Level Up is a forum for sharing ideas and values that you find interesting, enjoyable, or useful toward flourishing. We invite you to submit:
- Articles about ideas for loving life or defending freedom
- Reviews of books, podcasts, or videos you find valuable
- Personal-development tips, strategies, or tactics
Submissions are moderated for alignment with the purpose of the blog and may be edited for clarity and brevity. Read submission guidelines here.
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I Can Reach Any Star: The Beautiful Philosophy of Star Trek: Enterprise
We're going to stumble, make mistakes, I'm sure more than a few before we find our footing, but we're going to learn from those mistakes. That's what being human is all about. —Captain Jonathan Archer, “Star Trek: Enterprise—Shockwave: Part 2” (2002) Star Trek has...
Freak Out with Tom Papa
Are you ready for intelligent, benevolent comedy? Let me introduce you to Freaked Out with Tom Papa. So much comedy is cynical or mean spirited or just not funny. This one-hour routine from 2013 is a beautiful exception. Tom Papa: Freaked Out appeals to the...
Helen Keller’s Five Keys to Being Happy
Once I knew only darkness and stillness. Now I know hope and joy. —Helen Keller. In 1882, when Helen Keller was nineteen months old, an illness left her blind, deaf, and consequently dumb. For the next five years, she lived essentially as a wild animal in the...
Ira Glass on Closing the Ideal-Actual Gap in the Creative Process
Several years ago, while procrastinating in graduate school, I discovered a short video clip that helped me at the time—and has now helped me again. The clip, posted below, is of Ira Glass, the award-winning producer of the radio show, This American...
Eleanor Roosevelt on Being an Individual(ist)
“Remember always that you have not only the right to be an individual; you have an obligation to be one.” – Eleanor Roosevelt. What is an individual? The Cambridge Dictionary gives us a few definitions, the first two being: “a single person or thing,...
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Why We Created OSI
Many people live unhappy lives because they accept philosophic ideas that undermine personal happiness, such as “Being moral consists in selflessly serving...
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