Shows / PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
The Pill Pod is hosted by a group of PhDs offering their irreverent (and unsolicited) takes on critical theory, philosophy, culture, and politics.
Episodes
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyHermès Burning // 272
All episodes https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills We discuss cannibalism, the communicative value of rioting, and the English news coverage of the French…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyThe Scapegoat - René Girard // 271 (preview)
Listen to the whole episode on patreon https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills René Girard is known mainly as someone Peter Thiel mentions in between deranged…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyRené Girard on Blood Sacrifice // 270
René Girard is known mainly as someone Peter Thiel mentions in between deranged analogies, but he also wrote some books on some typically French topics such as…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyLearning Fake Economics in a Fake Economy // 268
We ask Cahal Moran what leftists need to get straight on economics, talking through "orthodox" vs. "heterodox" economics, the labour theory of value, Mark…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyFit Fascists v. Fat Foucauldians // 266
Another discourse has hit the timeline. Find all episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills Is health fascism? Is Ozempic Zyklon-B? Should…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Palantir's "Marxist Critical Theory" CEO // 263
Find all episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills The business press has pushed the "leftist-outsider-dishevelled-genius" about Palantir's CEO…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyToday is' Arday // 264
The Pill Pod debates the academic and ethics perspectives' following the terminal end of the Jason Arday plagiarism scandal.
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyThe Right's Recycled Mythology of Far-Left Terrorism // 261
Ad-free listens (even with no subscription) at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills Stephen Miller and Marco Rubio are calling The Left strange combinatory…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyNature's Leftist Conspiracy against Western Civilization: Contemporary Mythology // 260
Socialist are to blame for the Forest Fires. Antifa caused Algae to take over the reflecting pool. Conservatives believe that nature has allied with their…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
LLMs prove Structuralism was Correct all Along // 258
Join for ad-free and more episodes https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills There's only been about a century of structuralism. It had a day, then in the 80s…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Chinese Room LLM // 257 (preview)
This week we evaluate a paper written by a Google DeepMind engineer which, in effect updates the Chinese Room Thought Experiment (Searle, 1980) to modern LLMs…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyAI Will Fail Because Heidegger // 256
Join for ad-free and more episodes https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills Hubert Dreyfus loved recounting how he was maligned for his AI skepticism, which was…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPOPE vs. AI // 255
All episodes are ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills While many had hoped for a Butlerian Crusade against the thinking machines, the Pope has…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Michel Foucault: Technologies of the Self // 254
More where this came from at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills People have not always had a self, our selves were invented. According to Foucault, our…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Christopher Lasch: The Culture of Narcissism // 253 (preview)
Hear our Lasch series at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills After three episodes reading Culture of Narcissism we conclude that despite a unique perspective…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyInternet Connection UTTERLY DESTROYS Lost Exotic Rainforest Tribe!!! // 251
jk it's just fake news that duped conservatives yet again. This viral lie claimed that a remote Amazon tribe fell apart the instant they discovered internet…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyThe Philosophy of Looksmaxxing // 249
This week we inspect the latest form of anthropotechnics, its surrounding moral panic, and American Psycho comparisons (Baudrillard was right about…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Anthropotechnics // 248 (preview)
For hundreds of hours of content like this, it's https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Sloterdijk on Trial for Eugenics // 247
Find all episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills This week we read Sloterdijk's 1999 "Rules for the Human Zoo"…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Marcel Mauss - The Gift // 180 (unlock)
Find All Episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/c/plasticpills. We read the eminent The Gift (https://amzn.to/3NAenx3) by Marcel Mauss which is important…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Durkheim on MANA - The Original "Floating Signifier" // 179
Find All Episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/c/plasticpills. We read Durkheim's Elementary forms of Religious Life (https://amzn.to/4c1ubkB) and try to…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Why Critical Theory is Never Enjoying Anything // 246 (preview)
This is a preview but you can find all our episodes and other work ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills. In this episode we read Sloterdijk's…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Why Philosophers Fear their own Farts // 245 (preview)
This is a preview, find all our episodes and other work ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills. In this episode we cover Peter Sloterdijk's Critique…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
The Critique of Cynical Reason - Sloterdijk // 244
Find all our episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/c/plasticpills Peter Sloterdijk wrote a philosophy bestseller in 1983 called The Critique of Cynical…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Cynicism (the philosophy) // 243 (preview)
This is a preview but you can find all our episodes and other work ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills. In this episode we cover the Cynical school…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
It's Hyperreal Fascism then? // 242
We discuss the proposition of hyperreal fascism as presented in this video essay (https://youtu.be/R9fpm-lorIU) and its relationship to current events and the…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyThe Philosophy of Jeffrey Epstein // 240
Jeffrey Epstein is not primarily known as a philosopher, but his emails illustrate that he had higher ambitions than pedophilia. We explore both the latent and…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Simulation World Order // 239
Everyone is talking about Canada leading the charge into the New World Order. Are we excited yet? Watch the glorious father of our nation deliver the goods at…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Epicureanism MOGS Stoicism // 238
Stoicism is on its comeback among dumb 20 year olds, which is too bad because Epicureanism is the superior Athenian philosophy. We discuss hedonism, happiness…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Stoicism at the End of the World // 236
