The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On. G.W.F. Hegel's The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), sec. 438-463. What constitutes society?  We're beginning a multi-episode arc here on the "Spirit" chapter of the book, so we learn what Spirit actually is and how it relates to individuals. We also talk about the two layers of law that make up society and how these can be in or out of harmony. Sponsors: Get three months free of online payroll and benefits software for small businesses at gusto.com/pel. Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel. The post Ep. 386: Hegel on Society (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. In our continuing Q&A with Graham, we engage him about Kantian Things-In-Themselves, complex things (that if divided, must be cut at the joints) vs. mere heaps, fact ontology, natural kinds, fictional objects, why philosophy is not knowledge, and philosophical style. Sponsors: Go to NerdWallet.com/PEL for trustworthy small business loans. Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel. Go to HelloFresh.com/pel10fm to Get 10 free meals + a free Zwilling Knife with your third box.   The post Ep. 385: Guest Graham Harman on Object vs. Continuum (Part Two) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Jerome is an LA composer/director/screenwriter who is involved in a lot of musical improv, so Mary and Mark interview him about that and about the function of art, plus songs for pets, a support group for people who sing all the time, and more. Hear more PvI. Jerome sticks around for the post-game, shared with you non-supporters just this once. Support the podcast to get this for most episodes, plus an ad free experience. Sponsor: Visit squarespace.com/LINSENMAYER (code LINSENMAYER) for a free trial and 10% off your first website or domain. The post PvI#112: Musical Zoom w/ Jerome Kurtenbach first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

When we don't know much about some genius playwright's life, why not make up some things based on the contents of his plays? Maybe put Shakespearean dialogue right in character's mouths, so the audience will say, "hey, I remember that line!" Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn, and Al talk through the Chloe Zhao Oscar-bait historical drama, Hamnet, and its source, the 2020 novel by Maggie O'Farrell. Is the film great, or just "grief porn"? Plus, Shakespeare in Love and other biopics. Get more at prettymuchpop.com. Get an ad-free experience, plus bonus talking for nearly every episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop for only the tiniest per-month financial pledge, or you can sign up directly with Apple Podcasts for a subscription for ad-free and bonus material for three of Mark's podcasts together on the Mark Lintertainment Podcasts Channel. Sponsors: Get started with Claude AI at claude.ai/pmp. Visit squarespace.com/PRETTY (code PRETTY) for a free trial and 10% off your first website or domain. The post PMP#215: Hamnet Dramatizes Shakespeare first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. An interview with Graham in light of his new book, Waves and Stones: On the Ultimate Nature of Reality, which elaborates and adds to issues that the gang previously studied in Object-Oriented Ontology. Graham argues that in addition to objects (which have parts), there are continua, such as space and time, and these continua are the links that allow otherwise forever separated objects to touch each other. Sponsors: Go to NerdWallet.com/PEL for trustworthy small business loans. Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel. The post Ep. 385: Guest Graham Harman on Object vs. Continuum (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Subscribe to get parts 1, 2, and 3 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. We consider chapter 2, "Aesthetics Is the Root of All Philosophy," where Harman describes how art can help us see behind the veil to things-in-themselves. Art is "theatrical" in that it's really the spectator who is standing in like an actor for the object encountered in art. Sponsor: Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data you need to take action for your health. The post Ep. 384: Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology (Part Three) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

We're discussing Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Comedy Central show that premiered in 1997 and has just finished its politically relevant 28th season, featuring the usual crew: Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn, and Al. How can a show be so juvenile yet so apparently well thought out?e get into the evolution of the show,, the equal-opportunity offensive humor, the use of child characters to deliver it, their ambiguous politics, the quick turnaround production, the excellent music, and more. Get more at prettymuchpop.com. Get an ad-free experience, plus bonus talking for nearly every episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop for only the tiniest per-month financial pledge, or you can sign up directly with Apple Podcasts for a subscription for ad-free and bonus material for three of Mark's podcasts together on the Mark Lintertainment Podcasts Channel. Sponsor: Visit squarespace.com/PRETTY (code PRETTY) for a free trial and 10% off your first website or domain. The post Pretty Much Pop #214: South Park Resurgence first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Vancouver philosophy prof Elijah was an evangelical Christian who turned liberal and then atheistic, and his latest book, "Unbelieving God: A Skeptics Guide," considers and debunks the various arguments for the existence of God. Mark and Mary chat with him about his journey and about the degree to which we should care about others' beliefs in this area so as to engage them in debate. In the course of this, as you'd expect, God makes a personal appearance (with Mary), and there's an aborted sketch about a brainwashing service. Hear more at philosophyimprov.com. Support the podcast and listen ad-free at philosophyimprov.com/support. Sponsor: Visit squarespace.com/LINSENMAYER (code LINSENMAYER) for a free trial and 10% off your first website or domain. The post PvI#111: God Smites Elijah Dann first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Subscribe to get parts 1, 2, and 3 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Continuing on Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (2018), finishing up ch. 1 (discussing what's so bad about reductionism) and moving to ch. 4, "Indirect Relations," which is about causality. Sponsor: Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel. The post Ep. 384: Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology (Part Two) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get previous and future installments of this podcast. We're within the Self-Consciousness chapter of The Phenomenology of Spirit, specifically starting at sec. 206 on the Unhappy Consciousness. This comes after the famous Master-Slave section as well as sections about Stoicism and Skepticism, and it depicts a dividedness within the self stemming from a faulty view of the relation between self and world. The post Closereads: Hegel’s “Unhappy Consciousness” first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On Harman's Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (2018). What counts as an entity in the world? Harman includes not just physical objects, but fictional objects, "sensual objects," and even events, which you might have thought were the alternative to objects. With this promiscuous ontology comes a strange theory of causality whereby no real object touches another real object, and an epistemology that involves us having no knowledge of real objects at all, though Harman's theory art gives us a back-door to make up for this deficiency, and philosophy itself ends up sharing in these properties of art. Sponsors: Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel. Go to HelloFresh.com/pel10fm to Get 10 free meals + a free Zwilling Knife with your third box. The post Ep. 384: Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

