What if your entire reality is just shadows on a wall? What if your news feed is Plato's Cave?

Drake and Holly explore Plato's timeless Cave allegory and its startling relevance to our digital age. From social media as shadow-puppetry to the painful journey of awakening, they reveal how we're all prisoners watching screens, mistaking shadows for reality - and why escape is both possible and terrifying.

Key Topics:

• Plato's Cave as prophecy for the digital age
• Social media as modern shadow-puppetry
• Why people resist awakening and attack truth-tellers
• The fractal nature of caves within caves
• The philosopher's duty to return
• How to recognise shadows in your own life
• Why escape might be about remembering, not moving

Featured Concepts:

The Cave: Plato's metaphor for the prison of ignorance we mistake for reality

Anamnesis: Learning as remembering what the soul already knows

Shadow-knowledge: Information mistaken for wisdom, opinions mistaken for truth

The Philosopher's Return: The duty to help others escape, despite their resistance

Essential Quote: "You're not the prisoner watching shadows; you're the light that makes seeing possible. The journey out isn't spatial but ontological. You don't move; you remember."

Practical Takeaway: Start noticing what you "know" that's actually just repeated opinion. Question your shadow-knowledge. Turn toward whatever seems most real, most luminous, most alive—even if you can't see the sun yet, you can always face toward greater light.

Key References:

• Plato, The Republic (Book VII)
• The Wachowskis, The Matrix
• Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent
• Buddhist concept of the bodhisattva vow

About Ab Immemorabili: Ancient wisdom meets modern minds. Join Drake & Holly for explorations of philosophy, consciousness, and transformation.

Contact: podcast@maaoot.org | www.maaoot.org

The wisdom you seek has always been within you. You're not learning it. You're remembering it.

How do you accomplish everything by doing nothing? Why does water defeat rock every single time?

Drake and Holly explore the ancient Daoist principle of wu wei - effortless action that achieves more than force ever could. Through stories from martial arts masters, quantum physics, and everyday life, they reveal how not-forcing might be the most powerful approach to life's challenges, from difficult conversations to creative breakthroughs.

Key Topics:

• The paradox of "when nothing is done, nothing is left undone"

• Why trying harder often makes things worse

• Flow states and peak performance without effort

• Water as the ultimate teacher of power through softness

• Aikido and the art of winning without fighting

• The difference between passive floating and skilled navigation

• How modern physics confirms ancient wisdom

Featured Concepts:

Wu Wei: Not mere non-action, but action without forcing—finding the natural way

Kairos: The opportune moment when action becomes effortless

Flow State: When peak performance happens through you, not from you

The Dao: The natural intelligence that governs all things

Essential Quote: "Water doesn't compete, yet it wins every competition. It doesn't force, yet nothing can resist it. It takes the lowest place, yet it nourishes everything above it."

Practical Takeaway: Notice where you're forcing in your life—relationships, work, creativity. Experiment with removing resistance rather than adding effort. Watch how the softest approach often yields the strongest results.

Key References:

• Laozi, Daodejing

• Zhuangzi, The Zhuangzi

• Alan Watts, Various lectures on Eastern philosophy

• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Research on flow states

About Ab Immemorabili: Ancient wisdom meets modern minds. Join Drake & Holly for explorations of philosophy, consciousness, and transformation.

Contact: podcast@maaoot.org | www.maaoot.org

The wisdom you seek has always been within you. You're not learning it. You're remembering it.

How can someone who knows nothing be declared the wisest person alive?

Drake and Holly unpack the paradox that birthed Western philosophy: the Oracle at Delphi declaring Socrates wisest precisely because he knew he knew nothing. From the Dunning-Kruger effect to Zen's beginner's mind, they explore why intellectual humility might be the highest wisdom, and how admitting ignorance opens doors that certainty keeps locked.

• Socrates' investigation of the Oracle's pronouncement

• The three Delphic maxims and their meanings

• Docta ignorantia across mystical traditions

• Dunning-Kruger effect and the confidence of ignorance

• Beginner's mind versus expert's mind

• The difference between grasping and receiving truth

• Why the ego defends false knowing so violently

Learned Ignorance (Docta Ignorantia): The wisdom that comes from knowing the limits of your knowledge

Beginner's Mind (Shoshin): Zen concept of approaching life with openness and freedom from preconceptions

The Elenchus: Socratic method of revealing ignorance through systematic questioning

"The self that's trying to know and the self that's being known are the same thing. It's like an eye trying to see itself. The very attempt creates a paradox."

Today, catch yourself claiming to know something you don't actually know - someone's motivation, future outcomes, or your own limitations. Practice saying "I don't know" and notice what possibilities open.

• Plato, The Apology

• The Cloud of Unknowing

• Byron Katie, The Work

• John Keats on "negative capability"

About Ab Immemorabili: Ancient wisdom meets modern minds. Join Drake & Holly for explorations of philosophy, consciousness, and transformation.

Contact: podcast@maaoot.org | www.maaoot.org

The wisdom you seek has always been within you. You're not learning it. You're remembering it.