PODCAST

Hotel Bar Sessions

Leigh M. Johnson, Jennifer Kling, Bob Vallier

A podcast where the real philosophy happens.

education philosophy

All Episodes

56:29

Posthumanism

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/11/15

What are the limits of the "human"? And what comes after us?This week, we’re taking on the big questions: What does it mean to be “human,” and is it possible we’re already moving beyond that? Starting with Foucault’s provocative claim that “the human is an invention… perhaps nearing its end,” we look at how history, culture, and technology have shaped—and continue to shape—our understanding of ourselves. Are we still the “rational, autonomous individuals” of the Enlightenment’s humanist

60:49

Nature

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/11/08

What do we mean when we say "Nature"? And what, if anything, is "natural"?In this week’s episode, we’re pulling up a chair at the bar to ask: What do we really mean when we talk about “nature”? From the world outside us—plants, animals, and landscapes—to the idea of human nature itself, we’re questioning our often contradictory and complex ideas of what counts as “natural.” Are we referring to the non-human world or to something essential and intrinsic within us? And is either way of

77:27

Does God Exist?

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/11/01

58:05

The Ethics of Refusal (with Devonya Havis)

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/10/25

When is it right, or even necessary, to say "no"?Refusing can be a powerful act—whether it’s standing up to authority, rejecting harmful norms, or pushing back against injustice. But when is saying “no” the right thing to do? And what are the stakes when we decide to refuse? Often our refusals are quotidian and inconsequential, but sometimes, and sometimes without our knowledge, they’re huge.We often underestimate how often we issue refusals, both large and small, and we don’t consider

65:21

Meat

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/10/18

Should we eat meat?Humans have been eating other animals for close to 2.5 million years--a fact that is evidenced by cut traces on fossil animal bones, surviving stone tools, and analyses of our ancestors' teeth. Does this evolutionary fact render meat-eating physiologically necessary and morally justifiable? Our ancestors did a lot of things to survive; is that sufficient reason to continue the practice? How they obtained this meaty source of protein was arguably very different from the

62:54

Zionist ressentiment, the Left, and the Palestinian...

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/10/11

What can Frantz Fanon and Friedrich Nietzsche teach us about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict?This week, we're joined by Zahi Zalloua (Whitman College) to discuss the final chapter of his most recent book The Politics of the Wretched: Race, Reason, and Ressentiment (Bloomsbury, 2024)-- entitled "Zionist ressentiment, the Left, and the Palestinian Question"-- which offers a fresh lens through which to understand the complex affects and power dynamics that continue to fuel this ongoing

59:12

Aristotle and Feminist Materialism, Troubled (with...

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/10/04

Philosophy has traditionally associated the feminine with matter, implying passivity. Why? And to what ends?In our previous episode on materialism (Season 6, Episode 83), we came to see that in more recent years, two, often related, forms of materialism have been developed: “new materialism” and feminist materialism. New materialism tends toward a philosophical reflection on advances in science, particularly neuro-science and biology, but feminist materialism is not so easy to define, as it

64:27

The Gutenberg Parenthesis (with Jeff Jarvis)

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/09/27

Are we nearing the end of the "Age of Print"? And, if so, what comes next?The concept of "the Gutenberg Parenthesis" suggests that the era of print – which began in the 15th century, when the printing press was developed by Johan Gutenberg, and extended to the 20th century, when radio and television muscled in – was a unique period for human communication. However, as this week's guest Jeff Jarvis argued in his book The Gutenberg Parenthesis: The Age of Print and Its Lessons for the Age of

58:16

Evidence

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/09/20

What counts as evidence? What makes it good or bad? How do we know?In court cases, the prosecution, plaintiff, and defendant present “evidence” that something happened or didn’t happen, that it happened in one way or another, that someone did something or did not do something. Evidence is meant to point to something as-yet undetermined. The same goes with scientific evidence, statistical evidence, and anecdotal evidence. Yet, because evidence points to something unknown, sorting it out is

52:10

Whose Jesus? (with John D. Caputo)

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/09/13

When did Jesus start hating immigrants and gays, and loving guns and capitalism?Many Christians on the political left today no longer recognize the Jesus of the political right in the United States. Despite sharing a text and history, (at least) two dramatically different versions of "Jesus" have emerged in contemporary American Christian discourse, each reflecting a set of moral and political inferences presumably gleaned from the teachings of the historical Jesus, and each set of

