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.

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Welcome back, Prokptan. I'm glad you're here.

Last week, I had a chat with Michael Tremblay.

And during that conversation, towards the tail end of it,

Michael talked about Epictetus potentially being in a teaching position that he didn't really

see as ideal. Namely, he wanted to teach philosophy students, philosophy, serious philosophy

students, philosophy, but was instead stuck teaching business students' philosophy in the hopes

that they might not turn out to be completely useless in their careers.

This isn't Stoic canon, at least I don't think it is, but it was an interesting thought and

one that captured my attention because of how every day it seems.

There are plenty of movies, books, and other stories about people

who have had grand visions for the impact they'll have in the world, and then, when reality slams into

them, what they end up with is a lot less grand in retrospect. I'm going to be a world explorer,

you might say. But then you're just a zookeeper at the local municipal zoo. I'm going to be a world explorer, you might say. But then you're just a zookeeper at the local

municipal zoo. I'm going to own a big successful business one day, but then you just own a couple of

subway franchises. I'm going to teach the world's next amazing batch of virtuous, sage-like philosophers.

But then you just end up teaching a bunch of rich people's kids so they don't

turn out to be completely terrible. And just so it's clear, I'm not meaning to jab at zookeepers

or subway franchise owners. I'm only meaning to point out in a comical way what is a fact of life.

We start with grand visions and we end with reality. Plenty of us are happy with that reality, and certainly Stoicism enables us, in part, to be

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