Democracy Café

If you look at the Meetup page for this thriving ongoing Socrates Cafe in London, you'll see the "Imagine," photo we've uploaded here for this podcast. Their dedicated organizer, Austin Caffrey, tells me in this thoughtful exchange that Socrates Cafe is one good place to engage in broad and deep and methodical imagining blended with reasoning with one's fellow philosophical inquisitors. Listen in as Austin thoughtfully relates why he thinks Socrates Cafe, along with some iterations of other kinds of philosophy cafes and political philosophy cafes, are good for society and democracy. "We have over 30 people [who regularly participate] who can freely discuss their viewpoints and criticize the ideas," Austin tells me. "That to me is an example of the kind of freedom that comes with the kind of democracy that i think is beneficial." And when I mention to him that Socrates Cafe has also established footholds in societies that are not so open, his eloquent reply is, "I’m not sure you can quell human curiosit