EPISODES - Hotel Bar Sessions podcast

Book-cover style art reading “Jacques Derrida: To Think Is to Say No” beside a painted portrait of a white-haired man

MINIBAR: Derrida’s First Lecture Series (with Bob Vallier)

A sneak peak into Jacques Derrida’s first lecture, just recently published in English.

Stylized blue painting of a man in a headband looking down at an aquarium where fish swim, as if he were underwater

Episode 240: David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water”

On the power of a liberal arts education.

A weary man slumps in a plastic chair in a crowded DMV-style waiting room under a “Now Serving” display

Episode 239: Boredom

Three philosophers try to be interesting about boredom.

Smiling man in a blue turban, painted against a golden landscape with a classical bust, temple ruins and a lakeside palace

Episode 238: Sikh Ethics (with Keshav Singh)

On the many ways Sikh ethics both correct and expand Western ethical theory.

Collage poster titled “Confidence Men: Peterson, Musk, Tate and the Duping of the American Mind” in red, white and blue

Episode 237: Confidence Men (with Landon Frim)

On Jordan Peterson, Elon Musk, Andrew Tate… and other enemies of truth.

Model in an oversized pink outfit with sculpted pom-pom hair, posed against a solid pink backdrop

Episode 236: Fashion

Your closet feels like self-expression, but it may function like a subscription service.

Classical painting of a crowd of toga-clad Roman senators attacking a man on the floor of the Senate

Episode 235: Betrayal

Et tu? The wound that outlives the wounding.

Newspaper-clipping collage with the word “QUEER” in large black letters, partly covered by a torn black strip

Episode 234: The Q Word

“Normal” was never all that normal to begin with.

Dark painting of a lone figure pushing a huge boulder up a steep slope under storm clouds

Episode 233: Failure

Can you fail at life, or only in it?

Portrait of a bald man in glasses looking upward, tinted in purple tones

Episode 232: Multi/Race/Less/Ness (with Jon Ivan Gill)

How do we process the trauma of racial identification?

Silhouette of one climber reaching down to pull another up a rock ledge against an orange sunset

Episode 231: Trust

What does it mean to earn, lose, and re-gain trust?

A single white candle, just snuffed out, with a curl of smoke rising against a dark blue background

Episode 230: The Right to Die

The right to life gets a constitution. The right to die gets a euphemism.

Vintage tin sign reading “Bar Rules: If you’re still standing, you need another drink” with a beer mug and cocktail

Episode 229: Rules

From Robert’s Rules to the rule of law: why every rule needs a rule about the rule.

Man in glasses and a green polo shirt, arms crossed, in front of an abstract painted background

Episode 228: Deleuze and the Philosophy of Sense (with Nathan Widder)

Deleuze on sense, nonsense, and the encounters that punch us in the mouth.

Smiling person with short dark hair in a blue blazer, standing outdoors in front of green foliage

Episode 227: Disorienting Cisgender (with Perry Zurn)

The word everyone’s fighting about has a history almost no one knows.

Comedic film still of men in old-fashioned costumes, one in a toga, gathered around a soccer ball on a pitch

Episode 226: Sports

How do sports contribute to our moral and political education?

Digital art of an eagle-headed figure in a suit pointing a laser at glowing orbs labeled “Mythos” and “Fable,” with the U.S. Capitol behind

MINIBAR: Mythos, Fable, Farce (with Leigh M. Johnson)

A lesson in how NOT to think about AI risk.

Gallery installation of a large, tangled black sculpture hanging on a white wall above a polished floor

MINIBAR: Art and Phenomenology (with Bob Vallier)

Your body already knows what art is.

Cartoon of a long, impatient line of people while a man strains to push open a door clearly marked “PULL”

MINIBAR: Hanlon’s Razor (with Jennifer Kling)

On attributing to malice what is best attributed to stupidity.

Black-and-white image of a circular panopticon prison, with a central watchtower surrounded by tiers of cells

Episode 225: Foucault’s “Panopticism”

Visibility is a trap.

Archery target on a blue background with several red-fletched arrows that have missed the bullseye

Episode 224: Goodhart’s Law

A 1975 footnote about central banks turns out to explain almost everything wrong with late capitalism.

Office manager in a blue shirt, suspenders and tie holding a coffee mug in a cubicle-filled office

Episode 223: A**holes

Why are there suddenly so many of them?

Close-up of a hand holding a phone showing a map app with directions and location pins

Episode 222: De-Skilling

What happens to a skill when you stop needing it?

Screenshot of a social media post from Donald J. Trump’s account dated April 7, 2026, warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight”

Episode 221: War Crimes

A philosophical discussion about the worst we do to one another.

Black-and-white photo of a brawl at a bar counter, with several men grappling and stools knocked aside

Episode 220: Violence

We think we know what violence is. We don’t.

