- John Mackie

2025 was my first full year for this project: the newsletter, the podcast, and the course. First, the bad news.

The logic course was an almost-total failure. I say “almost” because I was able to make some valuable connections with some of my students, and some notable people promoted the course because they saw my vision of trying to raise the general level of logical literacy. That was cool.

The broader population needs more education in logic. Some of them have the second-order desire to desire to learn logic, and some even have the first-order desire to learn it. But I have a year of evidence that shows only an infinitesimal fraction of people take the steps to actually learn about operators, truth tables, and proofs.

Creating and promoting the course taught me a few lessons. The first was truly the most depressing: most people have no interest in sharpening their logical skills. That’s a sad fact about our culture, but what make it more depressing, if I’m honest about it, is how few people share a native interest in what I’m interested in. It’s a constant reminder that if you have an interest in logic, you are literally weird.

So if you’re feeling weird, the entire course is now completely free for anyone to take, thanks to the new YouTube “Courses” feature. Starting this week, I’m rolling out one lesson per week for ten weeks. Here's the Lesson 0 intro for the course:

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If you subscribe to the channel, you will see the next lesson pop up next Monday, and so on for ten weeks.

In the video descriptions, you will see instructions for practice problems, links to videos that walk you through the problems, and a link to a quiz for each lesson. The first lesson this week goes over what operators/connectives are, why we need propositions, and more. By the end, if you follow all the instructions from week to week, you will have the equivalent knowledge of a college-level introduction to propositional formal logic. If you know someone who might be interested, just cut and paste this link

​https://jaredoliphint.kit.com/freelogiccourse​

if you want others to know via social media, or if you send it to a friend. It took hundreds of hours to create the course, but I didn’t create it primarily to make money (obviously) or to get views. If a handful of people benefit and find an interest in it like I do, it’s worth it.

Now the better news. I’m surprised and excited every time someone says “yes” to doing an episode of my podcast. From what I hear, it takes about 150-200 episodes to work out the kinks before you start getting professional. I have only done about 1/8 of that. But most people quit after doing six episodes or so.

Podcasting suits me in some ways because I genuinely enjoy learning from people. I loved talking to bariatric surgeon Randy Baker about his potentially world-changing weight loss device. I loved hearing about the challenges philosopher Megan Fritts faces as a mother in academia, and philosopher Laurie Paul about her transformative experience of becoming a mother. I couldn’t believe the founder of Whole Foods, John Mackey, agreed to chat with me about philosophy and entrepreneurship. I’ve been a fan of The Free Press for a while, and getting to speak with Maddie Rowley about the ethics of journalism was such a privilege. I could mention so many others.

I have some guests lined up for 2026 that I can’t wait to share. A member of a Radio Hall of Fame show. A top-tier comedian. A Grammy winner. And a few philosophers, of course.

You may have noticed that I'm phasing out the "Selling Plato" name in many ways. I like the name, but if someone isn't already familiar with what I'm doing it can seem confusing. So I'm currently slowly rebranding, rolling out different designs and branding features in 2026.

I have never been primarily growth-focused, which is convenient since focusing on growth would only open up a world of hurt for a project that’s philosophy-leaning. But the long-term goal is to have in-person episodes, and more material from the world of philosophy that’s truly useful. Doing that, as you would expect, takes time and money; two things I currently have little of. If this venture paid some bills, it would be easier to justify spending more time making valuable mini-episodes or even mini-courses (not on logic). So if you’d like to support the project, my tip jar is the easiest way to do it.

But if you’re looking for a no-cost way to support my work, the biggest Christmas gift this season would be to subscribe to the channel and podcast or, if already subscribed, tell one person about it. Point them to an episode, or the free course.

Thanks for your time in 2025. I hope I earn it again in 2026.

Until next time.

Jared

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