WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.140 Okay, so I want you to imagine something. Imagine 00:00:02.140 --> 00:00:04.480 I just handed you a resume. Okay. It's just a 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:06.400 single sheet of paper, you know, standard formatting. 00:00:06.599 --> 00:00:08.880 You scan down to the experience section and here's 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:12.259 what you see. First line, world -class concert 00:00:12.259 --> 00:00:15.800 organist. Right. Impressive start. Immediately 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:18.699 under that, revolutionary theologian. Then PhD 00:00:18.699 --> 00:00:23.519 in philosophy. And for the final line, jungle 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:26.500 doctor. I'd assume you accidentally stapled four 00:00:26.500 --> 00:00:28.780 different LinkedIn profiles together. Exactly. 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:30.940 It reads like a glitch in the simulation. Yeah, 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:32.960 there's no way. It sounds like the resume of 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:35.520 four different very ambitious people, not one. 00:00:35.640 --> 00:00:37.979 It just feels, I don't know, genuinely impossible 00:00:37.979 --> 00:00:40.100 by modern standards. Well, it does because we 00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:42.159 live in the age of hyper -specialization, right? 00:00:42.340 --> 00:00:44.240 It's Elaine. Pick Elaine and stay in it. The 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:46.539 modern world tells you if you're a doctor, you're 00:00:46.539 --> 00:00:48.579 a doctor. If you're a musician, you're a musician. 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:50.420 You don't get to be a world authority in both. 00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:54.130 It's just not done. But today... We're doing 00:00:54.130 --> 00:00:56.509 a deep dive into the life of a man who didn't 00:00:56.509 --> 00:00:59.710 just switch lanes. It feels like he built entirely 00:00:59.710 --> 00:01:02.729 new highways in completely contradictory territories. 00:01:03.070 --> 00:01:05.030 A very good way to put it. We are talking about 00:01:05.030 --> 00:01:07.890 Albert Schweitzer. Yeah. And looking at the stack 00:01:07.890 --> 00:01:10.730 of sources we have here, I mean, we've got biographies, 00:01:10.730 --> 00:01:14.450 some very heavy theological texts, musical critiques, 00:01:14.510 --> 00:01:18.209 medical journals. Our mission today is to try 00:01:18.209 --> 00:01:21.840 and unpack how on earth one person achieve that 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:24.099 level of mastery in all these fields. And maybe 00:01:24.099 --> 00:01:27.340 more importantly, to explore the very complex, 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:31.359 sometimes very controversial legacy of his philosophy. 00:01:31.640 --> 00:01:34.000 Because Schweitzer isn't just a quirky historical 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:37.040 footnote. He was a superstar of the 20th century, 00:01:37.180 --> 00:01:39.640 a household name. And he fundamentally challenged 00:01:39.640 --> 00:01:42.180 how we think about civilization itself. Exactly. 00:01:42.359 --> 00:01:43.719 We're going to look at the theology that absolutely 00:01:43.719 --> 00:01:46.280 shocked the church, the music theory that changed 00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:48.659 how we hear Bach, and of course, the decision 00:01:48.659 --> 00:01:50.870 that made him famous. Leaving all that. behind 00:01:50.870 --> 00:01:53.329 to go work in a chicken coop in Africa. Yeah, 00:01:53.409 --> 00:01:55.250 chicken coop. But before we get to the jungle, 00:01:55.269 --> 00:01:57.430 we have to start with the origin story. I mean, 00:01:57.430 --> 00:02:00.049 where does a polymath like this actually come 00:02:00.049 --> 00:02:02.329 from? The geography is actually, I think, the 00:02:02.329 --> 00:02:04.450 first big clue to his psychology. Schweitzer 00:02:04.450 --> 00:02:08.229 was born in 1875 in Alsace. Now, for anyone who 00:02:08.229 --> 00:02:11.490 knows their European history. Alsace is a fascinating 00:02:11.490 --> 00:02:14.629 place. It's a border region that has basically 00:02:14.629 --> 00:02:17.930 been the ping pong ball of Europe. Bouncing between 00:02:17.930 --> 00:02:20.189 France and Germany. For centuries. So depending 00:02:20.189 --> 00:02:22.810 on the year, your passport color changes. Right. 00:02:22.930 --> 00:02:26.030 Exactly. When Schweitzer was born, Alsace had 00:02:26.030 --> 00:02:28.169 just recently been annexed by the German Empire 00:02:28.169 --> 00:02:31.030 after the Franco -Prussian War. But culturally, 00:02:31.289 --> 00:02:34.560 the roots were still... Very, very French. And 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:37.340 then later it flipped back. It did. After World 00:02:37.340 --> 00:02:40.199 War I, he became a French citizen. So from day 00:02:40.199 --> 00:02:43.159 one, he grew up fully bilingual, straddling two 00:02:43.159 --> 00:02:46.500 major European superpowers. He didn't see borders 00:02:46.500 --> 00:02:49.879 as these rigid, impassable walls. For him, they 00:02:49.879 --> 00:02:52.139 were fluid. And that fluidity, that applied to 00:02:52.139 --> 00:02:53.800 his religious upbringing too, right? I found 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:56.560 this detail about his childhood church in the 00:02:56.560 --> 00:02:59.210 village of Gunsbach. Absolutely wild. It is a 00:02:59.210 --> 00:03:01.669 rare detail. It's so important. His father was 00:03:01.669 --> 00:03:04.169 the local Lutheran pastor, but the village church 00:03:04.169 --> 00:03:06.729 was something called a simultaneum. A simultaneum. 00:03:06.729 --> 00:03:08.629 Yeah, it's a fancy term meaning the church building 00:03:08.629 --> 00:03:10.770 was shared. The Protestants and the Catholics 00:03:10.770 --> 00:03:13.590 used the exact same sanctuary. What? In the same 00:03:13.590 --> 00:03:15.629 building? In the same building. They just had 00:03:15.629 --> 00:03:17.750 their services at different times in different 00:03:17.750 --> 00:03:20.650 parts of the church. The Catholics used the chancel. 