Punk is a strange phenomenon. We associate it with the music born out of the economic stagnation of the mid-1970s; with the defiance of the ornate rock gods who had survived the 1960s. But if you think about it, punks have been with us since the beginning of time. Thomas Paine, Galileo, and Steve Jobs were punk too.

So with that in mind, the first punk wasn’t Sid Vicious or Joe Strummer, it was an annoying philosopher who roamed the streets of Athens and questioned everything: Socrates. He mocked the powerful, insulted the gods of the city, and corrupted the youth.

In this episode of Breaking History, I’m diving into how the father of philosophy was the first punk. Without others like him, our culture, our politics, our society stagnate and die.

We’ll walk the streets of ancient Athens like it’s 1977 London, crash the trial that silenced him, and ask what it really means to live—and die—for the truth.