Old Thoughts by Today's Thinkers

Melanie Goldberg and Frankie Fox
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Government
  • Updated Monthly

Old Thoughts by Today’s Thinkers is a student-run podcast exploring how classic ideas can help us think about modern issues. Each episode features an open, unscripted discussion where Harvard college students apply the ideas of political theorists and philosophers to contemporary debates.

Episodes

  1. Apr 6

    Hobbes vs. Locke on the State of Nature & Government Structure

    In episode 5, five minds explore Thomas Hobbes and John Locke’s competing visions of the state of nature and what they mean for government today. From crisis-era restrictions to questions of surveillance, protest, and political power, participants debate when security should come at the cost of freedom. Are modern societies leaning toward Hobbes’s call for strong authority, or Locke’s belief in individual rights?

    37 min

  2. Mar 2

    De Beauvoir & The Body

    In the fourth episode, students explore Simone de Beauvoir’s account of gender as something socially constructed rather than biologically fixed, focusing on the enduring differences in male and female gender roles. Through her concept of woman as the “Other,” 3 participants examine how expectations placed on female identity continue to shape freedom, power, and lived experience today.

    45 min

  3. Feb 2

    Plato and the Ethics of Conversation in Modern Media

    In the first episode of the new year, three students use Plato’s dialogues and the Socratic method to examine the ethics of conversation today—from power and persuasion to speed, sincerity, and when dialogue itself may (or may not) be morally required.

    41 min

  4. Jan 5

    John Stuart Mill Today: Liberty, Harm, and Public Policy

    The second episode features another roundtable conversation; this time focusing on Mill’s ideas about autonomy, harm, and public policy, and how they shape debates in today’s world.

    35 min

  5. 12/01/2025

    Marx in the Modern World: Alienation, the Gig Economy, and Class Structure

    In this debut episode, six Harvard students explore how Karl Marx’s ideas on alienation and class structure translate to today’s gig-economy and modern hierarchy, debating what still resonates and what feels outdated.

    42 min
  • 5 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Old Thoughts by Today’s Thinkers is a student-run podcast exploring how classic ideas can help us think about modern issues. Each episode features an open, unscripted discussion where Harvard college students apply the ideas of political theorists and philosophers to contemporary debates.

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