# "Led by an Invisible Hand" | Adam Smith Complete Philosophy For Sleep

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/sleepyphilosophyradio-7603911/led-by-an-invisible-hand-adam-smith-complete-philosophy-for-sleep
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/sleepyphilosophyradio-7603911/led-by-an-invisible-hand-adam-smith-complete-philosophy-for-sleep.md
Podcast: [sleepyphilosophyradio](https://stenobird.com/podcast/sleepyphilosophyradio-7603911)
Published: 2026-06-26T21:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sleepyphilo/episodes/Led-by-an-Invisible-Hand--Adam-Smith-Complete-Philosophy-For-Sleep-e3kkt7j
Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO2873710137.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/sleepyphilosophyradio-7603911/episodes/led-by-an-invisible-hand-adam-smith-complete-philosophy-for-sleep
Duration seconds: 12475

## Resource

He wrote the book that built the modern world, then spent his last days making sure most of the rest was burned. Adam Smith was the gentle, absent-minded son of a Scottish customs official, and he became the most misread thinker in the history of economics. This episode follows the whole arc: the quiet port town of Kirkcaldy and the mother he never left, the miserable years at Oxford, the Glasgow lecture rooms where he was happiest, and the long silent decade by the sea in which he wrote the Wealth of Nations. Before the economics comes the moral philosophy the world forgot, the theory of sympathy and the mirror of society, the impartial spectator and the man within the breast, the little finger and the earthquake, the parable of the poor man's son who chases wealth and finds it empty. Then the great book itself, read slowly and in context, the pin factory, the butcher and the brewer, the invisible hand in all three places Smith actually used it, the merchants conspiring against the public, the critique of empire and slavery, and the duties he assigned to the state. Along the way come Hutcheson and Hume, the French economists in their Paris salons, the bank that collapsed while he wrote, the public letter on Hume's death that cost him more abuse than his attack on the whole commercial system, and the man of system who moves human beings like pieces on a board. Serious philosophy, told slowly and clearly, for listeners who want real ideas as they drift off. Please listen only in safe, restful contexts. SUPPORT THE SHOW Vote on what comes next: https://www.sleepyphilosophyradio.com/vote Becoming a member keeps these episodes coming and unlocks the members only library of exclusive book summary episodes, a growing shelf of great books read closely and explained in plain l…

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