Welcome to the ninth episode of Pop Culture Matters, Pluribus, with the smart and insightful Megan Fritts. Megan is a philosophy professor at UALR, co-host of the Philosophy on the Fringes podcast with her husband Frank Cabrera, occasional essayist, techno-pessimist, book-optimist, and previous guest on What Matters Most. In discussing Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus, Megan offered smart and insightful comments, hence my description of her, about what is going on in this episode. Her insights on happiness, hedonism, the nature of the (potential) afterlife, death, AI, art, culture, language, food, individuality, religion, and the need for suffering all point us to the question of what is the nature and meaning of being human. Megan has written on suffering and Pluribus, which you can find by clicking on the link.

Megan has also written on AI in her article A Matter of Words. While I do not think the virus in Pluribus is meant to indicate AI, there are certain parallels that megan and I discussed, especially the desire to remove suffering, friction, or discomfort. AI offers to make life easier for us, to take away troubles, to take away what it means to be human. Megan says that AI gets us only propositional academic knowledge, instead of what Kierkegaard calls subjective truth, self-making truth. I compared this desire to the "seekers after smooth things," not in terms of the particularity of this group in ancient Judaism, but simply to this perennial human desire.

Megan also mentioned three philosophers, including Kierkegaard, and here are the references to their work that she was citing from: Kierkegaard from Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, part 2, "Truth is Subjectivity"; The Tolstoy work was his treatise "What is Art?" ; the Wittgenstein was remarks from his Philosophical Investigations, §19, §23, and §241.

Finally, watch the show! Thanks again for listening and remember stay human.

A few thanks are in order. First of all, I am grateful to Martin Strong, who guides me in the podcasting world and joins me for the Pop Culture Matters regularly. I get to work with a pro, he gets to work with me, his religion nerd. Second, the episodes are edited, engineered, and produced by Kevin Eng who is the first listener to all the episodes and my consultant for each episode, especially with the snippets that begin each episode. Thank you, Kevin, for all of your expertise and support. Finally, to the Fang Fang Chandra, the CCE assistant, who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly.

I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas. If you are interested in donating yourself to the CCE, please check out the CCE website where you can find the donate button on the top right corner. We are a non-profit organization, and all donations over $20.00 are tax deductible.

Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Follow us at our Instagram page, @stmarkscce and drop us a line as to what you want to see or hear. We’ll post there with a question as to what you are most interested in. Or email us with your suggestions to jmartens@stmarkscollege.ca or cceconferences@stmarkscollege.ca.

John W. Martens