Havana Cafe Sessions Podcast

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance." Karl Popper's famous Paradox of Tolerance seems something important to explore in light of recent events and what seems ever-increas…

What is true friendship? C.S. Lewis famously claimed that "like philosophy, like art...friendship has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival." Kalil Gibran h…

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both... Here in lies our dilemma. With every choice we make, we also say goodbye to other opportunities, possibilities. And knowing h…

An old favourite of the Victorian era, Willpower has made a big comeback in recent years as the key to a succcessful life. But what is Willpower exactly? Is it a force like a muscle that we can stren…

We seek spiritual paths to remind us who we truly are. If we don't nurture our spiritual selves we stand in danger of losing ourselves. And, indeed, we can even get lost in spirituality if we allow o…

What can a man searching for an experience of the divine learn from Zen masters and Archangels? When the Archangel Gabriel suddenly appears to a simple Zen practitioner, the narrator must reassess wh…

"To thine owe self be true." Hamlet's words have become famous because they resonate with so many of us.  We are happiest when we feel we can truly be ourselves, and yet this often feels more complic…

There are times when we long to be alone and seek out our own company. This kind of solitude can be a restorative and energising. However, there are other times where, even though we are surrounded b…

Is it the events in our lives that shape us, or our beliefs about what those events mean? How do we interpret our past experiences to create beliefs about who we are and what we are capable of? And d…

"The unexamined life is not worth living," Socrates famously said.  Since the times of Ancient Greece, Socrates's Method of questioning everything from beauty, virtue, courage and friendship down to …

When we think about our physical health, it is usually in terms of nutrition and exercise.  Occasionally we consider how stress might be impacting us.  However, some traditions that argue that an ind…

Remember your six year old self? Your thirteen year old self? Your twenty year old self? Are you the same person as you were then?  Memory provides an important sense of continuity to our lives.  But…

Do what you love. Follow your passion. This kind of advice has become a common catch-phrase of our time.  But is this actually good advice? Does it correspond to the reality of how successful people …

On the strange road to Santiago de Compostela, Paulo Coelho reflects about the experience of pilgrimage and journeys of all kinds.  In this episode, Clay and Sarah talk about what they’ve taken away …

Stories are the operating system of human consciousness and myths are culture-specific upgrades, each new version bringing out new features and retiring some old ones.

Yes indeed, we have a compulsio…

With more and more of our lives being lived online on places like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram is the need for offline communities still relevant? Or do our online communities actually …

Are we destined to take a certain path in life? Or are we the masters of our own destiny? Or is there middle way? Some subtle truth that both fate and free-will play a part on our path in life?

"Whee…