Then & Now: Philosophy, History & Politics

Then & Now

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The Then & Now podcast: audio versions of the Youtube videos on philosophy, history, and politics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why you'd press play

Even burnout has a backstory here; your productivity app may need a minute.

Press play if you want

  • to see why burnout feels personal until clocks, workplace pressure and older ideas of illness enter the picture
  • to hear populism treated as a question about democracy, not just a label for politicians you dislike
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Best episodes of Then & Now: Philosophy, History & Politics

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

How the Deep State really works

A history minded look at deep state power that treats bureaucracy as an accountability test.

This episode treats the deep state less like a slogan and more like a question about power, bureaucracy, and accountability. It moves from ancient Athens, where an aristocratic council shaped what citizens voted on, to Rome and the Praetorian Guard, then to the rise of merit…

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Episodes

  1. 1

    How the Deep State really works

    A 2014 study found average voter preference has near-zero impact on public policy—that's not democracy.

    ·1h 20m·1 clip
  2. 2

    Dreams Beyond the Algorithm

    Hidden gem

    Then & Now: Philosophy, History & Politics examines whether dreams of democratic blockchains, shorter workdays and community ownership can overcome systems that resist change.

    Dec 9, 2025·1h 27m·5 clips
  3. 3

    Burnout: The Hustle Century

    Then & Now: Philosophy, History & Politics examines burnout through Herbert Freudenberger’s 1974 New York definition, modern work statistics, and interviews with people describing exhaustion, mistakes, and lost sleep.

    Dec 6, 2025·1h 29m·5 clips
  4. 4

    The End of the End of History

    Then & Now: Philosophy, History & Politics examines Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history” thesis and argues that history remained active after the Soviet Union collapsed and the Berlin Wall fell.

    Dec 3, 2025·50m·3 clips
  5. 5

    Populism: A Complete Guide

    Then & Now: Philosophy, History & Politics defines populism through the recurring binary between “the people” and “the elites,” while comparing figures such as Bernie Sanders, Viktor Orbán, and Nigel Farage.

    Jun 20, 2025·1h 25m·5 clips
  6. 6

    10 Steps to Becoming AI Proof

    Jun 13, 2025·18m
  7. 7

    Monopoly World: Oligarchy & Authoritarianism

    Then & Now: Philosophy, History & Politics examines how monopolies, oligopolies, and corporate concentration developed from royal trade privileges into modern business power.

    Apr 22, 2025·1h 25m·2 clips
  8. 8

    Capitalism: In-Depth

    Mar 18, 2025·5h 11m
  9. 9

    Marx: A Complete Guide to Capitalism

    Mar 11, 2025·2h 14m
  10. 10

    The Rise and Fall of the Mainstream Media

    Mar 5, 2025·2h 14m
  11. 11

    How AI was Stolen

    Jan 2, 2025·3h
  12. 12

    The Real Harm of Social Media

    Sep 14, 2024·30m
  13. 13

    The Origins of the Israel/Palestine Conflict

    Sep 11, 2024·31m
  14. 14

    Does History Progress?

    Aug 24, 2024·42m
  15. 15

    Can History Decline?