Close-up of a glossy sphere swirled with orange, blue and teal colors, like a small planet

Episode 219: Possible Worlds

What philosophers do with worlds that don’t exist — and whether it helps.

Two older men in glasses sitting up in a shared bed, one reading “Political Philosophy” and the other “Dialectic of Enlightenment”

Episode 218: Strange Bedfellows: Adorno and Strauss (with Jeffrey Bernstein)

Strauss and Adorno walk into a bar. Turns out they both hate fascism.

Psychedelic portrait of a long-haired man in sunglasses, painted in swirling rainbow colors

Episode 217: Philosophy on Drugs (with Justin Smith-Ruiu)

The Western philosophical tradition built itself on sobriety — but what if that was the wrong call?

Moody portrait of a bald man in a dark coat and patterned scarf against a black background

Episode 216: Against the Future (with Simon Critchley)

Why is Simon Critchley “against” the future?

Portrait of a smiling woman with dark hair pulled back, against a dark purple background

Episode 215: Family “No Contact” (with Kiran Bhardwaj)

Is family “estrangement” a defensible choice?

Man with crossed arms seated at a wooden café table on a sunny European street, a spritz cocktail beside him

Episode 214: Food (with Bob Valgenti)

Philosopher and culinary professor Bob Valgenti explains how the history of humanity is the history of gastronomy.

Masked, helmeted officers in tactical gear marked “POLICE” standing in a city street

Episode 213: Anonymity

Why must state power wear a mask?

Black-and-white photo of the Hindenburg airship bursting into flames above its mooring mast

Episode 212: Catastrophic Philosophy

How does philosophy respond to catastrophes? And how does it generate them?

Steampunk-style artwork of a human head full of gears surrounded by an elephant, octopus, dolphin, owl and other creatures

Episode 211: Intelligence(s)

What counts as intelligence?

Sepia illustration of a vintage desktop computer, floppy disks and headphones, with circuit lines spreading to one side

MINIBAR: Algorithmic Nostalgia (with Leigh M. Johnson)

Why do AI’s fabricated memories “feel” so true?

Illustration of a woman calmly working through paperwork at a desk while offices burn and coworkers panic around her

MINIBAR: Uncivil Obedience (with Jennifer Kling)

What happens when we follow the letter of the law, while refusing to cooperate with its spirit?

Expressionist painting of a curled-up figure in orange and green, head buried in pain

MINIBAR: Pain (with Bob Vallier)

What can the body, in pain, teach us about the hilarity of our own finitude?

Small yellow bird perched inside a domed birdcage, backlit by warm light

Episode 210: Marilyn Frye’s “Oppression”

How to mark the distinction between being “inconvenienced” and being oppressed.

Pile of old sepia family photographs with an antique pocket watch on top

Episode 209: Nostalgia

What does nostalgia fondly remember, and what might it dangerously enable?

Man seated at a folding table on a campus plaza behind a sign reading “Change My Mind”

Episode 208: Sophistry

What to do when “just asking questions” is not that.

Red poster-style drawing of an angry cartoon computer with a pile of poop coming out of it

Episode 207: The Enshittification of… everything?

How late capitalism turns every click into crap.

Climber in a blue helmet with a coiled rope standing among rocky desert cliffs

Episode 206: Quiet Resistance (with Tamara Fakhoury)

What can Palestinian rock climbers teach us about resisting differently?

Sepia scene of a woman reclining on a therapist’s couch as an older man in a suit hands her a pill bottle

Episode 205: Therapy

What problems arise when “therapy speak” becomes our default social vocabulary?

Classical painting of a man clutching his head as winged female figures swirl around and pursue him

Episode 204: Furious Minds (with Laura K. Field)

How do we tame the fury of today’s “furious minds”?

Man in a dark coat and scarf standing outdoors under a cloudy sky

Episode 203: Imagination (with Stephen T. Asma)

How can we recover not only the power, but the importance, of imagination for philosophy?

Yellow laughing comedy mask and blue weeping tragedy mask on a teal background

Episode 202: Comedy

What’s so funny about comedy, anyway?

Silhouette of a figure planting a skull-and-crossbones flag on a hilltop against a blood-red sky

Episode 201: The Hills We Die On

How do we choose the hills where we make our stand?

Side-by-side blue-tinted portraits of a smiling bald man in glasses and a laughing person with short hair

Meet the NEW Co-Hosts!

Help us warm up the barstools for our new HBS co-hosts!

A cracked hourglass lying on its side in a pale, frosty setting, sand spilling out

Episode 200: Eternity

Because forever is a long time to buy the next round.

Aerial view of a dense crowd of people packed shoulder to shoulder

Episode 199: Crowds and Mobs

What, if anything, distinguishes a crowd from a mob?

