Who, if anyone, is speaking truth to power?

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

Can democracy be saved from totalitarianism?

Carlos Amador on Latin American aesthetics, precarity, and what it means to be completely f*cked.

Where’s the line between church and state?

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

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

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

When nothing is clear, how do we decide?

Can anyone be trusted anymore?

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

How, and for what, are we responsible?

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

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

Is "virtue" an outdated concept?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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Should we eat meat?

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome to the desert of the real.

Does voting matter?

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

Can queer theory overcome its ties to sexuality?

The HBS hosts discuss the current peer review crisis.

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

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, where one would expect “sub” to mean “below,” in the word “sublime” it indicates something above or even beyond. We use it as a superlative, but a superlative of what?...

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 joined by Eric Mack, journalist and co-host of Our Uncertain Future podcast, who decided in 2020 to move his family “off-grid.” Currently residing in a 100% water- and energy-independent compound in the...

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 ideology and ideological commitments. A couple of important notes for listeners: first, this episode was recorded the day before William Clare-Roberts’ excellent essay “Ideology and Emancipation: Voluntary Servitude, False Consciousness,...

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, music, and “voice.” For all of the amazing opportunities opened up by generative AI, however, it does not come without its own risks. Secondary and post-secondary education, for example, was...

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 Aristotle: “My Friends, there are no friends,” capturing something that seems to be fundamental about friendship. Friendship is essential to human thriving, but also difficult, if not impossible, to attain...

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 to mention the myriad ways that generative artificial intelligence has made plagiarism of all kinds possible. We  value originality over imitation, creativity over copying, and novelty over the “same old,...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The HBS hosts discuss the pros and cons of tenure.

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

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

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

The HBS hosts do NOT agree to disagree.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The HBS hosts sit down with Justin Weinberg of the Daily Nous to talk about philosophers on the internet.

The HBS hosts discuss the pervasiveness and perversity of algorithms in our lives.

The HBS hosts unpack Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, Section 13, to uncover how we arrived at morality and moral subjectivity.

The HBS hosts take the red pill.

The HBS hosts discuss The Godfather Trilogy.

The HBS hosts discuss the ugly underside of tourism.

The HBS hosts sit down with Dr. Jason Read to talk about the experience of work in the 21st C.

The HBS hosts talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of social media. Social media dominate much of our current lives. Sometimes this is for the better, sometimes this is for the worse. Social media platforms allow much that is beneficial to individuals, communities, and society. Yet they also allow much that is...

The HBS hosts discuss philosophy and theory in relation to the global south with Prof. Surti Singh.

The HBS hosts discuss so-called "cancel culture" and the panic surrounding it.