William Engels

History of Philosophy Audio Archive

Education EN ↓ 244 episodes

Curated lectures, interviews, and talks with philosophers, social scientists, and historians together in one place. Each week, we explore brand new research in history, economics, psychology, political science, philosophy, indigenous studies, and human rights while presenting the work of canonical scholars in a way that is accessible to newcomers while retaining interest for students and specialists. If you are an author in nonfiction or a scholar in the humanities/social sciences and are interested in being interviewed for the show please email me at williamengels@substack.com or @Bluesky.

Author

William Engels

Episodes

Hemlock #20 - Abuses of Power, Constitutional Reform, and the Gaza Holocaust, featuring William Sanchez 15.06.2025 1:16:37

Art Credit: "Piece Offering" by Mr. Fish ⁠ https://clowncrack.com/2025/06/10/piece-offering/⁠ Find William's writing on Substack: ⁠ https://philosophicalrebellion.substack.com/⁠ References: ⁠Greta Thunbeg's interview on Al Jazeera ⁠ ⁠youtu.be/OY38HjfrNGQ⁠ Democracy Now ⁠youtu.be/jkKRxD8D2kU⁠ Book about Ukraine War: Our Enemies Will Vanish- Yaroslav Trofimov Book about Israel Lobb...

Bhagwan Richard Presents: Osho (Complete Series) - Sex Cults, New Age Theology, Bioterrorism, Nurse Mengele, Dynamic Meditation, Tax Evasion, and Ten Weird Reasons You NEVER Leave a Cult Unsupervised 14.06.2025 4:14:54

Osho, AKA Bhagwan, AKA Raj Rajneesh, AKA....we get it - mystic, con artist, cult leader, philosopher, terrorist, dupe? Your guess is as good as mine. Join Bhagwan Richard and myself as we explore the world of a man with 93 Rolls Royces and enough devoted worshipers to keep his toes permanently sucked and prescriptions filled. References and Citations: Building Utopia by Russell King The Golden Roa...

The Documentary Doctors #1: Sabrina Jennings and William Engels Review the Award-Winning Docs "The Bibi Files" and Al-Jazeera's Banned Documentary "The Lobby" - AIPAC, Jewish Voice for Peace, & Cigars 28.05.2025 1:52:15

In this kickoff episode, activist and teacher Sabrina Jennings (links below) calls in to review two outstanding exposé documentaries, The Bibi Files, and The Lobby, both released 2024. Sabrina's critical class on the history of the Israel and Palestine conflict can be found right here - there are still a few slots left, so please sign up if you are interested in getting educated and getting ac...

#168 - Kant: The Categorical Imperative, A Priori and A Posteriori, First and Second Critique, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Kantian Ethics & Deontology, Enlightenment, and Perpetual Peace 28.05.2025 2:30:28

Written by Professor A. J. Mandt (Wichita State University) https://philpeople.org/profiles/a-j-mandt Voiced by Charlton Heston. Original here: https://archive.org/details/thegiantsofphilosophy Remastered for clarity using thousands of dollars of gear, free for the Internet forever.

#167 - Edward Said's Legacy: Cornel West on His Colleague's Work in the Middle East, the Human Spirit in Poetry, Kendrick Lamar, John Coltrane, the Funk of Life, and the Truth of Radical Solidarity 24.05.2025 1:08:05

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreon Original Video (SFU) https://youtu.be/gpkZRyXdmi0 Summary In a passionate and wide-ranging lecture, Cornel West pays tribute to Edward Said, framing him not just as a brilliant academic but as a "poet" in the broadest sense—a human being of immense courage, imagination, and compassion who wrestled with complex truths. West emphas...

Hemlock #19 - The Left: A Love Letter 24.05.2025 57:46

I will end with a little scene that took place in the last months of peace. They were the most terrible months of my life, for helplessly and hopelessly one watched the inevitable approach of war. One of the most horrible things at that time was to listen on the wireless to the speeches of Hitler—the savage and insane ravings of a vindictive underdog who suddenly saw himself to be all powerful. We...

Hemlock #18 - DOME: My Response to Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Golden Dome" vis a vis the Last Forty Years of Missile Defense History 23.05.2025 35:21

How I learned to stop worrying and love the Dome. Patreon: https://patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreon Music Credit (under the FOX clip): Anapse Entertainment ⁠https://anapse.bandcamp.com/⁠ Streamsafe Essentials I References: Reykjavik Summit 1986 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reykjav%C3%ADk_Summit Katyn Forest Massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre Operation CYCLONE 1979-92 (Aid to Afghan...

Hemlock #17: Trans Technologies with Oliver Haimson - Chelsea Manning, Trans Rights in the US, Technologies of Identity Formation and Community Resilience, Videogames, and the Future for Trans Youth 22.05.2025 1:07:04

Oliver's Book Trans Technologies: https://a.co/d/01Lhkk9 Oliver's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/haimson.bsky.social Guest: Oliver Haimson, Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, and Director of the Community Research on Identity and Technology Lab. Episode Overview: In this episode, host William Engels sits down with Professor Oliver Haimson to discuss...

