What Is Beauty?
Season 7, Episode 1
- Angela Sun
- Lena Hill
- James Lambert
- Stu Gray
- William Dudley
- Jay Margalus
- Beth Staples
- Matthew Loar
- Holly Pickett
- Gene McCabe
- Melissa Kerin
- Lisa Alty
- Jenefer Davies
- Mark Drumbl
- Paul Youngman
- Wythe Whiting
- Rob Straughan
- Kish Parella
- Tom Camden
- Rob Fure
- Jeff Schatten
- Michael Hill
- James Dick
- Sascha Goluboff
- Harvey Markowitz
- Caleb Dance Podcast
- Amanda Bower Podcast
- Richard Bidlack Podcast
- Megan Hess Podcast
- Stephanie Sandberg Podcast
- Taha Khan Podcast
- George Bent Podcast
- Nadia Ayoub Podcast
- Tyler Lorig Podcast
- Elizabeth Knapp Podcast
- Jan Hathorn Podcast
- Rob Mish Podcast
- Brian Murchison Podcast
- Sybil Prince Nelson Podcast
- Elliott King Podcast
- Mark Rush Podcast
- Mikki Brock Podcast
- Howard Pickett Podcast
- Julie Woodzicka Podcast
- Karla Murdock Podcast
- Janet Ikeda Podcast
- Bill Hamilton Podcast
- Johanna Bond Podcast
- After Class Podcast
What Is Beauty?
Aesthetics, Attention, and Shared Humanity with Angela Sun
In this episode, we sit down with Assistant Professor of Philosophy Angela Sun to explore the question at the heart of this season: “What is beauty?” Through reflections on philosophy, music, art and everyday life, Sun challenges the idea that beauty is merely subjective, inviting us instead to see it as a shared human practice shaped by attention, openness and community. She discusses how aesthetic commitments — from punk music and Taylor Swift to knitting and film — help shape our identities over time, and why education and curiosity are essential to recognizing beauty in unexpected places. This conversation offers a thoughtful reminder that beauty is not only something we admire but something we learn to see together.
Recorded: December 12, 2025
Aired: January 16, 2026
“Our aesthetic commitments — what we find beautiful, meaningful or moving — are a huge part of what makes us who we are.”
– Angela Sun, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Links
- Angela Sun – Curriculum Vitae
- “Eras” by Angela Sun in “The Philosophy of Taylor Swift Magic, Madness, Heaven, Sin”
- “Evil Empire” by Rage Against the Machine
- “Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain” by Charles R. Cross
- “Red” by Taylor Swift
- “Samuel Scheffler on Valuing and Considering Valuable”
- What Is Beauty?
- The Serendipity of Learning
- Cultivating a Life of Beauty
- A Life Under Construction
- Cultivating an Interesting Mind for a Lifetime
- The Risk is Worth it
- Inviting the Imagination
- Learning What You Love
- Weathering the Storm of a Changing World
- Kindling Moments of Pure Joy
- Shaking Up The Consciousness
- Lessons in Chemistry
- Leaps and Bounds
- Facing the Gray
- W&L Through and Through
- Mindful Technology
- The Williams School: Not Just a Business School
- Real World Solutions
- Into the Vault
- A Good Education is a Habit of Mind
- The AI Revolution
- Paying It Forward
- The Case for Getting Outside
- Making the Strange Familiar and the Familiar Strange
- Walks With A Noise
- Studied Carelessness
- Absolut(e) W&L
- Russia Then and Now
- Accountant or Detective
- The Story Goes
- Protect Yourself!
- Art on the Wall
- Along Came a Spider
- The Nose Knows
- No Stone Unturned
- She's Got Game!
- All the World's a Stage
- Can They Say That?!?
- When You're a Statistical Improbability
- Let's Get Real… About Surrealism
- Not to Get Political But ...
- Which Witch?
- Real Opportunity for All
- Your Implicit Bias is Showing...
- The Pursuit of Happiness
- Enter the Clearing the Mind Abode
- Beer, Bacteria and Bison
- The New Social (Justice) Network
- Ralph Ellison Walks Into a Jazz Bar
Lifelong Learning
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Lifelong Learning
Washington and Lee University
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