270. Recovering the Depth of Experience in a Flattened World- Radically Personal

270. Recovering the Depth of Experience in a Flattened World- Radically Personal

Author: Jerry L. Martin February 12, 2026 Duration: 28:00

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What do we mean when we speak of human experience?

In this fourth installment of the Radically Personal series, Jerry Martin takes up that question and follows it carefully. Modern philosophy and science often frame experience in terms of sensations, data, or brain activity. Yet the way we actually live and perceive suggests something more expansive.

Drawing on William James, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Hilary Putnam, Martin Buber, Edith Stein, and others, Jerry reflects on how we encounter the world in practice. He considers perception and embodiment, the depth present in persons and things, the pull of beauty and awe, and the way empathy makes another’s inner life accessible.

The discussion gradually turns toward love and value, tracing how worth emerges within experience itself. As the episode moves from perception to relationship to meaning, a picture comes into view: depth is not added from outside but belongs to experience as lived.

Join Jerry in taking experience seriously; it may open new ways of thinking about meaning, reality, and the possibility of the divine.

Get the books: Radically Personal: God and Ourselves in the New Axial Age | God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher

Other Series:

The podcast began with the Dramatic Adaptation of the book and now has several series:

Stay Connected: questions@godanautobiography.com

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Imagine a philosopher, a dedicated scholar who spent his life in the realm of ideas without a trace of faith, suddenly finding himself in a dialogue he never sought. GOD: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher-The Podcast is the unfolding account of Dr. Jerry L. Martin, a lifelong agnostic and former head of the National Endowment for the Humanities, who one day offered a prayer and received a clear, verbal response. This isn't a theoretical exercise or a sermon; it's a personal chronicle of what happened next, as a trained thinker with deep skepticism began asking the big questions about existence, purpose, and human nature, and recorded the answers he received. Each episode moves this extraordinary narrative forward, blending the disciplines of philosophy, spirituality, and raw personal experience. You'll hear Dr. Martin's thoughtful reflections on these conversations, which span topics from the nature of the divine to the practical challenges of living an ethical life, all grounded in his academic background. This podcast invites you into a story that challenges preconceptions, not to persuade but to present a profound and documented experience. It's for anyone curious about the intersection of intellect and the ineffable, where a philosopher's quest for truth took an utterly unexpected turn. The journey detailed here resonates across categories of religion, culture, and society, offering a unique perspective that is both deeply human and mysteriously transcendent.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 278

GOD: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher - The Podcast
Podcast Episodes
265. Radically Personal – William James on Religious Experience [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:18
Questions? Comments? Text Us!In this episode of Radically Personal, Jerry L. Martin turns to the work of American philosopher and psychologist William James to explore how divine reality is encountered in lived experienc…
264. Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue- Evil, Love, and God [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:00
Questions? Comments? Text Us!In this year-end intimate dialogue, philosophers Jerry L. Martin and Abigail L. Rosenthal return to one of the most enduring questions in philosophy and theology: why evil persists, and what…