Hobbes and the Ideal Citizen
April 5, 2026
Seventeenth century philosopher Thomas Hobbes believed that without government to control our worst impulses, life…
Politics Tagged Episodes
Can Architecture Be Political?
September 7, 2025
It’s common to judge a piece of architecture based on its functional and aesthetic values,…
American Futures (Ken Taylor Memorial Episode)
November 3, 2024
When Ken Taylor passed away, he was working on a manuscript titled Farewell to the…
Lincoln as a Philosopher
February 11, 2024
More than any other President, Abraham Lincoln is known for his words, from the Lincoln-Douglass…
Disinformation and the Future of Democracy
October 1, 2023
The 2020 election and startling events that followed show that the US is as polarized…
Is the Self an Illusion?
October 9, 2022
Most of us think it’s obvious that we have a self, but famously, both Buddhism…
Comedy and the Culture Wars
July 3, 2022
Comedy can often give offense, especially when it concerns such sensitive topics as race, gender,…
The Allure of Authoritarianism
May 22, 2022
In George Orwell’s 1984, the party’s “final, most essential command” was “to reject the evidence…
The Doomsday Doctrine
April 3, 2022
The doctrine of mutually assured destruction is supposed to deter both sides in a war…
Is Postmodernism Really to Blame for Post-Truth?
February 27, 2022
Postmodernism is often characterized by its rejection of concepts championed by the Enlightenment, like meaning,…
Authority and Resistance
September 12, 2021
Authority can refer to people or institutions that have the political power to make decisions,…
Foreign Aid – or Injury?
July 18, 2021
Many of us might think that developed nations should lead the effort to end global…
The Value of Care: Feminism and Ethics
March 7, 2021
We sometimes think of the domains of ethics and morality as divorced from feeling and…
Frantz Fanon and the Violence of Colonialism
July 19, 2020
Frantz Fanon is a thinker who has inspired radical liberation movements in places ranging from…
Machiavelli
May 3, 2020
Niccolò Machiavelli is best known for arguing that people in power should use deception, force,…
Habermas and Democracy
December 1, 2019
Jürgen Habermas is regarded as one of the last great public intellectuals of Europe and…
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