FIRST, BLAME COVID.
Like many podcasts, HOTEL BAR SESSIONS was born of the pandemic lockdown, when most people were feeling a bit more philosophical than normal and when everyone missed going to bars. This was an especially tough time for professional philosophers, whose bread and butter is face-to-face interactions, arguments, and debates. Original HBS co-host Leigh M. Johnson had already dipped her toes in the podcasting waters with a limited podcast series called "Black Mirror Reflections," during which she invited experts from various fields to talk with her about the moral, philosophical, and technological significance of one episode of the television series "Black Mirror." Alas, there were only so many episodes of "Black Mirror" to discuss, but by the time that podcast reached its end, she had already caught the podcast "bug."
HOTEL BAR SESSIONS' INITIAL POUR:
Leigh reached out to a couple of her friends at the time, Ammon Allred and Shannon Mussett, to ask if they'd be interested in co-hosting another podcast. It only took a little while to determine the vibe of this new creative endeavor: we wanted to try to recreate the feel of the conversations that academics have at the end of a long conference day when they met up at the hotel bar. The current podcast's name quite literally served itself up as a shot.
Allred and Mussett kicked this venture off, but couldn't stick with it for more than one season, so Leigh decided to reach out to other potential co-hosts to see if it had legs.
The Rick Lee, Charles Peterson, and Leigh M. Johnson Era
After securing fantastic new co-hosts for Season 2 (Rick Lee and Charles Peterson), the HBS crew quickly learned that we weren't just shouting into a void. Real human people were listening! So, the three of us committed to the long, hard, and often exasperating work of trying to truncate our learning curve. We got better at editing and production. We honed our "brand" and identified our "voice." We established a social media presence and, perhaps most importantly, we began calling in favors from some of our most prominent intellectual friends.
In Seasons 2-5, HOTEL BAR SESSIONS podcast hosted conversations with some real heavyweights: Eddie Glaude, Jr., Charles Hughes, Kate Devlin, Joel Michael Reynolds, Linda Alcoff, A.O. Scott, Stewart Motha, Regina Rini, and Charles McKinney,
In Seasons 2-5, HOTEL BAR SESSIONS podcast hosted conversations with some real heavyweights: Eddie Glaude, Jr., Charles Hughes, Kate Devlin, Joel Michael Reynolds, Linda Alcoff, A.O. Scott, Stewart Motha, Regina Rini, and Charles McKinney,
The Jason Read Era (still with Rick and Leigh)
Nothing good lasts forever, and we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Charles Peterson as a co-host after Season 5, as he took on more administrative responsibilities at Oberlin College. (We still miss you, Charles!) Rick and Leigh went on the hunt for another co-host, though, and (thanks in part to Charles) HBS struck gold for a second time!
Jason Read took his seat at the hotel bar as our newest co-host starting in Season 6 and (although he wouldn't take credit for it) our listenership almost tripled every season he was with us.
These were the years when we all felt that HBS really hit its stride. We had found our voice and our niche in an increasingly crowded "philosophy podcast" space, and we were settling into our saddle quite nicely. The chemistry between Rick, Jason, and Leigh was as natural as it was genuine, and the product of that chemistry resulted in some of our best episodes ever. Thanks to Jason, we also generated two new "structural" elements for HBS: we started each season with a "Trip to the Movies" (in which we delve into the philosophical significance of a film) and we ended each season with a deep-dive into a "Philosophical Text or Idea" that we suspected the general public may be noddingly familiar with, but wanted to know more about. Those two staples of HBS seasons are and will remain Jason's legacy.
Jason announced that he was stepping down from his barstool at the end of Season 9, much to our chagrin, but he remains a core part of what made HOTEl BAR SESSIONS what it is today.
These were the years when we all felt that HBS really hit its stride. We had found our voice and our niche in an increasingly crowded "philosophy podcast" space, and we were settling into our saddle quite nicely. The chemistry between Rick, Jason, and Leigh was as natural as it was genuine, and the product of that chemistry resulted in some of our best episodes ever. Thanks to Jason, we also generated two new "structural" elements for HBS: we started each season with a "Trip to the Movies" (in which we delve into the philosophical significance of a film) and we ended each season with a deep-dive into a "Philosophical Text or Idea" that we suspected the general public may be noddingly familiar with, but wanted to know more about. Those two staples of HBS seasons are and will remain Jason's legacy.
