William Engels
banner
william-engels.bsky.social
William Engels
@william-engels.bsky.social
Historian of philosophy, philosopher of technology, technologist of the mind. I host the History of Philosophy Audio Archive on Spotify, and write for Hemlock on Substack.
https://linktr.ee/williamengels
This is a direct result of Trump's foreign policy in both terms - trying to shake down Japan for its participation in the US security umbrella. Trump has said in private that he does not care about proliferation in Japan, welcome it if cost effective for US.

@jackkennedy.ie thoughts?
Interesting choice by the photo editor there
"I think we should possess nuclear weapons...in the end, we can only rely on ourselves."
December 20, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by William Engels
American Pundit Historical Analogy starter pack:
- Moonshot/Sputnik Moment
- Marhsall Plan
- the Luddites
- the New Deal
- the Cuban Missile Crisis
- the Manhattan Project
- Prohibition
- Hiroo Onoda
Bretton Woods is one of the six historical events that are allowed to exist in public discourse. The others are: Munich, Weimar hyperinflation, Pearl Harbor, the Blitz and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
December 17, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Part 2 of SAURON, INCORPORATED: A Corporate History of Palantir is LIVE! We discuss Palantir CEO Alex Karp and his jaw-dropping personal reversal from critical theory leftist intellectual (really!) to billionaire CEO of a technofascist military-industrial startup. And Tai Chi, for some reason.
December 16, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Reposted by William Engels
Doing some cute calligraphy
December 12, 2025 at 5:30 PM
NEW EPISODE - Sauron Incorporated: A Corporate History of Palantir. Join Richard Sinex, Thomas Vanek, and I as we dissect the surveillance-capitalist grotesquerie that is Palantir by examining the bizarre lives of its cofounders: Peter Thiel and Alex Karp.

open.spotify.com/episode/5Cft...
SAURON INCORPORATED: A Corporate History of Palantir (feat. the Bad Role Models) Part 1: Peter Thiel Crawls Out of an Apartheid-Era Uranium Mine and into the White House
open.spotify.com
December 12, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Escape from the TechnoDome: A Conversation with Jacob Ward about AI's Psychological Influence, Silicon Valley Politics, Weak Perfection, and the Creeping Robo-Weirdness Now Surrounding Us All
open.substack.com/pub/williame...
Escape from the TechnoDome: A Conversation with Jacob Ward about AI's Psychological Influence, Silicon Valley Politics, Weak Perfection, and the Creeping Robo-Weirdness Now Surrounding Us All
Hemlock #39
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:54 AM
I had a wonderful conversation with Graham St John about ethnobotanist Terence McKenna!

Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna - Graham St John on McKenna's Life and Work, Psilocybin and DMT, Psychedelic History, & Alchemy
Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna - Graham St John on McKenna's Life and Work, Psilocybin and DMT, Psychedelic History, Alchemy, the Experiment at La Chorrera
How to Immanentize the Eschaton in 5 Easy Steps
open.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Reposted by William Engels
Our new podcast episode on #HoPWaG is the first of a mini-series on the Daoist classic, the Zhuangzi! We start by asking in what sense this is a "skeptical" work.

www.historyofphilosophy.net/zhuangzi-ske...

#podcast #daoism #philsky #philosophy
November 23, 2025 at 4:22 AM
I interviewed Roy Casagranda about Henry Kissinger, the Iraq War, the lessons of history, and how to fix everything that's wrong with the world.
open.spotify.com/episode/6759...
The Lessons of History feat. Dr. Roy Casagranda - Henry Kissinger, the Iraq War, Esoteric Platonism and the Neocons, Cycles in Political Power, Education Reform, Hiroshima, Anarchism, and State Power
open.spotify.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:21 AM
I'm reading Virginia Woolf's novel To The Lighthouse and making a free audiobook as I go! Listen on Spotify.
open.spotify.com/episode/72l5...
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (Part 1)
open.spotify.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:20 AM
NEW EPISODE OUT NOW ON APPLE AND SPOTIFY

open.substack.com/pub/williame...
The Ballroom feat. William Sanchez of Philosophical Rebellion
NEW EPISODE OUT NOW ON SPOTIFY AND APPLE PODCASTS
open.substack.com
November 8, 2025 at 4:48 AM
October 28, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Reposted by William Engels
This article helps to clarify a dark vision against which we must rally. It unifies what otherwise seem like discombobulated chaotic spasms under a shockingly un-American, hopelessly depressing world view necessary for promoting fascism. Excellent synthesis

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
The rise of end times fascism | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor
The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them
www.theguardian.com
April 14, 2025 at 3:14 PM
New piece out about the late, great Mark Fisher and Capitalist Realism.

