Episode 16: Dave Ferris |

Dave Ferris is an academic in philosophy, a restless dabbler, and a native of Vashon Island who has recently returned after a couple decades bouncing around the east coast from school to school and project to project.  As an undergraduate in Social Studies at Harvard he threw himself into activism with the Harvard Fair Trade Initiative, then worked with a radical political economist in Washington, DC.  While completing a masters in Humanities and Social Thought at NYU, Dave found himself living in a Brooklyn cooperative and starting up a cooperatively owned and run bed and breakfast.  He went on to pursue a PhD in philosophy at Emory University, teaching courses from symbolic logic to philosophy of law for undergraduates there and at Agnes Scott College, as well as women incarcerated in north Georgia.  He is finishing up his dissertation on how we should understand, value, and embody humility in our character in order to cultivate a democratic society.

Dave joins Mindful Consuming to chat about his paths within academia, the practices that support him on his journey, and how the DIY self-sufficiency of his Vashon upbringing nurtured his spirit of mutual care and collective local action.  He sees great potential in harnessing the correctively healing power of appropriate and humble judgments as we all fight to cultivate a better world for the future.  We were happy to pick up some of the conversations we’ve had since his return to the island and are excited to open up new threads of dialogue and new schemes for organizing together.

Visit: mindfulconsuming.com
Follow: @mindful.consuming