PlasticPills - Philosophy & Critical Theory Podcast
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New week, new book, and we're still on the hunt for a "post-Marxism" that hits. As usual, we were split on which ingredients we look for in the recipes of political theorists. This is a preview of our debate and all our arguments can be found at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
Erik and Pills duo on Althusser, reading "Contradiction and Overdetermination" from the book For Marx. We read this anticipating a couple episodes trying to figure out what "post-marxism" could mean, and we don't want to strawman, and this is one of my (Pills') favourite bites attempting to delineate what Marxist theory can and cannot aspire to. Get all the exclusive eps at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
n the 80s, Laclau and Mouffe decided they wanted to succeed Marxism with discourse stuff and some identity politics thrown in. We read their apologetic for Post-Marxism and while Post-Marxism is interesting as a direction, this version of it leaves something to be desired. Find the full episode and many more on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
Zizek allegedly wrote an article on the problems of wokeness and we argued about it. Reactionary? Transphobic? Trolling? We don't agree (with each other). The article: https://compactmag.com/article/wokeness-is-here-to-stay The rest of our episodes are available at www.patreon.com/plasticpills http://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
How many of the intellectual left were assassinated by the CIA? THE TRUTH WILL SHOCK YOU! Guy Debord's head inflates by the time he gets to his book written about his own book, Comments on the Society of Spectacle https://amzn.to/3lLEsLa then we argue over whether America or China is more spectacular, in this last episode of our series on the Situationist International. If you like this kind of content there's more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
We've been leading up to it, and here is the first spectacle of 2 on Debord's popular book (https://amzn.to/3HRp0pj). Stay tuned for future spectacles. Get the full series on Debord and the Situationist International at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
This is a preview on our episode covering the Situationist concepts of psychogeography and unitary urbanism, from back when we hoped for such things. Get the full episode and plenty more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
From 1957 to 1972, the Situationist International published a slew of articles, pamphlets, films and journals trying to bring theoretical Marxist debates into everyday life and change public consciousness. Today we read a few of these articles on topics including art, revolution, and the Los Angeles Watts riots to see what of their imagination might be recovered. Links to Articles: "The Revolution of Modern Art and the Modern Art of Revolution" https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/modernart.html "The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy" https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/decline.html Don't miss any episodes and support our work! https://patreon.com/plasticpills
We are starting a series on the theorists and artists of the Situationist International and their most well-known export: The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord. Get all exclusive episodes, bonus content, and help support our efforts at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
It's been a while since we released an exclusive episode, but I thought this that this episode is as pertinent as it ever was, so enjoy this release from two years ago, and Merry Christmas. It's a discussion of The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han (whom we had then recently discovered, by the sound of it). Find the book here: https://amzn.to/3sW85IL As always, get more of this every week by joining us at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
After our episode claiming that ChatGPT would destroy university education as it currently exists, we had to de-mythologize the dumb philosophy status quo of Silicon Valley and its weird mix of objectivism, stoicism, and effective altruism. References from https://www.kurzweilai.net/the-transhuman-singularity All episodes and exclusive videos at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
Not with a whimper, but with a bang: it's time for another crisis of the Humanities. Students, then teachers, then administrators will realize that AI has nullified our current evaluation methods in academia. In this episode we discuss the implications of OpenAI for essay writing, and how to prevent universities from devolving into AIs reading AIs. Get access to all the episodes and other media at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
What was a niche, inter-feminist fight in the 90s proves to be prophetically relevant this week. Pills and Victor narrate Martha Nussbaum coming at Judith Butler and almost split the difference. Get access to the full episode and many more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
We glance at Ranciere's Hatred of Democracy which suggests that hatred, not equality, is the animus of so-called democracies, and then debate whether or not the term even matters anymore. Get access to the full episode and many more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
It's a "party" for our 100th episode! Thanks for everyone who helped us reach this milestone by listening, guesting, supporting us on patreon, or whatever else, and special thanks to everyone who submitted voice clips. To find out what everyone's working on mentioned in this episode: Diego: @DiegoRuzzarin https://diegoruzzarin.com/Chris: @aufgehendeRest https://epochemagazine.org/56/the-influence-of-plato-on-schellings-living-cosmos-the-timaeus-the-freedom-essay-and-ages-of-the-world/ Matt: @MattPolProf https://areomagazine.com/2022/04/11/is-postmodernism-neo-marxist/ Victor: @victorbruzzone Pills: @plasticpills https://www.youtube.com/c/plasticpills Erik: No fixed address
Today we read Freud's nephew, the "Father of PR," Edward Bernays' book "Propaganda" and compare his theory and practice to other opinions on the purpose of propaganda, and how it compares to the later neo-marxist conception of "ideology" and whether theorizing about democracy matters at all when private interests run the state. Get all the episodes plus ~60 exclusive eps for just 4 bucks at www.patreon.com/plasticpills http://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
This resembles one of our FIGHT NIGHT episodes, except the whole of it is mediated by another philosopher, Richard Rorty. We give a bit of background to philosophical pragmatism before trying to get a read on what philosophy is for according to each of these three authors. Is it for self-help? Can it solve 'real' problems? Or is philosophy just cope? Find the public link on our patreon page https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
We covered this from every perspective we could get to, featuring some Spinoza, Marx, Benjamin, and corn among other references. Please enjoy us bumping into things and trying to figure out what a life's all about.