00:03:20.789 --> 00:03:24.250 The Protestants used the nave. That blows my 00:03:24.250 --> 00:03:26.789 mind for the late 19th century. Usually in that 00:03:26.789 --> 00:03:29.909 era, Protestants and Catholics weren't exactly 00:03:29.909 --> 00:03:32.830 borrowing each other's sugar, let alone sharing 00:03:32.830 --> 00:03:35.530 an altar space. Not at all. It was incredibly 00:03:35.530 --> 00:03:38.139 rare. And growing up in that specific environment 00:03:38.139 --> 00:03:40.879 gave Schweitzer this foundational belief that 00:03:40.879 --> 00:03:44.060 dogma shouldn't divide us. He saw from childhood 00:03:44.060 --> 00:03:46.819 that true Christianity, and you could say true 00:03:46.819 --> 00:03:49.919 humanity, really should work toward unity. Yeah, 00:03:49.939 --> 00:03:51.639 I guess if you can share a church building with 00:03:51.639 --> 00:03:54.020 people you supposedly disagree with on fundamental 00:03:54.020 --> 00:03:56.460 theology, maybe you can bridge other divides 00:03:56.460 --> 00:03:59.020 too. That's the core of it. So he's got this... 00:03:59.210 --> 00:04:02.129 open -minded cross -cultural foundation he goes 00:04:02.129 --> 00:04:05.530 off to university and by his 20s he is just on 00:04:05.530 --> 00:04:08.689 an absolute tear an academic explosion it really 00:04:08.689 --> 00:04:10.830 was i mean most people struggle to finish one 00:04:10.830 --> 00:04:13.069 degree schweitzer is collecting them like he's 00:04:13.069 --> 00:04:15.430 trying to complete a set he gets a doctorate 00:04:15.430 --> 00:04:18.509 in philosophy and a licentiate in theology and 00:04:18.509 --> 00:04:21.800 this brings us to the first major pillar of his 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:23.480 legacy, right? The theological revolutionary. 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:25.920 Yes. We have to understand that before he ever 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:28.759 put on a stethoscope, Schweitzer dropped what 00:04:28.759 --> 00:04:31.540 was essentially a nuclear bomb on the academic 00:04:31.540 --> 00:04:34.240 world of theology. You're talking about his 1906 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:37.600 book, The Quest to the Historical Jesus. Now, 00:04:37.639 --> 00:04:42.439 to a modern ear, that title sounds a bit dry. 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:44.480 A little academic, yeah. Maybe something you'd 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:46.519 see on a dusty shelf in a seminary basement. 00:04:46.699 --> 00:04:48.750 Yeah. But you're saying this was a scandalous 00:04:48.750 --> 00:04:51.129 book? Oh, scandalous is the right word. It was 00:04:51.129 --> 00:04:53.810 an absolute demolition job of the status quo. 00:04:53.910 --> 00:04:56.129 To understand why, you have to look at what the 00:04:56.129 --> 00:04:57.870 scholars were saying at the turn of the 20th 00:04:57.870 --> 00:05:00.970 century. The dominant view was what they called 00:05:00.970 --> 00:05:04.170 liberal Protestantism. Okay, let's unpack that. 00:05:04.430 --> 00:05:07.029 What did the liberals believe about Jesus? They 00:05:07.029 --> 00:05:09.610 essentially viewed Jesus as a great moral teacher, 00:05:09.810 --> 00:05:12.829 a kind of enlightened philosopher. They stripped 00:05:12.829 --> 00:05:14.790 away all the uncomfortable bits, the miracles, 00:05:14.990 --> 00:05:17.490 the mysticism, the scary judgment stuff. They 00:05:17.490 --> 00:05:20.829 painted a portrait of a kind, gentle figure who 00:05:20.829 --> 00:05:24.310 taught timeless ethical truths, truths that coincidentally 00:05:24.310 --> 00:05:27.110 fit very nicely with modern, polite European 00:05:27.110 --> 00:05:31.089 society. So they basically created a Jesus who 00:05:31.089 --> 00:05:33.720 looked a lot like a 19th century gentleman. A 00:05:33.720 --> 00:05:35.439 guy you'd be comfortable having over for tea. 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:39.420 Exactly. A respectable Victorian. They were projecting 00:05:39.420 --> 00:05:41.699 their own values onto him. And Schweitzer looked 00:05:41.699 --> 00:05:43.360 at the text. He really, really looked at the 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:46.199 source material and said, no, you are making 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:48.980 him in your own image. You are looking down a 00:05:48.980 --> 00:05:51.779 long, dark well and seeing your own reflection 00:05:51.779 --> 00:05:54.819 at the bottom. Wow. That is a savage critique. 00:05:54.899 --> 00:05:57.399 So what did Schweitzer see in the well that they 00:05:57.399 --> 00:06:00.459 missed? He argued that the historical Jesus was, 00:06:00.579 --> 00:06:02.980 in fact, an apocalyptic prophet. Apocalyptic 00:06:02.980 --> 00:06:05.519 like end of the world stuff. Exactly. Schweitzer 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:07.600 believed that Jesus thought the end of the world 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:09.779 was imminent. Not in some metaphorical sense, 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:11.819 but literally. For real. He believed the kingdom 00:06:11.819 --> 00:06:13.939 of God was going to crash into history within 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:16.579 the lifetime of his disciples. The whole mission 00:06:16.579 --> 00:06:18.959 was urgent because time was running out. Wait. 00:06:19.379 --> 00:06:22.639 So Schweitzer, a Christian theologian, a guy 00:06:22.639 --> 00:06:25.680 training to be a pastor, is arguing that Jesus 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:28.529 believed the world was about to end. And he was 00:06:28.529 --> 00:06:31.310 wrong. That is the crux of the shock. That's 00:06:31.310 --> 00:06:34.230 the bomb. Schweitzer pointed to verses in Matthew 00:06:34.230 --> 00:06:37.009 and Mark like, this generation will not pass 00:06:37.009 --> 00:06:38.990 away until all these things have taken place 00:06:38.990 --> 00:06:42.050 and said Jesus was operating under a consistent 00:06:42.050 --> 00:06:45.170 eschatology. Eschatology. That's the study of 00:06:45.170 --> 00:06:47.149 the end times. Right. The study of the last things. 00:06:47.170 --> 00:06:49.620 Right. And Schweitzer's argument was that Jesus 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:51.899 wasn't just predicting the end. He was trying 00:06:51.899 --> 00:06:54.660 to force it to happen. He threw himself onto 00:06:54.660 --> 00:06:57.240 the wheel of history, as Schweitzer put it, to 00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:00.240 make it turn that final revolution. He went to 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:02.579 the cross to trigger the apocalypse. And it didn't 00:07:02.579 --> 00:07:04.740 happen. It didn't happen. The world kept spinning. 