IN-PERSON Podcast Club Meeting in SF: What is Courage?

WE NEED TO FINALIZE OUR PIZZA ORDER! IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO ALREADY, PLEASE MESSAGE SALINA ASAP TO LET HER KNOW IF YOU’D LIKE TO JOIN IN ON PIZZA. If you’re joining, say whether you want veg, non-veg or a mix. You can put your response in the Comments below instead. See below for more info on dinner.

THIS WILL BE AN IN-PERSON PODCAST CLUB EVENT IN SAN FRANCISCO! It will not be on Zoom. WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN 3-D! Please read all the details below!

If you rsvp and your plans change such that you can't attend, please cancel your Meetup reservation as soon as possible.

The Podcast and What We'll Be Discussing:
What is courage? What elements need to be present for a person to be courageous? Does feeling great fear in acting (say, running into a burning building to save someone) mean a person isn’t courageous in that act? Or is it courageous to push through the fear and act? What about if a person acts unthinkingly and without fear? Can that be courageous, or is the person too simple-minded to be worthy of being deemed courageous?

This week’s podcast, (unfortunately-named, imho) The Art of Manliness, considers these questions and many more in looking at courage. William Ian Miller, the podcast guest, a historian, professor of law, and the author of the book The Mystery of Courage, guides us through viewing courage from many angles. He discusses the thoughts, beliefs, or acts of great philosophers, the Vikings, literary characters, French duelers, soldiers in battle during the Civil War, WWI, and WWII, the 9-11 terrorists who flew the planes that crashed, and more. Miller also looks at moral courage, whether there can be “lonely courage,” and reveals how he thinks courage has changed in the modern age.

Miller is the Thomas G. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. He is also Honorary Professor of History at the University of St. Andrews (UK). He has also taught at Harvard University, Yale University, The University of Chicago, and the Universities of Bergen and Tel Aviv. Miller’s area of specialty is the sagas of medieval Iceland, but he also has written extensively on human responses like revenge and courage. He is the author of many books.

PLEASE NOTE: We require that attendees listen to the podcast below before attending the meeting to optimize discussion.

https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/manly-lessons/podcast-1111-the-mystery-of-courage/

or

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mystery-of-courage/id332516054?i=1000758399731

(57 min.)

The meeting venue:
We will be meeting at Groundfloor (see map and address on this page) at 3:30pm. For those who attended our last in-person meeting, it's the same venue in the Mission. Thank you to Clint for making this fantastic venue available to our group!

Dinner:
Please join us for dinner and a relaxing, fun evening following our meeting! We're trying something different this time. We'll order pizzas (both veg and non-veg, from Yummy Pizza Valencia) and have a nice salad to enjoy together at Groundfloor. All attendees should have received a message about food preferences. Please respond with your info asap by directly messaging Salina. If you haven't gotten that message, please let her know! Right now, we don't know the cost of the meal but it will be below $20. We'll let you know the final amount before the meeting and will collect it when we gather -- Venmo or cash please. Alternatively, you're welcome to find takeout or brown-bag your dinner -- a microwave oven should be available. Some drinks will be available, but feel free to bring your favorite beverage. Looking forward to a fabulous time!

Questions: Please contact Salina if you have any questions! Allow some time for a response, as Meetup doesn't inform her of messages.

What's a podcast club?
It's like a book club for podcasts. Each week we discuss an interesting and currently-relevant episode from podcasters like Ezra Klein, Michael Shermer, or Russ Roberts. We start off as a large group and spend most of the time talking in small break-out groups, which we remix 3 times over the course of the evening. Our conversations are casual and open. We ask that everyone speak respectfully at all times, and we encourage free and concise discussion relevant to the week's podcast topic. To do this, we try to adhere to Grice's Maxims: https://bit.ly/2p4uSQm
Ultimately, the idea is to help each other think a little differently, learn a thing or two and have some fun.