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.

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E30. "Farewell, Odysseus" - Would you get a human as a pet?

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Named “Top 15 Podcast” for 2020!

STORY SUMMARY: Set in the future, the Dios are a group of super humans who, because of having the wealth over generations to make mental and physical enhancements, are a different, and superior, race. Humans on earth sometimes agree to go to live on Mars with the Dios as their pets. The narrator is one such person, that is, until he starts to ask too many questions.

DISCUSSION: Great world building. A longer and more complete story than we usually do. Perhaps this is a warning, not about keeping people as pets, but about the long term effects of the wealthy having access to technology that allows them to further separate themselves from the poor over generations. What level of difference in ability makes it okay to keep another species as a pet? Maybe the differences in the story aren’t as great as the Dios want them to seem? Is this slavery? Is it fair that those on earth are so poor this is their only way out? Is that the crime here? Is this different than having a “sugar-daddy” that takes care of you?

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E29. "All My Tomorrows" - How many tomorrows would you give up for a single yesterday?

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Named “Top 15 Podcast” for 2020!

STORY SUMMARY: A sixteen year old girl is put in charge of her parents’ shop that sells memories of your past in exchange for a year of your future. The girl loves her job and all the memories she can feel leaking through the files. A sad man comes in and asks to have the memory of his “last good day.” She sells him the day at a discounted price for the remainder of the life he has left. It was, he says, the last day before he learned a terrible secret he never recovered from, one that caused his wife to leave him.

DISCUSSION: The story is so beautifully written. The energy of the young girl working alone, and the visuals of the memories and feelings as she walks by them draw you in so deeply to her joy. However, the story is terribly sad. Would you trade a year of your future for a past day? It means you think one year of your future can’t live up to one day of your past. It means you think your best days are behind you. It also means you are living in the past. Maybe would be worth doing it to see a dead parent again or to relive a past moment and provide forgiveness for past mistakes. The very fact that this is possible might make living for the future harder. It’s perfect that a young girl is working the shop, because she only sees the memories as positive, rather than in relation to the life people have today they compare those days to.

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

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