliefs? Should we work to actively dispel them? Is it enabling a belief when we say nothing or simply say all ideas have value?

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

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E44. "Simon" - What would happen if you killed the devil?

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Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: Simon is on trial for, literally, killing the devil. He did it by telling everyone he was going to kill the devil. Of course, the devil found out and came to visit him. Simon told the devil he was a cheap peddler of a product, fear, he had never personally experienced. To prove he feared nothing, the devil removed his immortality. When he did that, Simon shot and killed him. However, nothing changed in the world. Evil didn’t go away, or even get less.

DISCUSSION: The story asks the important question where does evil reside? Are we tempted to evil, or is there simply evil inside all of us. Conversely, if our evil is from our own thoughts and actions, does that also mean our grace comes, not from God, but from inside us as well? Do we simply create an external person to relive ourselves of the burden of understanding we are the evil of the world? How can we create less evil in the world? Does anyone think they are evil? Aren’t we all the hero in our own stories? Should the killed of Satan be put in jail?

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

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E43. "Season Three Recap - Listener Questions"

Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: After Dinner Conversation Editor, Kolby, answers questions from readers and recaps Season Three.

DISCUSSION: Kolby answer reader mail and recaps Season Three. What are his favorite stories from Season Three? What does he consider to be the most quintessential stories After Dinner Conversation has published? Why did we switch from publishing short stories to a monthly magazine? How do you judge stories for publication, and what are the best ways to increase my changes of getting published? How can I help out/support the publication?

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

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E41. "Teddy And Roosevelt" - Do role models really matter?

Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: Roosevelt is a young black child who is obsessed with the life and philosophies of President “Teddy” Roosevelt. He is new at the school and due to an issue with other students is forced into the “Friends Group;” a social adjustment group for students the school have deemed at-risk. While in the group he meets Teddy, an overweight boy who has been in the group for years because he pulled an X-ACTO knife in art class on a fellow student who continued to bully him about his weight. The two misfit boys develop a friendship. Roosevelt teaches Teddy how to fight, as well as imparting bits of wit and wisdom from his hero, Teddy Roosevelt. Things go awry when they are caught swimming naked in Teddy’s pool. The school rumor mill spreads that they are gay. This leads to the school forcing the two boys to fight after school. Roosevelt decides that Teddy has more to lose and is less prepared to deal with the consequences of the altercation, so he allows himself to lose the fight. As Teddy Roosevelt said, “No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his body – to risk his well-being – to risk his life – in a great cause.” This story was the runner-up of the Fall 2020 After Dinner Conversation Writing Competition.

DISCUSSION: This story is one of the most expertly crafted stories we have ever discussed. It perfectly portrays the prejudice and attitudes of the early 1980’s. Of course, the interesting question in the story is the role that Teddy Roosevelt plays in influencing the main character that has lost his father. A book, and a long dead President, are serving the position of role model in his life. And, in turn, this is influencing his friendship with others. Is this a good thing? Are role models in sports, business, or history, a good thing? Some don’t want to be role models. Some are showing idealized versions of flawed real people. What role should role models have in crafting our personalities? Should we, as a society, be more careful, or put more controls in place, about the role models that have the ability to influence the opinions of children?

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

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E37. "Externalities" - While facts are unchanging, is 'truth' contextual?

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Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: Set in the 1600’s, a traveling man of knowledge comes into town with his young assistant and assortment of books. Various townspeople come to visit him, paying to ask questions. Why do my gums bleed? Why does is steel I forge brittle? Finally, a wealthy man comes and asks if he should allow his daughter to marry the local guard. The traveling man says yes, that love is always a thing to respect. The wealthy man comes back later with his daughter and attempts to bribe the traveling man to have him say they should call the relationship off. The traveling man refuses and, in the process, gives his assistant an important lesson about positive externalities.

DISCUSSION: Like all of our stories, this one is very well written and has the feel of being written by a very wise person, who just happens to also be a writer. It’s interesting the way each person who comes to pay for advice has a different question that allows the traveling man to expound upon a life lesson. Also, it seems like each question relates to the subtext of the thing going on in that person’s life as well. The story brings up an interesting point about the rare case of positive externalities. While they are typically associated with businesses pushing costs off to society, it can just as well be about a couple in love getting the benefit of the price paid for by their father.

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