    Aug 21, 2024·47m
  16. 16

    Hegel: A Complete Guide to History

    Jan 18, 2024·2h 4m
  17. 17

    How Socrates Beat Addictions

    Jan 14, 2024·14m
  18. 18

    The Roots of Modern Democracy

    Jan 7, 2024·41m
  19. 19

    Why Culture Wars Matter

    Jan 1, 2024·21m
  20. 20

    What Red Pill Philosophy Gets Wrong

    Dec 28, 2023·39m
  21. 21

    Being Outside Changes How You Think

    Dec 24, 2023·22m
  22. 22

    Stoicism's Major Flaw

    Dec 18, 2023·49m
  23. 23

    How New Addictions Are Destroying Us

    Dec 12, 2023·37m
  24. 24

    How Big Tech is Ruining Your Attention

    Dec 7, 2023·28m
  25. 25

    How the Internet Was Stolen

    Dec 1, 2023·2h 10m
  26. 26

    Why Our Idea of History is a Poison

    Nov 27, 2023·19m
  27. 27

    The First Critics of Modern Life

    Nov 22, 2023·31m
  28. 28

    Why German History is Different

    Nov 17, 2023·27m
  29. 29

    Kant: A Complete Guide to Reason

    Nov 14, 2023·1h 11m
  30. 30

    What the Evidence on Immigration Says

    Apr 18, 2023·32m
  31. 31

    Tucker Carlson's Paranoid Mind

    Oct 20, 2022·50m
  32. 32

    How Fox News Changed The World

    Oct 17, 2022·1h 25m
  33. 33

    Our Consumer Society

    Oct 15, 2022·1h 24m
  34. 34

    Free Will Is Political

    Oct 13, 2022·20m
  35. 35

    Putin's Sense Of Russian History

    May 19, 2022·36m
  36. 36

    MrBeast: Capitalism & Philanthropy

    May 12, 2022·1h 20m
  37. 37

    How The Atom Bomb Changed How We Think

    May 12, 2022·30m
  38. 38

    Thinking About Changing The World

    Apr 12, 2022·20m
  39. 39

    Our 'Age Of Anger'

    Apr 8, 2022·54m
  40. 40

    How Robotics Will Control You

    Apr 5, 2022·38m
  41. 41

    Spinoza A Complete Guide To Life

    Feb 24, 2022·53m
  42. 42

    Why The Internet Hasn't Fixed Democracy

    Feb 11, 2022·30m
  43. 43

    How The Nature Nurture Debate Is Changing

    Jan 14, 2022·36m
  44. 44

    The BIG Problem With The Metaverse

    Dec 23, 2021·24m
  45. 45

    The Surprising Philosophy Of Dirt

    Dec 18, 2021·18m
  46. 46

    Would You Have Been A Nazi?

    Dec 16, 2021·22m
  47. 47

    The Psychology Of Racism In Jim Crow America

    Dec 14, 2021·40m
  48. 48

    Scientific Racism and Immigration: A History

    Dec 12, 2021·26m
  49. 49

    What The Sea Can Teach Us About Ourselves

    Dec 10, 2021·18m
  50. 50

    Is Wokeism a Civil Religion?

    Nov 2, 2021·24m
  51. 51

    What Makes Us Postmodern?

    Oct 29, 2021·30m
  52. 52

    Wokeism

    Oct 27, 2021·32m
  53. 53

    The Invention Of Individual Responsibility

    Oct 25, 2021·52m
  54. 54

    Is Equality Natural?

    Oct 22, 2021·20m
  55. 55

    What Makes Us Modern

    Oct 19, 2021·26m
  56. 56

    Why Jordan Peterson is Wrong About Ideology

    Jul 7, 2021·31m
  57. 57

    Jordan Peterson Critique: Philosophy & Responsibility

    Jul 2, 2021·37m
  58. 58

    Baby Boomers VS Millennials: A History of the Coming Revolution

    May 29, 2021·39m
  59. 59

    5 Useful Things I’ve Learned from the Existentialists

    May 13, 2021·24m
  60. 60

    Being Us: Communities, Organisations, & Politics of Authenticity

    Apr 30, 2021·18m
  61. 61

    Being You: The History and Philosophy of Authenticity

    Apr 26, 2021·43m
  62. 62

    Kierkegaard: An Introduction

    Mar 24, 2021·19m
  63. 63

    Steven Pinker & Human Nature: Nasty or Nice?

    Mar 6, 2021·29m
  64. 64

    Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan

    Mar 4, 2021·19m
  65. 65

    Zygmunt Bauman: Moral Relativism & The Holocaust

    Feb 9, 2021·17m
  66. 66

    How We Become Genocidal: The Holocaust

    Jan 30, 2021·1h 2m
  67. 67

    Inviting the Tigers to Tea: Demagogues in America

    Jan 19, 2021·16m
  68. 68

    Foucault: Criticisms & Method

    Jan 14, 2021·16m
  69. 69

    Foucault: Madness & Civilization (History of Madness)