Hemlock #16: Gaia Wakes 2: Topher McDougal on Planetary Consciousness, AI Personhood and Risk, Economies of Predation and Production, Abolitionism for Sentience, and the Light at the End of the Tunnel 18.05.2025 1:58:59

TOPHER'S BOOK: https://a.co/d/izl2PvH Come join the Patreon! https://patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreon By the way here's what Google Gemini has to say about our conversation: In a conversation centered around author Topher McDougal's new book Gaia Wakes , McDougal and host William Engels delve into the complex relationship between humanity, technology, and the future of the planet. With the...

#166 - War: Chris Hedges on the Permanent Psychosis of War, Covering the Middle East for the New York Times, Gaza, Kosovo, the Plague of Violence, Corporate Totalitarianism, Propaganda, and Revolution 13.05.2025 45:49

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreon Original Video: https://youtu.be/MUfVPV5Of6A Summary: In this powerful 2014 speech, journalist and author Chris Hedges dissects what he terms the "psychosis of permanent war" that grips the United States. He traces its origins to the anti-communist fervor following World War I, arguing that the Wilson administration pioneered mod...

#165 - Breaking the Myth: Vintage Chomsky on Neoliberalism, US Economic Hegemony, Bretton Woods Corporate Power, the Contradictions of Capitalism, and the End of the Cold War 11.05.2025 1:19:03

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/c/hemlockpatreon Sauce for the audio: https://archive.org/details/NoamChomsky-02-13-96-BreakingTheMythAnExposeOfExploitative Paul Krugman article that Chomsky urges you to read (title: Pop Internationalism) https://archive.org/details/popinternational00paul/mode/2up Chapters: (00:00:00) Welcome and Introduction (00:01:37) Economy and Domestic Order (00:03:...

#164 - The Future of Faith: Huston Smith on Comparative Religion, Tibetan Buddhism, Scientism versus Science, the Fairness Revolution, Darwinian Reduction, and Why Religion Matters in the 21st Century 27.04.2025 1:25:17

Modernity has forced the human spirit into a tunnel - is the light at the end the way back to Paradise, or an unstoppable train coming to end the human experiment? Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreon Original Video Credit (Kenan Institute for Ethics, 2002): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obeI1ea5ox4 Music of Tibet (1967) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Tibet_(album)...

Consolatio #4 - The Crystal Fount: Boethius on True and False Happiness, the Unity of Goodness, the Two Binding Threads, the Myth of Orpheus, and Those Darknesses which Bring Ruin to the Souls of Men 17.04.2025 1:07:22

Book 3 of Boethius' 6th century masterpiece De consolatione philosophiae CONTACT FORM: https://form.typeform.com/to/kW1uMg8G Listen to previous sections: Project Introduction, Essay by Scott Goins and Barbara H. Wyman Book 1 - To Oppose Evil Men Book 2 - Fortune's Wheel Thanks for your patience. Remember, at least you're not dying alone in a tower for no good reason. And if you are, so...

Hemlock #15 - Confronting the Bomb: Franco Castro Escobar on the History of Nuclear Weapons in Japan, Antiwar Movements, World Federation, Hibakusha, Youth Antinuclear Organizations, and Fallout 13.04.2025 1:58:57

Learn more about Franco and his research: https://www.keele.ac.uk/socialsciences/staff/francocastroescobar/ https://uk.linkedin.com/in/fcastroescobar Come join my Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreon Summary In this conversation, Franco Castro Escobar, a peace researcher and PhD candidate, discusses the historical and contemporary issues surrounding nuclear weapons, particularly focus...

#163 - May, 1968: An Intellectual and Political History of the Paris Student Revolt, Sexual Liberation, Street Philosophy, Alain Badiou, Feminism, Simon Critchley, Sartre, Foucault, Derrida, and Zizek 08.04.2025 1:17:58

Help support the show, get access to exclusive episodes, and keep the podcast ad-free forever: https://patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreon Write-up on the May 68 barricades: https://jacobin.com/2018/05/how-beautiful-it-was The original recording was made in late April 2008 by the BBC. Chapters (00:00:00) Casablanca Intro (00:06:39) 1) The Year of Revolutions: 1968 (00:48:43) 2) Philosophy in the Streets...

#160b - The Meaning of History (2 of 2): Darren Staloff on Arnold Toynbee, R. G. Collingwood, Positivism, Arthur Danto, Fernand Braudel, Poststructuralism, and William McNeill's “Plagues and People” 04.04.2025 6:11:16

PART 1 (HoPAA #160a): https://open.spotify.com/episode/5taLk6nbSkUZ3kGgRIgoSk?si=7724226c6b1042e1 Come join my Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreon Learn more about Professor Darren Staloff's Work (Yes, he's still alive…) https://hamilton.center.ufl.edu/people/darren-staloff/ This series was originally titled "The Search for a Meaningful Past" and is available on YouTube. Chapters: (0...

