Socrates at the Cinema

Socrates

Welcome to Socrates at the Cinema, where every episode we look at one great idea through one great film, by having great conversations about the films and questions that define our lives.

  1. 2d ago

    Ep. 16 - It Follows (2014)

    In It Follows, death walks toward you at a steady pace and never stops. So does knowing it's coming make you live better, or just ruin you? Trent and Jackson take on David Robert Mitchell's It Follows (2014) and the great idea of death. Remembering your mortality is supposed to be a discipline. Socrates says so in the Phaedo, Seneca says so, the whole Stoic tradition is built on it. Every character in this film remembers constantly, and it ruins all of them. Annie sits down on a beach to wait. Hugh hands his death to a stranger and runs. Nobody comes out wiser. Along the way: Pascal's image of men in chains, why the curse travels through sex rather than any other act, and whether facing death alone is the thing that actually kills you. Socrates at the Cinema: one great idea, one great film, one great conversation.

  2. Oct 19

    Ep. 15 - Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

    Does K have a soul? Blade Runner 2049 tests him three ways: being born, having memories of his own, and dying for someone else. Two of them fail. Trent and Austin take on Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and the great idea of the soul. Along the way they bring in Aristotle, Descartes, Locke on memory and identity, and Kant on acting from duty. Then comes the real fight: if Joi is just ones and zeros, why isn't K? And why aren't we? Socrates at the Cinema: one great idea, one great film, one great conversation.

  3. Oct 12

    Ep. 14 - The Godfather (1972)

    Is there any real difference between a government and a mafia? The Godfather opens with a mortician asking Don Corleone for the justice the courts refused him. Trent Leach and Bill Isley start there and spend the hour on one idea: family. Aristotle says the family comes first and the state is built on top of it. So when the state fails at justice, can the family take the job back? Trent makes that case, then dismantles it mid-conversation. Rousseau turns up to ask when a father's authority is supposed to end. Vito's never does โ€” it just transfers. Nobody decides what Bonasera should have done. That's the question we leave you with. The Godfather (1972), dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Great Idea: Family. With Bill Isley.

  4. Oct 5

    Ep. 13 - Wake Up Dead Man (2025)

    A cold rationalist detective meets a small-town priest in Rian Johnson's Wake Up Dead Man, and the murder mystery turns into an argument about what religion actually is โ€” a tool, a comfort, or something true. Trent and Nathaniel dig into faith, reason, and what it means that the skeptic is the one who changes.

  5. Sep 28

    Ep. 12 - Saving Private Ryan (1998)

    Saving Private Ryan (1998) isn't really about the beaches of Normandy โ€” it's about whether the eight men sent to save one soldier are practicing duty, or just following an order wearing its uniform. Hosts Trent Leach and Jackson Swain use Spielberg's film to test three competing philosophies of duty โ€” Hobbes's obedience to command, Kant's inner moral law, Aristotle's justice โ€” before landing on the question that haunts Private Ryan for the rest of his life: can a debt like this one ever actually be paid off?

  6. Sep 21

    Ep. 11 - Project Hail Mary (2026)

    Project Hail Mary hands one man the survival of eight billion people, and he says no. He runs for the door. Trent and Austin take up the 2026 film through a single great idea: courage. They start with Aristotle's mean between cowardice and rashness, argue that Ryland Grace fails for lack of habit rather than lack of knowledge, and bring in Aquinas, Freud, and Plato's thumos along the way. Then the question neither of them can settle. Grace was drugged and carried onto that ship, so does anything he does out there count? And when he finally turns around, it isn't for humanity. It's for one friend. Socrates at the Cinema. Great films. Great ideas. Great conversations.

  7. Sep 14

    Ep. 10 - Master and Commander (2003)

    Captain Jack Aubrey says everything he does, he does out of duty. His own ship's doctor isn't buying it. In this episode of Socrates at the Cinema, Trent and Bill use Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) to ask whether duty and pride can actually be told apart โ€” from the outside, or even from the inside. They bring in Kant's categorical imperative to test a real dilemma from the film, wrestle with whether curiosity itself can be a duty, and sit with the ship's most painful subplot: a failed officer, scapegoated by his crew, and a captain who arrives at compassion just a little too late. One film. One idea. One conversation.

  8. Sep 7

    Ep. 9 - The Social Network (2010)

    Eduardo Saverin wrote Mark Zuckerberg a check for a thousand dollars when Facebook was still nothing. He ended up with 0.03 percent of it and a lawsuit. Trent and Nathaniel take David Fincher's The Social Network (2010) through Aristotle's three kinds of friendship, use, pleasure, and virtue, and argue that Mark and Eduardo were never in the same one. Neither man knew it. Along the way: whether Mark was chasing money or status, what Sean Parker was really doing in that company, and whether a platform built for connection by someone who could not manage a friendship was ever going to deliver one. Socrates at the Cinema. Great Films. Great Ideas. Great Conversations.

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Welcome to Socrates at the Cinema, where every episode we look at one great idea through one great film, by having great conversations about the films and questions that define our lives.

Information

  • Creator
    Socrates
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    ยฉ 2026 Socrates
  • Show Website
    Socrates at the Cinema

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