Most of our media are owned by a handful of tech billionaires, but there's one place that still operates like the internet was never invented.

On the new season of the divided dial from On the Media, we're exploring shortwave radio, where prayer and propaganda coexist with news and conspiracy theories, and where an existential battle for the public airwaves is playing out right now.

Listen to On the Media wherever you get your podcasts. Good morning, precoftan, I hope you are well, and that your progress on the stoic path is feeling especially frictionless today.

In this episode, I'm going to try my best to square a circle. Many of

you have told me you've struggled to square in your own understanding of stoicism. And that is,

what does it mean to be good exactly? Why does it matter? And how do I do it? And this is a poignant episode, because I, as you know,

have a little baby boy on the way, and I have found myself contemplating these things,

the more and more I go along as an expecting father, and I expect that one day, in the not too

distant future, I will be asked by said baby boy, why being good matters,

what it even means, and how they can do it themselves. And to be up front, I don't know that I

possess the depth of understanding of stoicism to get this right entirely today, but I'm going to

try my very best, and I'm confident that by the end of the episode, you'll understand

goodness at least a little bit better than you already do, and you'll have a strategy for achieving

it yourself, or at least working towards it. Before all that, though, thanks to a few new patrons,

thank you to Camille Jaworski, Sunni Johnson Gooder, Byzant, Damien, and Beth Campbell, Duke.

I appreciate your support of my work, and I'm grateful to have you each as patrons, so thank you.

I also just want to take a second here to let existing patrons and would-be patrons know that there is now a way to pay for an entire

year of patronage up front. There is no benefit to me for you doing this. In fact, the argument

could be made that it makes my monthly income less predictable, but a lot of you have asked if I

could enable the ability for annual payments instead of, you know, the nickel and diming

that happens every month. And I've decided if that helps you to better control your spending,

then it's worth enabling because you're supporting me. And if I can make that easier for you,

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