The Philosophy Talk team just finished a brief stint "on the road." On October 27th, we taped a show in front of about 200 Stanford Alums up in Sacramento on behalf of the Stanford Alumni Club of Sacramento. The topic was "Progress and the Environment." Our guest was Terry Tamminen, formerly head of California's Environmental Protection Agency and currently Cabinet Secretary (Chief of Staff, roughly) to our beloved Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. A week later, we did another live event -- Backstage Live With Philosophy Talk. This time we had a smaller audience of about 50 KALW contributors, down on the Stanford Campus. Our guest was another politician -- the second ever to appear on Philosophy Talk -- Congresswoman Anna Eshoo. Our topic for that show was "Legislating Values." Both episodes will be edited and broadcast soon. Probably, they will be the first two episodes we air in January.

Both Congresswoman Eshoo and Secretary Tamminen were superb guests. Both were articulate, passionate, and thoughtful.   It was a little hard to get them to come off  their political stools and just talk and think with us as concerned and reflective fellow citizens.  But to an admirable degree,  they both did manage to do that  for much of the show.   John and Ken will be sure to blog about the contents of each show as we approach the airdates for them.

Both events were great fun. Both settings were beautiful.  The food at the Alumni Club  event was truly awesome.  The food at the event down on Campus was good, but not Awesome.   What was really great, though,  was to engage an audience face to face.   Both audiences were engaged and engaging.   Thanks to everyone who helped put these events together.

It was so much fun that we're looking for opportunities to go on the road  again.   Currently in the works are  plans to take the show to Washington DC, at the invitation of Congresswoman Eshoo.  In DC we would hope to  record a show from Capitol Hill.  We're also working on the possibility of taking the show on the road to Portland Oregon,  at the invitation of the good folks at Oregon Public Broadcasting.  Stay tuned for more details on both these events.

We'd love to come to your area, especially  if there's a public radio station there that either already carries Philosophy Talk or might be interested in picking us up  and can help us generate an audience for  a live appearance of the Philosophy Talk Magical Mystery Tour.

By the way,  we'll soon be announcing some new affiliates for the show, more places on the dial where you can hear Philosophy Talk.   In addition,  we will take a plunge into podcasting,  probably at the beginning of next year.

Stay tuned.