Well, good evening and welcome to Socrates in the city.

It is wonderful to see all of you here this evening.

My name, I'm going to be very upfront about this.

My name is Eric Mataxis.

I will be your host this evening.

Many of you know that I had the privilege of starting Socrates quite a long time ago,

back in the year 2000. Remember when that used to be the future? Yeah, it really isn't anymore, is it? But

it's so long ago that when we started this, it was in the fall of 2000.

No one had yet heard of the phrase, hanging Chad.

And in fact, it's so long ago now that many of you have already forgotten what a hanging Chad is.

It's extraordinary.

Anyway, the reason that I started what we call Socrates in the cities because I felt there was not a place in Manhattan where the big questions were being addressed,

questions about what we like to call life, God, and other small topics.

Feel free to titter.

That's what that's all about.

But I really felt that in a city as influential as New York City was important to have a forum where the big questions were being asked.

Of course, Socrates famously said the unexamined life is not worth living, so we've called

our events conversations on the examined life.

And we've done our best over the years to bring you speakers who've asked the big questions and

try to answer them. We've heard, of course, from world-class scientists like Dr. Francis Collins

and Sir John Polkinghorn from thinkers and writers and philosophers like Dr. Gene Bethke Elstein, Dr. Peter Craft,

Oz Guinness, Roger Scruton, Father Richard John Newhouse, Chuck Colson, Paul Vitz, Robbie George,

...