The Wes Cecil Podcast

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 series moves along.Sign-up ...

16 Sep 34min

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 inhabit a society tha...

14 Sep 44min

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 example of both the l...

11 Sep 28min

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. 250 years ago, the Unit...

9 Sep 53min

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 feel more powerful. Cr...

7 Sep 46min

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 individuals. This can ...

4 Sep 44min

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 ourselves to help combat on...

31 Aug 47min

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. Rather, like Jazz Music, th...

28 Aug 33min