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The Partially Examined Life

philosophy podcast

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ18816071 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Partially Examined Life is a podcast and downloadable audio series about philosophy. It is self-described at the beginning of many episodes as "a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living, but then thought better of it." The most frequent participants are Mark Linsenmayer, Seth Paskin, Wes Alwan, and Dylan Casey. The show also sometimes brings on experts to discuss particular topics. The podcast's website also hosts other podcasts: music-based Nakedly Examined Music, Phi Fic: Truth in Fiction, Combat & Classics and Constellary Tales.

History

The show came together as the brain child of Mark Linsenmayer who reached out to Seth Paskin and Wes Alwan to do the show in the format of a podcast. Mark, Seth, and Wes had been classmates at the University of Texas while earning their master's degrees in Philosophy. The first full episode, "The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living," aired (became downloadable) on May 12, 2009. Dylan Casey later joined the program as a regular after previously having been a frequent guest. Dylan also manages The Partially Examined Life website. In 2024, they released a companion book of the same name to coincide with the show's 15th anniversary.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Partially Examined Life” is philosophy podcast. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Partially, Examined and Life, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2009, 2024—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Partially, Examined and Life is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “philosophy podcast” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18816071. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2009 and 2024.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Partially Examined Life” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.