Podcasts
Recordings of Sunday Platform addresses
Not everything we want is something we should want. Sometimes, we have less control over our desires than we would like. And sometimes, we’ve been told our desires are wrong, when in fact they are not. How can we deal with our dark desires, those things we want but think we shouldn’t? Why do we want things which hurt us? Where can we find help?
Theme for the July: Desire
Veteran activist, artist and artivist Elizabeth Vega will explore how what we desire can and should change as we become radicalized by love.
Theme for the July: Desire
What makes desire healthy or not? How does society shame us about our healthy desires? How can we ethically pursue our desires? Kendra Holliday explores the various facets of what we yearn for, and how we can find balance in pursuing our passions.
Kendra Holliday is a sex-positive activist and co-founder of Sex Positive St Louis, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide safe spaces for adults to connect with like-minded people, obtain accurate sex ed, and explore their sexuality. Her blog is The Beautiful Kind, and her professional consulting site is www.beopenandhonest.com.
(NOTE: This presentation contains sexually explicit content.)
Theme for the July: Desire
“Let my heart put aside every desire, so that my heart grows used to its farthest spaces. Better that it live fully aware, in the terror of its stars, than as if protected, soothed by what is near”—Rainer Maria Rilke.
Scientists say we live in an infinitely expanding universe—an idea that they also say our human minds are incapable of comprehending. Essentially, infinity scares the heck out of us. Which is how desire—the yearning for something or someone—became the gasoline in the motor of humanity, filling the empty tanks of our fears and fueling everything from global economies to our most intimate moments.
Taking inspiration from poetry as well as experiences from her own life, Rev. Victoria Price asks us to consider whether this limited view of desire has blinded us to the possibility of a life-changing dialogue with Infinite Love in the farthest spaces of our hearts.
Victoria Price brings her unique story to the national and international stage as an author, inspirational speaker, blogger, designer, artist and art consultant, and interspiritual and interfaith minister.
Victoria’s popular blog, Daily Practice of Joy, chronicles her journey back to joy that began in 2011, the year in which the world celebrated the 100th birthday of her father, Vincent Price, with Vincentennial celebrations around the globe.
In 2016, after living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for a quarter century, Victoria embarked on an ongoing journey of intentional homelessness, chronicled in her new inspirational memoir, The Way of Being Lost: A Road Trip to My Truest Self. Her critically-acclaimed biography of her father, Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography, was published in 1999 by St Martin’s Press and 2014 by Open Road Media.
Theme for the June: Pride and Shame
Shame shackles helpfulness, despite the illusion that it promotes right living. Can we learn from “shameful” behaviors used to adapt to suffering-filled environments? All stressful work risks anger and mistrust being brought home from the office. Healthier coping allows helpfulness to rise as we grow from misdeeds, address addiction, and end aggression.
Shane Reister, PsyD, received his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Illinois School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University. He has 15 years of experience in forensic psychology and currently serves as the Southern Regional Psychologist Administrator at the Illinois Department of Corrections, overseeing the mental health programming of 11 state prisons. He also has served on the planning committee for the Southern Illinois Drug Awareness Conference. He specializes in LGBTQ and multicultural-diversity, which includes development of trainings on transgender correctional psychology. He utilizes approaches to empower clients to find a path to wellness and freedom from mental illness, criminal behavior, and addiction.
Theme for the June: Pride and Shame
Recent years have seen a resurgence of political extremism, as well as the increased relevance of what is often called “identity politics.” The truth is, much politics revolves around a search for group identity and is driven by a desire of people to feel pride in themselves, their group, or their nation. Likewise, feelings of shame and self-disgust can be manipulated to fuel political movements. This Platform explores the role of both pride and shame in politics.
Theme for the May: Sadness and Grief
The recent Pixar movie Inside Out reminded us that sadness isn’t all bad: indeed it is an essential part of our emotional repertoire, a necessary color in our palette of feelings. Using the character of Sadness as our guide, we will ask, “How can we embrace the sadness of life?”, using moments from the film to examine the upside of feeling down.
Scientists and philosophers have had an exceedingly hard time articulating so-called “demarcation criteria” —conditions that formally separate science from pseudoscience. Pseudo-science is all over modern society and imposes costs ranging from the resurgence of diseases because of anti-vaccination movements to the rising of global temperatures while an ideologically divided political class sits idle. This talk will explore the fascinating landscape separating science, pseudoscience, and borderline examples of disciplines and notions that may turn out either way. Massimo Pigliucci is Professor of Philosophy at CUNY-City College.
Theme for the April: Curiosity
One of our SEEK Core Values is “I am free to question”—but some philosophers and ethicists have taken this idea a step further, arguing that questioning, and even curiosity in general, is a moral virtue, one that people who seek to be ethical are obligated to cultivate. At the same time, curiosity can be dangerous to self and others when unbalanced by other character traits such as thoughtfulness and compassion. What are the moral pros and cons of curiosity?
Theme for the April: Curiosity
We all recognize the familiar tug of curiosity: the desire to turn the page of our book just to discover what happens. Yet many of us also would like to be more curious about areas of life which currently do not interest us at all. How do we cultivate and maintain our curiosity so we don’t get set in our ways and stale in our tastes?
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