Hotel Bar Sessions
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Hotel Bar Sessions
A podcast where the real philosophy happens.
Son Epizodlar
231 epizod
Sophistry
Bad arguments are nothing new, so why does it appear as if they have become so pervasive in public discourse?
When we watch so-called "debate"...
The Enshittification of... everything?
This week’s episode takes Cory Doctorow’s term “enshittification” and uses it as a diagnostic for late-capitalist life, not just for tech platforms bu...
Quiet Resistance (with Tamara Fakhoury)
Many of us think of resistance as "protest," communicative acts aimed at fighting injustice, and done with others in public. But what happens when tha...
Therapy
What does it mean to be “well-adjusted” in a society that might itself be profoundly unwell? And when we use therapy-speak to explain everything from...
Furious Minds (with Laura K. Field)
This week’s episode of Hotel Bar Sessions brings political theorist Laura K. Field (author of Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right) into th...
Imagination (with Stephen T. Asma)
The imagination has regularly been subordinated to so-called "rational" or "scientific" models of thought. This week, we're joined by Stephen T. Asma...
Comedy
This week’s episode of Hotel Bar Sessions on the topic of comedy is a gut buster, not least because one of your co-hosts pretends to be a stand-up co...
The Hills We Die on
How do we choose the "hills" that we're willing to die on? Are we actually willing to DIE on them? If not, what would it take to convince us to climb...
Meet the NEW Co-Hosts!
How do we choose the "hills" that we're willing to die on? Are we actually willing to DIE on them? If not, what would it take to convince us to climb...
Eternity
What does it mean to speak of eternity? Is eternity best understood as infinite time, stretching endlessly forward and backward, or as something wholl...
Crowds and Mobs
What makes the difference between a crowd singing in unison at a concert and a mob storming the gates of power?
In this episode, the hosts take...
Free Will (with Mark Balaguer)
When we make choices, are these choices free? That is, are we able to choose one thing over another, to do one thing rather than another, independent...
How The Manosphere Killed Cool (with Robin James)
This week, we're joined by scholar, editor, and philosopher, Robin James, to talk about her provocative recent essay entitled “We’re through being Coo...
The "Expertise" Crisis
Today, there seems to be an intense distrust of experts in all sorts of fields. From medical experts in the Centers for Disease Control and the Depart...
MINIBAR: Cancer
Hotel Bar Sessions is on it's regular "break" between seasons, but we're offering up these "minibar" sessions from our co-hosts (individually) in in t...
MINIBAR: In Defense of Metaphysics
Hotel Bar Sessions is on it's regular "break" between seasons, but we're offering up these "minibar: sessions from our co-hosts (individually) in in t...
MINIBAR: Living in Occupied D.C.
Hotel Bar Sessions is on it's regular "break" between seasons, but we're offering up these "minibar: sessions from our co-hosts (individually) in in t...
Arendt's "Banality of Evil"
This week, the HBS hosts discuss Hannah Arendt’s concept of the banality of evil.
In 1961, Adolf Eichmann was put on trial in Israel for crimes...
Major Life Changes
In this week’s episode, the HBS hosts talk about positive and negative major life changes.
While change is a part of life, major c...
Doomscrolling
We all doomscroll. Often late at night, we scroll through social media or news feeds for a “minute,” which turns into hours. We seem to be chasing bad...
NPC Energy
Are you even playing the game?
In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, co-hosts Rick Lee, Talia Mae Bettcher, and Leigh M. Johnson dive deep into...
Public Philosophy (with Kate Manne)
Is public philosophy just academic outreach in a new outfit, or is it something else entirely? In this episode, we're joined by Kate Manne (Cornell Un...
Silence
What do we mean when we talk about silence? Is it the absence of sound—or something more complicated? In this episode, we dig into the many meanings o...
The War on "Radical Ideology"
This week, we're unpacking the Trump administration’s war on so-called “radical ideology”—a campaign targeting what it calls “gender ideology” and “e...
Sovereignty
Who or what rules the world today? And by what right?
In this episode, your favorite philosophers-on-tap—Talia Bettcher, Rick Lee, and Leigh M....
Interpretation
The central debate this week? Whether interpretation goes “all the way down.” Leigh stakes out a position, arguing that even the simplest acts of clar...
Panic Now? (with Ira Allen)
Is it time to panic? In this episode, we invite rhetorician Ira Allen to the bar to explore the possibility that, yes, it might be—and that panic isn’...
Private Parts
How can we talk, or think, about "private parts" in a philosophical way?
In this provocative and unexpectedly tender episode of Hotel Bar Sessio...
The Future of the University
Can the University be saved? Should it be saved?
In this sobering and timely episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, co-hosts Leigh M. Johnson, Rick Lee...
Cringe
In this episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, your favorite philosophical trio—Leigh Johnson, Rick Lee, and Talia Bettcher—dive headfirst into the squirmy, c...
Tragic Temporality (with Sean Kirkland)
Sean Kirkland unpacks living on the edge of "was" and "not yet."
What if time isn’t just something we move through—but something that shapes us,...
What is Philosophy?
In this season-opening episode of Hotel Bar Sessions, Rick Lee and Leigh Johnson welcome new co-host Talia Mae Bettcher, a leading voice in trans phil...
REPLAY: Zionist ressentiment, the Left, and the Palestinian Question (with Zahi Zalloua)
What can Frantz Fanon and Friedrich Nietzsche teach us about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict?
[NOTE: This episode originally aired on October 1...
REPLAY: Trans Philosophy (with Talia Mae Bettcher)
The HBS co-hosts learn why it's not just about pronouns.
[This episode originally aired in November 2023.]
In recent years, society...
Fearless Speech (Foucault on Parrhesia)
Who, if anyone, is speaking truth to power these days?
In the Season 12 finale of Hotel Bar Sessions, we take a deep dive into Michel Foucault’s...
Are Universals "Real"?
Do universals “exist”? Are they real? And why are we talking about porcupines so much?!
In this episode, Leigh, Rick, and Devonya dive headfirst...
Totalitarianism (with Peg Birmingham)
Can democracy be saved from totalitarianism?
In this episode, the co-hosts are joined by political theorist Dr. Peg Birmingham (DePaul Universi...
El roto, Lo huachafo, Lo jodido (with Carlos Amador)
Carlos Amador on Latin American aesthetics, precarity, and what it means to be completely f*cked.
In this episode, the HBS crew welcomes Carlos...
The Establishment Clause
This week, we're pulling up a seat at the intersection of faith, governance, and democracy as we take on the Establishment Clause—that little First Am...
DEI Then and Now (with Paul Breines)
Who's afraid of DEI? And why?
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) initiatives have become institutional mainstays in corporat...