Latest Political thought Podcast Episodes
46 - Athenian democracy and Plato w/ Graham Culbertson (Everyday Anarchism Podcast)
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - May 11, 2023 04:00 - 1 hourThis episode is a crossover collabo with Graham Culbertson of the Everyday Anarchism podcast. Graham asked me over to talk Athenian democracy, Plato, anarchism and how modern meritocratic education sucks. We had a nice time with it and hope you do too. Support the Show.
45 - Humane War feat. Samuel Moyn
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - September 05, 2022 20:00 - 1 hourWar tends to bring out the human propensity for atrocity. Nobody likes indiscriminate killing, torture and so on. What to do about it? One response is to avoid war altogether. According to Yale prof Samuel Moyn, that’s what most people wanted after World War II and after Vietnam. But more recent...
44 - Samuel Huntington "The Clash of Civilizations?"
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - August 17, 2022 20:00 - 36 minutesSamuel J. Huntington’s 1993 “The Clash of Civilizations?” is the most assigned article in American political science. It predicts a worldwide culture war (but not the kind you're thinking of). The book became a massive bestseller, Huntington was all over TV and his theory is still talked about ...
44 - Samuel Huntington "The Clash of Civilizations?"
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - August 17, 2022 20:00 - 36 minutesSamuel J. Huntington’s 1993 “The Clash of Civilizations?” is the most assigned article in American political science. It predicts a worldwide culture war (but not the kind you're thinking of). The book became a massive bestseller, Huntington was all over TV and his theory is still talked about ...
43 - Tyranny at Work feat. Elizabeth Anderson
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - June 06, 2022 11:00 - 54 minutesAmericans hate when the state tells them what to do. They’ve got freer speech, freer access to guns and less regulation on business than any other rich country. So why do they let their work bosses walk all over them? American workers have less rights and worse conditions than workers in any o...
42 - The New Aristocracy feat. Matthew Stewart
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - May 02, 2022 14:00 - 54 minutesMatthew Stewart is a philosophy PhD and author. He’s also a Princeton guy and former management consultant so he knows rich people. His new book, The 9.9%, is about them. Not the super-rich, but the doctors, lawyers and managers that go to good colleges and live in nice neighbourhoods. The “ne...
41 - Love in the Time of Big Data feat. Alfie Bown
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - April 18, 2022 11:00 - 58 minutesBig tech companies tell us they’re our servants, existing to fulfill our desires more cheaply and conveniently than ever. Alfie Bown doesn’t think so. He thinks Deliveroo, Tinder, Pornhub etc. aren’t just giving us what we want, they’re shaping what we want. He reckons our tech overlords are se...
41 - Love in the Time of Big Data ft. Alfie Bown
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - April 18, 2022 11:00 - 58 minutesBig tech companies tell us they’re our servants, existing to fulfill our desires more cheaply and conveniently than ever. Alfie Bown doesn’t think so. He thinks Deliveroo, Tinder, Pornhub etc. aren’t just giving us what we want, they’re shaping what we want. He reckons our tech overlords are se...
40 - Is Liberal Democracy the Best We Can Do? feat. The Morality of Everyday Things
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - February 08, 2022 15:00 - 1 hourIs democracy the worst form of government except for all the others or is it just the worst? This is a crossover with the delightful Morality of Everyday Things podcast. Jake and Ant and I discuss what liberal democracy is, the arguments in its favour, and some big critiques. Episode includes...
40 - Is Liberal Democracy the Best We Can Do? feat. The Morality of Everyday Things
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - February 08, 2022 15:00 - 1 hourIs democracy the worst form of government except for all the others or is it just the worst? This is a crossover with the delightful Morality of Everyday Things podcast. Jake and Ant and I discuss what liberal democracy is, the arguments in its favour, and some big critiques. Episode includes...
39 - The Glorious History and Ugly Present of Rhetoric feat. Rob Goodman
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - January 24, 2022 18:00 - 1 hourRhetoric is supposed to inspire. Imagine Cicero exhorting the Roman people, Churchill vowing to “fight on the beaches.” Yet, when politicians speak today, it’s almost always boring or obnoxious. Why? Prof. Rob Goodman, author of Words on Fire: Eloquence and its Conditions comes by today to tal...
38 - GiT Holiday Special with Sep
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - December 26, 2021 19:00 - 39 minutesIt’s the holidays again! And Theory Elf Sep comes on to help celebrate them. We talk about the past year of working on the pod, where I've been for the past two months, how she makes the episode art and what we have planned for the coming year. We also call Rebecca! Support the Show.
37 - Thought Lab 4: The Psychology of Horror
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - October 28, 2021 14:00 - 36 minutesGrizzly bears are scary. But what about zombie grizzly bears? What’s makes something horrifying rather than just frightening? Paul has a theory. It turns out that humans have a psychological way of organizing the world that also creates the possibility of getting really creeped-out. It helps e...
36 - Moral Saints 2: Why Be a Saint?
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - October 12, 2021 13:00 - 33 minutesThis episode is about Wolf’s “Moral Saints,” Peter Singer’s “Famine, Affluence and Morality,” and Larissa Macfarquhar’s Strangers Drowning. Susan Wolf thinks that devoting your life to helping others would be a real drag. It’d interfere with playing tennis and reading Tolstoy. True enough b...
36 - Moral Saints 2: Why Be a Saint?
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - October 12, 2021 13:00 - 33 minutesThis episode is about Wolf’s “Moral Saints,” Peter Singer’s “Famine, Affluence and Morality,” and Larissa Macfarquhar’s Strangers Drowning. Susan Wolf thinks that devoting your life to helping others would be a real drag. It’d interfere with playing tennis and reading Tolstoy. True enough b...