55:03

REPLAY: The Master/Slave Dialectic

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/09/07

The HBS hosts struggle for recognition.[NOTE: This is a REPLAY episode, first aired on August 11, 2023. The HBS hosts will be back with new episodes for Season 11 starting on September 13, 2024!]The dialectic of lordship and bondage, more commonly known as the “Master/Slave dialectic,” is a moment in a much longer and exceedingly difficult-to-read (much less understand!) text by G.W.F. Hegel entitled The Phenomenology of Spirit. It’s probably a passage that is referenced in a wide number of

55:15

REPLAY: Punching Nazis (with Devin Shaw)

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/08/30

The HBS hosts ask Devin Shaw whether and how to punch Nazis.[NOTE: This is a REPLAY episode, first aired on Jun2, 2023. The HBS hosts will be back with new episodes for Season 11 starting on September 13, 2024!]Since at least the 2016 election the word fascism has emerged from the historical archive to contemporary political debates. This question has primarily been one about the identity of fascism, what are its minimal characteristics? To what extent can the Trump administration be

55:04

Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/08/23

Welcome to the desert of the real.Hotel Bar Sessions podcast is predicated on the idea that the three of us meet up at bar, order-up some drinks, and then settle in to talk philosophy. But—spoiler alert—none of that is true. There is no bar, sadly there are not drinks, and the conversation takes place through the instrumentality of digital technology without us ever meeting up and being together in the same space. It’s all an artifice, or what Jean Baudrillard called "simulation." We point

52:41

Voting

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/08/16

Does voting matter?Voting is often heralded as the cornerstone of democracy, a fundamental right that empowers citizens to influence the direction of their government and society. Proponents argue that every vote counts, that it is through the collective decisions of the electorate that leaders are held accountable, policies are shaped, and societal change is enacted. They highlight the historical struggles and sacrifices made to secure voting rights, particularly for marginalized groups,

58:17

The Future of Journalism (with Andrea Guzman)

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/08/09

What happens when AI overtakes the role of human journalists?The HBS hosts are joined this week by Dr. Andrea Guzman, one of the leading experts in human-machine communication studies, to chat about the changing landscape of journalism in the age of artificial intelligence, where AI is not just a tool, but an active participant in content creation and distribution. We examine how journalism has historically adapted to new technologies, from print and radio to the digital age, and how those

54:25

Overcoming Sexuality (with Nir Kedem)

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/08/02

Can queer theory overcome its ties to sexuality?Toward the end of the 20th Century, French Philosopher Michel Foucault called into question the ways in which a variety of practices, relations, institutions, and discourses came to be organized under the concept of "sexuality." The construction of sexuality as a thing, as a category, as a concept that seemingly identifies something crucial about us, operates as a way to make certain individuals, practices, and relations visible:

54:17

Peer Review

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/07/26

The HBS hosts dig into the crisis of academic peer review.Peer review, touted as the gold standard for ensuring research quality, has come under increasing scrutiny. Decades of studies have revealed surprising inconsistencies: from papers initially hailed as groundbreaking being rejected upon resubmission, to the current “retraction crisis,” to concerns about bias and subjectivity among reviewers. Because peer review is not only central to the production of knowledge, but also the security

59:00

Ideology and Self-Emancipation (with William Clare...

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/07/19

Ideology is said in many ways. Which one is emancipatory?This week, we are joined by Dr. William Clare Roberts, Associate Professor of Political Science at McGill University, to discuss his recent essay "Ideology and Self-Emancipation: Voluntary Servitude, False Consciousness, and the Career of Critical Theory." This is the second part in our "Ideology" series. You can listen to the first part (Episode 142) here.Full episode notes available at this

55:13

The Sublime

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/07/12

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?Edmund Burke argues that the experience of sublimity is related to fear in the extreme, even terror-- and Immanuel Kant's not far from this understanding-- so when someone says the lentil

59:04

Off-Grid Living (with Eric Mack)

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/07/05

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 journalist and co-host of the Our Uncertain Future podcast Eric Mack, who decided in 2020 to move his family "off-grid." Currently residing in a 100% water- and energy-independent compound in the New Mexico desert, Eric chats with us not only about the skills and resources necessary for making a home off the grid, but also his (and others') philosophical

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