Podcast · Society & Culture

Critical Concepts

by The Sane Society · English · Society & Culture

To slightly alter a quote from Karl Marx: "We are therefore in a position to sum up the credo of our podcast in a single word: the self-clarification (critical philosophy) of the struggles and wishes of the age." To achieve this, we asked leading experts in the field of social and economic philosoph

New episodes: Every two weeks
Typical length: 28 min
Latest: 2 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

2 Oct 2026 · 26 min

#9 The Freedom to Stay with Eva von Redecker

--- 00:00 Intro 01:59 Freedom and desire 07:10 Spatial freedom 14:17 Temporal understanding of freedom 18:13 Freedom as experience of fulfilled time --- The translation of "Bleibefreiheit" (The Freedom to Stay) has just been published by Polity! Check it out: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-freedom-to-stay--9781509574292 --- You can watch this episode on YouTube: ⁠⁠https://youtu.be/gwaKNn-pG4A Critical Concepts is an independently funded project, and we want to keep all of our content freely accessible. You can support us via Patreon:…

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Earlier episodes 8 most recent

S2 · E2 · 18 Sep 2026 · 53 min
#8 What can we learn from the Climate Crisis? with Dipesh Chakrabarty
--- 00:00 Intro 01:35 Human made climate change 05:26 Geological Agency 14:15 The Anthroposcene 35:20 Rethinking History 52:16 Outro --- The effects of the human-made climate crisis are becoming increasingly visible across the world. Heatwaves are becoming more intense, wildfires are spreading, floods are destroying homes and livelihoods, and extreme weather is affecting millions of people around the world. Extreme heat alone is already linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths every year.But the climate crisis does more than confront us with increasingly severe disasters. It also forces us…
S2 · E1 · 4 Sep 2026 · 28 min
#7 What is Social Freedom? with Axel Honneth
Freedom is an idea that is strikingly common to the way we speak and think about the world and ourselves. We could even go so far as to claim that much of what we do in our lives is motivated by a drive for freedom. But despite the seemingly evident familiarity of this concept in everyday life and public discourse, it appears to be much more difficult to answer the question of what freedom actually is. Today’s guest, Axel Honneth , is Jack C. Weinstein Professor for the Humanities in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University and Director of the Institute for Social Research at…
S1 · E6 · 7 Aug 2026 · 28 min
#6 The Illusion of Free Markets with Bernard Harcourt
For most people, the existence of markets appears natural. We buy our food through markets, we rent the places we live in through markets, and our work takes place within a labor market. It is often assumed that markets are a sphere of freedom, where different participants come together and exchange goods in ways that benefit everyone involved. But according to today’s guest, Bernard E. Harcourt , this idea of a harmonious and self-regulating market sphere is actually a myth. Harcourt further argues that what we often think of as unregulated market freedom in fact depends on extensive forms…
S1 · E5 · 24 Jul 2026 · 30 min
# 5 What is Economic Power? with Søren Mau
Despite extreme levels of inequality, poverty, and ecological destruction, capitalism remains the dominant form of organizing social life. Not only that, it seems that each of us is in some way involved in its continuation. We constantly reproduce the world we live in. Through our everyday activities and interactions we keep the existing social order going. But why? And why does it seem so difficult to simply step out of it? Marxist philosopher Søren Mau argues that the answer lies in what he calls “economic power.” When we think of power, we usually imagine forms of domination that involve…
S1 · E4 · 10 Jul 2026 · 21 min
#4 What is Phantom Possession? with Eva von Redecker
Across the world, authoritarian and fascist movements are gaining popularity. These movements often claim that external forces are trying to take away something they must defend against a specific enemy. Within these narratives, a particular notion of ownership emerges. Today’s guest, Eva von Redecker , calls this form of ownership “phantom possession.” She argues that to understand authoritarian and fascist movements, we need to understand this concept.
S1 · E3 · 26 Jun 2026 · 28 min
#3 What is Alienation? with Rahel Jaeggi
The concept of alienation has a long tradition. Karl Marx famously introduced the concept during the rise of industrial capitalism to criticize the working conditions of industrial workers. Yet some might argue that alienation belongs to the 19th century and has little relevance for understanding contemporary society. Today’s guest, ⁠Rahel Jaeggi⁠ , disagrees and believes that the idea of alienation is more relevant than ever before. In her book of the same name, she revitalizes the concept and calls it “ a relation of relationlessness, ” in which social subjects are not capable of…
S1 · E2 · 12 Jun 2026 · 44 min
#2 Why Do We Reproduce Social Structures? with Sally Haslanger
When we are born into a particular society, we quickly learn its norms and practices. As we internalize these patterns, we also begin to reproduce them in our everyday actions. Through this repetition, it becomes tempting to see these social arrangements as natural or inevitable. Today’s guest, MIT-professor Sally Haslanger , challenges this assumption. In her work, she examines the many ways in which social subjects participate in reproducing the very structures that shape them, and why these patterns can be so difficult to break. At the same time, she argues that understanding how social…
S1 · E1 · 29 May 2026 · 15 min
#1 Why Do We Have Prisons? with Tommie Shelby
Prisons are a central institution of modern society, yet their legitimacy is rarely questioned. Many people assume they prevent crime and justly punish wrongdoing. But what if these assumptions are mistaken? Today’s guest, Tommie Shelby, is the Lee Simpkins Family Professor of Arts and Sciences and the Caldwell Titcomb Professor in the ⁠Department of African and African American Studies ⁠ and the ⁠Department of Philosophy⁠ at Harvard University. He argues that prisons fail to deliver what we expect from them and challenges the very idea that they are justified.

About Critical Concepts

Critical Concepts is a English society & culture podcast from The Sane Society. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: The Sane Society
Language: English
Category: Society & Culture
New episodes: Every two weeks
Typical length: 28 min
Latest episode: 2 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1896841820
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