00:07:04.939 --> 00:07:07.699 So the early church had to scramble to reinterpret 00:07:07.699 --> 00:07:09.879 everything. The whole idea of the kingdom of 00:07:09.879 --> 00:07:12.339 God had to be transformed from an imminent event 00:07:12.339 --> 00:07:15.800 into a future hope or an internal spiritual reality. 00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:19.209 That is a st - staggeringly bold take for a guy 00:07:19.209 --> 00:07:21.550 who is supposed to be training pastors. It is. 00:07:21.649 --> 00:07:23.589 He's basically saying the foundation of the faith 00:07:23.589 --> 00:07:26.290 is based on a mistaken timeline. It shattered 00:07:26.290 --> 00:07:29.750 the academic landscape. Conservatives were horrified. 00:07:30.269 --> 00:07:32.610 Liberals were furious because he took away their 00:07:32.610 --> 00:07:35.990 gentle teacher. But, and this is the key insight 00:07:35.990 --> 00:07:39.389 for our deep dive. Schweitzer didn't do this 00:07:39.389 --> 00:07:42.230 to destroy faith. He did it to strip away the 00:07:42.230 --> 00:07:44.529 comfortable illusions we'd built up. To get back 00:07:44.529 --> 00:07:47.050 to the source. To get back to the raw power of 00:07:47.050 --> 00:07:50.089 this figure. Even if that figure was a stranger 00:07:50.089 --> 00:07:52.370 to our modern sensibilities. There's that famous 00:07:52.370 --> 00:07:55.050 quote at the end of the book. It's really haunting. 00:07:55.089 --> 00:07:57.149 I think I have it here in the notes. He describes 00:07:57.149 --> 00:08:00.829 Jesus coming to us as one unknown. Oh, yeah. 00:08:01.319 --> 00:08:03.399 That ending is one of the most powerful passages 00:08:03.399 --> 00:08:06.240 in 20th century theology. Read the full excerpt. 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:08.560 It really captures his vibe. Okay, here it is. 00:08:08.899 --> 00:08:12.339 He comes to us as one unknown without a name, 00:08:12.339 --> 00:08:15.680 as of old by the lakeside. He came to those men 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:18.319 who knew him not. He speaks to us the same word, 00:08:18.459 --> 00:08:22.100 follow thou me, and sets us to the tasks. which 00:08:22.100 --> 00:08:24.300 he has to fulfill for our time. You see what 00:08:24.300 --> 00:08:26.160 he's doing there? He's saying you don't find 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:28.959 Jesus by sitting in a library analyzing history 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:32.139 books. You don't find him in dogma. You find 00:08:32.139 --> 00:08:35.620 him by obeying that command to serve. You discover 00:08:35.620 --> 00:08:39.659 who he is in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings. 00:08:39.659 --> 00:08:42.679 It shifts the entire focus from intellectual 00:08:42.679 --> 00:08:46.320 ascent to... Active participation. It's a theology 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:48.419 of action. It's not about believing the right 00:08:48.419 --> 00:08:51.379 list of facts. It's about doing the work. And 00:08:51.379 --> 00:08:53.460 that just becomes the theme of his entire life. 00:08:53.659 --> 00:08:56.299 Wow. And he wasn't done. He applied that same 00:08:56.299 --> 00:08:58.480 rigorous, stripping down approach to St. Paul, 00:08:58.580 --> 00:09:01.659 too. In his other big book, The Mysticism of 00:09:01.659 --> 00:09:04.019 Paul the Apostle, he challenged the Lutheran 00:09:04.019 --> 00:09:05.860 standard again. And the Lutheran standard is 00:09:05.860 --> 00:09:08.059 usually all about justification by faith, right? 00:09:08.139 --> 00:09:09.820 That's the big one. The legal standing of the 00:09:09.820 --> 00:09:11.840 believer before God. Correct. It's a courtroom 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:14.529 metaphor. You are guilty. but Christ's righteousness 00:09:14.529 --> 00:09:16.509 is applied to you, so you're declared innocent. 00:09:17.090 --> 00:09:19.029 Schweitzer looked at Paul's writings and said, 00:09:19.149 --> 00:09:21.149 no, that's part of it, but you're missing the 00:09:21.149 --> 00:09:24.269 core. He argued the central concept for Paul 00:09:24.269 --> 00:09:27.669 was being in Christ. Being in Christ. A mystical 00:09:27.669 --> 00:09:30.970 union. It's not just a legal status change. It's 00:09:30.970 --> 00:09:34.629 a physical and spiritual participation in the 00:09:34.629 --> 00:09:37.690 dying and rising of Christ. It's about being 00:09:37.690 --> 00:09:40.870 incorporated into this new reality. Participation. 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:43.620 That seems to be the word of the day for Schweitzer. 00:09:43.940 --> 00:09:46.500 He can't just study a thing from a distance. 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:48.799 He has to merge with it. Which is the perfect 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:50.639 transition to his other life. His other full 00:09:50.639 --> 00:09:53.419 -time job. Yes, because while he's dismantling 00:09:53.419 --> 00:09:55.700 2 ,000 years of theology and reconstructing the 00:09:55.700 --> 00:09:57.940 New Testament, he's, you know, just casually 00:09:57.940 --> 00:10:00.259 becoming one of the world's leading experts on 00:10:00.259 --> 00:10:03.129 Johann Sebastian Bach. Casually. Doing something 00:10:03.129 --> 00:10:04.929 that would be a lifetime achievement for anyone 00:10:04.929 --> 00:10:07.389 else. Yeah. It really is like he had more hours 00:10:07.389 --> 00:10:09.009 in the day than the rest of us. It certainly 00:10:09.009 --> 00:10:11.230 seems that way. And look, at the time, Bach was 00:10:11.230 --> 00:10:13.690 respected, of course, but he was often played 00:10:13.690 --> 00:10:16.610 in a very stiff mathematical way. Like a technical 00:10:16.610 --> 00:10:19.169 exercise. Exactly. People treated his music like 00:10:19.169 --> 00:10:21.809 complex algebra. Technically impressive, but 00:10:21.809 --> 00:10:26.529 dry. Academic. Schweitzer comes along and tells 00:10:26.529 --> 00:10:28.889 his teacher, the very famous French organist 00:10:28.889 --> 00:10:31.230 Charles -Marie Radour, that they're all hearing 00:10:31.230 --> 00:10:33.620 it wrong. He says Bach is actually a painter. 00:10:33.779 --> 00:10:36.179 A painter? How does that work in music? Is he 00:10:36.179 --> 00:10:38.460 talking about synesthesia or something? In a 00:10:38.460 --> 00:10:40.960 way, yes. Schweitzer argued that Bach's melodies 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:44.019 were pictorial. They weren't just abstract notes. 