Essays, Interviews, Talks

Selected Essays

• “Why I Teach Plato to Plumbers” The Atlantic
• “The Deep Mystery of Being Alive” Plato’s Academy
• “Would You Hire Socrates?” Wall Street Journal
• “What the Stoics Can Teach a Lions (or Bears) Fan” Chicago Tribune
• “Counting Lights,” The First Person
• “Where the Humanities Aren’t in Crisis,” The Hedgehog Review
• “Rhetoric Is More Than Just Words,” Dallas Morning News
• “Graduates, You’ve Been Misled,” Dallas Morning News
• “Suffering Not Just Happiness Weighs in the Utilitarian Calculus,” Aeon
• “Remembering Back,” Lapham’s Quarterly
• “A Book I Like to Teach: Discourses and Selected Writings by Epictetus,” Christian Century
• “Finding Philosophy,” The Chronicle Review
• “The Liberal Arts and the Fate of American Democracy,” Rhodes College Magazine
• “Seven Philosophers You Should Know (And Probably Don’t),” Huffington Post
• “The Best Books for Finding the Meaning of Life in Rome” Shepherd

Selected Interviews

• “The Problem of Pointless Suffering,” KUER (Utah Public Radio)
• “Seven Ways of Looking at Pointless Suffering,” Talk of Iowa (Iowa Public Radio)
• “Finding the Deepest Human Life: Teaching Philosophy to Plumbers,” KUNI (Iowa Public Radio)
• “Everyday Philosophy,” KERA (Texas Public Radio)
• “Scott Samuelson on Suffering and Soul-Making,” WKNO (Tennessee Public Radio)

Selected Talks

• “A Refusal to Defend the Humanities,” Hiett Prize Acceptance
• “How Philosophy Can Save Your Life,” TEDx Bismarck
• “Kicking the Bucket List: Death and the Art of Shining,” Eastern Illinois University
• “Suffering and Soul-Making: On the Deep Value of the Liberal Arts,” Rhodes College