My lectures are dedicated to making Philosophy in particular and the world of ideas in general available to everyone. My exploration of topics and thinkers is designed to provide a foundation for listeners to engage in further reading and thought and develop their own conceptions of the topics I introduce. I have PhD in Literature and Philosophy and was a college professor for over 20 years. I am working to remove the barriers that prevent many from experiencing and understanding the lives and thoughts of some of the world's greatest thinkers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Sep 30, 2026 · 38:48
Q & A - NO HISTORY FOR YOU! Wes and Jeremy take questions from listeners on Lecture II: No History for You! Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes! Plus,…
Sep 28, 2026 · 42:14
One of the significant challenges of our current environment is that our own imaginations have been turned against us. Much of our needs come from our imaginations and are very…
Sep 25, 2026 · 30:55
While Taoism emphasizes knowing and being nothing, it does have a positive value - tranquility. Virtually ignored as a value in the Western tradition with its powerful focus on…
Sep 24, 2026 · 42:32
NO HISTORY FOR YOU! In my second lecture I explore the bizarre and necessary historical amnesia that besets American culture. For the first 200 years of American settlement, the…
Sep 21, 2026 · 42:44
The overriding narrative of revolution features a defined enemy inhabiting a defined space that we can, with courage, suffering and sacrifice, overthrow and inaugurate a new and…
Sep 18, 2026 · 27:23
Taoism posits that the meaninglessness of life is not a basis for Nihilism but for Joy and Liberty. The palpable despair imparted by the advance of science and the increasing…
Sep 16, 2026 · 34:51
Q & A - WHAT IS AN AMERICAN? Wes and Jeremy take questions from listeners on Lecture I: "What is an American?" Apologies for the audio quality on this one—it improves as the…
Sep 14, 2026 · 44:57
2,000 years ago Cicero warned us against the idea that other people are functionally prey from whom we extract the profit. Unfortunately, his arguments have been forgotten and we…
Sep 11, 2026 · 28:27
While Taoism emphasizes ‘not knowing’ it does so in a very different way than Socrates’s claim of knowing what he does not know. In Chapter 17 of Chuangtzu we encounter a classic…
Sep 9, 2026 · 53:55
WHAT IS AN AMERICAN? In my introductory lecture I explore the uniquely powerful role America plays in the contemporary world and the history that underlies its global dominance.…
Sep 7, 2026 · 46:31
Resistance rather than revolution and Joy rather than suffering. Within our contemporary cultural environment, understanding the tensions in how we respond to the world can help…
Sep 4, 2026 · 44:12
Taoism’s view of the world is dramatically opposed to the standard outlook of western civilization. Life has no meaning, no path, no truth, no goal and no actual relationship to…
Aug 31, 2026 · 47:06
Our world is inundated with ‘information’ that is designed to mislead and disorient us. I suggest a few approaches to help us develop our own understanding of our world and…
Aug 28, 2026 · 33:00
The goal of Taoism is Harmony with the Tao. However, unlike traditions like Buddhism, Christianity, or Stoicism, Taoism does not view this as a static goal to be completed.…
Aug 24, 2026 · 51:01
A few questions have come in about teaching so I thought I would spend a moment reflecting on my approach to teaching. Mostly, I think simply valuing whatever subject you are…
Aug 21, 2026 · 34:56
I encountered the notion that the Tao Te Ching in particular and Taoism in general is really not for. Rather, it was written for a ruling political elite in ancient China and…
Aug 17, 2026 · 42:18
The research is perfectly clear that the single greatest determinant of our longevity, health and happiness is having a few meaningful relationships. It is in other humans that…
Aug 14, 2026 · 46:19
I realized that perhaps more helpful than comparing Taoism withing the context of Mohism, Legalism and Confucianism would be to compare it to Calvinism. Calvinism, derived from…
Aug 10, 2026 · 46:39
A lot of the narrative around our struggles with the modern world focuses on individual responsibility. However, the rates of stress, sleep troubles, prescription drug use,…
Aug 7, 2026 · 40:33
Two tales from Chuang Tzu emphasize how we consistently pay too much attention to Language rather than Experience and hence stay confused. By emphasizing the importance of the…
Aug 3, 2026 · 51:15
As one cultivates a sense of the human it is difficult to not notice how inhuman much of the world is. Our encounters with people and the environment around us will be a constant…
Jul 31, 2026 · 43:41
Besides a cultural bias towards action, we also have a strong drive towards suffering, overcoming, grit, drive etc. in pursuit of external goals. Taoism argues this is exactly…
Jul 29, 2026 · 40:36
The bankruptcy of Thames water represents a pattern in infrastructure failures that are increasing and will continue to increase for the foreseeable future. The question is when,…
