Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz

Odcinki

• Some Questions of Moral Philosophy, Sections 3 + 4 | Responsibility and Judgment 03.07.2026 1godz 12min

  In this episode of the podcast, host Roger Berkowitz discusses the final sections of Hannah Arendt’s essay “Some Questions of Moral Philosophy,” focusing on Arendt’s post-Eichmann turn to thinking, morality, and the collapse of shared moral certainties. He presents Arendt’s claim that morality is Socratic and grounded in solitude—the “two-in-one” dialogue that makes personhood, memory, and integrity possible—distinguishing it from loneliness and isolation, and contrasting it with Kantian political judgment that enlarges perspective in a shared world. Morality, for Arendt, is not rule-following or goodness but the limit of what one can live with, becoming publicly crucial in “borderline” crises as refusal and non-participation in evil. Berkowitz then explains Arendt’s turn to the will (Paul, Augustine) and her move from rules to examples and common sense via Kant’s Critique of Judgment, followed by discussion on resistance, interpretation vs judgment, personhood, and judging regimes.   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the author of the forthcoming A WORLD WE SHARE: Hannah Arendt and the Power of Friendship in a Broken World (Yale University Press; Oct. 6), editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• Some Questions of Moral Philosophy, Sections 1 + 2 | Responsibility and Judgment 26.06.2026 1godz 13min

  In this episode of the podcast, host Roger Berkowitz introduces Arendt’s essay “Some Questions of Moral Philosophy,” compiled by Jerome Kohn from 1965–66 courses after Eichmann in Jerusalem. He explains Hannah Arendt’s late turn to morality as a response to Nazism’s revelation that morality could function as mere custom, enabling ordinary people to become criminals by following law and public opinion. Trials like Nuremberg and Eichmann foreground individual responsibility and judging, which Arendt sees as newly uncomfortable in modern culture. Berkowitz outlines Arendt’s engagement with Kant’s pride-based autonomy and its breakdown, and her return to Socrates' morality as the “two-in-one” dialogue that cannot command the good but can stop evil (“I can’t”). The ensuing discussion with VRG participants raises psychology and social science as challenges to responsibility, whether everyone can think, morality’s relation to politics, contemporary analogies, and religion’s diminished public force.   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the author of the forthcoming A WORLD WE SHARE: Hannah Arendt and the Power of Friendship in a Broken World (Yale University Press; Oct. 6), editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship | Responsibility and Judgment 19.06.2026 1godz 6min

  In this episode, host Roger Berkowitz walks us through the Prologue and first essay of our summer read, Responsibility and Judgment, a posthumous collection edited by Jerome Kohn. Introducing Arendt’s "Sonning Prize" lecture on persona, citizenship, and the exchangeable “mask” of public life, Berkowitz closely reads the opening essay, “Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship,” framed by the controversy over Eichmann in Jerusalem and Arendt’s claim that morality collapses when people abandon judgment to custom, success, or public opinion. Berkowitz outlines Arendt’s distinctions between moral, political, and collective responsibility, her rejection of the “cog” and “lesser evil” defenses, and her separation of dictatorship from totalitarianism. Central is her argument that obedience equals support, and that the few who refused to collaborate were those who asked whether they could live with themselves, which links responsibility to thinking and self-dialogue. It's not too late join our summer Virtual Reading Group! Become a member!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the author of the forthcoming A WORLD WE SHARE: Hannah Arendt and the Power of Friendship in a Broken World (Yale University Press; Oct. 6), editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• AI and the Legacy of Hannah Arendt | Bonus Episode 12.06.2026 43min

