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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

47:34

Is the US a Democracy?

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/04/10

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 duopoly of the hold on power and the control exerted over the process of elections by un-elected officials produces a system that is functionally no longer really a democracy. Further, and I forgot to mention this in the lecture, the current structure ensures that the most senior and powerful members of both parties are

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57:00

Values: Ep. 2 - Health

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/04/06

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 well as a strong cultural resistance to pursuing health as a key value in our lives. Any attempt to prioritize health will generally provide a powerful education in the underlying cultural values that shape our lives and, more often than not, resist the notion of health as a core good.Sign-up forWes’s PATREON communityto get

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28:57

The Power of Abstraction

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/04/03

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 surroundings. I was prompted to these thoughts by recent experiences mowing my lawn and spending time in some very different kitchens.Sign-up forWes’s PATREON communityto get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very active on Patreon)Plus, gain access to bonus lectures, peer discussions, additional course materials, and

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45:17

New Series! Values: Introduction

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/03/30

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 and potentially even changing them gives us the opportunity to dramatically alter our experience of the world. Sign-up forWes’s PATREON communityto get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very active on Patreon)Plus, gain access to bonus lectures, peer discussions, additional course materials, and audio diaries from

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36:58

Biography

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/03/27

A brief argument in favor of reading biographies as a warmup for a new series that will be coming very soon!Sign-up forWes’s PATREON communityto get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very active on Patreon)Plus, gain access to bonus lectures, peer discussions, additional course materials, and audio diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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37:51

Commodification vs Financialization

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/03/23

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 on, it is really the advent of this new financial world that has come to dominate our world in many quite dangerous ways. Perhaps a long discourse that interests only me.Sign-up forWes’s PATREON communityto get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very active on Patreon)Plus, gain access to bonus lectures, peer

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33:32

How to be Wrong and Why!

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/03/20

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, health, fabulousness, inspiration, and so on, being wrong can be a liberating and enlightening experience. Once one begins being wrong, it lifts a burden of outlook and opens up a whole range of different experiences and orientations that are simply impossible within the RIght/Wrong dialectic.Sign-up forWes’s PATREON communityto

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1:01:05

Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 18 -...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/03/16

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 and joy-supporting than the form of life relentlessly promoted to us today, we can gain a few clues as to how we can adapt in the face of our challenges. Sign-up forWes’s PATREON communityto get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very active on Patreon)Plus, gain access to bonus lectures, peer discussions,

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34:38

Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 16:...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/03/13

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 our read-along, I reflect on the structure of his arguments and how they are as, or even more, important than the actual content. In the end, like a poem, Nietzsche invites us to participate in the creation of our own understanding. Sign-up forWes’s PATREON communityto get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very

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56:51

Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 17 -...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/03/09

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 unanswerable question, “Why has 70 years of efficiency and progress made Cheerios so expensive” and the unspeakable word - “Deflation”. Hopefully having these small examples in our minds will help us to address the complexity and estrangement that assaults us everyday. Sign-up forWes’s PATREON communityto get your questions

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32:42

Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 15

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/03/06

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 pursuit of individual ideas that suit individuals and hence refute the drive towards universality or assumptions of ‘good’ or ‘true’.Sign-up forWes’s PATREON communityto get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very active on Patreon)Plus, gain access to bonus lectures, peer discussions, additional course materials, and

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23:46

Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide - Addendum - Keurig

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/03/04

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 that I pause here to reflect in greater detail on the specifics of the Keurig case. I also think the example of FitBit and similar devices renting to us the capacity to connect with our bodies - and hence of course alienating us from our bodies - is similarly bizarre and disturbing. For the record, somewhere between 15-30

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51:05

Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 16 -...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/03/02

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 we need to articulate for ourselves a new set of values. Two key elements is to resist the notion of money as a necessary arbiter of all things and to reevaluate our desire for haste. It is in large part our addiction to speed, haste, busyness and the attempt to live this way that opens us up to many of the problems we

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23:14

Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 14...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/02/27

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 reframes the debate around free-will and determinism (though most people don’t seem to notice). Hopefully, this provides a little more clarity and also suggests why it is both a crucial insight and pretty confusing all the same time.Sign-up forWes’s PATREON communityto get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very active on

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53:25

Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 15 - Health?

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/02/23

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 Late Capitalism, which we have been examining largely from the direction of money and economics, functions in precisely the same way when we look at our health. Unfortunately, but predictably, isolating people in stressful environments does not produce wellbeing nor is it actually being sought.Sign-up forWes’s PATREON

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29:56

Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 13

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/02/20

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 from the philosopher’s autobiography - and in this case it is clearly Nietzsche expressing his sense of the world. Sign-up forWes’s PATREON communityto get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very active on Patreon)Plus, gain access to bonus lectures, peer discussions, additional course materials, and audio diaries

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13:30

Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide - Addendum - Elon Musk

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/02/18

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 of Late Capitalism I couldn’t help but comment. Bizarrely, Musk denies he has a car company, or a telecommunications company, or a rocket building company. Why would a successful 19th century industrialist systematically deny the companies he’s built? Late Capitalism.Sign-up forWes’s PATREON communityto get your questions

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57:56

Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 14 - The...

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/02/16

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 demonstrably wrong, and yet, the power of the Late Capitalist ethos reinforces this idea relentlessly as it prevents any other value from intervening in the process. However, if actually stop and ask - what is the source of my wealth, my wellbeing, my overflowing - well that is a potentially revolutionary question within the Late

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30:34

Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 12

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/02/13

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 makes. He sees this as an extra-moral condition of existence because it is present in all living things - hence Beyond Good and Evil. That life force is motivating and shaping in every moment fundamentally alters the notion of a disinterested observer working within the framework of perfect reason to derive the Truth about the

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1:01:37

Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 13 - Employment

The Wes Cecil Podcast ·

2026/02/09

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 dramatically over the last 40 years. Worse, our general cynicism about our current employment environment is itself a sign of how pervasive late capitalist outlooks have impacted even how we imagine our lives might be.Sign-up forWes’s PATREONto get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists,

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