American Socrates
Matt Rupert
Publishing Details
About This Podcast
Think Deeper. Live Better.
Most podcasts give you answers. American Socrates gives you better questions.
Host Matt Rupert — Professional Philosopher, Part-time Podcaster — applies the lost art of Socratic thinking to the decisions, relationships, and cultural debates shaping everyday American life. This is not a philosophy class. It's not another self-help podcast. Just rigorous, honest thinking that helps you sift through the rhetoric and live more deliberately.
New episodes every Wednesday. Check your assumptions at the door.
Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere you listen.
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/corals/mountain-pine
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Recent Episodes
S2E15 How Do I Thrive?
Send us Fan MailHow do you live your best life? Aristotle's answer to the question of what human life is for is eudaimonia, usually translated as happiness, but closer in meaning to flourishing. His…
S2E14 How Do I Find Purpose in Life?
Send us Fan MailBefore you can get good at living, you need to know what you're living for. Aristotle's concept of teleology, the idea that everything has a purpose, and that purpose determines what…
S2E13 What is Love?
Send us Fan MailErich Fromm argued in The Art of Loving that love is a skill — and that most people are bad at it not because they are unloving but because they have never treated it as something…
S2E12 What are the Ethics of Loyalty?
Send us Fan MailHow loyal should one be? Loyalty is one of the most emotionally compelling ideas in human life and one of the most philosophically slippery. This episode defines loyalty as a binding…
S2E11 Am I Guilty for the Sins of My People?
Send us Fan MailWhat is Collective Guilt? Can guilt be shared without becoming meaningless? This episode untangles four concepts that keep getting collapsed into one — collective responsibility,…
S2E10 What does Forgiveness Bring Us?
Send us Fan MailWhat does forgiveness actually do to the people who practice it — and what does real transformation look like when it happens? In this episode, we move past the question of why…
S2E9 What is the Silver Rule?
Send us Fan MailIs Fairness Enough? Tit-for-tat is mathematically elegant and emotionally satisfying: you get what you give, and nobody gets taken advantage of. Game theory even proves it works —…
S2E8 What is the Golden Rule?
Send us Fan MailIsn't Morality Just the Golden Rule? Most people think the Golden Rule is about fairness — treat others the way you want to be treated. But fairness and forgiveness are not the same…
S2E7 Do I Owe Anything to the Future?
Send us Fan MailWhat do we owe people who do not yet exist? This episode begins with the “seventh generation” principle of the Iroquois Confederacy—evaluating decisions by their impact 150 years into…
S2E6 Can I Judge Others?
Send us Fan Mail“Don’t judge” is often treated as the highest moral command, but this episode argues that tolerance has never meant moral silence. Drawing on the classic formulation of the paradox of…
S2E5 How Responsible Are We For Our Own Happiness?
Send us Fan MailWe’re told that happiness is a choice and that we are fully responsible for our own lives. This episode questions that assumption and asks whether the good life is really a private…
S2E4 Is the Good Life An Easy Life?
Send us Fan MailAfter a long day of emails, meetings, and micro-decisions, an easy life feels like salvation. This episode examines the seduction of convenience and the psychology of decision…
S2E3 Is Foul Language Immoral?
Send us Fan MailThis episode examines how so-called “clean speech” is less about ethics than about power, class, and control. From the linguistic fluidity of taboo in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The…
S2E2 Why Be Good?
Send us Fan MailIf being good doesn’t pay, why be good at all? This episode takes the cynical case seriously, channeling Thrasymachus in Republic: justice serves the strong, and injustice often…
S2E1 What is a Good Life?
Send us Fan MailMost people hear “hedonism” and think excess, but this episode revisits Epicurus to recover a very different account of the good life and its ethics. Rather than maximizing pleasure,…
S1E54 What Can Philosophy Do for Us?
Send us Fan MailPhilosophy isn’t just for professors or ivory-tower thinkers — it’s a practical tool for anyone trying to navigate chaos, confusion, and the daily grind. In this capstone episode of…
S1E53 Is MAGA Rage based on Ignorance?
Send us Fan MailWhen people stop believing in anything, power fills the vacuum. In this episode of American Socrates, Matt explores how moral collapse and despair feed the rise of authoritarian…
S1E52 Why Do We Obey?
Send us Fan MailWhy do ordinary people follow orders, even when those orders feel wrong? In this episode, we explore the psychology, culture, and structures behind obedience, showing how authority…
S1E51 Is Progress Always Good?
Send us Fan MailWe’re taught to believe that history moves forward — that reason, science, and reform steadily bend the “arc of the moral universe” toward justice. Public health doubled our…
S1E50 Am I My Job?
Send us Fan MailIn this episode of American Socrates, we ask a hard question: are you your job — or are you something more? From stocking groceries as a teenager to grinding in restaurant kitchens,…
Frequently Asked Questions
American Socrates has published 30 episodes since November 2025, covering topics in Education, Personal Journals.
American Socrates is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 29m.