  In this bonus episode of the podcast, host Roger Berkowitz reflects on two recent gatherings and their relevance to Hannah Arendt’s concerns about truth, technology, and world-building. He recounts a Santa Fe Institute workshop on AI and institutions, like universities and law, arguing that AI should remain a tool rather than a force that replaces human agency. He warns that AI already distorts reality through fabricated “Arendt” lectures and viral deepfakes that generate new false quotes. He connects this to past misquotations, including altered quotations in the film Vita Activa, to stress Arendt’s insistence on facts. Berkowitz then describes the Understory Festival at Washington National Cathedral, where David Brooks and Ross Douthat debated whether a new humanism can grow amid institutional torpor and AI-driven threats to human dignity, and links the festival’s “understory” metaphor to Arendt’s pearl-diving retrieval of fragments from a broken tradition. On Friday, June 12th, 2026, we begin reading Responsibility and Judgment, Hannah Arendt’s indispensable investigation into some of the most troubling and important issues of our time. Find it here on the podcast beginning June 17th. Or become a member of the Center and join the VRG!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the author of the forthcoming A WORLD WE SHARE: Hannah Arendt and the Power of Friendship in a Broken World (Yale University Press; Oct. 6), editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• Hannah Arendt: An American Hero with Shumaila Hemani and Shilpa Kamat | Bonus Episode 05.06.2026 1godz

  In this bonus episode of the podcast, host Roger Berkowitz previews the Arendt Center’s collaboration with the International Human Rights Art Movement, including a June 5–7 New York City theater festival and the anthology Hannah Arendt: An American Hero. Drawn from 328 submissions from 64 countries and supported by NEH funding tied to the proposed “Garden of Heroes,” Berkowitz interviews contributors Dr. Shumaila Hemani, PEN Canada’s Writer in Exile and author of the 2025 memoir Writing in the Wound, and poet-educator-healing arts practitioner Shilpa Kamat, whose verse middle-grade novel Braid by Braid is forthcoming from Knopf. Hamani discusses immigration limbo after 17 years in Canada, decolonization, and bureaucratized “banality of evil” informing her Kafka-inspired story “Katabasis.” Kamat explains her poem “Ordinary Day” as a reflection on systemic harm, numbness, and responsibility. Both argue that storytelling and art can shift systems and consciousness. On Friday, June 12th, 2026, we’ll begin reading Responsibility and Judgment, Hannah Arendt’s indispensable investigation into some of the most troubling and important issues of our time. Find it here on the podcast beginning June 17th. Or become a member of the Center and join the VRG!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the author of the forthcoming A WORLD WE SHARE: Hannah Arendt and the Power of Friendship in a Broken World (Yale University Press; Oct. 6), editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• What Are We Fighting For? | Bonus Episode 29.05.2026 35min

  In this bonus episode of the podcast, host Roger Berkowitz shares about his recent talks in Athens at the House of Beautiful Business conference, and about the Bard College commencement, honoring Marilynne Robinson—before turning to the Hannah Arendt Center’s 20th anniversary Arendt Forum (Oct. 15–17) on Solidarity: What Are We Fighting For? Drawing on Arendt’s account of a shattered Western tradition and the resulting “prejudice against politics,” he argues that liberal technocracy and bureaucratic rule cannot supply purpose or freedom. For Arendt, solidarity is not pity, empathy, or collective guilt, but a political commitment grounded in judgment and the “honor of the human race,” enabling plural people to share a common world through conversation. He links solidarity to reconciliation and to Arendt’s Eichmann example, and previews conference speakers including Carol Gilligan, Eva Illouz, Braver Angels’ Amber and David Lapp, Patrick Deneen, Helene Landemore, Yazmany Arboleda, and George Packer. On Friday, June 12th, 2026, we’ll begin reading Responsibility and Judgment, Hannah Arendt’s indispensable investigation into some of the most troubling and important issues of our time. Find it here on the podcast beginning June 17th. Or become a member of the Center and join the VRG!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• America's Constitutional Crossroads with Peter Rosenblum | Bonus Episode 22.05.2026 51min

