Rousseau and the Abandoned Son cover art

Rousseau and the Abandoned Son

Rousseau and the Abandoned Son

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

Paris, 1765.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, author of the revolutionary educational treatise Émile, receives an unexpected visitor: a young man claiming to be one of the five children Rousseau abandoned to a foundling hospital.

In this imagined confrontation, philosophy meets the human cost of living by ideas rather than love.

A meditation on the gap between theory and practice, and whether brilliant ideas can redeem terrible actions.

About Thresholds of Thought

What if we could hear the conversations philosophy never recorded? The doubts philosophers never confessed? The moments that shaped ideas but left no trace?

Each episode explores these hidden hinges of intellectual history through imagined-but-plausible dialogues, letters, and confessions—rigorously researched, philosophically grounded, and designed to honor both historical context and human complexity.

Production & Transparency

This series combines human philosophical direction (Dr. David Calvo Vélez) with AI creative tools: Claude (script), ElevenLabs (voice), Suno (music), Adobe Firefly (sound), Midjourney (cover art).

Every episode is human-curated, edited, and quality-controlled. Not automated content—AI-augmented philosophical storytelling where technology serves a human creative vision.

Final production: David Calvo Vélez in Audacity.

Contact: david.calvo@gmail.com

No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.