00:10:44.100 --> 00:10:46.740 They were illustrating the text of the hymns 00:10:46.740 --> 00:10:49.840 they were based on. He called Bach a musician 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:53.500 poet. So give me an example. Okay, so if the 00:10:53.500 --> 00:10:56.320 lyrics of the chorale mentioned falling or sin 00:10:56.320 --> 00:10:59.580 or descent into the grave, the notes in Bach's 00:10:59.580 --> 00:11:02.019 organ part would literally tumble down the scale. 00:11:02.440 --> 00:11:05.519 If the text was about joy or resurrection or 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:08.200 ascending to heaven, the rhythm would dance and 00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:10.539 the melody would climb upwards. That completely 00:11:10.539 --> 00:11:12.860 changes the listening experience. It stops being 00:11:12.860 --> 00:11:16.519 abstract math and becomes a narrative. A story 00:11:16.519 --> 00:11:18.860 in sound. It brings the emotion back. It connects 00:11:18.860 --> 00:11:20.960 the sound to the meaning. For Schweitzer, you 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:23.279 couldn't separate Bach's music from his Lutheran 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:25.840 faith. The music was theology. And he wasn't 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:28.019 just analyzing the sheet music. He became obsessed 00:11:28.019 --> 00:11:29.840 with the mechanics of the instrument itself. 00:11:30.139 --> 00:11:32.460 Right. He launched the Orgelbegon, the organ 00:11:32.460 --> 00:11:34.799 reform movement. He did. That sounds like a very 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:37.179 serious political party. Vote for the organ reform 00:11:37.179 --> 00:11:39.730 movement. What was he actually reforming? He 00:11:39.730 --> 00:11:42.470 absolutely hated the modern organs being built 00:11:42.470 --> 00:11:45.149 in the early 20th century. He saw them as these 00:11:45.149 --> 00:11:47.850 industrial factories. They were built for sheer 00:11:47.850 --> 00:11:51.289 volume, harsh, loud, high pressure wind systems. 00:11:51.509 --> 00:11:53.889 They were designed to fill massive halls with 00:11:53.889 --> 00:11:56.610 just a wall of sound. Schweitzer wanted to save 00:11:56.610 --> 00:11:59.049 the old Baroque principles. So he's a vintage 00:11:59.049 --> 00:12:02.309 gear snob. He's the guy saying vinyl sounds better 00:12:02.309 --> 00:12:04.429 than digital. In the best way possible, yes. 00:12:04.509 --> 00:12:07.490 A total purist. He wanted organs where the different 00:12:07.490 --> 00:12:10.610 voices were distinct. In a fugue, you have multiple 00:12:10.610 --> 00:12:12.490 melody lines weaving together. That's called 00:12:12.490 --> 00:12:15.509 polyphony. On a loud, modern organ, that just 00:12:15.509 --> 00:12:17.970 turns into a wall of mud. You can't distinguish 00:12:17.970 --> 00:12:20.429 the lines. On a good Baroque organ, you can hear 00:12:20.429 --> 00:12:23.590 every single thread. He wanted clarity over raw 00:12:23.590 --> 00:12:25.789 power. Speaking of clarity, I found a little 00:12:25.789 --> 00:12:27.690 technical nugget in the sources that I think 00:12:27.690 --> 00:12:29.830 the audiophiles listening will love. There is 00:12:29.830 --> 00:12:31.450 actually a Schweitzer technique for recording, 00:12:31.610 --> 00:12:34.779 isn't there? Yes. This shows how deep his obsession 00:12:34.779 --> 00:12:37.159 went. Schweitzer, working with his engineers 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:39.700 for his Columbia Records recordings, developed 00:12:39.700 --> 00:12:42.340 a specific microphone placement to capture that 00:12:42.340 --> 00:12:44.980 distinct, spiritual sound he loved. What did 00:12:44.980 --> 00:12:47.139 they do? Instead of the standard setup, they 00:12:47.139 --> 00:12:49.480 used two small diaphragm condenser microphones, 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:52.200 and they pointed them directly away from each 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:55.080 other. Pointed away. That seems totally counterintuitive. 00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:57.419 Usually you point the mic at the thing you want 00:12:57.419 --> 00:12:59.580 to record. It does, but what it does is it captures 00:12:59.580 --> 00:13:02.179 the reflected sound of the room, the bloom of 00:13:02.179 --> 00:13:05.100 the notes mixing in the air of the church, rather 00:13:05.100 --> 00:13:07.779 than the direct harsh attack of the sound coming 00:13:07.779 --> 00:13:10.460 straight from the pipes. It creates this specific 00:13:10.460 --> 00:13:13.679 stereo field that feels warm and spacious and 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:16.480 alive. He was a perfectionist. Incredibly picky. 00:13:16.620 --> 00:13:18.980 He would listen back to the recordings and reject 00:13:18.980 --> 00:13:21.340 takes if he felt the instrument sounded too harsh 00:13:21.340 --> 00:13:24.519 or too direct. He was chasing a feeling, not 00:13:24.519 --> 00:13:27.059 just a perfect note. OK, so let's recap the scoreboard 00:13:27.059 --> 00:13:29.080 here, because this is where the story pivots 00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:30.899 so hard it gives you whiplash. There it comes. 00:13:31.039 --> 00:13:34.480 We have a guy who is a celebrity in theology. 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:37.919 His books are required reading. He's a celebrity 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:40.659 in music. He's a concert organist touring Europe. 00:13:40.820 --> 00:13:43.139 He is friends with the Wagner family at Beirut. 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:45.779 He has a brilliant, comfortable academic career 00:13:45.779 --> 00:13:48.159 laid out in front of him. He's 30 years old. 00:13:48.259 --> 00:13:52.779 He has won the game of life. And then. The Great 00:13:52.779 --> 00:13:56.879 Pivot. He drops the mic. He literally blows up 00:13:56.879 --> 00:14:00.320 his own life. In 1905, he sends letters to his 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:03.059 family and friends announcing that he is quitting 00:14:03.059 --> 00:14:06.299 everything. He is resigning his post as principal 00:14:06.299 --> 00:14:09.600 of a theological college. He is going to medical 00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:11.519 school to become a general practitioner, and 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:14.659 then he is going to Africa. Why? I mean, seriously, 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:18.240 why? He has it made. Why would you do that? It 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:20.940 goes right back to that one unknown quote from 00:14:20.940 --> 00:14:23.919 his Jesus book. A Theology of Action Exactly. 