  In this bonus episode of the podcast, host Roger Berkowitz welcomes Peter Rosenblum,  a professor of international law and human rights at Bard College, to discuss their constitutional law course, which is taught as a liberal-arts, critical-thinking class rather than pre-law. Beginning with Aristotle, Montesquieu, the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, and Arendt, it asks what a constitution is and how it constitutes a people. They explain how the course has shifted with changing student experience and politics: a chronological account through the New Deal followed by thematic units on civil rights, the administrative state (including Chevron and post-Chevron debates), and, most recently, presidential power amid congressional abdication. Discussing cases from Lincoln through Youngstown, Nixon, Hamdi, and Trump v. United States, they emphasize separation of powers over rights-centered narratives, worry about eroded norms and legislative dysfunction, and point to competitive elections and independent redistricting as crucial to rebalancing power. On Friday, June 12th, 2026, we’ll begin reading “Responsibility and Judgement”, Hannah Arendt’s indispensable investigation into some of the most troubling and important issues of our time. Find it here on the podcast beginning June 17th. Or become a member of the Center and join the VRG!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• The Spirit of Philadelphia with Chris Gibson | Bonus Episode 15.05.2026 1godz 6min

  In this bonus episode, host Roger Berkowitz interviews Chris Gibson, former U.S. Army colonel, Purple Heart recipient, ex–three-term congressman, former Williams College professor and Siena College president, and author of The Spirit of Philadelphia: A Call to Recover the Founding Principles. Gibson explains the “spirit of Philadelphia” as the coalescing energy of collaboration and compromise that emerged at the Constitutional Convention after Sherman’s bicameral compromise, enabling agreement on the executive and an independent judiciary, and he notes Madison was initially slow to embrace it. They discuss Gibson’s “original American social ethos” and his argument for “common sense realism,” rooted in Scottish Enlightenment thinkers like Reid and Hutcheson, as a hybrid of Lockean rights and communitarian obligations. Gibson says the book aims to restore trust, reawaken civic spirit, address a crisis of meaning amid division and alienation, and promote leaders of service while proposing reforms to rebalance executive and congressional power. Gibson will be speaking at The Arendt Forum (October 15–17, 2026), the Hannah Arendt Center's 20th anniversary fall gathering on Solidarity: What Are We Fighting For?   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.  
• The World in Pieces with Walter Russell Mead | Live Bonus Episode 08.05.2026 1godz 21min

  Recorded live at Bard College, this bonus episode features Roger Berkowitz in conversation with Walter Russell Mead, the Alexander Hamilton Professor of Strategy and Statecraft at the Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida and Global View columnist for The Wall Street Journal. They discuss whether the post-1945 American-led liberal world order has fractured and what is replacing it as global power shifts toward the Indo-Pacific. Mead argues the old transatlantic model rested on Westernization as a global aspiration and on European centrality, both of which have eroded as non-Western powers pursue their own paths and Europe falls behind militarily, politically, and technologically. He contends U.S. influence remains structurally resilient, driven by capitalist innovation, though legitimacy and power are changing amid upheaval. In Q&A with the audience, they discuss the UAE leaving OPEC and how U.S. fracking reshaped energy geopolitics, risks around China and Taiwan given drone warfare and blockade dynamics, Trump’s improvisational bargaining style, why predictions of American decline persist, and threats to U.S. dynamism including antisemitism, anti-science sentiment, identity fragmentation, and unsustainable immigration politics, ending with Mead’s advice to read deeply in history and literature. This live event was held on April 29th, 2026, and co-sponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement and the Alexander Hamilton Society at Bard College.   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• The Emergency with George Packer | Bonus Episode 01.05.2026 1godz 7min

