consciousness

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

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

March 15, 2026 HBS Hosts Ethics, Guest Episodes, HOTEL BAR SESSIONS, Hotel Bar Sessions (Season 15), Pop Culture, Professional Philosophy / Higher Ed 0 Comments

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

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Episode 210: Marilyn Frye’s “Oppression”

December 26, 2025 HBS Hosts Deep Dives, Ethics, Gender/Sex/LGBTQI Concerns, HOTEL BAR SESSIONS, Hotel Bar Sessions (Season 14), Politics, Race and Racism 0 Comments

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

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

Episode 209: Nostalgia

December 19, 2025 HBS Hosts Ethics, HOTEL BAR SESSIONS, Hotel Bar Sessions (Season 14), Politics 0 Comments

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

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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

November 21, 2025 HBS Hosts Ethics, HOTEL BAR SESSIONS, Hotel Bar Sessions (Season 14), Politics, Pop Culture, Professional Philosophy / Higher Ed 0 Comments

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

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

Episode 192: NPC Energy

July 25, 2025 HBS Hosts Ethics, HOTEL BAR SESSIONS, Hotel Bar Sessions (Season 13), Politics, Pop Culture, Technology 0 Comments

Are you even playing the game?

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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)

March 14, 2025 HBS Hosts Ethics, Gender/Sex/LGBTQI Concerns, Guest Episodes, Hotel Bar Podcast (Season 12), HOTEL BAR SESSIONS, Politics, Pop Culture, Race and Racism, Technology 0 Comments

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

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

Episode 170: Judgment

February 7, 2025 HBS Hosts Ethics, Gender/Sex/LGBTQI Concerns, Hotel Bar Podcast (Season 12), HOTEL BAR SESSIONS, Politics, Pop Culture, Professional Philosophy / Higher Ed, Race and Racism, Technology 0 Comments

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

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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)

November 29, 2024 HBS Hosts Environmental Concerns, Ethics, Gender/Sex/LGBTQI Concerns, Guest Episodes, Hotel Bar Podcast (Season 11), HOTEL BAR SESSIONS, Hotel Bar Sessions (Season 11), Politics, Technology 0 Comments

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

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Episode 18: Digital Afterlives

July 16, 2021 HBS Hosts Deep Dives, Ethics, HOTEL BAR SESSIONS, Hotel Bar Sessions (Season 2), Politics, Technology 0 Comments

The HBS hosts discuss what happens to our digital personalities after the meatspace person dies.

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