Episodes

Monday Feb 03, 2025
EXTREME WEALTH, PROPERTY & POWER
Monday Feb 03, 2025
Monday Feb 03, 2025
In this podcast, I examine the relationship between accumulations of extreme wealth and notions of property and their connection to power. I suggest how these might be re-configured so as to eliminate their current malignant threat to general human flourishing. [Free. 29 minutes.]

Wednesday Jun 19, 2024
HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE?
Wednesday Jun 19, 2024
Wednesday Jun 19, 2024
In this podcast, I discuss the proposition that "Hell is other people" which is found in Sartre's play Hui Clos (1944). I draw on my own reflections, and the works of Freud and Hegel rather than closely following the original play. [Free. 22 minutes.]

Saturday Dec 09, 2023
CHUANG TZU 2 - CUTTING UP AN OX
Saturday Dec 09, 2023
Saturday Dec 09, 2023
In this podcast, we discuss the Chapter of the Chuang Tzu entitled Cutting Up An Ox. In this chapter, we see the application of non-doing (wu wei) to a specific practical task and how it enables the highest degree of skill. We expand on Chuang Tzu's phenomenology of this application of wu wei. We discuss the application of this skill to creative as well as artisanal tasks, and also to meditation and living in general. [Free. 53 minutes.]

Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
LAO TZU 68
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
In this podcast, we engage with the final chapter [81] of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. In this chapter, Lao Tzu is suspicious of book learning and loquacious oratory, instead intimating that knowledge gained through meditation and clear seeing and plain speech are preferable. He also reminds us that non-doing is the way of both the sage and the Tao itself. [Free. 29 minutes.] For details and to book our forthcoming live event - http://peteyates.uk/live-events/

Saturday Aug 19, 2023
LAO TZU 64
Saturday Aug 19, 2023
Saturday Aug 19, 2023
In this podcast, we reflect on Chapter 77 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. Here, Lao Tzu contrasts the human way with the way of Tao in a way which is highly apposite for our current condition. The human way, according to Lao Tzu is nothing other than our 'trickle up' economic system in which the few get wealthier and more powerful and the many are increasingly immiserated. The contrasting way of Tao is one of spiritual abundance to which giving and helping are intrinsic. We include a trailer for our upcoming series of events, The Apocalypse and You. [For details and to book a place see - http://peteyates.uk/live-events/] [Free. 28 minutes.]

Friday Jul 28, 2023
LAO TZU 62
Friday Jul 28, 2023
Friday Jul 28, 2023
In this podcast, we reflect on Chapter 75 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. We consider the role of tax and money in various social organisational forms, the notion of surplus product disposed of by a hegemon, anarchism in relation to capitalism and marxism, and resonances with our current state of affairs, and more. [Free. 46 minutes.]

Friday Jul 21, 2023
LAO TZU 61
Friday Jul 21, 2023
Friday Jul 21, 2023
In this podcast, we discuss Chapter 74 of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching. Matters discussed include; the power dynamics involved in social organisation, the relative value of fearful and fearless orientations to life, and the tendency of humans to attempt to enhance life through their ingenuity. [Click HERE to buy me a coffee.] [Free. 34 minutes.]

Friday Jul 14, 2023
LAO TZU 60
Friday Jul 14, 2023
Friday Jul 14, 2023
In this podcast, we discuss Chapter 73 of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching. Themes covered include; the paradoxical and contradictory nature of the text, the practicality and creativity of alignment with the Tao, the meditation on forgetfulness, and more. Particularly, we describe how this chapter is a reminder against dogmatism. [Free. 35 minutes.]

Friday Jun 23, 2023
SOCRATES & THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
Friday Jun 23, 2023
Friday Jun 23, 2023
In this podcast, we discuss the resonances between the question asked by Socrates in Plato's Republic, 'How should life be lived?', and the TV series, The Walking Dead. [Free. 50 minutes.]

Saturday Jun 17, 2023
BORIS JOHNSON’S PERFECT POST-TRUTH MOMENT - INTERESTING TIMES 66
Saturday Jun 17, 2023
Saturday Jun 17, 2023
In this podcast, we reflect on the resignation of Boris Johnson from the UK parliament after having been found by the Commons Privileges Committee to have lied to Parliament. We take it that Johnson's subsequent and immediate appointment on a six-figure salary as a columnist for the Daily Mail is significant as a kind of culmination of the UK's deep immersion in post-truth confusion, which has for some time been an advantageous state for global oligarchs in a time of wide-spread unrest. [Free. 26 minutes.]