Free Will vs. Determinism

Do we have free will or is everything determined? I'm inclined to believe it's all determined, but let's look at some scientific reasoning for it. Let's also see what it does to ethics. I won't say that the effect is entirely good, but the podcast is!

If you're interested in the thesis I mentioned, check it out here:
https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/handle/10523/4157

If you have some other ideas for things for me to discuss, I can do that. I enjoy science and literature, so I'll likely continue with those topics. If you have any counter-arguments for this, please share. Those from scientists especially would be intriguing. I'm a layman who just studies science as a hobby.

I post these every Friday at about 3 pm EST, so I hope you'll join us then.

Thanks for listening!

-Alex B.

From starquakes, to spacequakes, to the creation and death of stars, we’ll introduce some very interesting topics today. As somebody who considers science a hobby, I couldn’t not include this at some point. These are the interesting things that I have learned recently about stars, and I hope that you can find it to be as intriguing as I do.

For the full article about the creation of magnetars, check out this link:
https://www.livescience.com/origin-of-baby-magnetars.html

For more about stars, check here:
https://nineplanets.org/

For how stars die:
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast122/lectures/lec18.html

If you have questions, feel free to ask. I’ll do my best to answer them. This week’s podcast is a bit short, but the other part I had planned just didn’t connect with this topic at all, so check out my podcast on Determinism vs. Free Will next week.

I post these every Friday at 3 pm EST, so I hope you'll join us then.

-Alex B.

Edit: I made a mistake when I said a star between 8 to 40 (or 50) solar masses will be a neutron star. I meant to say that mass will result in a Type II Supernova. My bad!

Today we honor those black men, women, and children who were killed by police officers. There are over 300 pictures, and it is truly sad to see that these are only a small fraction of all those who were killed over the years. Regrettably, since making this video there have been more that need to be added. Join us and take a look at the lives that were taken too soon. 

In Today’s podcast, we include the following pieces:
-Harlem by Langston Hughes
-A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansburry
-The Revolution will not be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron
-Ode to the Only Black Kid in Class by Clint Smith
-Rachel by Angelina Weld Grimke
-One by Sage Hasson

Also, I would like to say thank you very much to my coworkers Ed and Jessica for reading the different parts. I couldn’t have done this without you both. Thank you to all those who pitched in for the final poem as well. I think this video is absolutely necessary and I appreciate all of you for helping.

If anybody is interested in the video portion of this or wants to use the pictures for another project, feel free to contact me directly. It would be great if everybody can see not just the names of those killed but also their pictures faces.

NOTE:I do not own “The Revolution will not be Televised” by Gil Scott-Heron. This is a non-profit video, so please support the official release. 

You're all loved.

Today we look at some scenes that I wrote for a collection that can be performed together or separately which I am calling Maera’s Night. For an interesting wiki dive, check out Hypnopompic states to get the idea I’m going for. I’m not nerdy, I swear.

The plays are called Grief and Dream World. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time this week for the podcast, so this one was more hastily thrown together. I feel like I could have done some more takes to make it better. Still, I enjoy the scenes I have written, and I hope you do too.

For any input (other than the performance), I'd love to hear them. I'd enjoy improving my writing some more.

Again, thank you all so much for making the last podcast so successful. We have met the charity goal very quickly, but if you haven’t checked it out, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/BVUt3e7btsw

I post these every Friday at 3 pm EST, so I hope you'll join us then.

Keep being awesome.

We're here, and we're listening,

-Alex B.

Today we're looking at an introduction to acting that covers the basics of the Stanislavsky method of acting and his "unit of action" or "beats". We also look at an interesting application from Japanese culture and a summary of how to move on the stage from Eugenio Barba's "The Paper Canoe".

I hope that all these points make sense and can be applied to any of your future presentations or performances. Honestly, this will likely be useful when you just want people to listen to you. It's all about freeing up your voice and body to allow for more variety.

I'll add, as an extra note, I'm not a professional actor. I find it hard to incorporate this into my own acting at times, but I have had some experience directing. Either way, it's fun to do both. Also, the reason this picture has the watermark is because Stephan Eckert was the one who took the photo at my university's performance of Tartuffe. I'm the one in the black in this picture.

For the links:
The Paper Canoe: https://asset.soup.io/asset/0826/4375_63b2.pdf
Japanese Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFgQ-yHTscQ

Thanks for listening!

-Alex B.