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sleepyphilosophyradio

sleepyphilosophyradio

slphilosophy 44 Episodes Oct 14, 2026

Long-form philosophy content for late-night listening and deep focus. We cover the big thinkers - from the Stoics and Aristotle to Camus, Nietzsche, and Dostoevsky - explained in a calm, steady voice that keeps things interesting without being overstimulating. If you want something substantial to think about during quiet hours, or just appreciate philosophy delivered at a relaxed pace, this is for you.

Episodes

All of Neoplatonism | Plotinus's Complete Philosophy
All of Neoplatonism | Plotinus's Complete Philosophy Oct 14, 2026 02:18:44 Fall asleep to Plotinus, the mystic who taught that all things flow from a single source and long to return.In the third century, in the crowded city of Rome, a gentle teacher who was ashamed of his own body and would not sit for a portrait built the last great philosophy of the ancient world. This episode follows Plotinus, the founder of what we now call Neoplatonism, from his youth in Roman Egyp
Thank You for Listening | Membership on Spotify
Thank You for Listening | Membership on Spotify Oct 12, 2026 00:01:00 Thank you for listening, whether this is your first episode or your fiftieth.Our regular episodes are free for everyone, and they always take hours of reading and writing. If you'd like to support the show directly, you can become a member on Spotify. Members get our book episodes: each one takes a single book and walks through it, in our own words. On Spotify, members also hear every episode
The Darkest Philosopher Who Ever Lived | Philipp Mainländer
The Darkest Philosopher Who Ever Lived | Philipp Mainländer Oct 8, 2026 02:08:45 Fall asleep to the story of Mainländer, the philosopher who taught that God has died and death is our redemption.In a rented room by a German river, a mild and dutiful bank clerk finished the strangest book of his century, and then quietly ended his own life. This episode follows Philipp Mainländer, the poet and philosopher who took Schopenhauer's darkness further than anyone had dared. We trace h
Let Go of God to Find God | Meister Eckhart's Complete Philosophy
Let Go of God to Find God | Meister Eckhart's Complete Philosophy Oct 2, 2026 02:12:48 Fall asleep to the medieval mystic who taught ordinary people to pray to be rid of God.At the summit of the medieval Church, a Dominican master who governed dozens of religious houses did something no one of his rank had dared. He carried the deepest theology out of the Latin schools and preached it, in plain German, to nuns and weavers and widows. We follow him from an uncertain village in German
Montaigne | He Locked Himself in a Tower and Described Us All
Montaigne | He Locked Himself in a Tower and Described Us All Sep 27, 2026 02:10:49 Fall asleep to Montaigne, who locked himself in a tower to study one man and quietly described us all.In fifteen seventy-one a French nobleman withdrew from public life to a round library at the top of a stone tower, and there, to tame his own restless mind, he began the strangest and most intimate book of its age. This is the story of Michel de Montaigne and the work he modestly called his attemp
How to Stay Calm When Fortune Takes Everything | Boethius’s Complete Philosophy
How to Stay Calm When Fortune Takes Everything | Boethius’s Complete Philosophy Sep 23, 2026 02:12:47 Fall asleep to the story of Boethius, the Roman philosopher who faced execution and answered it with reason alone.In a prison cell in the north of Italy, fifteen centuries ago, one of the most powerful men in the kingdom sat condemned to death and did something no one expected. He wrote a long conversation with Philosophy herself. Tonight we follow the whole of that life and that book. We trace Bo
Life Is Worth Living | William James and the Sick Soul
Life Is Worth Living | William James and the Sick Soul Sep 18, 2026 02:23:17 Fall asleep to the life of William James, the invalid who became America's great philosopher of hope and belief.As a young man William James was so ill in body and mind that he could barely leave his room, and one spring evening he made a private decision that would shape everything after it. This episode follows the whole arc of his life and thought, from a wandering childhood in the most gifted
Is Change Real? | Heraclitus vs Parmenides | Philosophy for Sleep
Is Change Real? | Heraclitus vs Parmenides | Philosophy for Sleep Sep 13, 2026 02:17:52 Fall asleep to the oldest quarrel in philosophy, whether all things flow or nothing ever moves at all.Twenty-five centuries ago, two Greek thinkers gave opposite answers to the same question, and nearly every philosopher since has stood somewhere between them. This episode follows the quarrel from its beginning. We meet Heraclitus, the lonely riddler of Ephesus who hid his one book in a temple and
No One Is Free Alone | Hegel and the Need to Be Seen
No One Is Free Alone | Hegel and the Need to Be Seen Sep 9, 2026 02:17:58 Fall asleep to Hegel, who watched an old world end and swore reason was moving through the ruin.Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born into a modest world and rose, against long odds, to become the most commanding philosopher of his age, the last great thinker who dared to explain nearly everything as a single unfolding whole. This episode opens in a burning town, with an unknown lecturer carrying
Those Who Know Do Not Speak | The Hidden Teachings of Lao Tzu
Those Who Know Do Not Speak | The Hidden Teachings of Lao Tzu Sep 4, 2026 02:17:15 Fall asleep to the ancient Chinese way of yielding, water, and the wisdom of doing without forcing.More than two thousand years ago, in a China torn apart by endless war, an old man rode west on an ox, handed a gatekeeper a small book of verses, and disappeared into the mountains. That book, and the tradition it founded, is the subject of this long, slow episode. We begin with its legendary author
The Most Reluctant Convert | C.S. Lewis for Deep Sleep
The Most Reluctant Convert | C.S. Lewis for Deep Sleep Aug 29, 2026 02:22:46 Fall asleep to the life and mind of C.S. Lewis, the atheist who became Christianity's most beloved modern voice.Over more than two hours, this longform episode traces the whole arc of a remarkable life and mind. We begin in a cold Belfast childhood and a wartime trench, follow a brilliant young atheist through the long, reluctant argument that led him back to belief, and settle in among the Oxford
The Sword Was Never the Point | Miyamoto Musashi for Deep Sleep
The Sword Was Never the Point | Miyamoto Musashi for Deep Sleep Aug 23, 2026 02:07:44 Fall asleep to the story of Miyamoto Musashi, the undefeated swordsman who laid down his blade to write.Born into the last years of Japan's long civil wars, a rough, motherless boy killed his first opponent in a duel at the age of thirteen and walked out onto the open road to test himself against the finest swordsmen in the land. This is the story of what he was really looking for. We follow him t

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