"Hell is other people." It is perhaps the most famous line in 20th-century French philosophy, penned by a man who stood just five feet tall but cast a massive shadow over modern thought. In this episode of pplpod, we examine the life of Jean-Paul Sartre, the existentialist giant who argued that because there is no Creator, human beings have no predetermined nature—that "existence precedes essence".

We trace Sartre’s journey from a fatherless childhood and a youth spent bullying victims at the École Normale Supérieure to his time as a prisoner of war in Stalag XII-D during World War II,,. We explore his rise as a public intellectual who famously refused the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature because he did not want to be "turned into an institution",.

Key topics in this episode include:

• The Philosophy of Freedom: Why Sartre believed we are "left alone, without excuse," and fully responsible for our own actions.
• Love and Controversy: His lifelong open relationship with feminist icon Simone de Beauvoir and the disturbing allegations regarding their "trio" relationships involving the sexual exploitation of female students,,.
• Radical Politics: From his support of the FLN in the Algerian War to his admiration for Che Guevara and his shift toward anarchism late in life,,.

Join us as we dissect the life of the chain-smoking philosopher whose funeral was attended by 50,000 mourners, .