The quest for freedom | Katarina Schwarz

An individual "is responsible for everything he does," claimed Sartre. And from criminal justice to creative expression, free will and responsibility are central to our culture and our personal lives. Yet neuroscientists and materialist thinkers commonly maintain that freedom is ... Show More

Are we living in the moment? Are we really free? How can we transcend the constant anxieties of our mind? Throughout history, certain people in the West and the East have claimed that the human mind could reach states of so-called higher consciousness. In the twentieth century, s ... Show More

The good, the bad, and the transgressiveIs the transgression of norms and rules what brings history forward and allows for creativity and change? OR is the fetishization of transgression an ever-present danger that breaks down all structures of meaning and becomes totalizing in o ... Show More

<p>During the Civil War, Black people in America took the opportunity to free themselves and to serve the Union cause. At great personal risk, tens of thousands of refugees -- men, women and children -- fled Southern slave owners for Union lines. They enlisted in the Union Army a ... Show More

In today’s episode Alisha spills all the tea about Youtube collabs shes done. Prepare to be shook cause everything is not always as perfect as it seems. Oh, and Remi tells us an embarrassing update about turtle dude.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices ... Show More

<p dir="ltr">Although its intellectual handmaidens love to insist otherwise — capitalism is not a system that truly embodies freedom. We all feel it, of course — that nagging sense that we lack any agency over the choices that shape our lives, the frustration we feel at our bosse ... Show More

<p>Ruby Doris Smith died at age 25 of cancer. It was an unfair death, concluding a short, unfair life. For two and half decades on this earth – from 1942 to 1967 – she experienced the brutal day-to-day realities of Jim Crow segregation. Yet her tombstone laments none of this. Ins ... Show More

Baratunde acknowledges the increased (and sometimes awkward) efforts of white Americans standing in solidarity with Black lives at this moment. Then he explores the global reach of this moment through an in-depth conversation with Diana Arce, a Black Lives Matter organizer in Ber ... Show More

<p>M'hamed Oualdi – professor of history at Paris' Sciences Po University – joins us on the afikra podcast to delve into the often obscured and forgotten history of slavery in North Africa. Starting with his book "A Slave Between Empires: A Transimperial History of North Africa", ... Show More

What happened to people in ancient Rome who were freed from slavery? Turns out there were still invisible threads--economic pressures, imbalances of status, and debts owed to wealthy patrons--that kept many of them in bondage. On the streets of Pompeii, freedom came at a steep pr ... Show More

<p>We're revisiting an episode of Tides of History we originally released in January 2018. Pay close attention, we're going to be spending a LOT of time in Italy this summer.</p><p>What was it like to have a front-row seat to the explosion of learning, art, and culture in Renaiss ... Show More

<p>In part one, Seretse Khama of Bechuanaland convinced his people to accept his white, British wife Ruth, only to discover that Britain and South Africa had other ideas. Now, these world powers are trying to prevent him from ever becoming king. But Seretse refuses to accept it. ... Show More