TAC Launches Weekly “Great Books & First Principles” Podcast!

“For a long time, I have heard from many of our alumni and friends that we should start a TAC podcast,” says Thomas Aquinas College Vice President and Dean Emeritus John J. Goyette. “Well, it’s finally happening!”

Today the College is launching The TAC Podcast, a weekly video and audio series examining the Great Books and the critical matters they contemplate. “Our goal is simple,” Dr. Goyette explains. “We want to give you a window into what we do here. We want to introduce you to the books we read, the questions we ask, the types of conversations we have, and the search for truth that motivates all our efforts.”

“We are having a serious but unscripted conversation about some of the greatest works of the greatest minds of Western civilization, discussing, wondering about, and sometimes critiquing the insights contained in these works.”

“The TAC Podcast” features two alumni who are also senior members of the College’s California teaching faculty, Dr. Christopher Decaen (’93) and Dr. John Finley (’99), serving as co-hosts. Each week, the scholarly duo considers a different work drawn from the College’s classical curriculum, discussing the reason for the book’s inclusion, its implications, and its enduring influence.

“In these episodes, we are having a serious but unscripted conversation about some of the greatest works of the greatest minds of Western civilization, discussing, wondering about, and sometimes critiquing the insights contained in these works,” says Dr. Decaen. “The curriculum at TAC is broad, and so are our conversations on the podcast: We discuss works of theology and works of natural science, works of literature and works of mathematics, and, of course, quite a bit of philosophy.”

Among the series’ first episodes are shows about the nature of the economic order in Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, the relationship between happiness and morality in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, the strengths and weaknesses of geocentric astronomy as propounded in Ptolemy’s Almagest, and Dostoevsky’s treatment of the problem of evil in The Brothers Karamazov. “I’m excited to have these conversations with Chris, one of the few tutors who has taught the entire, demanding program of studies at TAC,” adds Dr. Finley. “Hopefully, our conversations reveal ways in which these texts can form us, helping us see the world and ourselves with greater depth and appreciation.”

“Our hope is to start a dynamic, free-wheeling conversation, like those that characterize our classrooms, which carries on for many, many years.”

The show’s subtitle, “Great Books and First Principles,” reflects the aim of the College’s program of Catholic liberal education: to understand the truth of things by resolving to first principles. Occasionally, Dr. Goyette will fill in as host and interview alumni and outside guests about the Great Books and liberal education.

“The TAC Podcast” follows the success of The Mind and the Machine, a recently concluded, 10-part series that thoroughly examined the question, “Can AI think and reason?” hosted by New England tutor Dr. Michael Augros (’92). “Both series are an attempt to bring the work of the College to a broader audience,” says Dr. Goyette. “But whereas ‘The Mind and the Machine’ had a preset number of episodes and focused exclusively on one subject, ‘The TAC Podcast’ launches with no end date and a wide range of topics. Our hope is to start a dynamic, free-wheeling conversation, like those that characterize our classrooms, which carries on for many, many years.”

Episodes of “The TAC Podcast” can be found on the Thomas Aquinas College website, YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, and all major podcasting platforms. To receive email or text updates when new episodes become available, please complete the form below.

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