The Temporary Beautiful: On Mandating Philosophy and Contemplating Death | with UVA lecturer Carah Ong Whaley

What if every college student had to take a philosophy class? And what if thinking about your own death every single day was actually good for you?

In this episode of Disagree With A Professor, student hosts Peter McHugh, Lidia Zur Muhlen, and Makayla Castle bring the statements, and Professor Carah Ong Whaley disagrees with them. Join us for two back-to-back discussions on philosophy education and mortality. 

With guest: Professor Carah Ong Whaley — Lecturer, Department of Politics & Executive Director, Better Choices for Democracy, University of Virginia

 

WHAT WE COVER

- Should philosophy be a required course for all college students?

- How do you maintain curriculum quality when scaling a mandate to thousands of students?

- What does philosophy actually teach — and why does it matter for AI, democracy, and everyday reasoning?

- Is thinking about your own death every day healthy or harmful?

- How mortality awareness connects to religion, risk-taking, and political behavior

- What alternatives exist to death-as-motivation — and do they work as well?

- The difference between individual grounding practices and societal-scale effects

 

GUEST BIO

Professor Carah Ong Whaley is a Lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia and Executive Director of Better Choices for Democracy, a nonpartisan organization focused on improving democratic participation and decision-making. Her research intersects political behavior, civic education, and electoral integrity.

Music: "Dispersion Relation" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Disagree With a Professor is created by Think Again at the University of Virginia, with production support from Awkward Sage Media.

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