The history of Stoicism is long and complicated, and we didn't want to end with AI alpha male YouTube channels, so here is a rundown focused on Greek Stoicism…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophySamantha: From Zero to American Hero // 233
From Zero to hero: Samantha Fulnecky has been honoured by the Oklahoma government and named "an American hero" for her paper submission to her Psych course in…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Continental Philosophy vs Analytic Philosophy 2025 // 231
It's the bi-yearly event in the ongoing race war between analytic and continental philosophy. Philosophers of all stripes invited themselves to partake in the…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyThe Nick Fuentes Signifying Chain // 230
Access exclusive episodes https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills A Signifying Chain (or symbolic chain, or signifying web) is a structuralist concept developed…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyTheory of the Gooner: Baudrillard vs Lacan // 229
Have a look at our exclusive content https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills The Pill Pod reads Daniel Kolitz' anthropology of the gooners in Harper's Magazine…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyJacques Lacan - Fantasy $♢a // 228
Full Ad-free Lacan series: https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills We conclude our Lacan series with what Fink says is the desired end of Lacanian psychoanalysis…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Sigmund Freud in Film: An Interview with Richard Ledes
Richard Ledes, director of the films Adieu Lacan and V13, explains his process, namely, adapting French plays about psychoanalysis into English-language films…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyJacques Lacan on the Pervert // 225
The Pill Pod looks at the structure of the perverts in Episode 5 of our series on Lacan. Find the other episodes at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
ChatGPT Psychosis: A Lacanian Interpretation // 224
The Pill Pod looks at the chatbot psychosis phenomenon and compares it to Lacan's clinical structure of psychosis. This is Episode 4 of our series on Lacan…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Capitalist Realism // 221
1Dime joins Erik and Victor to discuss Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism. We cover the popularity of the book, the term, and then wonder whether left-populist…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Jacques Lacan on the Big Other (preview) // 220
We wanted to review some Lacan because everybody's still desiring, and Bruce Fink's Lacanian Subject (1995) is quite often touted as the best unofficial intro…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPeter Thiel's Deranged Apocalypticism // 219
In a recent interview with the New York Times Peter Thiel, one of the world's most powerful men, gave ample evidence that he should be institutionalized before…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyGiorgio Agamben - Gaza as State of Exception // 217
Pill pod discuss the public media representations of Epstein and Gaza before a seamless transition into a discussion of Giorgio Agamben's concepts of 1)…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyThe Woke Right ft. 1Dime // 215
Pills is away, so 1Dime Tony came present a thesis he's working at. Tony rejoins the pill pod to excavate the terms "woke right" and the semiotics of "woke"…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyDerrida: White Mythology (preview)
According to Derrida, metaphysicians have spent 2000 years conceptually boxing-in metaphor because they don't want to admit their dependence on figurative…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Self-Help via Merleau-Ponty and the Flesh of the World (preview)
We go deeper into Maurice Merleau-Ponty's insights in The Visible and The Invisible, e.g. The Flesh of the World, the Chiasm, and the Intertwining and what…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 212 - The Mass Desire for Fascism
This week we looked into OG critic of fascism Wilhelm Reich, who wrote The Mass Psychology of Fascism right after the Nazis were elected in 1933. Reich was…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Phenomenology via Buddhist Philosophy (preview)
We compare Maurice Merleau-Ponty's insights in an unfinished work he wrote before his death to the meditations of Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna 18 centuries…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 210 - New York Times LIES about "Fascism Experts" fleeing Trump
The New York Times has claimed that three "fascism experts" are fleeing Trump and "going abroad". In truth, these are not (all) fascism experts, and they did…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyMark Carney Who? // 208
We catch you up on Canadian politics by introducing you to our new Prime Minister via his book VALUE(S): Building A Better World For All…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 206 - Trump Declares War on Education
Yea we missed a lot of news, but we wanted to cover the Trump regime's war on higher education. As a group with a lot of university affiliations, we hate…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Buddhism is good actually // 205
After a long hiatus, Pills returns to the main show with some new musings over The Last Samurai, Buddhism and the phenomenology of religion. The Kyoto School…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyTrue vs. False Prophets | Plastic Pills on Religion III
This is Part 3. What makes a prophet a prophet? As we are on the civilization decline hill, we are going to experience a higher volume of prophets than usual…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 202 - Paradise has been Lost ft. Victor Hainagiu
The contemporary political situation has rendered Paradise Lost more relevant now than any time since it was penned by John Milton's daughters. It is an epic…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyCults of Cleansing | Plastic Pills on Religion II
The cults of COVID may never go away, but this is why they are to be expected. This is part II of the plasticpills diatribe on religion focusing on metaphor as…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
German Idealism can save us (ft. Christopher Satoor) // 201
So, after decrying philosophy last episode, we are back on it hard again in 201. The Pill Pod interviews Christopher Satoor on Schelling and his conception of…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyDeath Cult Logic | Plastic Pills on Religion I
Christo-techno-fascism? I'm hunting down the impulse producing the end of the world and how religion functions as a social technology. As it turns out, we're…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 200 - Why has America Gone Insane?
A panel discussion on how a once great simulation become, almost overnight, the most schizophrenic spectacle in the history of human society. Is it mere…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Philosophy of Freedom // 198
The Pill Pod debates the philosophy of freedom from Merleau Ponty, Sartre, Peirce, and Post-structuralism. Listen ad-free on…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 197 - "Never were we freer than under Nazi Occupation..." (preview)
This is a preview of an episode on Jean-Paul Sartre and existentialism. Find it at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills. Please join us to support the show and…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyFinally! New Translation of Marx's CAPITAL is out! Interview w/ Paul Reitter
Paul Reitter just finished the first translation of Marx's Capital this century. He joins our episode to educate us on why we need a new version, the…