Jul 27, 2026 · 52:07
Lin-Yutang, Henry James and Herman Hesse all agree that kindness is perhaps the central value for any civilization. Obviously, our current dominant culture has little or no place…
Jul 24, 2026 · 42:19
If you reject laws, codes, rituals, and words as guides to organizing life and society, what is left? Nature! To understand the Taoist emphasis on Nature it is important to…
Jul 20, 2026 · 47:06
If we want to be happy, we can go to the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’ for the low cost of $5,000 to $15,000 for a family of four. Food, water, love, friends, joy, beauty, and more…
Jul 17, 2026 · 46:56
Two key insights from a key section of the Tao Te Ching ask us to question 1) Our propensity for committing ourselves to pre-established narratives and 2) Our love of language…
Jul 13, 2026 · 49:26
Perhaps one of the most pernicious concepts in modern society is the concept that we are all in competition for scarce resources. In this zero sum conception of the world, each…
Jul 10, 2026 · 51:59
Taoism has been generally received in the West as a mystical, quasi-metaphysical philosophy. However, understanding its historical context and development helps place Taoism…
Jul 6, 2026 · 58:32
The dynamic interplay between the external and internal world is the very core of being human. The degree to which we cultivate ourselves within an experience of the world is the…
Jul 4, 2026 · 30:50
Congratulations, you’ve read the Gita. Ancient texts are often difficult and a bit offputting but they really help us discover the structures of our own thinking and how our…
Jun 29, 2026 · 48:05
Bizarrely, in a society that isolates people, we also don’t spend much time with ourselves. Consistently pulled from ourselves, striving for external standards and ignoring our…
Jun 26, 2026 · 28:10
We move from the Metaphysical arguments about How the universe is to how we should translate that understanding into our lives. And we finally get the argument for why Arjuna…
Jun 22, 2026 · 55:25
We receive endless messages about the importance of being independent, standing on our own, making something of ourselves and so forth that it is easy to forget this is all…
Jun 19, 2026 · 25:19
The fascinating parallels with the Book of Job in Chapter 11 of the Gita helps to highlight the profound differences between the Hindu and Christian tradition and the concept of…
Jun 15, 2026 · 51:42
It is commonplace and true that we live in a consumer society. Less noticed is that being a consumer casts us in a role as passive non-makers who do not produce and participate…
Jun 12, 2026 · 27:55
The Atman, Brahman, and Karma are presented quite clearly in book 8 and the implications are then extrapolated in Nine and Ten. These are the key ideas at the heart of Hinduism.…
Jun 8, 2026 · 52:54
This series is a concrete extrapolation of the ideals of Humanism within the context of our contemporary society. While it might seem like we can’t help but know how to be human,…
Jun 5, 2026 · 26:11
It sounds a lot like monotheism, and perhaps this is what Krishna is arguing, but it is a conceptual framework very much different than the Christian concept of monotheism (the…
Jun 1, 2026 · 47:00
I want to share the live audio of the 2nd lecture I gave at The University of Maastricht, the Netherlands a month ago. This one is from Thursday, April 30. The focus of this…
May 29, 2026 · 36:08
While slightly repetitive, the importance of the idea of holy work and doing as superior to not doing is central to these two books. I spend extra time on the concept of ‘Sin’…
May 25, 2026 · 47:48
In conclusion, I consider a few of the pitfalls one is likely to encounter if they decide to pursue new values. I also provide a few suggestions for some approaches that might be…
May 22, 2026 · 24:37
Krishna reveals the divine wisdom to Arjuna who is thoroughly confused by what Krishna says as you may have been as well. Some deep Hindu theology is working in the background of…
May 18, 2026 · 57:00
Money is, as I’ve mentioned, the core value in our societies today. Generally attacked throughout philosophical history, it is currently celebrated as THE value that answereth…
May 15, 2026 · 22:48
Krishna introduces a series of key points that will be repeated throughout the rest of the Gita: Action is better than inaction, Sacrifice, and the renunciation of Ends. With…
May 13, 2026 · 45:18
Hello everyone! I want to share the audio of my live lecture from Maastricht, the Netherlands a couple Wednesdays ago, April 29. The lecture is on the phenomenology of AI in the…
May 11, 2026 · 50:23
Almost completely forgotten as a value today, it was THE central value of a series of different philosophical systems across several different civilizations over 1,000s of years.…
May 8, 2026 · 25:29
Krishna explains that the soul is immortal and that rebirth is unending so there is no need to worry about killing one’s family as you aren’t really doing anything that matters.…
May 4, 2026 · 49:29