Hemlock #14 - Secrets of the Killing State: Corinna Barrett Lain on Lethal Injection, the Ethics of the Death Penalty, Prison Reform, Televised Executions, and What the State Does at its Most Powerful 03.04.2025 1:13:22

Check out Dr. Lain's Work: https://law.richmond.edu/faculty/clain/ Pre-Order "Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection" https://a.co/d/7tqFYeB Come join my Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreon -//- Show Notes: People Mentioned: Michel Foucault Dan Carlin Books, Podcasts: Discipline and Punish Hardcore History: Painfotainment Our Class: Trauma an...

Hemlock #13 - Human Beings First: Rev. Dr. Helen Boursier on ICE Detention Centers, Human Rights in the Borderlands, Christian Ministry in Dark Places, and the Theology of Witness and Hospitality 29.03.2025 1:28:50

Buy Dr. Boursier's Book Precious Precarity and Support Her Work: https://a.co/d/8h6xu0D Come join my community on Patreon (free to sign up!) https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon Chapters (00:00) Introduction to the Crisis at the Border (02:54) Helen's Journey into Advocacy (09:27) Conditions in Detention Centers (13:05) Legal and Human Rights Violations (15:27) The Journey of Migrant Familie...

#161 - The Birmingham Tragedy: James Baldwin and Reinhold Niebuhr Discuss Civil Rights, God's Presence in Tragedy, Justice and Love, and Bearing Witness to Evil 27.03.2025 30:39

Come join my Patreon! https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon Watch the conversation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDzcdGzjXmI

#160a - The Meaning of History (1 of 2): Darren Staloff on Philosophical Approaches to History, Eliade, Vico, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Weber, and the Search for a Universal History of Humanity 18.03.2025 6:05:50

Originally titled “The Search for a Meaningful Past” ⁠ YouTube Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRGCfeEu2DRR4_Px-vrIfyPRkmzaDbmyf&si=xa1Cw7i66We6QoXR Check out Dr. Darren Staloff's Work: https://hamilton.center.ufl.edu/people/darren-staloff/ Support this work on Patreon: ⁠https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon⁠ NB: The chapter on Mircea Eliade has been already published on this channel...

Consolatio #3 - Book 2: Fortune's Wheel, the Lesser and Greater Teachers of Virtue, Fate and Goodness, and How Mixed with Bitterness is the Sweetness of Man's Life 16.03.2025 46:01

A Creative Commons Zero (unrestricted free public domain use) production of Boethius' "Consolation of Philosophy" read by the host, William Engels. This is Book 2, "Fortune's Wheel". Translation is WV Cooper, with host amendments for style and clarity. https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/boethius/jkok/2p1_u.htm Support this work on Patreon: https://patreon.com/HemlockPat...

Hemlock #12 - Gaia Wakes: My Conversation with Topher McDougal on AI, Climate Change, Nuclear Weapons, Planetary Consciousness, David Graeber, Gregory Bateson, Technological Lifeforms, and Evolution 11.03.2025 2:47:15

Follow Topher's Work: https://tophermcdougal.com/ Buy the book, Gaia Wakes: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/gaia-wakes/9781788218283 Follow Topher on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/topherlmcdougal Come join me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon Clarifications: Prokaryotes emerged 3.5-.3.8 billion years ago (BYA), eukaryotes/endocytosis emerged 2 BYA. Chapters (00:00:00)-Introd...

Consolatio #2 - To Oppose Evil Men is the Chief Aim We Set Before Ourselves: Book I, Entrance of Philosophy to the Dungeon, Condemnation of Stoics and Epicurus, Pi & Theta, Fear Nothing, Hope Nothing 02.03.2025 1:06:02

It's finally here, and we're just getting started: Book I of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy with a new intro by me. (00:00:00) - Historical Introduction (00:22:54) - Note on Translation & Performance (00:26:16) - Book 1 (01:03:23) - Outro Please consider purchasing the book that inspired this project, the Ignatius Critical Edition translated by Scott Goins and Barbara H. Wyman...

#158 - Mircea Eliade and the Cycles of Time: Darren Staloff on Comparative Mythology, Symbolic Archetypes, the History of Religion, Eliade's Religious Scholarship, and the Theophany of Profane Events 28.02.2025 46:59

Suggestions for the show: williamengels@substack.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HemlockPatreon -//- (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:55) - Staloff on Eliade -//- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/william-engels.bsky.social Darren Staloff: https://hamilton.center.ufl.edu/people/darren-staloff/ Mircea Eliade: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mircea_Eliade

#157 - Learn to Die So You Can Learn to Live: Cornel West on Socratic Legacy, Blues, Chekhov's Christ, American Democracy, Deep Education, Jazz, Augustine, and the Blue Note in the American Song 24.02.2025 1:42:12

Patreon: https://patreon.com/HemlockPatreon Hang in there. Original Video, Published Feb 2014 https://youtu.be/EwPCJ9WpH7E Thank you to Wheaton College for recording and uploading this talk. https://www.youtube.com/@wheatoncollege