00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:26.940 He felt that he had been preaching words, but 00:14:26.940 --> 00:14:29.360 not living them. He wrote about feeling this 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:32.519 deep sense of debt. He realized that he enjoyed 00:14:32.519 --> 00:14:35.580 all these privileges, art, science, religion, 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:37.899 while most of the world was suffering in ways 00:14:37.899 --> 00:14:40.159 he couldn't imagine. He wanted to strip away 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:41.899 all the intellectual arguments and follow the 00:14:41.899 --> 00:14:44.259 example of Jesus through direct practical service. 00:14:44.299 --> 00:14:46.159 He wanted to live his argument. And I assume 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:47.779 his friends and family were just thrilled about 00:14:47.779 --> 00:14:49.759 this noble sacrifice. Oh, they were horrified, 00:14:49.860 --> 00:14:51.460 utterly horrified. They thought he was having 00:14:51.460 --> 00:14:54.610 a mental breakdown. Yes. They told him he was 00:14:54.610 --> 00:14:57.629 burying his talent in the ground. One friend 00:14:57.629 --> 00:14:59.830 basically wrote to him saying, you are a general, 00:15:00.009 --> 00:15:02.070 don't go fight in the trenches as a private. 00:15:02.750 --> 00:15:06.710 A man of his intellect, his genius, going to 00:15:06.710 --> 00:15:09.009 start over as a freshman medical student, it 00:15:09.009 --> 00:15:11.470 seemed insane, a waste. And it wasn't just his 00:15:11.470 --> 00:15:13.990 friends, right? The actual missionary society, 00:15:14.250 --> 00:15:15.990 the people he wanted to work for, they didn't 00:15:15.990 --> 00:15:18.509 even want him. That is the ultimate irony, isn't 00:15:18.509 --> 00:15:21.350 it? The Paris Missionary Society was deeply suspicious 00:15:21.350 --> 00:15:24.259 of him. Because of his theology. Of course. Remember, 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:26.059 he's the guy who wrote the book saying Jesus 00:15:26.059 --> 00:15:28.279 was mistaken about the end of the world. They 00:15:28.279 --> 00:15:30.639 essentially said, we don't want you confusing 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:32.799 the people with your radical liberal theology. 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:36.940 We want simple gospel truth. That is incredible. 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:39.320 He wants to give up his entire life to serve, 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:41.299 and they're checking his doctrine at the door. 00:15:41.859 --> 00:15:44.200 Schweitzer had to meet with the board, and he 00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:46.259 had to specifically promise that he would go 00:15:46.259 --> 00:15:49.500 as a doctor, not as a preacher. He famously told 00:15:49.500 --> 00:15:52.220 them he would be mute as a carp regarding theology. 00:15:52.620 --> 00:15:55.059 He had to promise not to talk about God so he 00:15:55.059 --> 00:15:57.539 could go serve God. That is a level of humility 00:15:57.539 --> 00:15:59.820 that's just hard to wrap your head around. So 00:15:59.820 --> 00:16:01.940 he spends the next seven years getting his medical 00:16:01.940 --> 00:16:03.539 degree. And by the way, he couldn't help himself. 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:06.179 While he was doing that, he wrote a thesis for 00:16:06.179 --> 00:16:08.980 his M .D. defending Jesus's mental health against 00:16:08.980 --> 00:16:11.159 some psychiatric critics of the day who claimed 00:16:11.159 --> 00:16:14.039 Jesus was paranoid or had delusions. Of course 00:16:14.039 --> 00:16:16.100 he did. He just squeezed that in between anatomy 00:16:16.100 --> 00:16:19.440 exams. Yeah. Because why not? Finally, in 1913, 00:16:19.659 --> 00:16:23.440 he's ready. He leaves. He heads for Lamberani 00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:26.259 in what was then French Equatorial Africa, now 00:16:26.259 --> 00:16:30.159 Gabon, and he doesn't go alone. His wife, Helene 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:32.919 Breslau, is a vital part of this story. She was 00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:35.600 a scholar herself, but she trained as an anesthetist 00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:38.019 specifically to go with him and help. And we 00:16:38.019 --> 00:16:39.700 have to talk about their luggage. Yeah. Because 00:16:39.700 --> 00:16:41.960 you don't just pack a carry -on when you're Albert 00:16:41.960 --> 00:16:44.860 Schweitzer moving to the jungle. No, you do not. 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:48.320 You pack a massive zinc -lined tropical -proof 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:51.220 case containing a pedal piano. A pedal piano. 00:16:51.299 --> 00:16:53.919 Explain that visual for us. What is that? It's 00:16:53.919 --> 00:16:55.940 an upright piano that has a pedal board underneath 00:16:55.940 --> 00:16:58.320 it, exactly like a church organ, so he could 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:00.980 practice his footwork for the Bach fugues. So 00:17:00.980 --> 00:17:03.100 you have to imagine this scene. It's cinematic. 00:17:03.559 --> 00:17:06.559 A dugout canoe. Paddling up the Ogue River into 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:09.140 the dense, humid rainforest, avoiding hippos 00:17:09.140 --> 00:17:11.559 and crocodiles, carrying a future Nobel Prize 00:17:11.559 --> 00:17:14.480 winner, his wife, and a massive piano so he can 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:16.460 play Bach in the jungle every evening. It is 00:17:16.460 --> 00:17:19.440 the most perfect, absurd and beautiful image. 00:17:19.500 --> 00:17:21.940 It captures his whole life. But once they get 00:17:21.940 --> 00:17:24.920 there. That movie turns into a gritty survival 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:27.920 drama pretty fast. Yeah, I imagine so. I think 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:30.900 people imagine he walked into some gleaming pre 00:17:30.900 --> 00:17:33.859 -built facility. There was no hospital, nothing. 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:36.400 They started treating patients in an abandoned 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:39.529 chicken coop. Literally. A chicken coop. That 00:17:39.529 --> 00:17:41.930 is the definition of humble beginnings. The conditions 00:17:41.930 --> 00:17:44.390 were just overwhelming. In the first nine months 00:17:44.390 --> 00:17:47.289 alone, they treated 2 ,000 patients. We're talking 00:17:47.289 --> 00:17:50.369 malaria, leprosy, sleeping sickness, which is 00:17:50.369 --> 00:17:53.609 a horrible neurological disease, elephantiasis. 