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 & Philosophy
Pill Pod 59 - Phenomenology Could Save Your Lifeworld
No politics, no metaphysics, no grand narratives, as this week, and for the following weeks, the Pill Pod is going back to the things themselves. That's…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Socialism & Liberalism: Mortal Enemies or Embittered Kin?
The Pill Pod gets academic as our new volume is out, edited by Matt and featuring contributions Victor, Erik and our episode guest Ben (@benburgis) of Give…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 57 - Hyperreal War (preview)
We are name dropping that Baudrillard, Virilio and trying to remember what Emmanuel Levinas said, giving a biased review of the new Pills vid, and trying to…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Nietzsche: The Aristocratic Rebel
Jordan DeJonge joins the pod to revisit the question "just how reactionary was Nietzsche?" as asked in Domenico Losurdo's newly translated intellectual…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 56 - Structuralism is a Lie (preview)
Erik brings a shocking discovery to the Pill Pod, oh yea and what the hell is structuralism anyway? Get the full ep and hours more educational content by…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 55 - ”I Would Prefer Not To”
Evoked by no less than Agamben, Byung-Chul Han, Deleuze, and Zizek's wardrobe, Bartleby is a compelling character. This week we are joined by Lit Vic to bust…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
FIGHT NIGHT: Zizek vs. Deleuze II (Preview)
Parts I and II comprise 3+ hours of discussion on Zizek's Organs Without Bodies: On Deleuze and Consequences. Join up with us on Patreon to get it all and 30+…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
21st Century Socialism ft. Jeremy Gilbert
Professor Jeremy Gilbert from across the pond gives a primer on his primer: Twenty-First Century Socialism. Gilbert gives a jargon-free explanation as to why…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Zizek vs. Deleuze (preview)
Part 1 of our reading of Zizek's attempt to take down Deleuze, whom he calls an ideologist of late capitalism in "Organs Without Bodies." Join up with us on…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Lacanian Analysis & Racist Jokes (ft. Jack Black)
Jack Black (no, the Other Jack Black) joins the Pill Pod to discuss his new book "Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy: A Psychoanalytic…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 50 - Performativity & Performative Utterance (Preview)
This is a preview for a 2.5 hour romp through performativity and performative speech acts in analytic and continental philosophy, stopping off at J.L. Austin…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 52 - Libghanistan
In memoriam of the coalition state-building adventure in Afghanistan, we look to the inveterate morons who continue to ventriloquize the "humanitarian empire"…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 49 - Project Cybersyn & Latin American Politics in Overview
As a supplement to Plastic Pills' new documentary on Project Cybersyn, the Pill Pod is joined by Marion, who is usually our Foucault correspondent but here in…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 48 - Critical Theory is Conspiracy Theory
Quarantine Agamben! He's at it again! This episode we getinto it the kindred bond between critical theory and conspiracy theory, how states do and do not…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Radical Democracy & Protest Politics (ft. David Matijasevich)
Professor David Matijasevich, author of Radical Democracy and Its Limits, joins Matt and Victor to discuss the limits of radical democracy and the aesthetic…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 46 - Nihilism (preview)
Here's a preview of this week's episode featuring Uncle Bob, Baudrillard, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Lacan and the simple question: Dude, why not just bin…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Ranciere vs. Honneth FIGHT NIGHT // 45
In Round 4 of the Pill Pod's Fight Night, we feature a theoretical battle over the foundation of politics: is politics founded on the struggle for recognition?…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 44 - Critical Race Hysteria (Preview)
This week we depart from the usual solemnities to diagnose the latest object of conservative hysteria: critical race theory. It's being banned from curricula…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Therapy Culture & Happy Signifiers (ft. Ashley Frawley)
