Ranked #1
Episode 119: Nietzsche on Tragedy and the Psychology of Art
Episode 119: Nietzsche on Tragedy and the Psychology of Art
On Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy (1872). Nietzsche thought that you could tell how vital or decadent a civi... Read more
6 Jul 2015
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2hr 46mins
Ranked #2
Ep. 242: Stanley Cavell on Tragedy via King Lear (Part One)
Ep. 242: Stanley Cavell on Tragedy via King Lear (Part One)
On Cavell's essay "The Avoidance of Love: A Reading of King Lear" (1969). Can money buy you love? What is tragedy? With ... Read more
27 Apr 2020
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43mins
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Ranked #3
Ep. 218: The Hard Problem of Consciousness (Chalmers et al) (Part One)
Ep. 218: The Hard Problem of Consciousness (Chalmers et al) (Part One)
On "Consciousness and Its Place in Nature" by David Chalmers (2003), with special guest Gregory Miller from the Panpsyca... Read more
17 Jun 2019
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55mins
Ranked #4
Episode 178: Nietzsche as Social Critic: "Twilight of the Idols" (Part One)
Episode 178: Nietzsche as Social Critic: "Twilight of the Idols" (Part One)
On Friedrich Nieztsche's 1888 book summarizing his thought and critiquing the founding myths of his society. (For Wes Al... Read more
4 Dec 2017
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51mins
Ranked #5
Ep. 224: Kierkegaard Critiques The Present Age (Part One)
Ep. 224: Kierkegaard Critiques The Present Age (Part One)
On Soren Kierkegaard's essay "The Present Age" (1846) and Hubert Dreyfus’s "Nihilism on the Information Highway: Anonymi... Read more
26 Aug 2019
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47mins
Ranked #6
Episode 213: Nietzsche's Zarathustra (Part One)
Episode 213: Nietzsche's Zarathustra (Part One)
On Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, books 1 and 2 (1883). What is wisdom? In this text whose style parodies... Read more
15 Apr 2019
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52mins
Ranked #7
Ep. 233: Plato's "Protagoras" on Virtue (Part One)
Ep. 233: Plato's "Protagoras" on Virtue (Part One)
On the Platonic dialogue written around 380 BCE about an encounter between Socrates and one of the leading Sophists of h... Read more
6 Jan 2020
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53mins
Ranked #8
PREMIUM-Episode 32: Heidegger: What is “Being?”
PREMIUM-Episode 32: Heidegger: What is “Being?”
Discussing Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1927), mostly the intro and ch. 1 and 2 of Part 1.
8 Feb 2011
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32mins
Ranked #9
PREMIUM-Episode 61: Nietzsche on Truth and Skepticism
PREMIUM-Episode 61: Nietzsche on Truth and Skepticism
On Friedrich Nietzsche's "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" (1873). What is truth? This essay, written early in Nie... Read more
15 Aug 2012
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31mins
Ranked #10
Episode 124: The Stoic Life with Epictetus
Episode 124: The Stoic Life with Epictetus
On the Manual of Epictetus, aka The Enchiridion (135 CE). What's a wise strategy for life? Stoicism says that the secret... Read more
21 Sep 2015
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2hr 8mins
Ranked #11
PREMIUM-Episode 70: Marx on the Human Condition
PREMIUM-Episode 70: Marx on the Human Condition
On Karl Marx's The German Ideology, Part I, an early, unpublished work from 1846. What is human nature? What drives hist... Read more
30 Jan 2013
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30mins
Ranked #12
Episode 192: "The Closing of the American Mind": Allan Bloom on Education (Part One)
Episode 192: "The Closing of the American Mind": Allan Bloom on Education (Part One)
On Allan Bloom's 1987 best-selleing polemic. What is the role of the university in our democracy? Bloom thinks that toda... Read more
11 Jun 2018
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51mins
Ranked #13
Episode 171: Buddhism vs. Evolution with Guest Robert Wright (Part One)
Episode 171: Buddhism vs. Evolution with Guest Robert Wright (Part One)
Bob joins the PEL four to discuss his new book Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enligh... Read more
4 Sep 2017
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52mins
Ranked #14
Episode 2: Descartes’s Meditations: What Can We Know?
Episode 2: Descartes’s Meditations: What Can We Know?
On Descartes's Meditations 1 and 2. Get this and every episode ad-free by becoming a PEL supporter at partiallyexaminedl... Read more
14 May 2009
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1hr 39mins
Ranked #15
Episode 170: Guy Debord's "Society of the Spectacle" (Part One)
Episode 170: Guy Debord's "Society of the Spectacle" (Part One)
What is culture? In modern capitalism, Debord’s 1967 book describes it as all about the economy. It’s not just our jobs ... Read more
14 Aug 2017
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54mins
Ranked #16
Episode 201: Marcus Aurelius's Stoicism with Ryan Holiday (Part One)
Episode 201: Marcus Aurelius's Stoicism with Ryan Holiday (Part One)
On The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (ca. 180 C.E.) plus Ryan's The Daily Stoic (2016). What does Stoicism look like in... Read more
22 Oct 2018
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57mins
Ranked #17
Episode 116: Freud on Dreams
Episode 116: Freud on Dreams
On Sigmund Freud's On Dreams (1902) and other stuff. Are dreams just random, or our best key to understanding the mind? ... Read more
25 May 2015
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2hr 25mins
Ranked #18
Episode 174: Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" (Part One)
Episode 174: Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" (Part One)
On the foundational, 1776 text of modern economics. How does the division of labor and our instinct to exchange lead to ... Read more
16 Oct 2017
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54mins
Ranked #19
PREMIUM-Episode 65: The Federalist Papers
PREMIUM-Episode 65: The Federalist Papers
On Alexander Hamilton/James Madison's Federalist Papers (1, 10-12, 14-17, 39, 47-51), published as newspaper editorials ... Read more
27 Oct 2012
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31mins
Ranked #20
PREMIUM-Episode 84: Nietzsche’s “Gay Science”
PREMIUM-Episode 84: Nietzsche’s “Gay Science”
On Friedrich Nietzsche's The Gay Science (1882, with book 5 added 1887). What is wisdom? Nietzsche gives us an updated t... Read more
11 Nov 2013
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32mins