    Jan 11, 2021·25m
  70. 70

    Heidegger & Descartes: Being-in-the-world, Care, Anxiety & Existentialism

    Dec 26, 2020·12m
  71. 71

    Descartes' Error: Antonio Damasio's Somatic Marker Hypothesis

    Dec 24, 2020·15m
  72. 72

    Descartes Introduction: Meditations

    Dec 22, 2020·19m
  73. 73

    Francis Bacon: Introduction to Induction & the Scientific Method

    Nov 27, 2020·16m
  74. 74

    Francis Bacon: A Critique

    Nov 21, 2020·11m
  75. 75

    Empires of Modernity: The East India Company and the Anarchy

    Nov 18, 2020·32m
  76. 76

    Great Barrington Declaration: Science and Politics

    Nov 16, 2020·17m
  77. 77

    Proudhon: Introduction to Mutualism

    Nov 14, 2020·17m
  78. 78

    Proudhon: What is Property?

    Nov 12, 2020·18m
  79. 79

    Isaiah Berlin: Two Concepts of Liberty

    Nov 10, 2020·16m
  80. 80

    Foucault: Nietzsche, Genealogy, History

    Aug 13, 2020·14m
  81. 81

    Rawls A Theory of Justice: Comments, Utilitarianism, Rights

    Aug 12, 2020·27m
  82. 82

    Robert Nozick: Anarchy, State, & Utopia

    Aug 12, 2020·15m
  83. 83

    The Flesh Of Modernity

    Aug 6, 2020·27m
  84. 84

    John Rawls: Property-Owning Democracy

    Jul 28, 2020·12m
  85. 85

    Introduction to Rawls: A Theory of Justice

    Jul 3, 2020·17m
  86. 86

    Statues, Philosophy, & Civil Disobedience

    Jun 22, 2020·13m
  87. 87

    The Spanish Flu: Lessons

    Jun 11, 2020·24m
  88. 88

    Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

    May 27, 2020·15m
  89. 89

    The Fist of Modernity: A History of the Police in Britain

    May 15, 2020·22m
  90. 90

    The Historiography of the Police

    May 15, 2020·12m
  91. 91

    What is Modernity? Foucault, Governmentality, & the Plague

    May 5, 2020·18m
  92. 92

    Romanticism: Covid-19, Climate Change, & Critique

    Apr 24, 2020·19m
  93. 93

    The Philosophy of Creativity & The Castle of Indolence

    Apr 22, 2020·15m
  94. 94

    Pandemics: The Politics of Trust & Optimism

    Apr 14, 2020·13m
  95. 95

    Coronavirus & Scapegoats: Rene Girard

    Apr 14, 2020·15m
  96. 96

    Stoicism & Coronavirus

    Apr 5, 2020·11m
  97. 97

    Metaphors We Live By & Coronavirus

    Apr 2, 2020·14m
  98. 98

    Metaphors We Live By: George Lakoff and Mark Johnson

    Apr 2, 2020·12m
  99. 99

    Introduction to Stoicism

    Mar 26, 2020·22m
  100. 100

    Rene Girard: An Introduction

    Mar 26, 2020·13m
  101. 101

    The Myth of Sisyphus: Responding to a Pandemic

    Mar 26, 2020·13m
  102. 102

    The Culture Industry: Adorno and Horkheimer

    Mar 6, 2020·17m
  103. 103

    Adorno and Horkheimer: Dialectic of Enlightenment - Introduction

    Mar 6, 2020·25m
  104. 104

    Bourdieu: Cultural Capital and the Love of Art

    Mar 6, 2020·16m
  105. 105

    Introduction to Bourdieu: Habitus

    Mar 6, 2020·12m
  106. 106

    Introduction to Deleuze: Difference and Repetition

    Feb 27, 2020·17m
  107. 107

    Introduction to Baudrillard

    Feb 27, 2020·31m
  108. 108

    Introduction to Jacques Derrida: Deconstruction

    Feb 19, 2020·17m
  109. 109

    Introduction to Foucault

    Feb 19, 2020·24m
  110. 110

    John Stuart Mill: On Liberty

    Feb 16, 2020·10m
  111. 111

    John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism

    Feb 16, 2020·8m