Ontology 101
An AI-powered podcast where artificial hosts dive deep into the works of J. Daniel Alejos, unpacking his foundational text Tending the Garden and related writings that explore the ontological nature of reality — how being, structure, and coherence function at every level of existence.
Episodes
30 episodes
Genesis 1 - Moral Infrastructure
This podcast offers an exegetical reading of Genesis Chapter 1, interpreted through the lens of ontological moral geometry as developed by J. Daniel Alejos. The goal is to reveal how the opening chapter of Scripture does more than...
Genesis 2 - Dust, Breath, and the Architecture of Being
In this episode, we slow down and look closely at Genesis 2—not as a second telling of creation, but as a deeper unveiling of how being itself is structured. Here, humanity is not merely made; humanity is formed—from du...
Genesis 3 - The Fracture
Genesis 3 is not just the story of a forbidden tree—it is the story of ontological rupture. In this episode, we examine how deception distorts recognition, how desire is bent inward, and how trust collapses into suspicion. The Fall is no...
Genesis 4 - The First Violence
Genesis 4 takes us into the inner terrain of worship, envy, and violence. Cain and Abel embody two ontological postures: one aligned, one self-centered. When Cain refuses correction, misalignment spills outward into the soil itself. In this epi...
Genesis 5 - And He Died
Genesis 5 may look like a genealogy, but it is a chapter about ontological continuity—how identity, blessing, and decay pass through generations. We examine how mortality shapes the human story, how righteous lineage preserves resonance ...
Genesis 6 - An Imagination for Evil
In Genesis 6, misalignment scales. Violence fills the earth, boundaries blur, and the world’s structure itself begins to break. This episode explores how unchecked autonomy corrodes the moral landscape, how divine grief reveals the weight of re...
Chapter 7 - Uncreation
Genesis 7 depicts creation unraveling—the boundaries of Genesis 1 collapsing under moral distortion. The flood is not annihilation but uncreation, a return to undifferentiated waters so that structure may be rebuilt. In this episode, we ...
Genesis 8 - Renewal Begins
As the waters recede, Genesis 8 opens a chapter of reorientation. Noah waits, listens, releases, discerns. Divine memory becomes the anchor of creation’s restart. We explore how mercy accompanies judgment, how patience becomes formation, and ho...
Genesis 9 - Covenant and Consequence
In Genesis 9, God establishes a covenant with all living creatures—a structural promise meant to stabilize creation after chaos. We examine the ontological meaning of covenant, the sacredness of life, the re-establishment of boundaries, and the...
Genesis 10 - The Nations
Genesis 10 maps the dispersion of nations—a structural genealogy of culture, language, and geography. We explore how identity cascades outward from ancestry, how nations carry both blessing and fracture, and how the table of nations sets the st...
Genesis 11 — Babel’s Collapse
Genesis 11 presents Babel as a human attempt to ascend without alignment—to simulate sacredness through architecture and collective ambition. We explore how pride organizes systems, how language functions as moral boundary, and why God’s confus...
Episode 12 - The Call
Genesis 12 begins the story of Abraham and the emergence of a people shaped by divine calling. We examine how blessing is tied to obedience, how pilgrimage forms the soul, and how God’s promise reframes identity and direction. Abram’s journey b...
An Introduction to Tending the Garden
Episode 1 – “You’re Already Becoming Someone”In this opening episode, the AI hosts introduce Tending the Garden: Rebuilding Moral Infrastructure in a Fractured World by J. Daniel Alejos — a work at the crossroads of theol...
Tending the Garden Episode 2 – “The Innate Sense of Morality”
In this episode, the AI hosts continue their exploration of Tending the Garden by J. Daniel Alejos, turning to Chapter One: The Innate Sense of Morality. This discussion digs into one of Alejos’ most foundational claims — that...
Tending the Garden Episode 3 – “The Importance of Oughts”
In this episode, the AI hosts return to Tending the Garden by J. Daniel Alejos to unpack Chapter Two: The Importance of Oughts. Picking up from the prior discussion on humanity’s innate moral compass, the hosts explore what ha...
Tending the Garden Episode 4 – “Broken Compasses: The Limitations of Subjective Morality”
In this episode, the AI hosts continue their journey through J. Daniel Alejos’ Tending the Garden with Chapter Three — Broken Compasses: The Limitations of Subjective Morality. After establishing that morality is real and that...
Tending the Garden Episode 5 – “Can Objective Moral Frameworks Be Derived?”
In this pivotal episode, the AI hosts reach Chapter Four of Tending the Garden by J. Daniel Alejos — the point where moral philosophy meets its limit. After examining the failures of personal instinct in Broken Compasses, Alej...
Tending the Garden Episode 6 – “Formation Is Inevitable”
In this episode, the AI hosts begin Part II of J. Daniel Alejos’ Tending the Garden — moving from the question of what morality is to how it actually forms us. Chapter Five, Formation Is Inevitable, ...
Tending the Garden Episode 7 – “The Praxial Modalities”
In this episode, the AI hosts continue through Tending the Garden by J. Daniel Alejos, stepping into one of its most structural chapters: The Praxial Modalities. This conversation translates abstract moral formation into the g...
Tending the Garden Episode 8 – “Praxial Symbiosis”
In this episode, the AI hosts explore Chapter Seven: Praxial Symbiosis from J. Daniel Alejos’ Tending the Garden, a turning point in the book where formation moves from personal to relational. After learning how Story, Game, I...
Tending the Garden Episode 9 – “The Role of Art and Symbol”
In this episode, the AI hosts explore Chapter Eight of J. Daniel Alejos’ Tending the Garden, titled The Role of Art and Symbol. Building on the idea that formation is relational and ecological, Alejos turns the focus ...
Tending the Garden Episode 10 – “What It Means to Tend”
In this episode, the AI hosts step into Part III of J. Daniel Alejos’ Tending the Garden — the practical heart of the book — beginning with Chapter Nine: What It Means to Tend. After tracing the inevitability of forma...
Tending the Garden Episode 11 – “Contamination, Neglect, and Damage”
In this episode, the AI hosts turn to one of the most sobering chapters of Tending the Garden — Chapter Ten: Contamination, Neglect, and Damage. After learning what faithful tending looks like, this chapter examines what happe...
Tending the Garden Episode 12 - “What Holds True?"
In this episode, the AI hosts begin the turn from collapse to restoration, exploring Chapter Eleven: What Holds True? from J. Daniel Alejos’ Tending the Garden. After the previous chapter’s heavy meditation on neglect and...
Tending the Garden Episode 13 – “The One Who Holds”
In this climactic episode, the AI hosts reach Chapter Twelve of J. Daniel Alejos’ Tending the Garden, the chapter toward which the entire series has been building. After tracing the reality of morality, the inevitability of fo...