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PODCAST

The Wes Cecil Podcast

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

education philosophy

All Episodes

31:27

Andre Gide and Marcel Proust

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/31

Two famous works that critiqued the Moral structure of turn of the century French society did so in entirely different ways. While Gide is more known for his critique, I argue Proust’s critique is far, far more important and powerful. Both authors are worth reading, however, it is Proust who forces us to join him in his reconsideration of whether we are aware of the fact or not.Image attributions: See page for author, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia

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47:31

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q13:...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/29

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q13: Enlightened?We can see from this that the sovereign power, absolute, sacred and inviolable as it is, does not and cannot exceed the limits of general conventions, and that every man may dispose at will of such goods and liberty as these conventions leave him; so that the Sovereign never has a right to lay more charges on one subject than on another, because, in that case, the question becomes particular, and ceases to be within its competency

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39:32

Primates In Space: Primates Take Over - Ep. 10

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/28

The combination of new crops, new outlooks, new technologies but, most importantly, the expansion of the primate intellectual and imaginative capacities led to the explosive growth in human population that created the world we live in today.Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more

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46:35

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q12: What...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/22

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q12: What was reborn?Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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50:58

Primates In Space: Primates Discover The Printing...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/20

Despite the general acknowledgement of the importance of the printing press, I argue that why the press had such an impact is largely misunderstood. The printing press was the technology that most powerfully transitioned us from a face to face very personal experience of the world to one in which abstraction, distance, time and imagination slowly came to dominate our experience of the world. Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading

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19:43

America As Seen From France - A Follow Up On Consumerism

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/18

A follow up to my lecture on America seen from France that explores in more detail some of the data behind American consumerism and how this translates into lived experience. In sum, while consumerism is a real issue everywhere, the comparisons between Europe and the US mask how utterly dedicated the US is to consumerism as a way of life.Image Attribution: Lionel Allorge, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia CommonsSign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your

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59:03

Baudrillard, the Simulacra and You

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/17

Following a question from a Patreon member, here is a reflection on Baudrillard and his theory of the Simulacra and how it relates to us and our condition today. Spoiler alert, I’m pretty sure he was really accurate in his analysis of the problem. Seemingly much less helpful, however, in what we can do about the position we find ourselves today.Image Attribution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ayaleila, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia

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56:00

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q11: Why...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/15

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q11: Why Golden?Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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34:15

Primates In Space: Primates Discover Iron - Ep. 8

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/13

Wow, Iron is a huge, huge deal. Both the impact of the Iron itself and the cultural infrastructure necessary to harness the potential of Iron contributed to a revolution in civilization and a noticeable increase in both the global population and the rate of population increase. In some ways, Iron is likely as significant a contributor to civilization's growth as agriculture. Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer

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35:12

America As Seen From France

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/10

A reflection on some of the differences I have experienced between France and the US. I start with some, at least to me, startling statistics about French working lives and economic situation and then expand to a more subjective sense of what I have ‘felt’ living in France that is quite distinct from the US. Delivered in lieu of my cancelled lecture.Image Attribution: Lionel Allorge, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia CommonsSign-up forWes’s PATREONto

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42:18

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q10: So,...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/08

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q10: So, About God?Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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34:50

Primates In Space: Primates Discover God - Ep. 7

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/06

The Anthropological and Archaeological records strongly suggest we love, love, love creating gods. Whether via animism or anthropomorphic super-beings, humans seem to love placing ourselves within the context of a world filled with supernatural beings different from, yet fundamentally similar to humans.Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only $2 /

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13:22

Ishiguro and McEwan

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/03

Two well regarded authors to the impact of AI robots and their impacts on humans as their subjects for novels. The results are a fascinating contrast in tone, style, and emphasis that highlights the many different reasons, and ways, we read.Image credit: https://easy-peasy.aiSign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted on Acast. See

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48:24

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q9: The...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/10/01

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q9: The New World?Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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45:35

Primates In Space: Primates Discover Writing - Ep. 6

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/09/29

Perhaps THE breakthrough that makes the major components of civilization possible, writing transformed our capacity to understand both the world and ourselves. Nonetheless, literacy was historically exceedingly rare and even today is not universally considered an important capacity. Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted on

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20:12

Investment is not the Pope

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/09/26

Our powerful belief in the economic narrative of investment and growth blinds us to the actual nature of the world we experience and the problems we face. Much like Luther’s critique of the Catholic church, re-thinking this concept would be so disruptive as to cause a complete rethink of our approach to economic challenges - something we are so far unwilling to do.Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions,

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42:01

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q8: Why...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/09/24

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q8: Why is life so hard?Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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51:00

Primates In Space: Primates Discover Cities - Ep. 5

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/09/22

With the excess food available from the slow transition to Agriculture, cities began to form approximately 12,000 years ago. Nonetheless, as recently as 100 years ago most humans still did not live in urban settings. We are still learning how to adjust both mentally and culturally to putting so many primates in such a small area. Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly

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20:33

Your Philosophy is not Right (Neither is Mine) - Ep. 14

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/09/19

A reflection on the way in which Philosophy and its uses is so often misrepresented as an attempt to be RIGHT. However, this mistakes the power of philosophy and how it can help us understand our lives and our world. Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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44:13

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q7: Where...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2025/09/17

The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q7: Where is the universe?Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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166 results

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