  In this bonus episode, Roger Berkowitz welcomes George Packer—National Book Award–winning author of The Unwinding, staff writer for The Atlantic and contributor to The New Yorker—to discuss his 2025 novel The Emergency and his upcoming appearance at The Arendt Forum (October 15–17, 2026), the Hannah Arendt Center's 20th anniversary fall gathering on Solidarity. Packer explains that the pandemic and January 6th, and the rapid collapse of shared “ground truth,” drove him from nonfiction toward a fable-like fiction set in an unnamed empire collapsing from distraction and loss of faith. They discuss the novel’s central father–daughter relationship, youth movements “Together” and “Dirt,” the “suicide spot,” and Packer’s view that both movements express despair and a revolt against humanity. Packer contrasts journalism’s labor with fiction’s imaginative construction, and ends by emphasizing a humbled ethic of care—“opening the door”—rather than policy prescriptions. Rate and review if you like this podcast!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• Home to Roost | Bonus Episode 24.04.2026 1godz 8min

  In this episode of the Reading Hannah Arendt podcast, Roger Berkowitz discusses Hannah Arendt’s final speech/essay “Home to Roost” (May 20, 1975), published in Responsibility and Judgment and widely received at the time. He explains Arendt’s rejection of celebrating “America” in favor of the Republic, emphasizing the United States as a plural republic rather than an ethnic nation-state, and her claim that the republic’s crisis—triggered by McCarthyism—helped destroy a devoted, nonpartisan civil service. Arendt catalogs postwar cataclysms (Vietnam, foreign-policy failures, inflation, crumbling cities, Watergate) as signs of a swift decline of political power, and warns against grand historical explanations that hide “stark facts.” She argues modern image-making and PR foster “lying as a way of life,” culminating in Nixon-era corruption; she criticizes Ford’s pardon as amnesia and urges welcoming facts “when the chickens come home to roost,” confronting reality for the sake of freedom. For further info on this essay: https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa-chi4.html On Friday, June 12th, 2026, we’ll begin reading “Responsibility and Judgement”, Hannah Arendt’s indispensable investigation into some of the most troubling and important issues of our time. Find it here on the podcast beginning June 17th. Or become a member of the Center and join the VRG!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• Thoughts on Politics and Revolution | Crises of the Republic 17.04.2026 1godz 8min

  In this episode of the podcast, Roger Berkowitz concludes our reading of Crises of the Republic by introducing Arendt’s 1970 interview “Thoughts on Politics and Revolution.” Framing it through recent wars and Arendt’s claim that declining power invites violence, he emphasizes Arendt’s diagnosis of a “revolutionary situation” in which power has lost legitimacy and lies “in the streets,” yet would-be revolutionaries lack serious analysis and rely on clichés. Arendt rejects capitalism vs. socialism as false alternatives, arguing both drive modern expropriation and that freedom depends on legal-political limits independent of economic forces. The discussion highlights her view that modern “total war” makes decisive victory impossible without massive war crimes, raising the need to rethink sovereignty and the state. Arendt’s tentative alternative is a federal, bottom-up council system that repeatedly appears in revolutions to secure participation and “public happiness.” Rate and review if you like this podcast! Join us on April 23rd, 2026, at 5p EST for the 4th annual De Gruyter-Arendt Center Lecture in Political Thinking delivered by Uday Singh Mehta on "Militant Non-Violence". Watch the livestream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/live/OuIpCiZYHRM?si=21NBf9fx0ebPEZhu   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• On Violence III | Crises of the Republic 10.04.2026 1godz 7min

  In this episode of the podcast, Roger Berkowitz summarizes part three of Hannah Arendt’s “On Violence,” reviewing the essay’s structure: action (not only violence) can interrupt historical processes; power and violence are opposites, and violence rises when power is in jeopardy. In section three, Arendt rejects social-scientific views that treat violence as beastly or irrational, arguing it can be rational and instrumental, rooted first in rage at injustice but often misdirected toward substitutes and intensified by hypocrisy, producing terror (e.g., French Revolution) and critiques of “collective guilt.” Rate and review if you like this podcast! Join us on April 23rd, 2026, at 5p EST for the 4th annual De Gruyter-Arendt Center Lecture in Political Thinking delivered by Uday Singh Mehta on "Militant Non-Violence". Watch the livestream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/live/OuIpCiZYHRM?si=21NBf9fx0ebPEZhu   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• The Hell That is War Has Lost Its Power | Bonus Episode 03.04.2026 20min