Man in glasses and a blue shirt with a lapel mic, speaking with his hands together in front of a gray backdrop

Episode 198: Free Will (with Mark Balaguer)

One bar, three philosophers, infinite choices… or none at all.

Man in a red cap recording a podcast at a microphone, with an American flag and a muscular statue in the dim room

Episode 197: How the Manosphere Killed Cool (with Robin James)

Robin James explains how tech bros and manosphere podcasters made “cool” obsolete.

Flat blue illustration of a figure covering its face, surrounded by many arms holding lab flasks, scales, a book, a phone and a microphone

Episode 196: The Expertise Crisis

What happens when nobody trusts experts anymore?

A lone figure on a park bench under a streetlight at night, with large cell-like spheres floating in the starry sky

MINIBAR: Cancer

Talia Mae Bettcher talks about her cancer diagnosis and a dark night of the soul.

Medieval-manuscript-style illustration of a monk facing a swordsman holding a book, framed by vines

MINIBAR: In Defense of Metaphysics

Rick Lee explains what metaphysics is and why it’s worth defending.

Armed soldiers in camouflage and helmets lined up near the White House

MINIBAR: Living in Occupied D.C.

What it’s like to live with a President who is too extra.

Film still of a family relaxing by a garden pool beside a high wall, with a watchtower and barracks behind it

Episode 195: Arendt’s “Banality of Evil”

“Evil arises from a failure to think.” -Hannah Arendt

Yellow road sign reading “Change Just Ahead” against a blue sky with clouds

Episode 194: Major Life Changes

It’s all the same until it isn’t.

Expressionist painting of a worried man in a red hoodie staring at a glowing phone

Episode 193: Doomscrolling

What are we looking for? When can we stop?

Grid of identical gray cartoon faces with blank expressions, the “NPC” meme

Episode 192: NPC Energy

Are you even playing the game?

A person’s boots standing on an old wooden crate stamped “SOAP”

Episode 191: Public Philosophy (with Kate Manne)

Who are philosophers talking to when they do “public philosophy”?

Close-up black-and-white photo of a person holding a finger to their lips

Episode 190: Silence

When is being silent complicity? And when is it resistance?

Painting of a white-bearded man in a 19th-century suit waving a Progress Pride flag

Episode 189: The War on “Radical Ideology”

Radical for whom?

A figure in a crown and red ermine robe holding a scepter, seen from behind, looking out at smokestacks and a capitol dome

Episode 188: Sovereignty

Who or what rules the world today? And by what right?

Line drawing of two head silhouettes facing each other, one with a lightbulb and one with a question mark, linked by a chain of gears

Episode 187: Interpretation

Grab a drink and buckle up—this is the kind of philosophical brawl you don’t want to miss.

Lined notepad filled with the repeated handwritten words “Panic Now,” ending in red with “Panic Now?”

Episode 186: Panic Now? Tools for Humanizing (with Ira Allen)

The rise of AI, the decay of democracy, colonial legacies, climate disaster, Is it time to panic now?

Tabby cat lying on a table with its paw resting on an eggplant

Episode 185: Private Parts

How can we talk, or think, about “private parts” in a philosophical way?

Illustration of a scowling blond man in a suit gripping the roof of a red-brick university building with a clock tower

Episode 184: The Future of the University

Can the University be saved? Should it be saved?

Man giving an awkward wedding toast into a microphone while seated guests look on uncomfortably

Episode 183: Cringe

This is gonna be awkward.

Sepia image of a man in glasses between two carved stone faces frozen in anguish

Episode 182: Tragic Temporality (with Sean Kirkland)

Sean Kirkland unpacks living on the edge of “was” and “not yet.”

Dimly lit bar with a classical bust, cocktail glasses and an open book beneath a glowing neon question mark

Episode 181: What is Philosophy?

Same bar, new co-host, perennial question: What is Philosophy?

Young man in a yellow raincoat speaking into a microphone at a protest, surrounded by people in keffiyehs

Episode 180: Foucault’s “Fearless Speech” (Parrhesia)

Who, if anyone, is speaking truth to power?

White line drawings of a chair, table, triangle, hedgehog and human figure floating against a starry sky

Episode 179: Are Universals “Real”?

Do universals exist? Are they “real”? And why are we talking about porcupines?!

Gray dystopian scene of crowds walking down a long road lined with identical towers and walls

Episode 178: Totalitarianism (with Peg Birmingham)

Can democracy be saved from totalitarianism?

Colorful expressionist painting of a weeping woman in cat-eye glasses beside a cracked mask and a worried man

Episode 177: 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.

Green street signs for Church St and State Ave crossing at a city intersection

Episode 176: The Establishment Clause

Where’s the line between church and state?

Side-by-side black-and-white photos: a young man’s 1961 police booking photo from Jackson, Mississippi, and a recent portrait of an older man

Episode 175: DEI Then and Now (with Paul Breines)

Freedom Rider Paul Breines joins us to talk about the three most dangerous letters in the alphabet.

