CURRENT MISSION

To wonder with people through conversations and to change the world through questions.

ABOUT ME

We did a little facebook survey of what our friends would say. The winners were...

Seth:
"Engaging. Enthusiastic. Appreciates good wine, and drinks bad wine if it comes with good company."

Gad:
"Creative. Vivacious. If Gad were a food, she'd be soul food."

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We've been using couchsurfing to travel around on our philosofarian project - both to find accommodations and to meet new people to talk to. It's been a very natural and mutually beneficial relationship. Since we're travelling so much now it's hard to host much, but we plan to when when we're more settled in.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Our experience has been wonderful. It fits perfectly with our project of having philosophical conversations and building philosophical communities wherever we go. It really does bring about much of the better side of humanity.

Interests

Seth:
Soooo, what I can tell you about myself. Well, here are 12 things to know about me:

*) I have been teaching philosophy for 19 years. I have taught literally thousands of people from all different stripes, from every walk of life, and from all over the world.

*) I absolutely LOVE teaching at all ages and levels. I find its a kind of artistic expression for me, and I get depressed if I can't find some way to practice it in my life.

*) I love finding old notes in books & will sometimes leave parts of lecture notes I've written in little used library books just so somebody will find them years from when I put them there.

*) If given a choice, I will always write longhand with a blue fountain pen.

*) I like to throw pennies into large bodies of water and then imagine archeologists finding them centuries from now.

*) I sometimes sleep on my stomach with my legs bent so that my calves rest on the back of my thighs. People say this looks terribly uncomfortable, but I do it naturally.

*) I taught myself to tie my own shows in an idiosyncratic way when I was 6 & only learned how to tie shows the "regular way" when I was 23.

*) My family has lived in Portland Oregon for 5 generations now (something of a rarity in Portland these days). I think itâ

• books
• dining
• wine
• drinking
• traveling
• swimming

Music, Movies, and Books

Seth BOOKS: It's kind of a hard question, so II'll just give you some of the authors that have stuck with me over time - Mikhail Bulgakov, Alexis de Tocqueville, John Dewey, Jon Krakauer, Barry Lopez, Antoine de Saint-ExupÃry, Gerald Durrell, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, James Joyce, Milan Kundera, Pablo Neruda, James Thurber, Zhuangzi.

Gad BOOKS: Unlike Seth, I'm going with what i've liked that I've read recently. It's a little messy but here they are - The Cigarette Century, Brave New World, Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Catch-22, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, Dune, Blink, Farenheit 451, The Glass Bead Game, Lolita, The Hobbit, Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Lord of the Flies, Pablo Neruda, George Orwell, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Under the Banner of Heaven, Winesberg Ohio, and of course MY ALL TIME FAVORITE - THE WIZARD OF OZ.

Seth MOVIES: Okay, again, this is something where way too many come to mind. I'd say the TOP pick is Chariots of Fire, with Fight Club as a close second. After that I'd say say... Persepolis, The Fog of War, Downfall, Being John Malkovich, Lost in Translation, Blade Runner, Donnie Darko, The Matrix, Pulp Fiction, The Big Lebowski, Repo Man, Magnolia, Fantasia (the original 1940 version, not the sorry remake), The Mission, Rushmore, Apocalypse Now, American Splendor, Gandhi, Alien, They Live, The Seven Samurai, The City of Lost Children, Metropolis, The Scent of Green Papaya, Memento, 2001, Borat, Burnt by the Sun, The Men who Stare at Goats. Okay, I'll stop now...

Gad MOVIES: Labrynth, Legend, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Hot Fuzz, Dangerous Liaisons, Benny & Joon, Napoleon Dynamite, Edward Scissorhands, Ocean's Eleven (2001), 12 Monkeys, Better Off Dead, The Big Lebowski, Dirty Love, Napolean Dynamite, Torch Song Trilogy, The Incredibles, Secuestro Express, Boiler Room, The Other Sister, Word Is Out: Stories Of Some Of Our Lives, Rushmore, Thoroughly Modern Millie. As you can see, I've got a penchant for B+ comedies, fantasy, and a little bit of melodrama. In fact, when all three get mixed together I get a little twitterpated.

Seth MUSIC:

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Seth:
1) I once heard the London symphony orchestra doing a full dress rehearsal of Mozart's requiem mass in Canterbury Cathedral. They were practicing for the 200th anniversary of the death of Mozart. It was dark & stormy outside. I sat myself down in a far corner of the cathedral & listened for over an hour. It was great.

2) Swimming in the open ocean, 60 miles from shore over waters that were over 3 miles deep.

Gad:
1) After being divorced & out of contact for 18 years, I captured on camera, the moment my parents realized they were still in love.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

•