  In this bonus episode of the podcast, Roger Berkowitz revisits and updates his latest columns on “The Hell That is War Has Lost Its Power,” arguing that modern war, though more precise and destructive, no longer resolves conflicts or stabilizes political order. Drawing on Clausewitz’s view of war as politics by other means and Arendt’s distinction between power and violence, he claims total war collapses the civilian-soldier divide, destroys societies and infrastructure, and delegitimizes even the victor, producing “destruction without decision.” Using the current U.S.-Israel war in Iran, alongside Ukraine and other examples, he suggests wars now spread, persist, and morph into endless police actions, terror, drones, and AI. Berkowitz concludes that the challenge is to develop political forms of common action and power beyond violence, with deterrence as a remaining caveat. Rate and review if you like this podcast!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• On Violence II | Crises of the Republic 27.03.2026 51min

  In this week's episode of the podcast, Roger Berkowitz focuses on the second section of Hannah Arendt's essay "On Violence" called “Power." Recapping part one’s claim that modernity has vastly expanded the means of violence while blurring its political rationality, prompting intellectuals to rationalize violence as manageable and creative, he explains Arendt’s central distinctions among power, strength, force, authority, and violence - arguing that politics is too often reduced to domination. Power, for Arendt, is the human ability to act in concert, belong to groups, and endure only while the group remains; violence is instrumental and can destroy the public world. Berkowitz discusses Arendt’s views on bureaucracy as “rule by nobody,” revolutionary situations when power disintegrates, and Arendt's famous claims that power is the essence of government: power needs legitimacy not justification, and violence can be justified but never legitimate. He distinguishes violence from totalitarian terror. Rate and review if you like this podcast!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• Urgent Futures with Roger Berkowitz | Bonus Episode 20.03.2026 1godz 54min

  We met the host of the Urgent Futures podcast, Jesse Damiani, last year, and were thrilled when he came to our 2025 conference on JOY: Loving the World in Dark Times. Afterwards, Roger Berkowitz sat down with Jesse at the Arendt Center to discuss finding joy in dark times and what Hannah Arendt can teach us today, and we're thrilled to share their conversation now on our Reading Hannah Arendt podcast! Rate and review if you like this podcast!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• On Violence I | Crises of the Republic 13.03.2026 50min

  In this episode of the podcast, Roger Berkowitz introduces Part One of Hannah Arendt’s 1969 essay “On Violence” from Crises of the Republic, situating it amid contemporary civil unrest, AI debates, and a new Middle East war. He outlines the essay’s three-part structure and argues that Arendt critiques “preachers of violence” by insisting that all collective action—not violence alone—can interrupt historical processes; violence instead appears when political power collapses. Part One begins from the 20th century’s wars and revolutions and the technological escalation of weaponry to a point where means overwhelm political ends, then criticizes scientifically minded “brain trusters” who replace thinking with calculation and hypnotize common sense. Berkowitz also reviews Arendt’s engagement with Clausewitz, Marx, Sartre, and Fanon, her account of 1960s student rebellions and the attraction of violence as a feeling of agency, and her controversial contrast between white student romanticism and Black Power’s more interest-grounded politics. Rate and review if you like this podcast!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.  
• The Case for Citizen Rule with Helene Landemore | Bonus Episode 06.03.2026 1godz 7min

