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The Heart and the Head

The Heart and the Head

By: Dr. Brenton G. Smith
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The Heart and the Head is a podcast about changing our lives through taking up a philosophical life of seeking after truth. This is considered by examining the lives and teachings of great philosophers and thinkers throughout history.

This is a show about how to change everything. It is for those of us who no longer find themselves reflected in the cultural narrative of seeking happiness through pursuit of wealth, achievement, or self-expression.

In Republic, Plato tells a parable, imploring each of us to “turn around” from the darkness of a life lived in the ignorance of a metaphorical cave to the light of a life outside that cave. In the cave's darkness, we identify external things such as success or pleasure as most real and as the way to happiness. When we turn around and begin to exit the cave, we begin to realize that the most real things are rather internal, spiritual things, things which Plato associates with a higher power which he refers to as the Divine.

Plato’s parable speaks just as much to us today as to the ancient Greeks. To take up the philosophical life means changing our whole way of living, changing what we desire and value, and committing to that change with our whole selves. This is a podcast devoted to helping us better understand how to live such a philosophical life.

https://brentongsmith.com/podcast/

© 2025 The Heart and the Head Personal Development Personal Success Philosophy Social Sciences Spirituality
Episodes
  • Reflecting on Scripture 7 - The Longing for Paradise in Isaiah and Plato's Republic

    Reflecting on Scripture 7 - The Longing for Paradise in Isaiah and Plato's Republic
    Dec 8 2025

    In this episode, I examine Isaiah, Chapter 11: 6-9 and compare it's depiction of a future paradise to the depiction the Greek philosopher Plato gives in Republic.

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    If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com
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    20 mins
  • Reflecting on Scripture 6 - Isaiah 53:1-8 - The Blood of the Prophets

    Reflecting on Scripture 6 - Isaiah 53:1-8 - The Blood of the Prophets
    Nov 23 2025

    In this episode, I focus my own reflections today on a portion of this well-known passage from Isaiah which often doesn’t get much attention. This is the portion at the beginning of the passage, from verses 2-3, where we learn that this messianic figure, who turns out to be Jesus was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain,a man whom people hide their faces from, who was despised and held in low esteem.


    If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com
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    18 mins
  • Reflecting on Scripture 5 - Genesis 28:10-17 - Jacob's Ziggurat

    Reflecting on Scripture 5 - Genesis 28:10-17 - Jacob's Ziggurat
    Nov 10 2025

    In this episode, I look at the account of what is sometimes referred to as "Jacob's Ladder". I argue that this is a depiction of an opposite way of life to what we examined last show, with the tower of Babel.

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    If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com

    The passage I’ll look at for the next show will be Isaiah's account of a messianic figure in Isaiah 53: "He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain."

    If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com

    If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com
    Show More Show Less
    17 mins
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