Phil Oliver (@philoliver) Just before heading to the airport in KC yesterday afternoon, I was exiting my patio lunch on the Plaza when the No Kings parade ambled by. I joined it. Good trouble!

substack.com/@philoliver/...

The Writer's Almanac for Thursday, March 26, 2026 - Garrison Keillor And it is the birthday of poet Robert Frost, born in San Francisco (1874). Frost’s life was filled with tragedy and loss: his father died of tuberculosis when Frost was 11. Three of Frost’s children d...

Read Richard Powers's Playground, and enjoy the games. Have some fun and earn a high station, in these appalling times.

"A high station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling experiences are survived with grace."

www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/the-wr...

The Writer's Almanac for Thursday, March 26, 2026 - Garrison Keillor And it is the birthday of poet Robert Frost, born in San Francisco (1874). Frost’s life was filled with tragedy and loss: his father died of tuberculosis when Frost was 11. Three of Frost’s children d...

MLB Opening Day (after last night's Yankee rout of the Giants)! I'm off to celebrate with the baseball scholars in Ottawa. Play ball! Play life…

Uprooted & without power 7 days now.

Day 4 without power. Our temporary lodging afforded a view of the new Titans’ stadium, until problems with the room uprooted us. Taking the dogs out is still a challenge, but at least we’ve thawed out. Could be worse. Sadly, for many, it is.

Snowy sleety icky day in middle Tennessee. Good time to pick up the little book about the Parnassus pooches I was gifted for Christmas. Hauled the elliptical in from the barn too, no dogwalk for us today.

Spring 2026 Newsletter
President’s Message from Dr. Phil Oliver

‘Tis the season of William James’s birth, in 1842.

By an odd twist of coincidence, January 11 happens also to be my wife’s birthday. So it’s a date I cannot and dare not ever forget… wjsociety.org/news/

A day of infamy Jan 6 now signifies surgery, for Nell ( and Mom too), as well as insurrection. But this Jan 6 had a better outcome than in '21, even if N...

jposopher.blogspot.com/2026/01/a-da...

Tim Minchin - 9 Life Lessons YouTube video by Agile Minds #26

I’ve heard some unimpressive commencement speeches over the years at my school, and anticipate another this afternoon. To compensate:

Tim Minchin - 9 LifeLessons

youtu.be/FJ__a4qVE_g?...

What a lovely end-of-semester gift from a student in Philosophy of Happiness. Volume II includes the transcendent 1910 letter to Henry Adams I sent them off with: “ I am so happy I can stand it no longer!”

My exam-day welcome. I used to have that nightmare.

Percy Warner Park, Nashville 11.16.25

A gift from the bride. Priceless.

Younger Daughter’s wedding was picture-perfect, with wonderful weather after a stormy day and before a cold one. My reception toast channeled “my philosophical muse” on the art of knowing what to overlook. Hope they’ll never overlook the glory of love for a “fellow bird”…

Phil Oliver (@philoliver) How quickly three decades can fly.

Where does the time go? substack.com/@philoliver/...

Phil Oliver (@philoliver) I’ve now worn a Halloween mask to class twice in my teaching career, the first time many years ago. It was time for a new photo to recycle annually.

Boo! substack.com/@philoliver/...

The Southern Festival of Books The show went on, for the 37th time... DOGE be damned.

Elon couldn’t kill it. open.substack.com/pub/philoliv...

The author agreed that Jimmy would like my hat.

There was something sweet about having the No Kings protesters parade by as I waited to get my Jimmy Carter book signed.

And also happening, next-door at the state capital: No Kings! I’ll be getting my steps in this morning.

Southern Festival of Books: Oct. 18 & 19, 2025 Vanderbilt University Presents: the Southern Festival of Books, a Program of Humanities Tennessee: Oct. 18 & 19, 2025 Join us this Fall!

Happening today, thanks to Parnassus Books, Vandy, and a legion of devotedly-“efficient” bibliophiles. www.sofestofbooks.org

The Atlantic (@theatlantic) on Threads The writer Peter Matthiessen traveled the world looking for elusive snow leopards and rare cranes. But a new biography shows that the genuine self he was really seeking would be much harder to find, w...

www.threads.com/@theatlantic...

Autumnal season’s greetings, fellow friends of William James.

I first began to think of WJ in casually-friendly terms back in the Fall of my first year of grad school at Vanderbilt in the ’80s…
wjsociety.org/news/

The dawn of the post-literate society And the end of civilisation

Those who most need to grasp this message will find it too long. They won’t read it. open.substack.com/pub/jmarriot...

Pilgrimages Journeys home can be happy. The further we roam, the more we're at home. Where are we headed?

Moving on. substack.com/@philoliver/...

The importance of maintaining face-to-face relationships in a mediated age, and just simply being present for the people we love.

Edie got that backwards, some of us would say.

Dr. Megan Craig, Stony Brook University, at MTSU’s Applied Philosophy Lyceum Sep 26 2025 YouTube video by Phil Oliver

youtube.com/watch?v=ZhTS...

Excellent Lyceum address from Megan Craig, on staying human(e) and present in the face of mortality. #mtsu #AppliedPhilosophyLyceum