That tale isn’t true! 
(Plato, Phdr. 243a/244a; Stesichoros fr. 32)

Human beings tell stories about themselves. “In the beginning,” at some moment in time, each one of us was born in some place in some part of this world. And then many things started happening to us that ultimately made us who we are today. How would we like our story to continue? How do we think it might end? And then what? Whatever meaning we find in our lives is built from the memories we have of our past and from how we answer such questions about our future. 

The stories that we tell about ourselves, and about others as well, are always embedded in bigger stories about the world in which we live. These may extend over many generations, over centuries or millennia, ultimately embracing the story of humanity or the planet or even the universe as a whole. The underlying questions are always the same. Where did it all begin? What happened then? What is going on? Where are we going? And why? What’s the point of it all, where is the plot?

This podcast series is about the big stories that we have been telling about Western Culture – where it came from, what it is, and where it could or should be going. Some of these stories are not just incredibly powerful but also extremely controversial today, because what’s at stake is nothing less than our core identity, the question of who we really are, where we belong, who we want to be. These stories are charged with deep emotions about the world in which we are living and about who, or what, is responsible for our current global predicament. Is The Story of the West a positive and hopeful story of civilizational progress toward a better global future for humanity and the planet? Or is it a dark and disastrous story about colonial domination and the arrogance of power, one that has brought us to the brink of global collapse? Should the West be proud of its achievements or ashamed of its crimes? Are we in trouble because we abandoned the path of reason and science, or is it rather because we abandoned the path of wisdom? Again, the foundational questions are always the same. What happened? How did we get here? What can we do to move forward in the best possible direction?

None of these questions can be answered convincingly unless we get the story right. And so that’s what this podcast series is all about. I will be telling a story about Western culture that is fundamentally different – this much I can promise – from any of the stories you have been told. And I will try to convince you that it is not just a different story but a much better one. First of all, ambitious as this may sound, I believe it will prove to be factually more accurate than its predecessors. Secondly, and for the same reason, it will do a better job at explaining not just what happened in the past but what is going on at a deep structural level in our current situation. Thirdly, it will contain crucial information that has been left out of the conventional stories – not just out of ignorance or negligence or lack of interest, but for a reason that goes much deeper. It happened because taking such information seriously would have caused those stories to lose their power.

That is the secret at the heart of Secrets of the West. It cannot be explained more precisely or simply disclosed in a few written words, on a screen or in a book, and so I will make no attempt to do so here. The secret will reveal itself only if you decide to go and find it yourself. To do so, you’ll have to embark on a journey of discovery through the jungles of history, from about 2500 years ago up to the present and even into the future, in search of a different and better story of where we come from and where we could go. I offer my services as your guide, if you’ll have me – free of charge. My only interest in this entire enterprise is to share with others what I have learned, from my own journeys of discovery over a lifetime of research, because I believe this knowledge is not just valuable but critically important to all of us at our present historical moment. If we would like the world to change for the better, we will need a different and better story. There are things that we need to understand but that most of us haven’t understood – not for any fault of their own but because nobody ever told them what they needed to know. 

So I’m going to tell you, as well as I can.

This tour through the jungle of history consists of a short introduction followed by eighteen rather demanding day trips, each one divided into two parts of about 2-2½ hours. The result will be a total of one plus thirty-six podcast episodes that will be made available (gradually from month to month over a period of several years) at the free tier of MarcoToday. You  must register to gain access to the series, but that is all – Secrets of the West is meant to be a public educational resource, so it is free of charge and will always remain so. At the end of each episode, you’ll find some literature suggestions that might prove helpful if you want to embark on further explorations of your own. As the series continues, I will occasionally add short written texts about relevant topics. You are welcome to comment on each podcast or join one of the occasional live Q&A sessions, and I’ll try to respond to serious questions as well as I can, hopefully resulting in discussions that open up new horizons of discovery. Next to Secrets of the West, of course you are more than welcome to explore all the other content on MarcoToday, such as podcasts, specials, articles, dossiers, and events. 

Enjoy!

Header image: Burning Man by RawWriter, digitally modified.