Professor Ashley Frawley, author of The Semiotics of Happiness, joins us to discuss the cyclical history of some slippery signifiers: "self-esteem,"…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 19 - Derridalirium *UNLOCKED*
The Pill Pod is off this week for an AFK project, so please enjoy this unlock from the exclusive patron vault, which sorta serves as an intro to Derrida, who's…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Foucault Slaps Back FIGHT NIGHT // 43 (Preview)
Not to be called a n00b, Foucault slaps back at Derrida (eventually) with "My Body, This Paper, This Fire" defending his Madness and Civilization from…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Victor Interviews a Debate Bro (ft. Mouthy Infidel)
Victor interviews Mouthy Infidel from the Mouthy Infidel YouTube channel, which features debates, debunks and arguments from a left perspective. This ranging…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Derrida vs. Foucault: FIGHT NIGHT // 42
The Year is 1963 and our Versus Series continues with Fight Night Round 2, in which a young challenger, Jacques 'Derridevil' Derrida, comes at Dr. Archaeology…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Libertarian Lulz ft. Ben Burgis
Today we have a heady one for ya. This is some in-the-weeds political theory, where Ben, Matt, and Victor consider libertarianism via professional sophist…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 41 - FIGHT NIGHT, Round 1: Baudrillard vs. Foucault (Preview)
Welcome to Round 1 of our new series, which covers theorists' takedowns of other theorists. This episode features an exciting 1977 bout between the young…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Mark Fisher Memes (ft. Mike Watson) // 40
Mike Watson of the Acid Left (@_leftaesthetics) joins Matt (@mattpolprof) and Pills (@plasticpills) to talk about Acid Communism, Adorno, and The Memeing of…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 39 - Oculus Grift (preview)
The Pill Pod is joined by Meaghan, a real life cognitive scientist and VR researcher, to answer our ignorant questions about brains, behaviour, and perception…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 38 - A.I. Dreams and the Ghosts in Machines
The Pill Pod takes on two definitive philosophers opposed to the fantasies of uploading consciousnesses into machines: John Searle and Hubert Dreyfus…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Cosmopolitan Socialism ft. Meagan Day
Matt and Victor are joined by Meagan Day (@meaganmday) to discuss Michael Brooks' ambitious proposal for cosmopolitan socialism, its relation to particularity…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyCartoons & Comics with J. Andrew World (Bonus Interview)
Matt (@mattpolprof) and Victor (@victorbruzzone) are joined by cartoonist J. Andrew World (@rightaboutnow2) to talk Marvel, DC, and artists' intellectual…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 37 - 'Reading' Adam Curtis (Preview)
So we had some different interpretations as to whether Can't Get You Out of My Head is art, history, documentary, art-history, history-documentary or…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 36 - Identity Shmolitics
Matt tricks the Pill Pod into reading analytic philosophy: "Personal Identity" by Derek Parfit (1971), who challenges intellectualist ideas of selfhood with…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
In Defense of Anarchism (preview)
We'll be back on Friday with our regularly scheduled program, and here's a clip of this week's exclusive content up at www.patreon.com/plasticpills
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 35 - Amnesty Intellectual (preview)
The Pill Pod discusses the rage of elites: ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM. But that's not all! There's also the techno-material conditions for intellectuals, cocaine in…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
The Words are Gifts: Indigenous Politics & Wittgenstein ft. Dale Turner
Professor Dale Turner joins Matt and Victor to discuss Wittgenstein, 'ways of life', and their application to indigenous politics and treaty relationships in…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 34 - The Snyder Nut: Psychoanalysis & Film
Spoiler warnings: That new DC film, Fight Club, Starship Troopers. This is a performative attempt to theorize the relationship between popular cultural, moral…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Microdose - Gramsci (preview)
Join Pills, Matt, and Erik for our Patreon voted topic: A romp through the Formation of the Intellectuals from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. Listen…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 33 - Not Another Morality Episode!
