The Why Files: Plutarch, Philosophy, and Power with Alex Petkas

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

So when ancient philosophy meets real life, the result can be unexpectedly urgent. In this episode of The Why Files, Andrew Gentile talks with Alex Petkas, a Princeton-trained classics scholar who actually left academia to build the Cost of Glory podcast and turn Plutarch's heroes into a guide for modern life.

And what's fascinating is that Petkas's personal story is central here. He had a rough stretch at seventeen, and it was Marcus Aurelius and self-help reading that helped him change his habits and return to Greek Orthodox faith. He even explains how music theory led him to Attic Greek, and how the logic of Plato, Thucydides, and Aristotle eventually became a PhD.

Right, but for Petkas, classics was never just academic trivia. It was a way to understand character, discipline, and purpose. That idea really shows up in his teaching.

There's this incredible example he gives about a Fresno student who wrote about Plato's Republic and decided that dishonesty was bad for the soul, then stopped cheating on his wife. That kind of change is why the texts matter to him. He argues that education often treats this power as secondary, when in fact it can reshape families, careers, and even history.

As Petkas puts it, "I wish that contact with reality upon everyone." But the discussion then turns to the ancient pattern of philosophers and power. He traces it from Socrates and Plato to Aristotle tutoring Alexander the Great, and then to Dion of Syracuse, who tried to use Plato's ideas to reform a tyrant. And Plato went to Syracuse believing that, as he wrote, "the world's woes would not cease until philosophers became kings or kings learned to love wisdom." Instead, he found intrigue, manipulation, hostage politics, and betrayal. That same theme appears in the Theban coup. A group of exiles, linked to philosophical circles, returned home disguised as hunters and staged a daring counterattack against Spartan-backed rulers. One of the most famous lines comes when a messenger delivers a warning and a ruler dismisses it with, "Serious things for tomorrow." The rebellion succeeds, Epaminondas rises, Sparta declines, and the political power of philosophy becomes impossible to ignore. Caesar's world provides another example too. Petkas notes that the night before Caesar died, he discussed "the best way to die" without realizing one of the conspirators was at the table. Building on that point, Petkas connects this to Aristotle's idea of "zeal," or zelos, the desire to imitate what is noble rather than resent it. From there, the episode widens into the underworld of buried libraries.

He describes Herculaneum's carbonized scrolls, the Vesuvius Challenge, and the breakthrough that allowed researchers to read a scroll start to finish with AI. He even helped produce a documentary on the project with Ridley Scott's company. The final thread is philosophical and personal. Petkas argues for Stoicism as a useful gateway, but says he's more at home with Aristotle, especially his concept of "greatness of soul." He worries that modern culture has become suspicious of excellence, ambition, and magnanimity. For him, Plutarch matters because it shows that history is not just about facts. It's about character, courage, and the hard work of becoming worthy of a life.