Two men in armchairs facing each other in a formal, gilded office with flags behind them

Episode 174: Decorum

When does decorum keep us civil—and when does it keep us silent?

Portrait of a smiling woman with long gray-streaked hair, set against a crowd of women wearing niqabs

Episode 173: Unruly Identity (with Falguni Sheth)

Raising a glass to the misfits, rebels, and rule-breakers!

Road sign with three arrows pointing left, straight and right, each labeled “Maybe”

Episode 172: Ambiguity

When nothing is clear, how do we decide?

Man in black carrying a small child on his shoulders in the Oval Office while a man in a suit sits at the desk

Episode 171: Trust

Can anyone be trusted anymore?

Four judges in glamorous outfits and wigs seated at a judging table on a bright pink stage

Episode 170: Judgment

Who gets to judge right and wrong? And on what grounds?

Wooden peg figures on a chalkboard with chalk arrows all pointing to a single red figure in the middle

Episode 169: Responsibility

How, and for what, are we responsible?

Close-up of a dark wooden chess king wearing a gold crown, facing blurred white pieces

Episode 168: Authority

Is ChatGPT usurping the authority of the “Author”? Or is it just a pretender to the throne?

Dark warehouse scene of a hooded figure crouched by a brick wall, watching a group of men in the distance

Episode 167: Revenge

The HBS hosts unpack the complexities of a dish best served cold.

Cartoon of a woman raising a chair overhead to fend off a bear charging into a classroom of frightened students

Episode 166: Virtue

Is “virtue” an outdated concept? And why is there a bear in this classroom?!

Pain

What our bodies, in pain, can teach us about the hilarity of finitude.

Episode 165: Kant’s Categorical Imperative

What if morality was law-governed in the same way that logic and physics are?

Black-and-white photo of a boxer standing over his knocked-down opponent in the ring

Episode 164: The Significance Impulse (with Josh Glasgow)

What if our cosmic unimportance is itself not all that important?

Black-and-white statue of blindfolded Lady Justice with scales and a sword, a winged figure behind her

Episode 163: Justice

The HBS hosts survey theories of justice from the ancients to the present.

Two-panel painting: a figure meditating in golden light beside a dancing figure in a swirling, cosmic blue space

Episode 162: Matter and Consciousness in Indian Philosophy (with Tuhin Bhattacharjee)

What can the Indian dualist philosophy Sāṃkhya teach us about matter and consciousness?

Double-exposure image blending a man in glasses with a statue of a bearded philosopher reading a book

Episode 161: Ethics, Democracy, and Phronesis (with Dimitris Vardoulakis)

The HBS hosts discuss what is lost in the critique of instrumental thinking with Dimitris Vardoulakis.

Rows of images showing an evolution sequence from apes to humans to glowing, circuit-filled cyborg heads

Episode 160: Posthumanism

What are the limits of the “human”? And what comes after us?

A tree trunk sprouting a small mossy branch with a seedling, in a sunlit pine forest

Episode 159: Nature

What do we mean when we say “Nature”? And what, if anything, is “natural”?

Tall library shelves lined with old books, with a small figure kneeling in a beam of light at the far end

Episode158: Does God Exist?

Are you there God? It’s us, Hotel Bar Sessions.

Black-and-white police booking photo of a woman holding a placard numbered 7053

Episode 157: The Ethics of Refusal (with Devonya Havis)

When is it right, or even necessary, to say “no”?

White silhouette of a cow divided into labeled beef cuts such as chuck, rib, sirloin and round

Episode 156: Meat

Should we eat meat?

Palestinian and Israeli flags side by side, overlaid with a cracked, bullet-hole texture

Episode 155: Zionist ressentiment, the Left, and the Palestinian Question (with Zahi Zalloua)

What can Fanon and Nietzsche teach us about the Israeli/Palestinian crisis?

Smiling woman with short blond hair and glasses, gesturing at a table

Episode 154: Aristotle and Feminist Materialism, Troubled (with Emanuela Bianchi)

Philosophy has traditionally associated the feminine with matter, implying passivity. Why? And to what ends?

Man in glasses speaking with his hands raised, framed by large parentheses and ellipses

Episode 153: The Gutenberg Parenthesis (with Jeff Jarvis)

Are we nearing the end of the Age of “Print”? And, if so, what comes next?

Detective in a deerstalker hat examining a document through a magnifying glass in a cluttered study

Episode 152: Evidence

What counts as evidence? What makes it good or bad? How do we know?

Painting of a robed Jesus with a shepherd’s staff in an American-flag sash, beside a man waving a flag and a cowboy firing guns

Episode 151: Whose Jesus? (with John D. Caputo)

When did Jesus start hating immigrants and gays, loving guns and capitalism?

