Audio Versions Are Back

A Convivial Society Update

Friends,

It feels good to be writing more frequently the past couple of months. Five new essays over the last ten weeks feels like a decent pace, and I look forward to keeping it up. Thanks again for your patience and encouragement.

I’m also glad to report that I’ve been posting audio versions of these recent essays. I know there are many of you who appreciate having the audio versions and have missed them over the past year. If you’re wondering why you haven’t seen them in your inbox, however, it’s because I’ve opted not to send out via email, especially since I’ve just uploaded a three installments over the past four days.

If you’d like to listen to them on Substack, you can follow each of these links to the respective posts:

1. Learning to Receive the Day (Audio Version)

2. Vision Con (Audio Version)

3. Secularization Comes for the Religion of Technology (Audio Version)

You can also find them on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can subscribe to the podcast feed on either platform to get notified when new audio versions post.

I’ll have the audio for “The Art of Living” up early next week, and I'll then start back at “The Thing That Is Silence” and work backwards from there recording the audio versions of past essays.

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Briefly, let me also remind readers that the Convivial Society runs on a patronage model. The writing is and will always remain public—there are no paywalls for the essays—however readers who value the writing and have the means to do so are encouraged to support my work. This newsletter is an important part of how make my living, so I’m grateful for the generosity of those who do become paid subscribers.

Here are three options for your consideration.

First, the standard rates: $5/month, $45/year, and $100+/year for the Supporting Member tier.

Second, a student option at 50% off.

Thirdly, a permanent 20% discount option for those who would like to support my writing but can’t afford the standard rates.

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Okay, thanks for considering. Before parting, I’ll leave you with a few random items I’ve come upon recently.

1. I’ve been reading Tolkien again lately, and I’ve been struck by how easily one can substitute “smartphone” for “the Ring.” Take, for instance, this paragraph early on in which Gandalf invites Frodo to rid himself of the ring.

2. Here’s a lovely line from Yeats that would’ve worked beautifully in my recent essay on Vision Pro, but which, alas, came to me too late: “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”

3. This is Kierkegaard writing on the power of walking: “Above all, do not lose your desire to walk … every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.

4. Finally, here is a picture I recently took of a gorgeous species of saucer magnolia known as 'Rustica Rubra.’

Be well friends. More to come soon.

Cheers,

Michael