  In this bonus episode, host Roger Berkowitz interviews Helene Landemore about her new book, Politics Without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule, with a focus on how her argument for citizens’ assemblies expands beyond epistemic “better decisions” to emphasize “civic love” and the bonding, trust, and transformation she observed in French assemblies and the Yellow Vests. They discuss Landemore’s choice of “love” over “friendship,” stories of participants forging deep connections, and how this emotional groundwork enables collective intelligence. Berkowitz highlights the book’s framing quotes from Buckley and Chesterton to probe democratic inclusion and bringing “shy people out,” while Landemore critiques elite-driven models of democracy. They also address the tension between expert-run assembly design and citizen rule, bipartisan skepticism, and Landemore’s Connecticut project on unequal local public services as a step toward permanent citizens’ assemblies and long-term institutional reform. Rate and review if you like this podcast!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• Civil Disobedience III | Crises of the Republic 27.02.2026 1godz 4min

  We continue our reading of Hannah Arendt’s essay “Civil Disobedience” from Crises of the Republic. Host Roger Berkowitz frames it through Mary McCarthy’s critique that civil disobedience is fundamentally conscientious, citing Socrates, Thoreau, and Gandhi. Berkowitz explains Arendt’s radical distinction between conscience (singular, inner dialogue) and politics (plural, public), arguing that grounding politics in morality risks tyranny and civil war, and that justice for Arendt is primarily the preservation of liberty for minorities against majorities. He outlines Arendt’s claim that the American “spirit of the laws” is consent understood horizontally as mutual promise, from which collective dissent follows, making civil disobedience coherent with American constitutionalism and a safeguard amid accelerating change. Arendt critiques ideological movements, links consent to voluntary association, and proposes civil disobedience as an institutional check when courts abdicate via the political questions doctrine, even calling for a constitutional amendment. "Consent implies dissent and not individual dissent, but collective dissent." Rate and review if you like this podcast!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.
• Civil Disobedience I-II | Crises of the Republic 20.02.2026 1godz 3min

  In this episode of the podcast, Roger Berkowitz introduces Hannah Arendt’s essay “Civil Disobedience” from Crises of the Republic. Framed by Eugene Rostow’s question about citizens’ moral relation to law in a society of consent, Berkowitz explains Arendt’s argument that civil disobedience is not an individual act of conscience or a legal test case, but a nonviolent political practice carried out publicly by an organized minority bound by shared opinion, especially when normal channels of change fail. The discussion challenges Arendt’s reading of Socrates and Thoreau, debates whether conscience and justice can be separated from politics, raises issues like the necessity defense and Calhoun’s “concurrent majorities,” and considers civil disobedience’s limits in polarized or totalitarian contexts. Rate and review if you like this podcast!   ABOUT: Produced by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, this podcast offers close readings of Arendt's books alongside engaging interviews and thought-provoking conversations. Released weekly, each episode provides listeners with a deeper understanding of Arendt's philosophy and its relevance to contemporary issues. Available on all major podcast platforms, listeners join us on a captivating intellectual journey through the mind of Hannah Arendt. New episodes every Friday morning! Join Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, as he discusses the works of German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975).    THE HANNAH ARENDT CENTER: The Hannah Arendt Center provides an intellectual space for passionate, uncensored, and nonpartisan thinking that reframes and deepens the fundamental questions facing our nation and our world. Become a member and enjoy several benefits including live access to our Virtual Reading Group that takes place most Fridays, and upon which this podcast is based: https://hac.bard.edu/membership/ More information can be found on our website: https://hac.bard.edu/ Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannaharendt/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hannaharendtcenteratbard/   THE HOST: Roger Berkowitz is the Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. He is the editor of On Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt (2024), The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, and co-editor of Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (2009), and Artifacts of Thinking: Reading Hannah Arendt’s Denktagebuch (2017). Berkowitz edits the HA: Yearbook and the weekly newsletter Amor Mundi. He is the winner of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.   EDITED BY: Alex Fox Tschan is the editor & co-producer of the “Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz” podcast. He is a working musician, creative producer, & audio/visual editor at his Brooklyn-based studio, The Fox & The Sound. With 25 years of recording & performance experience, Tschan’s recent projects range from indie-pop albums to audiobooks for McNally Jackson. A full spread of his work & collaborations can be found at pastelhell.com.