They weren't there for live music or a rare performance. They were there to talk philosophy, specifically, to explore the subjects: "What Is a Wife?" and "Faces, Feelings and Lies."
The live audience at the Marsh Theater in San Francisco was part of a nationally syndicated weekly public radio show called "Philosophy Talk." Hosted by Stanford philosophy Professors John Perry and Ken Taylor, the show opens with the statement, "Radio that questions everything except your intelligence" and closes with, "Thank you for listening, and thank you for thinking."
"I drove from Palo Alto to be here today because I love the concept of encouraging people to think, and to think about controversial questions," said Sandra O'Neal, sitting in the darkened theater.
Aired in a handful of states and on nearly 50 radio stations, the show began six years ago and recently celebrated its 200th episode. Topics of discussion have included: what is art, how relevant is Jesus, what are words worth, can science explain consciousness, and where does morality come from?
"We think that you can philosophize about just about anything, and that people can be drawn in to reflect on society," said co-host Taylor, who was first captivated by philosophy in college, when he read David Hume's take on causation. "I feel strongly that our culture is debased because there is not enough deep reflection."
Perry, who has been teaching philosophy since 1974 and was drawn to the field in college when he read Plato's "Republic," said, "Philosophy is good for people. With our show, we try to ask whether an argument is good and a position cogent. And we try to do it with humor."
A look at wives
During the show's first segment, looking at the changing nature of a "wife," Marilyn Yalom, author of "A History of the Wife," joined Perry and Taylor onstage.Topics of discussion included: How has the notion of a wife changed, and why become a wife? Is there still a subculture that believes a woman's place is in the home? How will gay marriages affect the term wife?
"Maybe we will get to a point where wife is not tied to gender," mused Perry. "Maybe there will be male wives and female husbands."
Taylor noted, "For thousands of years, husbands were dominant and wives were material property. Today, a contemporary wife is a husband's equal. Still, in many cultures, marriage is still about inequality and oppression."
Yalom said, "Wife is something of a controversial word. Has the ideal marriage taken hold? I've looked at the past 2,500 years and there has been enormous change. I see men carrying babies in frontal packs. Having said that, it's hard to get away from old rules. A lot of it has to do with whoever has the greater earning power."
The second episode looked at the concept, practice and detection of lies. Paul Ekman, a noted Bay Area psychologist who has pioneered the field of lie detection through the reading of gestures and expressions, joined the hosts. The discussion ranged from how to apply lie detection to airport security to how anyone can learn lie detection in an hour. Ekman also discussed how to control one's emotions to evade lie detection.
After the event, Perry and Taylor, who have worked together long enough that they come across as a well-timed comedy duo, said the show has steadily gained in popularity. Their Web site draws about 70,000 unique visitors per month, and past shows are downloadable.
"I had the idea for this show about 20 years ago," Perry said. "I asked a couple of people and it didn't happen. When Ken came to Stanford, he was very excited about it. He's not just a dreamer but a doer. I'm a dreamer and I occasionally do."
Success comes slowly
Taylor says, "We made an hourlong pilot around 2001 without having any idea what we were doing. The question on the pilot was, 'Would you want to live forever?' We shopped it around and finally one producer, Ben Manilla, who is our producer now, listened to it and invited us to lunch. The first thing he said was, 'Don't play this pilot for anyone, ever again.' "With financial support from Stanford, the professors continued to pursue their dream. They were rejected by radio stations everywhere.
"We heard from a lot of producers that philosophy was not something people were interested in, and that we were derivative, like we were the car talk guys of philosophy," said Taylor. Finally, though, the producers at KALW in San Francisco took a listen and liked what they heard.
Taylor and Perry try to do 32 fresh episodes a year, with about a third of those before a live audience. A recent live show, held at a cathedral in Oregon and focusing on the subject of desire and its effects on the planet, drew 800 people the first night and 600 people the second night.
"There is an audience of people - sometimes huge, sometimes small - who hunger for something that invites them to reflect," said Taylor.
Perry, who remembers obsessing over questions about the existence of God and the role of free will even as a high school student, said, "The show has done better than we feared, but not as good as we hoped. But slowly and steadily we are making progress. The examined life is a good thing."
Philosophy Talk: A nationally syndicated public radio show co-hosted by Stanford Professors Ken Taylor and John Perry. 10 a.m. Sundays on KALW, 91.7 FM. The episodes "What Is a Wife?" and "Faces, Feelings and Lies," recorded at the Marsh, will air April 4. philosophytalk.org.
http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Philosophy-talk-show-promotes-deep-thinking-3273718.php
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