September 22, 2025
We don’t usually think of Immanuel Kant and Thundercats in the same sentence, but today’s Thought of the Day and Question of the Day connect them more closely than you might expect. On one hand, Kant reminds us that all our knowledge begins with experience. On the other, today’s question drags us back to Saturday mornings, bowls of cereal, and the glow of the TV screen. Together, they offer a surprisingly fun way to think about how much of who we are today comes from the little moments we soaked up as kids.
Thought of the Day: It is beyond a doubt that all our knowledge begins with experience. — Immanuel Kant
When I first read this line, I thought, “Sure, Kant, that makes sense.” Then I thought about how many of my “formative experiences” involve things like stepping in Legos, getting smacked in the face with a wiffle ball bat, or realizing—too late—that Pop-Tarts are basically napalm straight out of the toaster.
And yet, he’s right. The older I get, the more I see how much of my thinking started in tiny everyday experiences. You don’t learn patience from reading about it, you learn it while waiting in line at the DMV or trying to assemble IKEA furniture with three kids “helping.” You don’t learn resilience by hearing a lecture, you learn it when you get knocked down, embarrassed, or told “no” and you figure out how to stand back up.
Kant probably wasn’t thinking about Saturday morning cartoons when he wrote this, but I’d argue that those count as experiences too. They shaped our imaginations. They gave us heroes, villains, and goofy sidekicks. They taught us how to laugh, dream, and sometimes even how to deal with disappointment (usually when the good show ended and the boring one came on).
For me, those cartoon hours weren’t wasted, they were training wheels for curiosity and creativity. And in that sense, Kant’s point holds: knowledge doesn’t drop out of the sky. It bubbles up from life lived, even if that life looks like a kid in pajamas with chocolate milk mustache glued to the screen.
Question of the Day: What cartoons did you watch as a child?
I’ll admit it: I was a cartoon junkie. My mornings were stacked like a buffet line of animated worlds. Thundercats gave me action. Flintstones gave me family comedy. Jetsons promised me a future with flying cars (still waiting, by the way). Gargoyles was dark, moody, and way cooler than I probably deserved at the time. And let’s not forget Gummi Bears—which, looking back, feels like the strangest pitch ever: “magical, bouncing bears who drink juice.” Who greenlit that?
The thing is, each show left a little mark. Thundercats taught me about courage. The Flintstones taught me that even cavemen have in-laws. The Jetsons taught me that the future is never quite what you expect (instead of robot maids, we got a Roomb). And Darkwing Duck, well, he taught me that heroes don’t have to be perfect, just persistent.
What’s funny is how those shows still echo. I catch myself quoting them. I recognize their rhythms in jokes I make with my kids. And yes, sometimes I get a weird nostalgic hit just from a theme song.
So today’s Question of the Day isn’t just a trip down memory lane, it’s an invitation to notice how even the silliest cartoons left fingerprints on our minds. Kant would say it’s all experience feeding knowledge. I’d say it’s proof that Saturday mornings mattered more than we realized.
Now it’s your turn: What cartoons did you grow up on, and what did they secretly teach you? Share your list in the comments below, and if you’d like a daily dose of questions and thoughts like this, join the free email community.
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