00:17:53.789 --> 00:17:56.630 And he wasn't just battling germs. He was battling 00:17:56.630 --> 00:17:58.930 a completely different worldview. Yes, completely. 00:17:59.309 --> 00:18:01.849 He wrote about treating patients with a profound 00:18:01.849 --> 00:18:05.210 fear of cannibalism from neighboring tribes or 00:18:05.210 --> 00:18:07.230 patients who believed their illness was caused 00:18:07.230 --> 00:18:10.170 by a curse from a family member. He was a doctor, 00:18:10.210 --> 00:18:13.809 but also a sort of cultural negotiator. And then, 00:18:13.869 --> 00:18:16.990 just as they get to their footing, history intervenes 00:18:16.990 --> 00:18:20.009 again. World War I breaks out in 1914. And here 00:18:20.009 --> 00:18:23.109 is the irony of his birthplace in Alsace coming 00:18:23.109 --> 00:18:26.190 back to bite him. He is a German citizen living 00:18:26.190 --> 00:18:29.190 and working in a French colony. Oh no. Suddenly, 00:18:29.470 --> 00:18:32.490 the Grand Doctor is an enemy alien. So the French 00:18:32.490 --> 00:18:35.230 military arrests the only doctor in the entire 00:18:35.230 --> 00:18:37.279 region. Initially, they just put him under house 00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:39.400 arrest. So he kept working, but with a French 00:18:39.400 --> 00:18:42.160 soldier guarding him. But eventually, in 1917, 00:18:42.539 --> 00:18:44.839 he and Helene were taken back to Europe as prisoners 00:18:44.839 --> 00:18:47.819 of war. You're kidding. No. He spent time in 00:18:47.819 --> 00:18:50.079 internment camps in France. He didn't get back 00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:52.819 to Africa until 1924, years later. That must 00:18:52.819 --> 00:18:54.680 have been absolutely devastating to build this 00:18:54.680 --> 00:18:56.759 thing from nothing, from a chicken coop, and 00:18:56.759 --> 00:18:58.980 then be dragged away because of European politics 00:18:58.980 --> 00:19:01.319 he had nothing to do with. It was. But he was 00:19:01.319 --> 00:19:04.359 Schweitzer. He used that time in captivity to 00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:06.299 think and write. It's actually where he developed 00:19:06.299 --> 00:19:08.900 his most famous philosophical idea. And when 00:19:08.900 --> 00:19:12.019 he finally returns to Lambert in the 20s. He 00:19:12.019 --> 00:19:14.539 rebuilds the hospital bigger this time. And this 00:19:14.539 --> 00:19:16.660 is where we have to get into the complexity of 00:19:16.660 --> 00:19:19.900 his legacy. Because for decades, Schweitzer was 00:19:19.900 --> 00:19:23.460 seen as a living saint. He was the grand doctor. 00:19:23.779 --> 00:19:27.500 But later in the 50s and 60s, people started 00:19:27.500 --> 00:19:30.180 visiting and looking closer at the hospital and 00:19:30.180 --> 00:19:32.319 saying, wait a minute. Right. This is a critical 00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:34.519 part of the deep dive. We can't just do the hagiography. 00:19:34.700 --> 00:19:36.539 What was the criticism? What were they seeing? 00:19:36.660 --> 00:19:38.960 Visitors like the British journalist James Cameron 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:41.500 and later the famous Nigerian author. Chinua 00:19:41.500 --> 00:19:45.380 Achebe, pointed out that the hospital was, well, 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:47.500 the word they used was squalid. Squalid. Yeah. 00:19:47.579 --> 00:19:49.960 It lacked modern amenities. It wasn't the sterile, 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:51.779 white -tiled environment you'd expect from a 00:19:51.779 --> 00:19:54.660 Western doctor. Animals roamed the grounds. It 00:19:54.660 --> 00:19:59.400 was chaotic and, to Western eyes, dirty. Achebe 00:19:59.400 --> 00:20:01.480 was particularly harsh about the hygiene standards 00:20:01.480 --> 00:20:04.059 he observed. So was Schweitzer just a bad manager? 00:20:04.220 --> 00:20:06.480 Or was he intentionally keeping it primitive 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:08.779 for some reason? That is the heart of the debate. 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:11.960 His defenders, like the American surgeon Edgar 00:20:11.960 --> 00:20:15.099 Berman, who volunteered there for years, argued 00:20:15.099 --> 00:20:17.500 that the squalor was a deliberate psychological 00:20:17.500 --> 00:20:20.220 choice. What does that mean? Schweitzer believed 00:20:20.220 --> 00:20:24.140 that if you built a terrifyingly sterile, modern 00:20:24.140 --> 00:20:27.299 Western hospital with white walls and intimidating 00:20:27.299 --> 00:20:30.259 beeping machines, the local villagers wouldn't 00:20:30.259 --> 00:20:32.559 come. they would be too frightened of the place. 00:20:32.759 --> 00:20:35.559 So he wanted it to feel like their village, not 00:20:35.559 --> 00:20:38.480 like an alien environment. Exactly. In Schweitzer's 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:40.500 hospital, the patients' families lived with them 00:20:40.500 --> 00:20:42.779 on the grounds. They cooked for them over open 00:20:42.779 --> 00:20:45.180 fires. It was a functioning village that just 00:20:45.180 --> 00:20:47.140 happened to offer medical care in the middle. 00:20:47.539 --> 00:20:49.779 Berman claimed the survival rates for surgeries 00:20:49.779 --> 00:20:52.880 rivaled Western hospitals, even without the modern 00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:56.029 aesthetics. So it was a feature, not a bug. But 00:20:56.029 --> 00:20:58.109 it definitely fueled the criticism that Schweizer 00:20:58.109 --> 00:21:00.470 was stuck in the past, that he was paternalistic. 