Two open hands offering a red pill and a blue pill against falling green computer code

Episode 150: Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation

Welcome to the desert of the real.

A figure dropping a ballot into a giant trash can surrounded by litter while a crowd raises fists in the background

Episode 149: Voting

Does voting matter?

Retro robot in a fedora with a “Press” band, smoking a pipe while typing on a laptop under a desk lamp

Episode 148: The Future of Journalism (with Andrea Guzman)

What happens when AI takes on the role of human journalists?

Smiling man in a suit, his face overlaid with red-tinted abstract textures

Episode 147: Overcoming Sexuality (with Nir Kedem)

Can queer theory overcome its ties to sexuality?

Three comic-style panels of reviewers reading papers: a skeptical woman, a grinning man and a scowling white-haired man

Episode 146: Peer Review

The HBS hosts discuss the current peer review crisis.

Smiling man with a beard and scarf standing by a railing over a flooded canal in an English village

Episode 145: Ideology and Self-Emancipation (with William Clare Roberts)

Ideology is said in many ways. Which one is emancipatory?

Colorful space photo of glowing orange gas clouds and stars against deep blue, like a cosmic cliff

Episode 144: The Sublime

The ocean and space and “Ode to Joy” are sublime, of course… but what about an excellent lentil soup? In a confusing twist of etymology,

Man in a red shirt holding a shovel at a fence post in open high desert, mountains on the horizon

Episode 143: Off-Grid Living (with Eric Mack)

What motivates people to live off-grid in the 21st C? And how hard is it to survive out there? This week, the HBS hosts are

Pen-and-ink drawing of a heart and a brain, each hanging from puppet strings

Episode 142: Ideology

What, if anything, is the difference between having ideological commitments and belonging to a “cult”? This episode is a “deep dive” into the very deep waters of

Boy in a blue shirt holding a glowing object while a translucent robot with a visible brain reaches toward it

Episode 141: Generative AI

Generative Ai is a still new and emergent technology capable of producing not only text that could be mistaken as human-generated, but also images, video,

Reality-dating-show scene of a man in a suit holding a red rose before a row of women in evening dresses

Episode 140: Reality TV

The HBS hosts are not here to make friends. They’re here to WIN. We all have our low-brow guilty pleasures and, for millions of Americans,

Three fingertips with hand-drawn smiling faces, pressed together like friends

Episode 139: Friendship

The HBS hosts discuss how friendships are forged, maintained, and sometimes broken. In The Politics of Friendship, Jacques Derrida invokes a statement originally attributed to

A blank white mask and a pair of white gloves lying on a gray textured surface

Episode 138: Personhood

What is a person? What is a thing? And what difference does that difference make? Although we tend to use the terms “person” and “human

Row of four light bulbs on a wooden table, with only one glowing

Episode 137: Originality

The HBS hosts ask: what’s so special about originality? Today, originality is being challenged in so many ways: comedians “stealing” jokes, cultural appropriation, remixes, not

Film still of a pale young man in a fedora and trench coat outside a gloomy factory

Episode 136: HBS Goes to the Movies: “Joe Versus the Volcano” (1990)

Michael Norton explains why “Joe Versus the Volcano” is the perfect existentialist film. Continuing our tradition of going to the movies for the first episode

Columned facade of the U.S. Supreme Court building at dusk

MINIBAR EPISODE: Will The Courts Save Democracy?

The HBS hosts cross-examine the courts. Former President Trump is currently dividing his time between the campaign trail and the courtroom. Some Americans are outraged

Open hotel minibar fridge stocked with sodas, beers and small liquor bottles

MINI-BAR EPISODE: Meet our new co-host, Dr. David Gunkel!

For this “mini-bar” episode, HBS introduces our newest addition to the co-host gang, Dr. David Gunkel! David Gunkel is an award-winning author, educator and researcher, specializing

Black-and-white photo of a man in round glasses and a fleece-collared coat, holding a pipe

Episode 135: Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Bad Faith”

The HBS hosts discuss the many and varied ways we lie to ourselves.

Close-up of a brown dog resting its head on a leopard-print blanket

Episode 134: Companion Animals

The HBS hosts celebrate the paw-some impact of furry companions on our lives.

A person lying on a leather couch in a book-lined study while another sits nearby taking notes

Episode 133: Psychoanalysis (with Benedetta Todaro)

The HBS hosts take a break from the bar and lie down on the couch.

Planet Earth seen from space with a giant boot print stamped across its surface

Episode 132: Whose Anthropocene?

The HBS hosts look for the cause of the Golden Spike.

A giant stone face with a finger raised to its lips, rising in front of a university building

Episode 131: Academic Freedom

The HBS hosts consider a case study testing the limits of academic freedom.

Young woman applying makeup in front of a ring light and phone, filming herself

Episode 130: Immediacy (with Anna Kornbluh)

The HBS hosts discuss the style of “too late” capitalism with Anna Kornbluh.