"The kind of nostalgia that is now so pervasive may best be characterized not as a longing for the past so much as an inability to make new memories. The past keeps coming back because the present cannot be remembered."
Ode to Mark Fisher
Part 1: Introduction to Fisherology
williamengels.substack.com
October 27, 2025 at 6:31 AM
Shadow Ticket rocks, by the way.
October 12, 2025 at 3:55 AM
New podcast out now about Palantir, Lucky Palmer/Anduril, AI bloomers and doomers, and the neverending quest for technological domination, culminating in Dolby Atmos Surround generative AI slop Labubu terrordomes.
Machines of Loving Grace - Palantir, Alex Karp, Alchemy and Science, Brute Force Mimetic Objects, Atomic Poetry, the Automation of Violence, and the Endless Empire of Perpetual Advantage
Hemlock #32
open.substack.com
October 12, 2025 at 3:52 AM
Reposted by William Engels
There's a ceasefire. Yay! Not so quick. Let's break this down and see what it's really about.

PS. I used the same art for the thumbnail that I had made when Biden made the deal with Bibi. It's the same thing. Bunch of weasels.
youtu.be/rDEW4Oaum6s
Trump's 20-point "peace" plan for Gaza
YouTube video by Sabrina Jennings
youtu.be
October 12, 2025 at 12:24 AM
@notetoselfzine.bsky.social and I thought we would kick the hornet's nest by talking about the Eichmann trial, Hannah Arendt, and the Banality of Evil. Check out our review of Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt (public link)
www.patreon.com/posts/dd5-ei...
DD5 - Eichmann in Jerusalem, a review of "Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt" The Banality of Evil, Between Past and Future, Totalitarianism in Democracy, Karl Jaspers and Martin Heidegger, the ...
Get more from Hemlock on Patreon
www.patreon.com
September 2, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Delighted to have discussed the First Crusade with @werenotsodiff.bsky.social and @amprestigepod.bsky.social on my podcast, History of Philosophy Audio Archive. Click here for the primal scene of Western Civilization, talismans, and quirked-up white bois (Normans). open.spotify.com/episode/4Gv9...
Hemlock #29 - Welcome to the First Crusade Feat. American Prestige and We're Not So Different: Magic Spears, Starving Franks, Holy Massacres, Historical Himbos, and Why Only the First Crusade Worked
History of Philosophy Audio Archive · Episode
open.spotify.com
August 12, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Posting this in advance of my upcoming series on David Lynch. A fantastic interview. The art life is coffee and cigarettes...
youtu.be/EPTQVXwCkbw
David Lynch (1946-2025) on his lifelong devotion to artmaking | INTERVIEWS
YouTube video by Artforum
youtu.be
August 5, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Thrilled and honored to have remembered Alasdair MacIntyre's life and philosophy with Greg Sadler!
open.spotify.com/episode/2Mux...
Hemlock #27 - Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025): My Talk w/ Greg Sadler on Virtue Ethics, Zizek and Lacan, Modes of Rationality, Effective Altruism /Bentham, After Virtue, Thomism, Mill, & Heavy Metal
History of Philosophy Audio Archive · Episode
open.spotify.com
July 20, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Reposted by William Engels
The latest episode of Documentary Doctors with me and my friend @william-engels.bsky.social ! There's jazz. There's bad ass women. There's a grown man banging his shoe on the table. Check it out!

open.spotify.com/episode/0PGu...
DocDocs #3 - Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat: Patrice Lumumba and the CIA, Dizzy Gillespie for President, Malcolm X, Fidel Castro, The Great Nina Simone, Frantz Fanon, Congo Liberation, Uranium, IMF, Jazz
History of Philosophy Audio Archive · Episode
open.spotify.com
July 14, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Reposted by William Engels
How to fix problems in your life.
July 9, 2025 at 10:59 PM