The accusations fly again this week: Who's more crypto-normativist? Who has fewer implied premises? Who really has the moral high ground? Whence Nietzsche? Who…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Matt Interviews a Conservative (ft. Nate Hochman)
In an attempt to foster Rational Discourse™, Matt (@MattPolProf) interviews Nate Hochman (@njhochman) to discuss topics including insanity, Truth, and the…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 32 - Accountability Studies (preview)
Marcuse is trending? What year is it? Listen to this episode and our other bonus content on Patreon, at www.patreon.com/plasticpills
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 31 - (un)Happiness in Theory
Doomscrolling, Cthulu, and Mark Fisher. Why's theory more cool when it's unhappy? We try to catheterize depressive tendencies and make happy based. Follow…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyThe Nazi Conspiracies ft. Sir Richard Evans
Was the Reichstag fire a false flag? Did the Nazis uncover secret alien technology in Antarctica? Was Trump a Fascist? The answers may shock you! The PillPod…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Sociology of Religion ft. Galen Watts (preview)
Matt interviews @Galen_Watts on liberal religion, i.e. those who identify as "spiritual but not religious," using the sociological method of Emile Durkheim…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 30 - OWN the LIBS
The PillPod's bubbling civil war over political theory finally boils over into full-blown conflict. @Plasticpills and @T8Erik face off against @MattPolProf and…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Semiotics and Semiology
Pills and Erik kick off a new series on the SIGNificance of semiotics in 20th century. Check out the forthcoming episodes or our previous series on cybernetics…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Kant Get You Out of My Head (preview)
Before we can get to the other stuff we like in 20th century philosophy, we have to go back to the synthesizer of modern philosophy, the philosopher's…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Socialism Yesterday, Socialism Tomorrow ft. Bhaskar Sunkara (Bonus Interview)
Our political half is joined by Jacobin Magazine founder Bhaskar Sunkara to talk socialist history, the Nordic Model, and what happens five minutes after…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 28 - Don't Go to Grad School
We get asked this question frequently, and the answer is NO, DON'T GO (or maybe do it). This episode is required listening before making a life-altering…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han (preview)
Here's a brief introduction to The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han. Listen to this episode and all of our other bonus content on Patreon, at…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyFascism, Traditionalism, and the War for Eternity (ft. Ben Teitelbaum)
Fascism, folk music, Bannon and Dugin: the Pill Pod's Matt and Victor interview Benjamin Teitelbaum, a scholar of contemporary European radical nationalism, to…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 26 - The Debatelord Chronicles (ft. Ben Burgis)
Ben Burgis joins the Pill Pod to discuss the divide between analytic and continental philosophy before analyzing the geneology of debatelordism from Richard…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Critical Theory of Video Games ft. Alfie Bown (Bonus Interview)
Matt (@mattpolprof) calls up Alfie Bown (@Leftist_Gamer) to discuss the politics, psychoanalytic interpretation, and emancipatory potential of video games, for…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 25 - The Kayfabe Coup
The Pill Pod (@plasticpills, @victorbruzzone, @mattpolprof, @t8erik) debates the reality, or lack thereof, of a bullheaded Q shaman in the legislature. Check…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyHeidegger Helper *UNLOCKED*
The Pill Pod is still off this week for mental recuperation, so please enjoy this unlock of one of our locked episodes: our fourfold discussion of Heidegger's…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyNietzsche Overdose *UNLOCKED*
The Pill Pod is off this week for mental recuperation, so please enjoy this unlock of one of our episodes from back in the summer: a 5 course, two-hour-long…
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyZizek Microdose - Pill Pod 23
This is the first Pill Pod & Plasticpills co-release on the philosophy, cultural significance, and reception of Slavoj Zizek. Check out the video at…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 22 - Nerd Culture Industry (preview)
Today we discuss the pervasive pastiche and corny conservatism of all our favourite nerd culture products (but not Star Wars 'cause it sucks ass). Find the…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 21 - (Cry)sis, Cr(eye)sis, Cr(ISIS): A Radical Rethinking of the Heuristics, Historiography, and Post-Haptical Ecology of Rupture
Is the sky falling? The Pill Pod (@mattpolprof, @Victorbruzzone, @t8erik, @plasticpills) take down this top shelf topical episode considering CRISES: of…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Pill Pod 20 - Fak News
Join us for a relaxed topical episode discussing some of our local news, as well as the shifting place of "News" in the new media ecology, including its…
- PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy
Autopoiesis: Cybernetics & Systems Theory II (preview)
Here is a preview of our second episode in the series on Cybernetics & Systems Theory, the rest of which will be up on the Patreon…