00:21:00.529 --> 00:21:02.710 It did. And that brings us to the philosophy 00:21:02.710 --> 00:21:05.410 that underpinned all of this. Because while he's 00:21:05.410 --> 00:21:07.410 treating patients and fighting off driver ants 00:21:07.410 --> 00:21:10.369 and rebuilding his hospital, he's thinking. And 00:21:10.369 --> 00:21:13.490 he has this moment on the river that becomes 00:21:13.490 --> 00:21:17.829 his global slogan. Reverence for life. In German, 00:21:17.950 --> 00:21:21.230 Erfurcht vor dem Leben. That's it. And he considered 00:21:21.230 --> 00:21:23.789 this his greatest contribution. More than the 00:21:23.789 --> 00:21:25.670 music, more than the theology, more than the 00:21:25.670 --> 00:21:28.769 medicine, this was his big idea. Unpack this 00:21:28.769 --> 00:21:31.069 for us, because reverence for life sounds like 00:21:31.069 --> 00:21:33.170 a nice bumper sticker, but I have a feeling he 00:21:33.170 --> 00:21:35.509 meant something much more rigorous. Oh, much 00:21:35.509 --> 00:21:39.470 more. He felt that Western civilization was decaying, 00:21:39.470 --> 00:21:42.289 that it was on a path to self -destruction because 00:21:42.289 --> 00:21:45.420 it had lost its ethical foundation. We were too 00:21:45.420 --> 00:21:48.480 obsessed with technological progress and power 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:52.039 and not enough with basic ethics. His revelation, 00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:54.319 which he said came to him on the Oguway River, 00:21:54.559 --> 00:21:58.460 was simple but radical. I am life which wills 00:21:58.460 --> 00:22:01.019 to live, and I exist in the midst of life which 00:22:01.019 --> 00:22:03.539 wills to live. I am life which wills to live. 00:22:03.660 --> 00:22:05.380 It's not just that I have a life, but that I 00:22:05.380 --> 00:22:08.119 am life. It creates a solidarity between you 00:22:08.119 --> 00:22:10.420 and every other living thing. Correct. And that's 00:22:10.420 --> 00:22:12.019 not a coincidence. This is where he was heavily 00:22:12.019 --> 00:22:14.710 influenced by Indian thought. Yes, specifically 00:22:14.710 --> 00:22:18.109 Jainism and the principle of Ahimsa, or nonviolence 00:22:18.109 --> 00:22:21.230 to all living things. He read and translated 00:22:21.230 --> 00:22:24.190 couplets from the Tirakural, an ancient Tamil 00:22:24.190 --> 00:22:28.089 text, and he called it lofty wisdom. The core 00:22:28.089 --> 00:22:30.309 idea is that ethics isn't just about how you 00:22:30.309 --> 00:22:32.349 treat other humans, it's about how you treat 00:22:32.349 --> 00:22:34.470 everything that is alive. So how far does that 00:22:34.470 --> 00:22:36.369 go? Does that mean he wouldn't kill a mosquito? 00:22:36.650 --> 00:22:39.589 He tried not to. There are stories of him stopping 00:22:39.589 --> 00:22:41.990 construction work to carefully move an ant colony 00:22:41.990 --> 00:22:44.380 out of the way. He would gently scoop insects 00:22:44.380 --> 00:22:47.099 out of puddles. But he's a doctor. His whole 00:22:47.099 --> 00:22:50.240 job is killing bacteria and parasites all day 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:53.960 long. How do you possibly reconcile reverence 00:22:53.960 --> 00:22:56.900 for life with treating malaria? And that was 00:22:56.900 --> 00:22:58.700 the tragedy he wrestled with his whole life. 00:22:58.900 --> 00:23:01.240 He acknowledged that existence is built on one 00:23:01.240 --> 00:23:03.380 life preying on another. It's a constant, horrible 00:23:03.380 --> 00:23:06.029 conflict. But he argued that a thinking, ethical 00:23:06.029 --> 00:23:08.369 human should never accept that complacently. 00:23:08.509 --> 00:23:11.130 You have to feel the weight of it. Yes. You only 00:23:11.130 --> 00:23:13.329 kill when it is absolutely necessary for the 00:23:13.329 --> 00:23:15.529 survival of a higher form of life, and you do 00:23:15.529 --> 00:23:16.970 it with a sense of guilt and responsibility. 00:23:17.250 --> 00:23:20.049 You never kill for sport, for fun, or thoughtlessly. 00:23:20.289 --> 00:23:22.150 So it's about mindfulness. It's about recognizing 00:23:22.150 --> 00:23:25.380 the cosmic weight of taking a life. even if it's 00:23:25.380 --> 00:23:28.079 a small one. Exactly. And this philosophy, this 00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:30.720 deep respect for all life, makes the next part 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:34.240 of our discussion even more complicated and uncomfortable. 00:23:34.680 --> 00:23:37.480 We have to address the elephant in the room regarding 00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:40.599 race. Yeah. There is a specific quote that always 00:23:40.599 --> 00:23:43.319 comes up in any critique of Schweitzer. He famously 00:23:43.319 --> 00:23:46.650 said, The African is indeed my brother, but my 00:23:46.650 --> 00:23:49.250 junior brother. It's a painful quote to read 00:23:49.250 --> 00:23:51.329 today, and we have to be honest about it. It 00:23:51.329 --> 00:23:54.289 reflects a deeply paternalistic worldview. It's 00:23:54.289 --> 00:23:56.849 awful. It is. Scheitzer believed in the inherent 00:23:56.849 --> 00:23:59.289 dignity of every person, and he literally dedicated 00:23:59.289 --> 00:24:02.490 his life to serving Africans. But he did not 00:24:02.490 --> 00:24:04.950 view them as social or political equals in the 00:24:04.950 --> 00:24:07.490 modern sense. Junior brother. It implies they 00:24:07.490 --> 00:24:10.609 need guidance, supervision that father knows 00:24:10.609 --> 00:24:13.269 best. Yes. He thought Japanese independence when 00:24:13.269 --> 00:24:16.450 it came came too early. He operated with a very 00:24:16.450 --> 00:24:19.089 colonial mindset, the benevolent European guiding 00:24:19.089 --> 00:24:21.089 the primitive local. There's no way around that. 00:24:21.190 --> 00:24:23.670 But and here's the contradiction that makes him 00:24:23.670 --> 00:24:26.309 so hard to categorize. He was simultaneously 00:24:26.309 --> 00:24:29.710 a ferocious critic of colonialism itself. He 00:24:29.710 --> 00:24:32.829 was a blistering critic. If you read his sermons 00:24:32.829 --> 00:24:36.190 from as early as 1905, before he even went to 00:24:36.190 --> 00:24:38.730 Africa, he wasn't pulling any punches. He absolutely 00:24:38.730 --> 00:24:42.450 blasted civilized men. What did he say? He talked 00:24:42.450 --> 00:24:44.690 about how Europeans robbed indigenous people 00:24:44.690 --> 00:24:47.670 of their land, ruined them with alcohol and disease, 00:24:47.829 --> 00:24:51.069 and unleashed the scum of mankind upon them in 00:24:51.069 --> 00:24:53.710 the colonies. It's incredibly strong language. 00:24:53.930 --> 00:24:55.559 I read in one of the... sources where he called 00:24:55.559 --> 00:24:58.579 his medical work atonement yes He saw it that 00:24:58.579 --> 00:25:01.059 way. He believed the white race had a massive 00:25:01.059 --> 00:25:04.200 debt of guilt to pay back to Africa for the crimes 00:25:04.200 --> 00:25:06.579 committed. So on one hand, you have this man 00:25:06.579 --> 00:25:08.900 who is dedicating his life to making amends for 00:25:08.900 --> 00:25:11.140 the sins of colonialism. Right. On the other 00:25:11.140 --> 00:25:13.900 hand, he still holds this patronizing junior 00:25:13.900 --> 00:25:16.160 brother attitude toward the very people he's 00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:18.819 serving. It's such a paradox. It's a reminder 00:25:18.819 --> 00:25:21.460 that even historical saints are products of their 00:25:21.460 --> 00:25:23.200 time. You can be a revolutionary humanitarian 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:26.500 and still have major, major blind spots. Absolutely. 