Episodes

  • Sigmund Freud - Mourning And Melancholia
    Mar 7 2025

    This week we're reading Freud's wild essay on mourning and melancholia. Freud's theory is that mourning results from a loss in the world, whereas melancholia results from a loss in the ego. We discuss what that means, as well as some of Freud's more dicey claims. Enjoy!

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    1 hr and 20 mins
  • Herbert Marcuse - The Problem of Violence And The Radical Opposition
    Feb 28 2025

    This week we're delving into the current political situation in the U.S. We're discussing concepts such as repressive desublimation and class consciousness. Enjoy!

    Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Emil Cioran - Aphorisms
    Feb 21 2025

    This week we each chose five of our favorite aphorisms from Romanian philosopher Eil Cioran. Most are only one sentence in length. Enjoy!

    Photo by Ross Sneddon on Unsplash

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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Walter Benjamin - Unpacking My Library
    Feb 14 2025

    This week we read Walter Benjamin's essay on collecting. We differentiate between collecting proper, and the strange results of commodity fetishism. Enjoy!

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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Interpassivity: The Aesthetics of Delegated Enjoyment - Robert Pfaller
    Feb 7 2025

    This week, we're discussing how many subjects it takes to enjoy a work of art. You have the spectator, sure, but you also have the author and the "main character." We'd also add that there's a more mysterious figure called "the muses" who experience the whole of the work, knowing that you, being tired and existing from a single vantage point, are incapable of seeing the whole. Enjoy!

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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Louis Althusser - Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses
    Feb 1 2025

    Join us this week as we tackle Louis Althusser's seminal essay "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses". We discuss the difference between ISAs (Ideological State Apparatuses) and RSAs (Repressive State Apparatuses), interpellation, and Althusser's relevance today.

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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Maurice Merleau-Ponty - Phenomenology of Perception, The Body (2/2)
    Jan 17 2025

    This week, we're finishing up Merleau-Ponty's famous section on The Body. We discuss sexuality, identity, and psychoanalysis, all through the lens of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology

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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Maurice Merleau-Ponty - Phenomenology of Perception, The Body (1/2)
    Jan 3 2025

    This week, we're discussing the first half of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's famous section on the Body from his Phenomenology of Perception. This is a wide-ranging text that outlines how the body fits into the phenomenology of the world. Enjoy!

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    1 hr and 19 mins