History of Philosophy Audio Archive

Music Credit: Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 30 performed by Paavali Jumppanen, available on Museopen.The Alan Shapiro translation of the Oresteia is my favorite.Another episode (Hemlock #5) I did about Aeschylus can be found here. It talks in greater depth about the metaphor of the net, and centers Clytemnestra as the hero/main character of the post-Trojan scene.For fun and profit: reading the Wikipedia page on the Eleusinian Mysteries.He who learns, must suffer.Even in our sleep, pain: which time cannot forgetFalls drop by drop upon the heart.Until, in the fullness of time, against our will and in our despairThrough the awful grace of GodComes wisdom--Aeschylus, Agamemnon

Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying,Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.Matthew 26:48Watch Judas and the Black Messiah:https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/judas-and-the-black-messiahFollow Sabrina on Bluesky or Patreon:⁠Note To Self // Patreon⁠Sabrina Jennings // BlueskyFundraisers, Palestine Support, and Good Programs:⁠⁠Amjad Hamad and his Family⁠⁠⁠⁠Rulin and Family⁠⁠⁠⁠Sammar and her Husband⁠⁠⁠⁠MSF (Doctors Without Borders)⁠⁠⁠⁠Palestinian Youth Movement⁠⁠References, Books, MentionsSouthern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)The Riot Report (DocDocs 6)Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)WeathermenRainbow CoalitionG-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly GageOne Nation Under Blackmail: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Organized Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein (Two Volumes) by Whitney WebbFBI Suicide Letter to Martin Luther King JrAn African American and Latinx History of the US by Paul OrtizCaste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel WilkersonCOINTELPROMHCHAOS / Operation CHAOSDark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion by Gary WebbDrugs as Weapons Against Us (Documentary)-//-

⁠Support me on Patreon⁠ - or leave a review for the show.Hubert "Bert" Dreyfus (1929-2017) was a ⁠professor of philosophy at UC Berkeley⁠ who specialized in phenomenology, 20th century Continental philosophy, artificial intelligence, Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, and the aesthetics/literature of existentialism from Dostoevsky and Kierkegaard to ⁠Terrence Malick⁠. He is probably most famous for his ⁠exposition of Heidegger's early masterpiece⁠ "Being and Time" (German: Sein und Zeit), and for his ⁠negative predictions about artificial intelligence.⁠ He taught multiple courses through MOOCs from roughly 2006-2012 about Greek philosophy, existentialism in film and literature, Heidegger's opus Being & Time, and the limits of AI. In this course he uses the ⁠Fitzgerald poetic translation⁠ of the Odyssey with his own amendments and R. Lattimores' meaning-literal translation.He was also extremely kind to me.Arete, techne, poesis, aletheia, gnosis...Books Mentioned:The Discovery of the Mind - Bruno SnellThe Greeks and the Irrational - E. R. Dodds-//-

Watch "Cruel and Unusual" on Kanopy!https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/cruel-and-unusualFollow Sabrina and I on Bluesky or Patreon:⁠Note To Self // Patreon⁠Sabrina Jennings // BlueskyHemlock // PatreonWilliam Engels // BlueskyFundraisers, Palestine Support, and Good Programs:⁠⁠Amjad Hamad and his Family⁠⁠⁠⁠Rulin and Family⁠⁠⁠⁠Sammar and her Husband⁠⁠⁠⁠MSF (Doctors Without Borders)⁠⁠⁠⁠Palestinian Youth Movement⁠⁠Books and Sources Mentioned:Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison by Chris HedgesChain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib by Seymour HershThe Minds of Men (YouTube Documentary)The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Era of Colorblindness by Michelle AlexanderAramark and Prison Industrial Labor (Article)

Watch Vita Activa on Kanopy!https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/vita-activa-spirit-hannah-arendt-1?vp=newschoolFollow Sabrina on Bluesky or Patreon:Note To Self // PatreonSabrina Jennings // BlueskyFundraisers, Palestine Support, and Good Programs:⁠Amjad Hamad and his Family⁠⁠Rulin and Family⁠⁠Sammar and her Husband⁠⁠MSF (Doctors Without Borders)⁠⁠Palestinian Youth Movement⁠Books and Sources Mentioned:Tough Enough: Arbus, Arendt, Didion, McCarthy, and Weil by Deborah NelsonAmerican Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris HedgesEichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt"Evil resides in the pretended necessity that we claim for those choices which we make that at are, at bottom: mere preferences."-me, a few days ago

The final book in Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, on the compatibility of divine omniscience and human free will, the eternal and the continual, and the rarefaction of intelligence.Cheers! Virginia Woolf is next...Music: Beethoven, String Quartet No 13, "Cavatina", Orion String Quartet. I also recommend the Lindsay String Quartet version, and the Takács Quartet on Decca.English translation by WV Cooper, with some modifications by the host (e.g. dropping some 'thee' and 'wherefore' archaisms)

