Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates

Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein were philosophy classmates at Harvard and have created something of a cottage industry using their philosophical credentials and their fine sense of humor to explore complex issues. Their latest work is: “Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates: Using Philosophy (and Jokes!) to Explore Life, Death, the Afterlife, and Everything in Between”.

As Thomas Cathcart tells host Mike Cuthbert, we are the only animals who know we’re going to die, and can also imagine living forever.

“The combo is really deadly,” he says, in terms of anxiety we experience about what’s next.

They explore how we have addressed that anxiety, from the words of Heidegger and Freud … to the musings of Woody Allen.

Press play on the audio player to join in on what Mike calls a fun and thought-provoking conversation about some of life’s biggest questions.

And, you may learn a few new jokes along the way.