Shoppers waiting in a long checkout line at a pharmacy, one of them a skeleton holding a basket

Episode 129: Boredom

The HBS hosts discuss the many paradoxes of ennui.

Sketch-style drawing of workers smashing machines with hammers in a crowded factory

Episode 128: Breaking Things At Work (with Gavin Mueller)

The HBS hosts discuss how the Luddites were right about why we hate our jobs.

Cartoon of Pinocchio with a long, sprouting nose, and a cricket sitting beside him

Episode 127: Lying

The HBS hosts parse the difference between mistakes, half-truths, embellishments, and outright lies.

An hourglass standing on rocky ground against a fiery orange sunset

Episode 126: Growing Old(er)

The HBS hosts consider the sands though the hourglass.

Grid of six black-and-white portraits of historic Black American figures

Episode 125: The Phenomenology of Black Spirit (with Biko Mandela Gray and Ryan Johnson)

The HBS discuss Hegel, the black radical tradition, and the history of Philosophy with Biko Mandela Gray and Ryan J. Johnson.

Wooden letter blocks spelling “NORMAL,” with extra blocks turning it into “NEW NORMAL”

Episode 124: Back to “Normal”

The HBS hosts chat about post-COVID demands to get back to normal.

A small boy in front of a chalkboard with his hands on his hips, the chalk outline of a superhero cape behind him

Episode 123: Real Life Heroes

The HBS reveal their IRL heroes and try to measure just how flawed a person can be while still deserving admiration.

Black-and-white photo of a white-haired man in a chair, reading beside a lit candle

Episode 122: Deconstruction

The HBS hosts dig into the details of one of the most villainized philosophies of the 20th Century.

Seven cowboys on horseback riding abreast toward the camera across a dusty plain

Episode 121: HBS Goes the the Movies: “The Magnificent Seven” (1960)

The HBS hosts return to the movies to learn why men are cheaper than guns.

Portrait of a 17th-century man with long dark hair and a mustache beside geometric diagrams

Episode 120: Descartes’ Second Meditation

The HBS hosts don their nightgowns, cozy up to the fire, and contemplate wax.

Silhouette of one climber helping another up a rocky peak against the sun

Episode 119: Trust

The HBS hosts discuss the meaning of trust, and how it is built, broken, and restored.

Hand holding up a glowing lightbulb over a desk with a laptop and notebook

Episode 118: Thought Leaders (with Christopher P. Long)

The HBS hosts ask Chris Long about how philosophers contribute and how best to value their contributions.

Woman with long blond hair and glasses resting her chin on her clasped hands, looking thoughtful

Episode 117: Trans Philosophy (with Talia Mae Bettcher)

The HBS co-hosts learn why it’s not just about pronouns.

Overhead view of many open, overlapping old books and loose pages

Episode 116: The Stories We Tell

The HBS hosts explore what is lost when we choose documentation over narration.

Illustration of office workers on ladders fitting red gears into a large machine of blue gears

Episode 115: Collegiality

The HBS hosts wonder if “collegiality” is a virtue… or just a coded cover for prejudice.

Close-up of the portrait on a $100 bill with a scrap of paper reading “IOU” taped over the mouth

Episode 114: Debt

The HBS hosts wonder why it is so hard for us to think of ourselves as “we, debtors”?

Monumental worker-and-farmer statue beside enlarged red coronavirus particles

Episode 113: Political Philosophy of Mind (with John Protevi)

The HBS hosts are joined by John Protevi to talk about case studies, COVID, and the political philosophy of mind.

Fans in Star Trek uniforms and costume ears seated in a convention audience

Episode 112: Fan Culture

The HBS hosts chat about the symbiotic relationship between cultural products and their fandoms.

Black-and-white photo of an elderly man in a suit sitting in a cluttered study

Episode 111: The Problem Spaces of Philosophy (with William Paris)

The HBS hosts are joined by Will Paris to talk about Du Bois, public philosophy, podcasting, and carving out “problem spaces.”

A humanoid robot with a gray face making an expression, next to a man in glasses at a tech event

Episode 110: The Uncanny Valley

The HBS hosts discuss why humanlike robots are sooooo creepy.

Collage of three horror-film stills: a frightened woman, a man staring upward and a wide-eyed man in tears

Episode 109: Jordan Peele’s Horror (with Johanna Isaacson)

The HBS hosts discuss Jordan Peele’s special brand of horror with the author of Stepford Daughters, Johanna Isaacson.

Man with curly dark hair resting his chin on his hand, looking pensive

Episode 108: The Subversive Seventies (with Michael Hardt)

The HBS hosts ask Michael Hardt why we so quickly jump from the 60’s to the 80’s in our political imagination?

Red knitted heart patch stitched over a crack in an orange wall

Episode 107: Forgiveness

The HBS hosts wonder how a hard heart is melted and mended.