Unlike the other values discussed, Heroism would seem to be a central value of contemporary society. However, upon closer inspection, it is clear that traditional notions of…
May 1, 2026 · 28:50
A great opening! “Why, Krishna, should I kill my family and friends?” This question is the ethical question at the center of the work that allows for a complete re-imagining of…
Apr 27, 2026 · 52:14
Who could be opposed to Joy? Well, it turns out that despite being a central value in several different philosophical systems for 1,000s of years, contemporary society has little…
Apr 22, 2026 · 22:27
A few questions and my own musings on the latest Values episode about the nature of Nobility as seen through the eyes of T.S. Eliot. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get…
Apr 20, 2026 · 49:45
Not just a value that is out of fashion, but one that is actively and consistently attacked by our society. The notion of cultivating a noble self governed by humility,…
Apr 18, 2026 · 19:48
In 2 weeks we will begin a new series exploring the Bhagavad Gita as a means of orienting oneself within the vast and fascinating literature and thought of classical Hindu…
Apr 17, 2026 · 24:33
A reflection on the power of biography to inspire and help guide us in our pursuit of beauty. These two examples are, at least for me, immensely helpful in shaking off the…
Apr 13, 2026 · 58:42
With Health, Beauty has historically been considered an intrinsic value. However, our contemporary society does not just undervalue beauty, it actively works to prevent beauty…
Apr 10, 2026 · 47:34
Not a rhetorical ploy, but an actual question. The strange form of American ‘Democracy’ today raises the very real idea that at some point a lack of competition in elections, the…
Apr 6, 2026 · 57:00
Often discussed as an ‘implicit’ good, health is nonetheless a relatively low priority in many modern societies. We have both a poor understanding of what constitutes health as…
Apr 3, 2026 · 28:57
A reflection on our capacity to overwhelm our actual experience of the world with abstract concepts that somehow is often more powerful than even our immediate physical…
Mar 30, 2026 · 45:17
A brief introduction to the field of values and why they matter as a subject of reflection. Fundamentally, we understand the world through our values so reflecting on our values…
Mar 27, 2026 · 36:58
A brief argument in favor of reading biographies as a warmup for a new series that will be coming very soon! Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your questions answered by…
Mar 23, 2026 · 37:51
A long footnote to the Late Capitalism series in which I discuss the, at least to me, very important difference between these two concepts. While commodification is still going…
Mar 20, 2026 · 33:32
An invitation to explore the power of being wrong. In a culture that emphasizes the importance of rightness over a whole range of other possible values like harmony, beauty,…
Mar 16, 2026 · 1:01:05
While our particular brand of history is unique, people have been living history for a long time. By looking back to some earlier patterns of living that were more health-giving…
Mar 13, 2026 · 34:38
Nietzsche is not just presenting a series of arguments, he is modelling a very different approach to thinking and understanding our world than we usually encounter. To conclude…
Mar 9, 2026 · 56:51
A reflection on the global structure of Late Capitalism encapsulated in Cheerios as an example that can help us understand the nature of the world we inhabit. I also cover the…
Mar 6, 2026 · 32:42
The final section finds Nietzsche in usual form attacking the notion of ‘levelling’ and ‘universal good’ and ‘Equality’. HIs driving force, following on Will to Power, is the…
Mar 4, 2026 · 23:46
Okay, I couldn’t help myself. Keurig is such a perfect example of how this entire orientation towards the world is destructive of more or less all the greatness and joy in life…
Mar 2, 2026 · 51:05
As long as we keep the values of Late Capitalism we will be trapped within and reproduce the problems associated with our current system. To reorient ourselves within our world…
Feb 27, 2026 · 23:14
I pause for a moment to review the central concept for Nietzsche - the Will to Power - how it differs from the concept of will deployed by Schopenhauer and how it utterly…
Feb 23, 2026 · 53:25
Following on from the Unaskable Question, is the notion of how our health is intimately linked with our physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing. However, the logic of…
Feb 20, 2026 · 29:56
Nietzsche reminds us that pain does not, in fact, correlate with truth. And while these chapters are a little confusing, he repeats his observation that all philosophy is derived…
Feb 18, 2026 · 13:30
Musk's decision to absorb his failed Twitter company into his failing AI company which he is now folding into his cash positive satellite launch company is such a perfect example…
Feb 16, 2026 · 57:56
We know money answereth all things and that as long as we get money, keep money, and have more money then everything will be fine . . . of course this is completely and…
Feb 13, 2026 · 30:34
