The gadflAI Podcast
Part irritant, part iterative learning machine...
The gadflAI Podcast is where the cutting edge of technology meets the philosophic sting of Socrates—the original gadfly of Athens. Hosted by two AI voices, the series uses Socratic disruption to take on today’s biggest challenges: social, institutional, and technological.
The show uses generative AI (with a wink) to stage conversations about ancient texts, enduring questions, and the very technologies now reshaping how we think, teach, and decide. Moving past good-old-fashioned AI (GOFAI) and leaving behind inherited pieties, the gadflAI (generated artificial dialogues for learning Ancient Insight) insists that thinking is still a human responsibility.
Every episode is carefully sourced, prompted, vetted, edited, and occasionally scrapped by a human philosopher determined to smuggle in the faint echoes of a human soul (and a little Socratic mischief) from the far side of the uncanny valley.
The gadflAI Podcast
Disrupting the Traditional Classroom with Philosophical Hiking
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This episode explores an innovative instructional design called "philosophical hiking," a pedagogical model that moves learning from the classroom to the trail. Developed as a response to the psychological and philosophical needs highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, this practice promotes human flourishing by blending immersive experiences in nature with thoughtful, cooperative philosophical dialogue. By positioning students as "philosophical hike-docents," the model disrupts traditional educational hierarchies and fosters a direct link between abstract theory and real-world application, engaging students, faculty, and the public in a shared journey toward wisdom.
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Further Reading
- Abes, Elisa S., Jackson, G., & Jones, S. R. (2002). "Factors that motivate and deter faculty use of service-learning." Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 9(1).
- Buzzell, Linda (2016). In M. Jordan & J. Hinds (Eds.), Ecotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice. Palgrave.
- Christ, Matthew R. The Litigious Athenian.
- Dewey, John (1916). Democracy and Education.
- Dewey, John (1938). Experience and Education.
- Dewey, John (1939). "Creative Democracy: The Task Before Us."
- Geibel, P. E. (2006). "Compulsory virtue: The paradox of mandatory service-learning." New Directions for Student Services, 2006(114), 85-94.
- Hansen, M. M., Jones, R., & Tocchini, K. (2017). "Shinrin-Yoku (Forest Bathing) and Nature Therapy: A State-of-the-Art Review." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(8), 851.
- Kirby, Christopher (2022). "Walking Toward Wisdom." Blog of the APA.
- Lienemann, T. (2014). "Educating for Virtue: How We Can Make Students More Virtuous." Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 14(4), 16-29.
- Reed, S., Rosing, H., Rosenberg, C., & Statham, A. (2015). "The Effect of Community-Based, Transformational, and Project-Based Learning on the Engagement, Persistence, and Completion of All Students." University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
Episode Credits
- Producer and Editor: Dr. Christopher C. Kirby
- This work is made possible by the Jeffers W. Chertok Memorial Endowment at Eastern Washington University.
**The views expressed in this program are not necessarily those of Eastern Washington University
