Good in Theory: A Political Philosophy Podcast
Good in Theory is a podcast about political philosophy and how it can help us understand the world today. Want to know what's in Plato's Republic or Hobbes's Leviathan but don't want to read them? This is your pod. I explain my favourite books in political theory in enough detail that you’ll feel like you read them yourself. Deep but not heavy. No experience needed.
Episodes
47 episodes
46 - Athenian democracy and Plato w/ Graham Culbertson (Everyday Anarchism Podcast)
This 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...
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1:04:13
45 - Humane War feat. Samuel Moyn
War 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 a...
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1:05:16
44 - Samuel Huntington "The Clash of Civilizations?"
Samuel 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 kin...
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36:46
43 - Tyranny at Work feat. Elizabeth Anderson
Americans 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 worke...
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54:36
42 - The New Aristocracy feat. Matthew Stewart
Matthew 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%,
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54:19
41 - Love in the Time of Big Data feat. Alfie Bown
Big 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, ...
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58:22
40 - Is Liberal Democracy the Best We Can Do? feat. The Morality of Everyday Things
Is 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 ar...
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1:14:37
39 - The Glorious History and Ugly Present of Rhetoric feat. Rob Goodman
Rhetoric 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
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1:13:12
38 - GiT Holiday Special with Sep
It’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....
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39:35
37 - Thought Lab 4: The Psychology of Horror
Grizzly 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 cre...
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36:35
36 - Moral Saints 2: Why Be a Saint?
This 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. ...
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33:36
35 - Susan Wolf, “Moral Saints”
This 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 devot...
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26:00
34 - The Esoteric Plato feat. Earl Fontainelle
Today 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 ev...
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1:28:10
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33 - The End of the End of History feat. Philip Cunliffe and George Hoare
I 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 nearl...
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1:05:12
32 - Fukuyama’s “The End of History?”
In 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 f...
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27:22
31 - Thought Lab 3: Utilitarianism & the Great Spreadsheet
Today, 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...
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47:24
30 - Plato's Republic 13: Choose Yourself
This 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 ma...
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33:23
29 - Plato's Republic 12: Poetic Sweet Tooth
Socrates 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 po...
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45:23
28 - Plato's Republic 11: A Tyrant's Life
This 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 w...
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36:35
27 - Plato's Republic 10: Degenerate Cities, Degenerate Souls
How 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 ana...
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49:44
26 - Plato's Republic 9: Horny for the Good
This 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.&nbs...
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55:36
25 - Thought Lab 2: Tainted Art and Moral Luck
Is 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 in...
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54:19
24 - Plato's Republic 8: The Philosopher Kings
This 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 sm...
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43:20