Film still of a man in a cowboy hat with an outstretched hand pressed against glass in the foreground

Episode 106: HBS Goes to the Movies: “Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary” (1997)

The HBS hosts discuss a real human drama.

Close-up painted portrait of an older man with a stern, tired expression

Episode 105: The Master/Slave Dialectic

The HBS hosts struggle for recognition.

Man in a suit speaking in front of a large “Mission Accomplished” banner on a ship

Episode 104: Too Soon?

The HBS hosts discuss timing, prudence, and propriety.

Illustration of an office worker in a suit running inside a giant hamster wheel

Episode 103: Tenure

The HBS hosts discuss the pros and cons of tenure.

Collage of three men in suits from a drama series, overlaid with red-and-white stripes

Episode 102: Prestige TV

The HBS try to decipher what makes prestige TV “prestigious.”

Embroidery hoop with cross-stitched flowers and the words “Get a Hobby”

Episode 101 : Hobbies

The HBS hosts lobby for hobbies.

Microphone with the number 100 on its grille, against a black background

Episode 100: What’s YOUR Philosophy?

The HBS hosts celebrate our 100th episode by asking each other the question “what’s YOUR philosophy?”

A tree trunk shaped like an upturned hand, its fingers branching into green leaves

Episode 99: Community

The HBS hosts try to determine who’s in and who’s out. In 1887, Ferdinand Tönnies published a groundbreaking book, Community and Society (an excerpt from

The “But that’s none of my business” meme of Kermit the Frog sipping a cup of tea

Episode 98: Gossip

The HBS hosts spill the tea about tales whispered, secrets shared, and reputations shaped.

Grinning man in a suit pointing at the camera from a TV news desk with a city skyline behind him

Episode 97: Men and Masculinity (with Nathan Duford)

The HBS hosts chat with Nathan Duford about what men can (and can’t) want.

Chain-link gate held shut with a heavy chain and padlock, lit in blue

Episode 96: Gatekeeping

The HBS hosts discuss culture wars, Midwestern housewives, and Kafka.

Action-movie still of a man in a fedora and leather jacket brawling with a uniformed soldier on top of a vehicle

Episode 95: Punching Nazis (with Devin Shaw)

The HBS hosts ask Devin Shaw whether and how to punch Nazis.

Two bottles of blue Dawn Powerwash dish spray on a teal background

Episode 94: Progress

The HBS hosts ask: how do we know if we’re getting where we’re going?

Black T-shirt printed “Florida: Where ‘Woke’ Goes to Die” laid out with jeans and sunglasses

Episode 93: The University and its Discontents

THE HBS hosts consider the recent spate of legislative assaults on academic freedom.

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Episode 92: Lazy Relativism

The HBS hosts do NOT agree to disagree.

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Episode 91: HBS Goes to the Movies: The Conversation (1974)

The HBS hosts discuss Coppola’s classic treatment of Nixon-era surveillance and paranoia.

Ancient Greek vase-style painting of figures in a cave, one pointing at shadows cast by a torch

Episode 90: The Allegory of the Cave

he HBS hosts consider the merits and demerits of the red pill/blue pill option.

Two hands pressing against a screen of falling green computer code

Episode 89: Late Capitalism

The HBS hosts take on Late Capitalism in all its forms.

A robotic hand and a human hand typing together on a laptop keyboard

Episode 88: ChatGPT

The HBS hosts try to figure out how much of the ChatGPT panic is warranted.

Grim Reaper in a black hooded robe holding a scythe in a field under stormy clouds

Episode 87: Death

The HBS hosts confront the inevitable.

Black-and-white collage of a giant fist punching down on a small government building

Episode 86: Fascism (with Alberto Toscano)

The HBS hosts chat with Alberto Toscano about the long shadow of racial fascism.

Episode 85: Bullshit Jobs

The HBS hosts discuss the work of flunkies, goons, duct-tapers, box-tickers, and taskmasters.

Retro comic-book scene of a 1950s family: a father in a suit, a mother with a recipe card and two children in a kitchen

Episode 84: Abolition of the Family (with Sophie Lewis)

The HBS hosts ask Sophie Lewis why the “family” is a troublesome institution.

Woman holding up a phone over a city skyline as heart, like and emoji icons float into the air

Episode 83: Influencers

The HBS hosts ask themselves why and how they are under the influence of influencers.

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Afterthoughts: Season 6, Eps 79-81

The HBS hosts rewind the tapes to reconsider episodes 79-81.

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Episode 82: Materialism

The HBS hosts think about “stuff.”

Afterthoughts: Season 6, Eps 76-78

The HBS hosts reconsider what they might’ve missed in the first three episodes of Season 6.

