My love for philosophy began my freshman year at Pepperdine University in a program called in The Great Books Colloquium. I was a Theater major with my sites set on Broadway, but a friend (okay my high school boyfriend whom I followed to college even after he’d dumped me) said he thought I would love the program. He was right, but don’t tell him I said that.
Classes were small and grades were almost entirely based on class participation rather than on papers. The honor system rule, “If you haven’t done the assigned reading, you can’t participate in the conversation,” had a big impact on how I approached other areas of my life. And although I’ve moved dozens of times and across the country into tiny New York City apartments, I still have my much loved Introduction To Aristotle and Plato’s Republic on my bookshelf.
Flash forward a decade, and although I got my wish to be on Broadway, I also went through an existential crisis. One thing I realized I was missing was a place to have more meaningful conversations like we did in the Great Books Colloquium. This led me to starting a monthly philosophic dinner salon I called Cheshire Parlour. Those salons opened the doors to a career path I never expected of creating and hosting live events for organizations and communities (including Holstee, Impact Hub, Escape The City, and 92StretY) with an emphasis on fostering more meaningful dialogues.
Last year I began envisioning an event series of my own that focused on helping bridge the gap between academic philosophy and the rest of us, and so it was kismet was last winter my friend (and Lead Editor of the APA blog) Dr. Skye Cleary told me about a cool new space in the NYC’s lower east side called Caveat, described by The New Yorker as “a nightly enticement of intellect for the discerning nerd,” that was looking to do more philosophy-related events. I reached out with an idea I’d had called The Happier Hour: Philosophy To Help Life Suck Less. The aim was to help philosophy be more accessible to more people. That’s why each show included one academic philosopher and two “philosophic-ish” guests that included authors, artists, entrepreneurs and more. Fortunately, Caveat immediately said “yes” on the condition that the first show was to be two weeks later, in between Christmas and New Years Eve. I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to make it happen that quickly, but thankfully the guest speakers I reached out to were in town and enthusiastic, and the show was a success. Before the night was over Caveat agreed to give The Happier Hour a monthly slot.
Every time I announced an upcoming event for The Happier Hour, people would write me to say they didn’t live in New York City, but would love to hear the conversation, and asked if I recorded the events. So it seemed like an obvious next step that I expand the audience beyond downtown New York City. Fortunately, Caveat has the ability to professionally record the audio for the show, and I’m so glad I decided to take them up on that option from the beginning, just in case!
But I also knew I didn’t want to just record the event and post that as the podcast. Every platform has unique opportunities for storytelling, so what worked for the event might not be as engaging for the listener at home. I liked the idea of the podcast being more akin to TED Radio hour, where they have clips from TED talks interspersed with interviews with the speakers and commentary by the host. I work with an editor in London who helps me with things like audio balancing, but otherwise, it’s just me doing everything from creating the website to writing the scripts, so I also have some limitations to what I can do with the show. So this summer I paused the event so I could work on the podcast, which I launched on August 2nd, 2018.
One big difference between the live show and the podcast is the live show has all three guest speakers in back to back interviews. For the podcast, each guest has their own episode and I add commentary to help delve deeper into the topic we’re exploring. The challenge of the format is such that the bulk of the show is the interviews recorded on stage, so there is no opportunity to edit out my foibles. Fortunately, the guests have been incredibly gracious and whip smart to help make up for that! Also, there are weekly bonus episodes that I call “Happier Ever After Hours” that are typically more anecdotal stories related to philosophy from culture or from personal experience.
Both the live show and the podcast have the same goals, which I focused on from the very beginning:
- Bridge the gap between academic philosophy and the rest of us.
- Bring more diverse voices to philosophy.
- Showcase how philosophy can be helpful in our everyday lives.
- Demonstrate that philosophy can be highly entertaining.
While I get nervous before the live events, I’m actually much more nervous to hit “publish” on the podcast episodes. During a live event it’s easy to get a read on the audience and we also have other production elements. For example, in the past we’d have music to help introduce each guest, an artist doing live illustrations of the ideas posed through the conversations, and even haikus typed on the spot as gifts for the audience and to sum up each guest’s take on the topic. Also, the audience is already invested because they paid to be there and took time out of their schedule to get on the subway and show up! But for a podcast, anyone can listen at anytime, anywhere. And they might have NPR on before they listen to you, so there is a certain standard that is expected.
But if I’m being totally honest, it was the academic philosophers that made me the most nervous. I’ve noticed that online, philosophers can be, shall we say, highly critical. And while there is certainly a time and place for that, there also needs to be a time and place for allowing ourselves to be a little messy. Otherwise, people will be too scared to take the risk to share their ideas at all.
Now that the podcast has launched, I’m working on Season 2 of The Happier Hour. The topic and guests will be announced shortly, but save the date for Saturday, September 29th at 4:00pm at Caveat. I’d love to see some APA folks there!
Find show notes and resources at TheHappierHour.org. Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify. Follow on Facebook: @TheHappierHour, Instagram: @MissMMcCarthy, and #thehappierhour.
Monica McCarthy
Monica McCarthy (@MissMMcCarthy) is the creator and host of the podcast and live event series,The Happier Hour: Philosophy To Help Life Suck Less. She also the founder of Cheshire Parlour, in which she consults with organizations wishing to deepen their messaging and connection with their communities, including Holstee, Impact Hub, 92Y, and Escape The City, where she has curated and facilitated hundreds of events. Her signature course: How To Write Your Manifesto, has been taught at schools including Barnard and Columbia University, and as an online curriculum. Monica has been a keynote speaker on the importance of philosophy in our angst ridden era at conferences including TEDx, Creative Mornings, The Feast, Janders Dean, and Co.Starters Summit. Her story has been featured in Pivot (Penguin Portfolio), and The New Philosopher. Most recently, Monica is honored to be a Founding Faculty Member of The School of Life in North America. Monica is also an actress, and has performed on Broadway and in television and film, from NYC to LA to Japan to the UK. Speaking of travel, Monica's passport is never far away. So far her travels have taken her to about 50 countries on 6 continents and counting. But she still has zero sense of direction.
