Episodes The Heritage Podcast

Read more: In this episode, we officially meet Plato’s greatest student (…and, incidentally, Alexander’s greatest teacher)! As we learn about the life and labors of the man whom medieval scholars knew simply as “The Philosopher,” we’ll see how Aristotle’s scientific mind organized the world into a logical system of categories, causes, and change.

Read more: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them…or so Shakespeare tells us. But which case does Alexander–King of Macedonia from 356-323 B.C.–fall into? Maybe all three! In this episode about the life and conquest of Alexander the Great, find out how a 19-year old prodigy led the Greek... ()

Read more: In part two of our study of the Peloponnesian War, we extract three historical lessons from the 30-year conflict that pitted Athens against Sparta and destroyed the ancient Greek world. Tune in to find out how smaller states can manipulate great powers, how free democracies are capable of great atrocities, and how prolonged war... ()

Read more: In this first episode of our two-part series on the Peloponnesian War, we destroy ancient Greek civilization! Well…not just yet…first we learn how the Spartans and the Athenians divided the Aegean between two alliances in a cold war that would make the Americans and Soviets blush! Along the way, we’ll see why the Spartans... ()

Read more: In this corrections and correspondence episode, we hear from listeners around the world about Buddhism, Phidippides, and royalty-free music! Also, find out how your music can be featured on the podcast (with a shout-out!) and how you can support the show as a card-carrying “Heritage Ambassador!”

Read more: When it comes to knowledge, some people say “you can feel it in your bones!” But what about in your soul? Find out why Plato’s theory of forms entails a theory of innate, a priori knowledge in this episode on Platonic epistemology. Additionally, we’ll consider candidates for Plato’s God, and their significance to later... ()

Read more: In order to help us better understand his theory of forms, Plato paints a picture of an ignorant humanity, trapped by empiricism, and unaware of its own limited perspective. Occasionally, though, a rare individual escapes the confines of this “cave.” After an arduous intellectual journey, the philosopher discovers a higher realm, a true reality,... ()

Read more: If every human disappeared tomorrow, would 1 + 1 still equal 2? If none of us has ever seen a perfect circle, does that mean circles don’t really exist? Plato believed that the world we perceive through our senses was different from the world that we perceive through our minds. It’s in this other... ()

Read more: “The safest characterization of Western Philosophy is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato” …or, so says Alfred North Whitehead. In this episode, find out how the philosophic agenda for the last 2500 years was set by dude whom history honors with the nickname “Tubby.” Along the way, we introduce the... ()

Read more: What is justice? What is virtue? In a world governed by unexamined assumptions and pretenses to knowledge, is there value to revisiting these fundamental questions? This is the guiding question asked by Socrates of Athens, a 70-year-old sculptor known by the Oracle of Delphi as “the wisest man in the world!”

Read more: Thanks to guys like Socrates and Plato, “sophist” is a dirty word! Were these itinerant teachers of rhetoric actually progressive thinkers who questioned the prevailing social mores of their time? Or were they unscrupulous charlatans who would talk out of both sides of their mouths for a drachma? Truth, justice, and virtue are at... ()

Read more: E Pluribus Unum or Ex Uno Plures? Is the fundamental nature of reality one thing, or many? In this final episode on the Pre-Socratic metaphysicists, find out what Greek philosophers like Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus, and Leucippus had to say on the subject!

Read more: We give more well-deserved attention to Parmenides, exploring his mind-boggling assertion that all reality is one! After developing his thought in greater detail and offering up new criticisms, we’ll check our mail re-visit the Hebrew conception of the soul.

Read more: Before we can get to the great Athenian philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, we first need to learn what their contemporaries in Italy had to say about mathematics, the mind, and knowledge. From the ideas of thinkers like Pythagoras, Parmenides, and Zeno, we’ll lay the foundations of Rationalism, one of the two great... ()

Read more: Returning to the long-lost city of Miletus, we begin our journey through the history of Western philosophy alongside pre-Socratic thinkers such as Thales (who thought that everything was water), Anaximander (who thought that everything was nothing), and Heraclitus (who thought that everyone was a waste of his time)! Building on our vocabulary of philosophy,... ()

Read more: What is the universe made of? Why does nature operate in the ways that it does? What is truth? Can we even know truth? Is there a God? Ought we to behave in certain ways? These questions are the subject of the timeless conversation that is Western Philosophy. In this episode, we’ll define some... ()

Read more: Enter stage right! It’s time to break a leg as we explore the world of Greek Drama. Drawing on Homer and the great myths of ancient Greek religion, these early plays “set the stage” for 2500 years of Western Literature! We’ll explore how and why the ancient Greeks wrote plays, examine the differences between... ()

Read more: In this corrections and correspondence episode, we delve a little deeper into the history of the Persian Empire. In particular, we learn more about Cyrus the Great and his son, Cambyses, clearing up some misconceptions about the Persian War from the last episode. Thanks to everyone who wrote in!

Read more: Something is coming…something big! All of Asia is mustered, and they’re coming to enslave Athens, Sparta, and the rest of the gang! In this episode about the Persian War, we’ll hear Herodotus’ account of the titanic conflict that pit the Aegean world against Xerxes, King of Persia. From Marathon, to Thermopylae, to Salamis, we’ll... ()

Read more: The Ancient Athenian Tourism Bureau welcomes you, Spartan, to our walking tour of the City of Athens. On the way, we’ll learn about the differences between our two great city-states. Farming, government, and social life…you’ll see it all on our tour of the polis! (It’s a good thing the archons gave you special permission…I... ()