Socrates Cafe in India — where you can have enriching discussions, without fear of being ridiculed or attacked
I would never have known about this thriving Socrates Cafe in Gujurat, India, if they hadn’t shared a post with me on Facebook. It’s wonderful to see that most participants are women. I love how the participant who posted says this: Socrates Cafe is a concept of good philosophical discussions about important topics affecting us. […]
Picnic and Fellowship, Socrates Cafe style
How cool that longtime Socrates Cafe-goers in the Twin Cities are having their 11th annual picnic. Wish so much I could be there with these fabulous souls. Here’s the announcement: Greetings everyone! What: 11th Annual Socrates Café Picnic! When: Saturday August 25th at Noon Where: Kenwood Park, corner of Franklin Ave and Penn Ave S. […]
‘Day of Why’ — A day in the questioning life of a wandering, wondering child, and of the child within us all
My children’s book ‘Day of Why,’ which follows a passionately curious child through a wandering, wondering day filled with questions questions questions, is available in digital format. All proceeds go to the nonprofit Democracy Cafe (DemocracyCafe.org) Coming soon in Spanish and physical editions. Hope you’ll check out this whimsical book for children of all ages. […]
On ‘childing’ and being a child at heart
If you go to this link, and click the second segment, you can listen in to a short-ish and sweet-ish interview with yours truly on the wonderful nationally syndicated Virginia-based public radio program With Good Reason. I usually don’t talk that much about my own childhood upbringing, but I did share a bit here on this […]
Socrates Cafe comes to Orange, CA
One thing I love about Socrates Cafe is it thrives in communities of all kinds. Our latest group is being inaugurated in Orange, CA, a pretty conservative area. Here’s the email I received: Hello Mr. Phillips, I am starting up a club based on the ideas laid out in your book as well as from […]
“Evil is on the run”
Our latest Democracy Cafe podcast is with the winners of the inaugural Alexander Phillips Arete Award. We had to reschedule our recording time from our original date of April 20, because they were in lockdown that day after there was a shooting at a nearby high school in Ocala, Florida — preventing them not only […]
The National Student Walkout Hits All Too Close to Home
For anyone who thinks today’s national student walkout is a mere act of spectacle, or just an opportunity to get out of school, it is not; it is a heartfelt and concerted effort to bring attention to what they deem is the crying need for sensible gun safety measures. And consider this: I was prepping […]
And the inaugural winner of the Alexander Phillips Arete Award is….
And the winning entry for the inaugural Alexander Phillips Arete Award, in honor of my father, Alexander Phillips, whose life was tragically truncated on or around September 17, 2011 is (drum roll, please): the International Baccalaureate class of 2018 at Vanguard High School in Ocala, Florida. When their teacher, Todd Carstenn (who, along with the […]
Socrates Cafe is celebrated in Saihat, Saudi Arabia
I was delighted to hear that the ongoing Socrates Cafe in Saihat, Saudi Arabia is celebrating its one-year anniversary, and humbled to be asked to do a short video in which I applaud and share a few insights about their special gathering.
First Annual ‘Alexander Phillips Arete Award’
Announcing the first annual Alexander Phillips ‘Areté Award’ The first annual Alexander Phillips Arete Award — arete is a Greek term that translates as ‘all around excellence’ — will go to the person or group of people of any age and who speak any language (as long as I can figure out a way to […]