Gray-haired man in glasses holding his head in his hand at a conference, a man in a yellow sweater beside him

Episode 81: Hospitality (with Michael Naas)

The HBS hosts invite Michael Naas to make himself at home on the podcast.

Row of young people seated side by side, all looking down at their phones

Episode 80: Attention and Distraction

The HBS hosts focus their attention on… oh, look, a squirrel!

Three classical marble busts of bearded philosophers in warm, dramatic light

Episode 79: The History of Philosophy

The HBS hosts argue for the merits of studying the history of philosophy.

Glowing stock-market style chart with rising lines and bars over columns of numbers

Episode 78: Revolutionary Mathematics (with Justin Joque)

The HBS hosts chat with Justin Joque about how we might get Bayes’ robot boot off our necks.

Outdoor sculpture of a human head built from blocky wooden pieces, in a green park

Episode 77: Human Nature

The HBS hosts ask not what is human nature, but what is at stake in this constant recourse to human nature.

Black-and-white film still of a man in a white dinner jacket at a bar table with a pianist standing beside him

Episode 76: HBS Goes to the Movies: Casablanca

The HBS hosts return to the movies and this week we are discussing Casablanca.

Studio microphone in the foreground with a marble statue of a seated, thinking philosopher behind it

Episode 75: Podcasting and Philosophy

The HBS hosts– all four of them!– chat about what podcasting can do for Philosophy.

Painted-style portrait of a man with long locs and glasses, seated and speaking with his hand raised

Episode 74: The Last Dance

The HBS hosts reflect on four fantastic seasons with the inimitable Charles Peterson.

A silver robot hand and a human hand reaching toward each other, nearly touching at a spark of light

Episode 73: Artificial Personhood (with Regina Rini)

The HBS hosts consider the possibility of sentient artificial intelligence with Dr. Regina Rini.

Open book with a small green tree growing from its pages, between stacks of old books

Episode 72: The Rights of Nature (with Stewart Motha)

The HBS hosts discuss legal personhood and rights for rivers, lakes, and mountains with Dr. Stewart Motha.

Bearded man in glasses and a dark blazer seated in a book-filled room, holding a magazine

Episode 71: Critics and Criticism (with A.O. Scott)

The HBS hosts chat with A.O. Scott about the role and responsibilities of the critic.

The Statue of Liberty covering her face with both hands under a stormy sky

Episode 70: Democracy in Peril (with Linda Alcoff)

The HBS hosts ask Dr. Linda Alcoff: just how close to the edge of the bed is the United States sleeping?

Shadowy gray scene of a tiny human silhouette facing a giant spider in the fog

Episode 69: Fear

The HBS hosts wonder whether the call is coming from inside the house.

Collage of red YouTube play-button shapes framing the faces of several men

Episode 68: YouTube’s Alt-Right Rabbit Hole (with Caleb Cain)

The HBS hosts chat with Caleb Cain about his experience being radicalized by the Alt-Right internet.

Black-and-white photo of a man in sunglasses sitting on a step beside a large dog

Episode 67: Rethinking Disability (with Joel Michael Reynolds)

The HBS hosts talk with Dr. Joel Michael Reynolds about what bodies are afforded and denied.

Two female-looking humanoid robots with visible mechanical joints, standing together

Episode 66: Sex Robots (with Kate Devlin)

The HBS hosts chat with Dr. Kate Devlin about social relationships between humans and machines.

Swirling line drawing in orange and white of a musician playing a guitar on a blue background

Episode 65: The Blues

The HBS hosts ask Dr. Charles Hughes for water, and he gives them gasoline.

Comic-panel meme of Batman slapping Robin

Episode 64: Memes (with Andrew Baron)

The HBS hosts try to go viral with Andrew Baron, creator of KnowYourMeme.

Meme of a powdered-wig 18th-century portrait in pixel sunglasses with the caption “Kant Touch This”

Episode 63: Reason

The HBS hosts investigate the limits of Reason alone and, more importantly, in real human history.

Close-up of white computer keys labeled “Copy” and “Paste”

Episode 62: Plagiarism

The HBS hosts attempt to measure the real stakes of cheating.

Man in glasses, a dark suit and pink tie seated in front of crowded bookshelves

Episode 61: The Public Intellectual (with Eddie Glaude, Jr.)

The HBS hosts sit down with Dr. Eddie Glaude, Jr. to talk about what constitutes a “public intellectual.”

Blurred man in glasses at a desk with a laptop showing line graphs and data

Episode 60: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

The HBS hosts try to get to the truth of untruths.

Progress Pride flag beside a woman with short hair being interviewed

Episode 59: Queers (with Del McWhorter)

The HBS hosts chat with Dr. Ladelle McWhorter about the evolution of “queer” as an identity category and a verb.

Field of red poppies leading to a green crystal city under a rainbow

Episode 58: Utopia

The HBS hosts discuss the where, when, and how of utopic imagination.