PODCAST

Hotel Bar Sessions

Leigh M. Johnson, Jennifer Kling, Bob Vallier

A podcast where the real philosophy happens.

education philosophy

All Episodes

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

55:20

Ideology

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/06/28

What, if anything, is the difference between having ideological commitments and belonging to a "cult"? This week's 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, and the Career of Critical Social Theory" was published. (We promise to do our level

56:06

Generative AI

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/06/21

The HBS hosts wonder whether ChatGPT is the least of our worries. 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 thrown into crisis in late 2022 when ChatGPT was released, and is still weathering

50:53

Reality TV

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/06/14

The HBS hosts are not here to make friends.

58:36

Friendship

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/06/07

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 and maintain. We make all sorts of fine distinctions between friends, "best" friends, acquaintances, colleagues

54:44

Personhood

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/05/31

What is a person? What is a thing? And what difference does that difference make? Although we tend to use the terms "person" and "human being" interchangeably, it hasn't always been the case that all human beings were considered (moral or legal) persons, nor is the case today that all persons are human beings. Here in the United States, corporations are considered legal persons, and in several countries across the world, natural beings (like rivers, lakes, and ecosystems) have also been

54:49

Originality

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/05/24

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, same old.” But, why is originality such a cherished value? Is it even possible, or is everything just a remix or a copy? We bring

53:00

HBS Goes to the Movies: "Joe Versus the Volcano" (1990)

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/05/17

Michael Norton explains why “Joe Versus the Volcano” is the perfect existentialist film.Continuing our tradition of going to the movies for the first episode of teach new season, we watch the 1990 film Joe vs. The Volcano with Michael Norton from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. Michael has an argument that the movie is the perfect existentialist film. Is he right? Full episode notes available at this

22:47

MINIBAR EPISODE: Will The Courts Save Democracy?

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/05/10

The HBS hosts cross-examine the courts. Former President Trump is currently dividing his time between the campaign trail and the courtroom. Some Americans are outraged by what they view to be targeted prosecutions by biased and overzealous District Attorneys, while others view the same events as a lifelong con man getting his just deserts. Fascinatingly, both sides seem to be putting a lot of faith in the courts to "save democracy."In this brief MINIBAR episode, we chat about the limits of

24:13

MINI-BAR EPISODE: Meet Our New Co-host, David Gunkel!

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/05/03

For this "mini-bar" episode, HBS introduces our newest addition to the co-host gang, Dr. David Gunkel!David Gunkel is an award-winning author, educator and researcher, specializing in the philosophy of technology, with a focus on the moral and legal challenges of artificial intelligence and robots. He is the author of a number of important texts on emergent technology, media studies, and philosophy (see his list of books here). Dr. Gunkel is internationally recognized for his innovative

60:34

REPLAY: YouTube's Alt-Right Rabbit Hole (with Caleb...

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/04/26

The HBS hosts chat with Caleb Cain about his experience being radicalized by the Alt-Right internet.[While the HBS hosts are on break between Seasons, we're releasing REPLAYs of some of our favorite episodes from the past. This episode is from Season 5 and originally aired on August 22, 2022.]In June 2019, the New York Times featured a story about Caleb Cain, entitled “The Making of a YouTube Radical.” That piece was meant to highlight the subtle, severe, and devastating IRL effects of

65:41

Jean-Paul Sartre's "Bad Faith"

Hotel Bar Sessions ·

2024/04/19

The HBS hosts discuss the many and varied ways we lie to ourselves. For our final episode of each season, we take up a text or concept in philosophy that has crept out of the discipline and made it into the wider popular consciousness and culture. This week, we're talking about Jean-Paul Sartre’s idea of “bad faith” (mauvaise foi) from his text Being and Nothingness.[Trigger Warning: at around the 24-minute mark in this episode, we have a brief discussion of people ending their lives. You

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