00:25:27.339 --> 00:25:30.099 those blind spots, the world recognized the sheer 00:25:30.099 --> 00:25:32.640 force of his example, the sheer moral weight 00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:35.359 of his life's work. He wins the Nobel Peace Prize 00:25:35.359 --> 00:25:38.619 in 1952. And in true Schweitzer fashion, he doesn't 00:25:38.619 --> 00:25:41.000 keep the money for himself. No, of course not. 00:25:41.079 --> 00:25:44.640 He uses the entire $33 ,000 prize money to build 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:47.420 a proper leprosarium, a dedicated village for 00:25:47.420 --> 00:25:50.079 patients with leprosy at Lamberina. But he didn't 00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:51.819 just retire into the jungle after the Nobel. 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:54.619 He wasn't done. In his later years, he takes 00:25:54.619 --> 00:25:57.819 on a completely new cause. The final act. The 00:25:57.819 --> 00:25:59.900 man who started as a theologian and musician 00:25:59.900 --> 00:26:02.819 becomes a global activist against nuclear weapons. 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:05.160 It makes perfect sense if you think about reverence 00:26:05.160 --> 00:26:08.480 for life. Nuclear war is the ultimate absolute 00:26:08.480 --> 00:26:11.099 violation of that principle. Precisely. The ultimate 00:26:11.099 --> 00:26:13.519 disrespect for life. He worked with Albert Einstein, 00:26:13.960 --> 00:26:15.839 Otto Hahn, the chemist who discovered nuclear 00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:19.400 fission, and Bertrand Russell. In 1957, he broadcast 00:26:19.400 --> 00:26:21.740 the Declaration of Conscience from Radio Oslo. 00:26:21.900 --> 00:26:24.519 What was the message? He argued that nuclear 00:26:24.519 --> 00:26:27.140 tests and the resulting radiation were a crime 00:26:27.140 --> 00:26:29.579 against life itself, not just human life, but 00:26:29.579 --> 00:26:31.640 the environment, the animals, the plants, the 00:26:31.640 --> 00:26:34.240 future genetic code of the planet. He was talking 00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:37.319 about environmentalism and genetic damage way 00:26:37.319 --> 00:26:39.880 before it was a mainstream concern. Way ahead 00:26:39.880 --> 00:26:42.559 of his time on that. And he kept working until 00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:45.720 the very end. He died in 1965 at the age of 90, 00:26:45.819 --> 00:26:48.200 right there in Lombardyne. At his hospital. At 00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:50.660 his hospital. He was buried on the banks of the 00:26:50.660 --> 00:26:53.339 Agoué River, the same river where he had his 00:26:53.339 --> 00:26:56.119 great philosophical insight, and the marker on 00:26:56.119 --> 00:26:58.880 his grave. It's a simple wooden cross that he 00:26:58.880 --> 00:27:00.980 made himself. From the grand concert halls of 00:27:00.980 --> 00:27:03.980 Paris to a simple grave by a river in Gabon. 00:27:04.460 --> 00:27:06.880 It's an unbelievable journey. It is. And when 00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:09.259 we try to sum up what it all means, you know, 00:27:09.259 --> 00:27:11.259 there is a concept in medical education today 00:27:11.259 --> 00:27:13.240 called the Schweitzer effect. The Schweitzer 00:27:13.240 --> 00:27:15.200 effect. What is that? It comes from something 00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:18.799 he said. Example is not the main thing in influencing 00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:21.460 others. It is the only thing. It is the only 00:27:21.460 --> 00:27:24.920 thing. Wow. That hits hard. It suggests that 00:27:24.920 --> 00:27:27.259 all the books, all the sermons, all the concerts, 00:27:27.420 --> 00:27:29.380 all the brilliant ideas, none of it matters as 00:27:29.380 --> 00:27:32.059 much as the life you actually live. Schweitzer 00:27:32.059 --> 00:27:34.539 once said his hospital was just an improvisation 00:27:34.539 --> 00:27:37.359 on his philosophy. An improvisation. The hospital 00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:40.160 was the physical manifestation of his beliefs. 00:27:40.180 --> 00:27:42.359 It was messy. It was imperfect. But it was real. 00:27:42.460 --> 00:27:46.000 It was action. That is a powerful place to land. 00:27:46.519 --> 00:27:49.559 It makes you think about our own lives. We live 00:27:49.559 --> 00:27:51.500 in this world that, as we said, tells you to 00:27:51.500 --> 00:27:54.599 specialize, to optimize, to talk a big game on 00:27:54.599 --> 00:27:57.059 social media. And here's a guy who said, no, 00:27:57.220 --> 00:27:59.480 I'm going to do music. I'm going to do God. I'm 00:27:59.480 --> 00:28:01.660 going to do science and service. And I'm going 00:28:01.660 --> 00:28:04.519 to tie them all together into one messy, beautiful, 00:28:04.799 --> 00:28:07.809 contradictory life of action. And even if the 00:28:07.809 --> 00:28:09.910 results were imperfect, even if we look back 00:28:09.910 --> 00:28:12.589 and rightly critique his paternalism or his hospital 00:28:12.589 --> 00:28:15.230 standards, the sheer gravity of that action is 00:28:15.230 --> 00:28:18.329 undeniable. He challenged the fragmentation of 00:28:18.329 --> 00:28:20.670 the modern world by showing that a life of thought 00:28:20.670 --> 00:28:23.890 must eventually lead to a life of action. So 00:28:23.890 --> 00:28:25.710 I guess here's the question for you listening 00:28:25.710 --> 00:28:29.029 right now. In a world that tells you to pick 00:28:29.029 --> 00:28:32.430 a lane, what would it look like to bridge those 00:28:32.430 --> 00:28:35.440 divides in your own life? What does it look like 00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:37.799 to turn your philosophy, whatever it is, into 00:28:37.799 --> 00:28:40.299 an improvisation of service? Everyone can have 00:28:40.299 --> 00:28:42.380 their own La Marina. It might not be in a jungle 00:28:42.380 --> 00:28:44.160 in Africa. It might be right down the street. 00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:46.640 You just have to find it. Thanks for diving deep 00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:47.519 with us. We'll see you next time.