35 - Susan Wolf, “Moral Saints”
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - September 28, 2021 00:00 - 26 minutesThis episode is about Susan Wolf’s 1982 article “Moral Saints.” You’re probably a moral enough person. But have you ever had that nagging feeling that you should be even better? That if you were really good, you would devote your life to the cause, whatever cause that might be? That you should...
34 - The Esoteric Plato feat. Earl Fontainelle
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - September 13, 2021 18:00 - 1 hourToday I speak with Earl Fontainelle of the Secret History of Western Esotericism podcast (SHWEP). I don’t understand Plato. Partly this is because he never writes in his own voice and partly it’s because I can’t even always tell when Socrates is joking or even what he’s talking about. The divi...
33 - The End of the End of History ft. Philip Cunliffe and George Hoare
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - August 30, 2021 14:00 - 1 hourI talk to Phillip Cunliffe and George Hoare about their new book The End of the End of History. In 1989, Francis Fukuyama predicted a boring eternity of liberal capitalism and for nearly 30 years, it looked like he might be right. We had Clinton and Blair. Globalization and apathy. Kurt Cobai...
33 - The End of the End of History feat. Philip Cunliffe and George Hoare
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - August 30, 2021 14:00 - 1 hourI talk to Phillip Cunliffe and George Hoare about their new book The End of the End of History. In 1989, Francis Fukuyama predicted a boring eternity of liberal capitalism and for nearly 30 years, it looked like he might be right. We had Clinton and Blair. Globalization and apathy. Kurt Cobai...
32 - Fukuyama’s “The End of History?”
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - August 17, 2021 02:00 - 27 minutesIn 1989, Francis Fukuyama was a foreign policy expert with an interest in Hegel. He published a little essay called “The End of History?” in which he argued that the Cold War was more than a rivalry between two superpowers or an experiment to find the most efficient way to organize an economy. F...
31 - Thought Lab 3: Utilitarianism & the Great Spreadsheet
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - August 02, 2021 15:00 - 47 minutesToday, Paul Sagar and I get into utilitarianism. We talk about thought experiments that involve: drowning kids, ruined loafers, death squads and bioweapons. The drowning children are from Peter Singer. He's a utilitarian that thinks that we rich first-world types should be giving away all our ...
30 - Plato's Republic 13: Choose Yourself
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - July 19, 2021 14:00 - 33 minutesThis episode covers the last bit of book 10 of Plato’s Republic. Imagine you get to choose your reincarnation. You can come back as a tyrant, a sports star, a swan, whatever you want. What do you pick? And what do you have to know to make a good choice? Socrates has some advice. In this fin...
29 - Plato's Republic 12: Poetic Sweet Tooth
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - July 05, 2021 14:00 - 45 minutesSocrates thinks that poetry is like candy: delicious but bad for us. If we consume too much, it’ll rot our souls. That’s because the poets just pander to our passions with no concern with or knowledge of the truth. But pandering poets aren’t the problem. It’s us. Socrates thinks that humans ha...
28 - Plato's Republic 11: A Tyrant's Life
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - June 19, 2021 18:00 - 36 minutesThis episode covers book 9 of Plato's Republic. In this episode, Socrates is going to finally answer the question that started it all. Back in book 2, Glaucon and Adeimantus challenged Socrates to prove to them that it’s worthwhile to be just. To them, the life of injustice looks pretty good, ...
27 - Plato's Republic 10: Degenerate Cities, Degenerate Souls
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - June 07, 2021 22:00 - 49 minutesHow does politics affect personality? In the ideal city, the perfect laws and education create philosopher kings. But what about everywhere else? In this chapter, Socrates gets down to some real-world political science and analyzes the four kinds of regime that actually exist in the Greek wor...
26 - Plato's Republic 9: Horny for the Good
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - May 14, 2021 13:00 - 55 minutesThis episode covers book 7 of Plato's Republic. Socrates is what I call a “philosopher of desire.” He cares more about the questions than the answers, the journey than the destination, the boner than the nut. And he brings that energy to his teaching. In this episode, Socrates tells the b...
25 - Thought Lab 2: Tainted Art and Moral Luck
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - April 19, 2021 17:00 - 54 minutesIs it ok to laugh at The Cosby Show? To rock to “Rock With You”? To eat with the knife that was used to murder your family? Does bad luck make you a bad person? It may seem reasonable to separate the art from the artist and the instrument from the act, but Paul says that’s not how our brains ...
Thought Lab 2: Tainted Art and Moral Luck
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - April 19, 2021 17:00 - 54 minutesIs it ok to laugh at The Cosby Show? To rock to “Rock With You”? To eat with the knife that was used to murder your family? Does bad luck make you a bad person? It may seem reasonable to separate the art from the artist and the instrument from the act, but Paul says that’s not how our brains ...
24 - Plato's Republic 8: The Philosopher Kings
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - March 29, 2021 12:00 - 43 minutesThis book covers parts of books 5-6 of Plato’s Republic. Who should rule the city in speech? Philosophers of course! In this episode, Socrates explains his most famous political proposal: philosopher kings. He wants the leaders to be smart and capable and virtuous. And charming and good-lookin...
23 - Plato’s Republic 7: Socratic Family Values
Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast - March 16, 2021 04:00 - 33 minutesThis episode covers book 5 of Plato’s Republic. What do you do when the private family causes too much corruption? Nationalize it! Create a giant family monopoly that includes every citizen in one giant clan. In this episode, Socrates explains his most normal proposal—that women should have job...
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