To kick off 2026, Mark and Mary talk about memory: memory care for the elderly, the relation between things and memories, what professional activities are worth preserving (improv performances?), being the tchotchke, womb nostalgia, puppets and percussion, plus a visit from the future. Hear more at philosophyimprov.com. Support the podcast and listen ad-free at philosophyimprov.com/support. Sponsor: Visit squarespace.com/LINSENMAYER (code LINSENMAYER) for a free trial and 10% off your first website or domain. The post PvI#110: Memories of 2026 w/ Mark and Mary first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Brutus is an honorable man, but Caesar is Caesar: at the beginning of Shakespeare’s play, his name is near the point of becoming synonymous with dictatorial power, and his every wish, as Mark Antony points out, has the substance of a command. For the rebels who oppose him, this identification of political authority with personal will is a perversion of republican institutions, and a form of corruption that justifies any means of putting an end to it, even if that means killing a friend. Yet Brutus’s conception of himself as unflaggingly virtuous is one he in fact shares with Caesar, and perhaps reflects the same authoritarian tendency, in grounding the legitimacy of political action in the character of a particular actor. Then again, it is not clear that democratic institutions will always forestall authoritarian tendencies, rather than enable the masses to sanction absolute power in a charismatic leader. Wes & Erin discuss Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” and its sustained reflection on how political power is constructed, located, and legitimated. The post (sub)TEXT: The Character of Authority in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get all previous and future installments of this podcast. Mark and Wes read and discuss the short 2007 article, "Can We Get Our Materialism Back, Please?" Here Bruno Latour complains that materialism as modern common sense conceives of it is actually idealist: It is a social construction. Instead, a "thick" concept of material things acknowledges and details their historical (i.e. material in the Marxist sense) origins. The post Closereads: Latour on Materialism first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Ontario guitarist Darren has released six albums of concise instrumentals since 2019, often using metal guitar tones and tropes, but with a great range of tones and often catchy melodies. We discuss "The Day Beneath Yesterday" (and listen at the end to "Dangerous Curves") from Perpetual Night (2025), "Broken Glass and Disappointment" from Thoughts and Scares (2022), and "The Earth is B Flat" from Lifting the Curse (2019). Intro: The title track from Wonders of the Invisible World (2020). More at darrenboyd.com. Hear more Nakedly Examined Music at nakedlyexaminedmusic.com. Support us at patreon.com/nakedlyexaminedmusic. The post NEM#245: Darren Michael Boyd’s Guitar Instrumentals Beyond Metal first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Finishing up Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, finally now turning to Freud's anthropological account of group membership. Sponsor: Get a $1/month e-commerce trial at shopify.com/pel. The post Ep. 383: Freud on Love and the Primal Horde (Part Two) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

The Netflix sci-fi/horror/teen series by the Duffer Brothers that started in 2016 has now finished with its sixth season, attempting to be both epic and sentimental. Who is this show actually aimed at? We talk about the initial appeal through various uneven seasons through the execution of the finale. Has the thing gone on so long that we can't make sense out of the continuity. Featuring, as usual, Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn, and Al. Get more at prettymuchpop.com. Get an ad-free experience, plus bonus talking for nearly every episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop for only the tiniest per-month financial pledge, or you can sign up directly with Apple Podcasts for a subscription for ad-free and bonus material for three of Mark's podcasts together on the Mark Lintertainment Podcasts Channel. Sponsor: Visit squarespace.com/PRETTY (code PRETTY) for a free trial and 10% off your first website or domain. The post PMP#213: Stranger Things Grown Familiar first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Subscribe to get parts 1 and 2 of this now, ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. On the second half of Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. We talk about the dual origins of group membership for Freud in personal love and in the supposed primitive society where a horde was led by a tyrannical father. Sponsor: Visit functionhealth.com/PEL to get the data you need to take action for your health. The post Ep. 383: Freud on Love and the Primal Horde (Part One) first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Sign up for Closereads at patreon.com/closereadsphilosophy to get all previous and future installments of this podcast. On Franz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, ch. 7, B. “The Negro and Hegel.” Hegel describes the abstract attainment of self-consciousness through recognition, but is this actually how it works in real slavery and its aftermath? ⁠Read along with us⁠, p. 216 (PDF p. Continue Reading … The post Closereads: Fanon on Hegel first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.

Rich runs the Dare to Fail improv school and is author of Improv Made Easier. He joins Mark and Mary to discuss contexts of failure, failing to meet your goals vs. "objective failure," how to react in an improv scene to some topic that's too offensive for you, graveyard humor vs. reverence. Featuring Steaks You Deserve, Robo-Carson, cancer torture, interactive cemetery, Sounds of Failure, and open-sourced MST3K. Hear more at philosophyimprov.com. Support the podcast and listen ad-free at philosophyimprov.com/support. Sponsor: Visit squarespace.com/LINSENMAYER (code LINSENMAYER) for a free trial and 10% off your first website or domain. The post PvI#109: Choose Your Own Failure w/ Rich Baker first appeared on The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast.