American Socrates
Think Deeper. Live Better.
Most podcasts give you answers. American Socrates gives you better questions.
Host Matt Rupert — Professional Philosopher, Part-time Podcaster — applies the lost art of Socratic thinking to the decisions, relationships, and cultural debates shaping everyday American life. This is not a philosophy class. It's not another self-help podcast. Just rigorous, honest thinking that helps you sift through the rhetoric and live more deliberately.
New episodes every Wednesday. Check your assumptions at the door.
Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere you listen.
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/corals/mountain-pine
License code: NT1UAGETRXVL46SM
Episodes
70 episodes
What are the Ethics of Loyalty?
How loyal should one be? Loyalty is one of the most emotionally compelling ideas in human life and one of the most philosophically slippery. This episode defines loyalty as a binding commitment that resists constant recalculation — which...
Am I Guilty for the Sins of My People?
What is Collective Guilt? Can guilt be shared without becoming meaningless? This episode untangles four concepts that keep getting collapsed into one — collective responsibility, liability, complicity, and guilt — and argues that the con...
What does Forgiveness Bring Us?
What does forgiveness actually do to the people who practice it — and what does real transformation look like when it happens? In this episode, we move past the question of why forgiveness is hard and into the territory of what it produc...
What is the Silver Rule?
Is Fairness Enough? Tit-for-tat is mathematically elegant and emotionally satisfying: you get what you give, and nobody gets taken advantage of. Game theory even proves it works — under the right conditions. This episode examines what th...
What is the Golden Rule?
Isn't Morality Just the Golden Rule? Most people think the Golden Rule is about fairness — treat others the way you want to be treated. But fairness and forgiveness are not the same thing, and the difference matters. This episode explore...
Do I Owe Anything to the Future?
What do we owe people who do not yet exist? This episode begins with the “seventh generation” principle of the Iroquois Confederacy—evaluating decisions by their impact 150 years into the future—and asks why that standard feels so alien in a wo...
Can I Judge Others?
“Don’t judge” is often treated as the highest moral command, but this episode argues that tolerance has never meant moral silence. Drawing on the classic formulation of the paradox of tolerance by Karl Popper, we examine how a society that refu...
How Responsible Are We For Our Own Happiness?
We’re told that happiness is a choice and that we are fully responsible for our own lives. This episode questions that assumption and asks whether the good life is really a private achievement. Drawing on virtue ethics, the African philosophy o...
Is the Good Life An Easy Life?
After a long day of emails, meetings, and micro-decisions, an easy life feels like salvation. This episode examines the seduction of convenience and the psychology of decision fatigue: how constant low-stakes choices for institutions, platforms...
Is Foul Language Immoral?
This episode examines how so-called “clean speech” is less about ethics than about power, class, and control. From the linguistic fluidity of taboo in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales to the euphemism treadmill that turned our “cocks” in...
Why Be Good?
If being good doesn’t pay, why be good at all? This episode takes the cynical case seriously, channeling Thrasymachus in Republic: justice serves the strong, and injustice often works. The problem isn’t confusion about ethics—we know what cheat...
What is a Good Life?
Most people hear “hedonism” and think excess, but this episode revisits Epicurus to recover a very different account of the good life and its ethics. Rather than maximizing pleasure, Epicurus argued for minimizing misery—freedom from physical p...
What Can Philosophy Do for Us?
Philosophy isn’t just for professors or ivory-tower thinkers — it’s a practical tool for anyone trying to navigate chaos, confusion, and the daily grind. In this capstone episode of American Socrates, we explore how philosophy can help...
Is MAGA Rage based on Ignorance?
When people stop believing in anything, power fills the vacuum. In this episode of American Socrates, Matt explores how moral collapse and despair feed the rise of authoritarian movements — from Bonhoeffer’s warning about “stu...
Why Do We Obey?
Why do ordinary people follow orders, even when those orders feel wrong? In this episode, we explore the psychology, culture, and structures behind obedience, showing how authority works — and when it becomes dangerous.We start with Hobb...
Is Progress Always Good?
We’re taught to believe that history moves forward — that reason, science, and reform steadily bend the “arc of the moral universe” toward justice. Public health doubled our lifespans, civil rights expanded dignity, unions gave us weekends, and...
Am I My Job?
In this episode of American Socrates, we ask a hard question: are you your job — or are you something more? From stocking groceries as a teenager to grinding in restaurant kitchens, host Matt shares his own working-class story of being...
How Can You Think for Yourself Without Going Crazy?
In this episode of American Socrates, we explore how to think for yourself in a world flooded with misinformation, conspiracy theories, and social-media noise. We trace the roots of independent thought from Descartes’ method of doubt t...
Does Happiness Matter More Than Meaning?
In this episode of American Socrates, we dive into one of life’s biggest questions: should we chase happiness or search for meaning? Drawing on Epicurus’ ancient philosophy of pleasure and Viktor Frankl’s powerful reflections from ...
Who Wants Government Run Health Insurance?
In this episode of American Socrates, we break down the debate over health care in America: should it be a free-market commodity, or a right guaranteed to all? We examine the philosophies behind private insurance and government-adminis...
What is the Social Responsibility of Corporations?
In 1970, economist Milton Friedman declared that the only social responsibility of business is to increase profits. Half a century later, his doctrine still shapes our economy, our politics, and our daily lives. But what does “profit first” rea...
Who Invented the Idea of Debt?
Debt isn’t just money owed — it’s one of the oldest tools of social control. In this episode of American Socrates, we explore David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5,000 Years and traces the history of debt from ancient Mesopotamia ...
Why Do Poor People Exist?
In this episode of American Socrates, we explore the myths about poverty in the United States. Poverty isn’t caused by laziness or bad choices—it’s built into the system. From outdated government definitions of poverty to wage stagnati...
Is Working Hard Really a Virtue?
In this episode of American Socrates, we explore the true value of work and challenge the myth that effort automatically equals virtue. From the Protestant Work Ethic to modern corporate life, we examine how meaningless labor can drain...
Is Your Job Bullshit?
In this episode of American Socrates, we break down David Graeber’s groundbreaking book Bullshit Jobs and explore why so many modern jobs feel pointless, frustrating, or downright meaningless. From flunkies and goons to box-ti...
Careers are Dead. What Comes Next?
In this episode of American Socrates, we explore why traditional careers are disappearing and what it means for workers today. From generational trades like millers and shoemakers to the mid-20th-century “sweet spot” of lifelong career...
