MIT Compass
MIT Compass
Podcast Description
MIT Compass: Thinking & Talking About Being Human is a show about exploring fundamental questions: What do we value – and why? What do we know – and how do we know it? What do we owe to each other? Hosted by MIT professors from across the humanities, arts, and social sciences, each episode takes on the moral and social questions of the human experience.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
Centers around deep philosophical inquiries into human experience, featuring episodes like the exploration of power's evolution, the nature of truth and knowledge, the concept of value, and what constitutes genius. Each episode delves into specific questions that highlight interdisciplinary insights from sociology, history, philosophy, and engineering.
MIT Compass: Thinking & Talking About Being Human is a show about exploring fundamental questions: What do we value – and why? What do we know – and how do we know it? What do we owe to each other? Hosted by MIT professors from across the humanities, arts, and social sciences, each episode takes on the moral and social questions of the human experience.
For a transcript of this episode, click here (https://sites.mit.edu/compass/files/2025/06/Power-podcast-transcript.pdf).
In this episode, we’ll get into exercises of power and how they have changed through the ages with MIT professors from sociology and history (classical Roman history, medieval northern Europe, and early modern Atlantic capitalism).
Featuring: Susan Silbey, Professor of Sociology (host); Will Broadhead, Professor of History; Anne McCants, Professor of History; and Malick Ghachem, Professor of History.
This podcast was created as part of the MIT Compass Initiative, ”21.01: Love, Death, and Taxes.” For more information about Compass, check out compass.mit.edu.
This podcast was recorded at the MIT AV Studios and produced by Adina Karp.
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