We arrive at perhaps the central theme Nietzsche has been building towards - the Will to Power. That life is not trying to survive but rather to thrive is the key argument he…
Feb 9, 2026 · 1:01:37
Unsurprisingly, Late Capitalist outlooks have largely colonized our interactions with jobs. Both the structure of employment and the way we think about jobs has shifted…
Feb 6, 2026 · 27:54
Here Nietzsche critiques the whole notion that we ‘live in a simulation’ or that we live in a ‘hologram’ roughly 150 years before those concepts come into existence. In fact,…
Feb 3, 2026 · 45:13
The structure of our contemporary societies promotes an increasingly powerful focus on isolated individuals as not just a model, but the model of a quality and ‘successful’ life.…
Jan 30, 2026 · 29:51
Nietzsche attacks the central moral document of his time - The Sermon on the Mount! Nietzsche argues in favor of subtlety, nuance, and life-affirmation as opposed to clarity and…
Jan 28, 2026 · 29:30
Just to make it absolutely clear how pervasive and singular the logic of Late Capitalism is, I present a brief reflection on the current events surrounding Greenland, Davos and…
Jan 26, 2026 · 59:32
The emotional sense of contempt for others and the concept of scarcity are relentlessly promoted and reinforced as a NECESSARY corollary to the Late Capitalist worldview. By…
Jan 23, 2026 · 29:23
Nietzsche reiterates his elitist ideals and focuses on the challenges of communication across one’s cultural assumptions. He points out the difficulties of being both…
Jan 19, 2026 · 48:21
Here are four examples rising from the very personal and small - gift cards - to the national and international difficulties facing governments trying to deal with the rising…
Jan 16, 2026 · 34:50
Chapter II presents a different direction for Nietzsche to attack contemporary philosophical modes by emphasizing how the obsession with TRUTH has warped the outlook of most…
Jan 12, 2026 · 51:52
Along with the productivity myth, the GDP myth misleads our decision makers and obscures key aspects of our economic reality - there has actually been rather slow GDP growth for…
Jan 9, 2026 · 20:16
Nietzsche emphasizes the difficulties we will encounter as we attempt to abandon morals and see the world as it is -free from natural laws and order and subject only to the…
Jan 7, 2026 · 13:18
An example of what it means to think with VALUES as opposed to FINANCE. Not saying the workers are correct, though I agree with them, but that their arguments are coming from an…
Jan 5, 2026 · 47:43
Democratic governments are globally unpopular and part of the reason is the bind the Late Capitalist logic places them in. Growth and investment GOOD we should do MORE so…
Jan 2, 2026 · 26:18
So now Nietzsche wants to point out how systematically our cultures and grammar influence our capacity to think philosophically - further undermining the notion of Philosophy as…
Dec 31, 2025 · 10:38
I ran into such a perfect example of financialization - stepping in between landlords and tenants for rent payments - I just had to share. I try to be cynical, but I can’t keep…
Dec 29, 2025 · 44:55
The elimination of all measures of worth besides price leaves us lost in a world where, with the removal of price, we have no ability to make judgements whatsoever. This is…
Dec 23, 2025 · 14:36
A response to some comments about Steam and a note on an interesting quote from Andre Gide. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes! Plus, gain access to…
Dec 22, 2025 · 51:15
Spotify represents a case study in how the logic of Late Capitalism ramifies throughout our lives in ways that destroys fundamental aspects of our culture. Our love of music is…
Dec 19, 2025 · 30:44
So much for Free Will. Herein Nietzsche attacks the whole question of Free Will - not taking a side but simply pointing out the meaninglessness of most of the conversations…
Dec 15, 2025 · 47:34
In an almost Zen Koan kind of way, Late Capitalism increasingly immerses us in a society where we are simultaneously told money is THE most important value but wherein we are no…
Dec 12, 2025 · 31:40
Nietzsche rejects Sensualism, Materialism, Metaphysics and any simple understanding of Science with his core concern - an Ethics built on Joy and Vigour derived from a Will to…
Dec 8, 2025 · 52:58
One of the social impacts of Late Capitalism is the undermining of our sense of history. Expanding on a pre-existing pattern in American culture, which partly explains why the US…
Dec 5, 2025 · 26:15
Having attacked most western philosophy, Nietzsche presents one of his core arguments - that all these claims to universal truth and discovery are simply a self-serving pose on…
Dec 1, 2025 · 1:07:32
The creeping presence of Financialization would not be so upsetting if it weren’t that it represents such an odd/counterintuitive world view. The logic of Late Capitalism is not,…
Nov 28, 2025 · 38:44
Wow, Nietzsche rolls out all the rhetorical cannons to open Beyond Good and Evil. He attempts to undercut both the history and focus of Western philosophy and introduce a new…
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