Find the whole text here https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5200 Find LitVic on Twitter! @HoratioVictor Always looking for more suggestions for the lit stuff, someone suggested this several months ago and we bore it out! We are joined by LitVic for a literature episode, looking at the puzzling tale of the guy who gets turned into a bug. Find the whole text here https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5200 Find LitVic on Twitter! @HoratioVictor Missed any eps? Want to support the podcast? join us at www.patreon.com/plasticpills
It's easy to get all the bonus eps and a lot besides on www.patreon.com/plasticpills
Brace yourselves for two and a half hours focused on Lacan's psychoanalytic method. We are joined partway through by Director/Auteur Richard Ledes, who has brought Lacan to the silver screen in a film we're proud to hype up: ADIEU LACAN. To watch the film, (which is pretty safely the only decent depiction of psychoanalysis we've ever seen) you can find it on Amazon and Apple in English, or go to https://www.richardledes.com/films to watch it in other langauges. If you enjoy our content, help us keeping making it by sharing, algo-boosting, rating or joining our Patreon to get the other half of the episodes https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills @plasticpills @victorbruzzone @podpill @ledesr
We turn our attention to the ur myth of civilizational collapse... and accidentally find political philosophy. Ah well. Get the other half of our episodes and support our continued efforts at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
It's more answers without questions, in part IV of our "Idea of Communism" series. We're getting the hot takes from Diego Ruzzarin (@DiegoRuzzarin) on what he thinks the Idea of Communism means for Latin America particularly, what's up with psychoanalysis, and the other stuff he's working on. Find our content mill over at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbV9HNmp0NXFReXNpcGtvMTI3b3hZUkx0MElsUXxBQ3Jtc0trSkE1d1FsOUNoX3RmYnRvdE9DWEVlWlUwZEhOUC1QdS15UXczZUVkNUhqaFRmdndudmlrcUFfU0NVZFNhRmRCT19rNzJ2TlBjT3gteldKTGJPYk1jM1BZTXVRNXB5d0RVWkRlcVJkaU12Z3M0dGpCdw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.patreon.com%2Fplasticpills&v=W54LESrNEbk
It's a political theory day, speaking with the Know Your Enemy podcast's Matthew Sitman, a former young conservative. Starting with some Roe v. Wade, we then dive deep into the intellectual right's endless fascination with Straussian philosophy (that's Leo Strauss), its underlying esotericism, and its connection to the American right's current political projects. There's a lot of namedropping (both of individuals and institutions) in this episode, so if there are outstanding questions you can tweet them at @matthewsitman, @mattpolprof, and @victorbruzzone
We have another heated discussion on the sense and meaning of the word "communism," this time from a Heideggerian communist. Get all the goods at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
This week we read the article by Susan Buck-Morss "The Second Time as Farce... Historical Pragmatics and the Untimely Present" from, again, The Idea of Communism https://amzn.to/3xZJjMw https://amzn.to/3xZJjMw All of our episodes and extra content are available for an inconsequential contribution to our group project at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
This is our first in the reading series on the Idea of Communism conferences, covering Alain Badiou. Our readings will come from The Idea of Communism I https://amzn.to/3xZJjMw, The Idea of Communism II https://amzn.to/3OkDYVd, and The Idea of Communism III https://amzn.to/3b8e3lb Join up with us on Patreon to get all of the upcoming episodes at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
Pills is graced by the presence of the eminent Deleuze scholar, editor, and translator, Daniel W. Smith. Dan explains how he came to Deleuzian philosophy, why it's important, and previews the exciting Deleuze Seminars project, which is almost finished translating 20 years of Deleuze's lectures into English. The Deleuze Seminars project can be explored here: https://deleuze.cla.purdue.edu/ Si vous pouvez comprendre le français, il y en a plus a la Bibliotheque Nationale de France https://gallica.bnf.fr/html///und/enregistrements-sonores/gilles-deleuze-cours-donnes-luniversite-paris-8-vincennes-saint-denis-1979-0?mode=desktop This interview was too good to keep to ourselves, but if you want to see more, including more exclusive Deleuze videos, you can support us at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
Reboots and renewals, bodies and images, city and pasture. The Pill Pod takes a crack at analyzing the desire structure of 80s nostalgia in popular media. New episodes and videos not found here are up at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills so check that out for more content.
Pills, Erik and Victor tackle the boogeyman: Lyotard's Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, with reference to Wittgenstein's language-game methodology. Is postmodernism when there are too many gay characters on TV? Or is it the legitimacy crisis of state knowledge precipitated by finance capital, the computerisation of information, and the subsumption of politics by public relations? Get the full episode and a ton more audio and video at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