McNamara at War is available September 23rd from Amazon! There's an audiobook as well for the audio-inclined...Summary (AI Generated, Model = NotebookLM)The podcast features an insightful conversation between host William Engels and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian William Taubman, co-author of the recent book "McNamara at War". Taubman, a distinguished Cold War expert, has also penned biographies of Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Mikhail Gorbachev. The discussion delves into the complex life and career of Robert McNamara, who served as US Defense Secretary during the early years of the Vietnam War. Topics covered include McNamara's personal biography, the controversies surrounding his strategic approach to Vietnam, his profound regrets, and his role in pivotal Cold War events like the Cuban Missile Crisis.The conversation explores McNamara's impressive pre-Pentagon career, characterized by his "brilliance" and a methodical, data-driven approach he applied at Harvard Business School and in reorganizing the US Air Force during World War II. He notably became the first non-Ford family president of Ford Motor Company. However, this trajectory of success ended with his leadership of the Vietnam War, a conflict that ultimately "mastered him". The US involvement in Vietnam was largely fueled by the "domino theory," a deeply held, though ultimately "paranoid," belief within the US government that the fall of South Vietnam to communism would trigger a cascade of communist takeovers across Southeast Asia, eventually isolating the United States. The sheer scale of the US aerial bombardment in Vietnam was staggering, with more bombs dropped than by all sides in all of World War II, leading to immense death and destruction.A significant point of discussion is the American government's perceived failure to understand its adversaries during the Cold War. Engels references McNamara's assertion in the documentary "The Fog of War" that the US had empathy for the Soviets but lacked it for the Vietnamese. Taubman, however, counters that even the Soviets, particularly Khrushchev, were never fully understood, leading to dangerous misinterpretations of his intentions in crises like Berlin and Cuba. McNamara emerges as a "tragic figure" – a man of intellect and a "highly developed moral conscience," influenced by his pushy mother and distant father, who nonetheless became embroiled in a military system that he failed to control. Despite his growing conviction that the war was unwinnable, McNamara found it difficult to express these doubts to President Johnson, constrained by bureaucratic consensus and a desire to mitigate even greater escalation from within.Fundraisers, Palestine Support, and Good Programs:⁠Amjad Hamad and his Family⁠⁠Rulin and Family⁠⁠Sammar and her Husband⁠⁠MSF (Doctors Without Borders)⁠⁠Palestinian Youth Movement⁠Articles"The Nuclear Club Might Soon Double" in The AtlanticTrump Pushing Japan, South Korea to Nuclearize (Japan Times)BooksThe Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb by Philip TaubmanFear: Trump in the White House by Bob WoodwardRage by Bob WoodwardPeril by Bob Woodward and Robert CostaWar by Bob Woodward and Robert CostaIn Retrospect by Robert McNamara

Now It's Dark.Explicit Advisory: This episode contains potentially upsetting discussions of child sexual abuse/violence as well as addiction, domestic abuse, and human trafficking.Music Credit: Twin Peaks Theme (Cover) by Dehli MusikkCorrection: I said that Lynch married Rossellini. Actually they were just romantic partners and were never married.In this one Richard and I cover David Lynch's pocket biography, Blue Velvet (1986) and Twin Peaks (1988), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992), Lost Highway, and Mulholland Drive.Wishing DL an auspicious passage into the Bardo - see you, President Roosevelt...Watchlinks:Blue VelvetTwin Peaks (TV Series)Twin Peaks: The ReturnTwin Peaks: Fire Walk With MeLost HighwayMulholland DriveInterviews / SourcesPainter: Francis BaconIsabella Rossellini (Plays Dorothy Vallens in Blue Velvet)1997 Charlie Rose Interview"The Art Life" Interview with ArtforumOutstanding Essay by Auteur Cinema (YT) (Rossellini Interview Source)Bad Canadian Interview for Blue VelvetBraindead Siskel and Ebert Takes on BVLynch Interview about Roy Orbison and the BV Music

(Pre-) Order Kaila's new book, out August 19th:Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and BeautySummary (AI Generated by Gemini 2.5 Pro):Author Kaila Yu joins the show to discuss her powerful new memoir, "Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty." The conversation unpacks the complex and often damaging ways Asian women are portrayed in Western media. Yu deconstructs the through-line from cultural touchstones like Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly and the original Little Mermaid  to modern media, linking them to the historical origins of the Southeast Asian sex trade in American colonialism and military occupation. She shares her personal journey through modeling and music, explaining how these experiences informed her critical perspective on beauty, stereotypes, and the insidious nature of fetishization.The discussion also explores the real-world consequences of these stereotypes, examining the rise in anti-Asian violence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, while also considering the massive global success of K-Pop as a sign of shifting cultural representation. Yu offers a nuanced take on the feminist debates surrounding sex work, questioning the emotional toll on its participants while affirming the need for workers' rights and safety. Ultimately, the episode delves into the power of self-love and critical awareness as tools to navigate and dismantle a culture that seeks to define individuals through a narrow, fetishized lens.Donation links for Palestine:Amjad Hamad and his FamilyRulin and FamilySammar and her HusbandMSF (Doctors Without Borders)Palestinian Youth MovementMy Patreon:Hemlock | Patreon

Check out the premium podcast Welcome to the Crusades: The First Crusade and unlock all ten episodes now. Click here for the full first episode.I am joined by Eleanor Janega and Luke Waters of the We're Not So Different Podcast (Patreon Page) and the fellas over at American Prestige podcast (Website) Derek Davidson and Daniel Bessner.My Patreon, fwiw~References, Citations, People, Assorted Wikipedia & Amazon Pages:Albert of Aix (Reputable Christian Chronicle of First Crusade)The Rhineland Massacres (Jewish Pogrom at Start of First Crusade)A Chronicle of the Above, Namely the Solomon bar Simson ChronicleThe First Crusade with the Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres by Edward PetersThe First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading by Jonathan Riley-SmithThe First Crusade by Steven RuncimanShipping, Trade, and Crusade in the Medieval MediterraneanBest Contemporary Arab Source/Perspective: The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin MaaloufDerek's mention of the first Complete History of the World by Ali ibn al-AthirArab chronicle by El-IsfahaniPersian chronicler under Mongol/Il-Khanate rule Hamadani