Jason announced that he was stepping down from his barstool at the end of Season 9, much to our chagrin, but he remains a core part of what made HOTEl BAR SESSIONS what it is today.
The David Gunkel Era (Rick and Leigh still hanging around!)
For the THIRD time, now after Jason's departure, Rick and Leigh managed to win the barfly lottery again! Starting in Season 10, David Gunkel joined HOTEL BAR SESSIONS as the newest co-host. David was a previous guest on the podcast waaaay back in its infancy stage (for our Season 2 episode on "Robots") and was happy to help steer our conversations going forward.
David and Rick share a lot of Polish connections, Leigh and David share a lot of robot connections, and Rick and Leigh still share, well, the last 9 seasons of podcasting together! This pivot to a more intentionally interdisciplinary approach to our topics and questions was an exiciting development for HOTEL BAR SESSIONS, especially combined with David's almost inevitable push to force us to think more carefully about the future.
David and Rick share a lot of Polish connections, Leigh and David share a lot of robot connections, and Rick and Leigh still share, well, the last 9 seasons of podcasting together! This pivot to a more intentionally interdisciplinary approach to our topics and questions was an exiciting development for HOTEL BAR SESSIONS, especially combined with David's almost inevitable push to force us to think more carefully about the future.
The Devonya Havis Era (Rick and Leigh definitely not leaving the podcast at this point!)
The podcast enjoyed massive growth throughout 2023-24 and we were excited to begin a new chapter. Beginning in Season 12 (January 2025), we welcomed our new co-host Dr. Devonya N. Havis to the hotel bar. (Devonya was also a previous guest on the podcast and is the perfect person for this new era of HBS.) Specializing in critical race theory, disability studies, and phenomenology, Devonya brought keen and sobering new insights to the conversation-- and this time, we mean *literally* sober!-- with her characteristic warmth, wisdom, and humor.
The Talia Mae Bettcher Era... (you guessed it, still with Rick and Leigh!)
The United States underwent dramatic changes beginning in January 2025 with the re-election of Donald Trump. HBS also underwent its own changes, as we brought on our new co-host Dr. Talia Mae Bettcher, a leading scholar of trans philosophy, in Season 13. The co-hosts quickly realized that-- if the podcast was going to continue to show the relevance of philosophy in our everyday lives-- we needed not only address what exactly it was that we were doing (as we did in our conversation with Kate Manne on "Public Philosophy") but also tackle the toughest questions head-on. Season 13 episodes included both pop-cultural tech topics like "Doomscrolling," "Cringe," and "NPC Energy," as well as pressing socio-political topics like "The Future of the University," "Sovereignty," "Private Parts" (on anti-trans discourse and legislation), "The War on Radical Ideology," and Arenndt's concept of the "banality of evil."
TWO new Co-hosts!
One-third of the way through Season 14, Hotel Bar Sessions began a new chapter with not one, but TWO new co-hosts: Jennifer Kling and Bob Vallier. (For better or worse, Leigh's still around as a co-host... because somebody has to edit this thing!) Fortunately for Bob and Jen, their barstools were already-warmed-up by a stellar cast of previous co-hosts. As a philosopher of war and peace, Jen is bringing with her a perspective we all need to hear in the current political climate. And Bob-- a Merleau-Ponty scholar living in Paris, an occasional stand-up comic, and someone who has been a fixture of the Continental Philosophy/SPEP world for decades-- is bringing not only his humor and insight, but also his first-hand experience as an "alt-academic" to the hotel bar. This should be an exciting new chapter for the podcast and (hopefully!) all of its listeners!
As ever, HOTEL BAR SESSIONS remains committed to the ideals we started with:
Philosophy is best done in conversation (and the best philosophical conversations happen at a bar!). Questions of meaning and value matter to all of us. Philosophy is for everyone. It is position professional philosophers' responsibility to translate discipline-specific jargon into the vernacular. (Relatedly, we also believe that if philosophers can't explain themselves in plain language, they probably don't know what they're talking about!) There are NOT "two sides" to everything... and, even when there are, one side is usually wrong. And, finally, what distinguishes us (humans) from toasters and trees is that we can make judgments about which one of those sides is wrong.