The Force and Freedom

16:08

Three Objects of Attachment

The Force and Freedom ·

2026/10/07

I point out that the different characters have different objects of attachment. Leia is attached to a cause, the Rebellion, to the cost of attachments to self and others. Han is attached to others to the degree that he is willing to risk himself and abandon the cause. Lando is attached to himself, and he is willing to sacrifice others and any cause. Luke shows signs of all attachments, and Vader masterfully manipulates people using the various objects of attachment. Also explained: Why the Empire

en

17:47

Anger, Fear, and Buddhism

The Force and Freedom ·

2026/09/23

Two key psychological levers in Empire Strikes Back are fear and anger. Fear tends to be about things in the future. Anger tends to be about things in the past. Both can be used to manipulate us, as Vader manipulates Luke, and thereby deprive us of freedom. George Lucas and others involved in the filming of Empire Strikes Back incorporated Buddhist elements into the film. According to Buddhism, the source of the problem of fear and anger is attachment. Luke is vulnerable to anger and fear because of

en

19:05

What Makes The Empire Strikes Back Fascinating?

The Force and Freedom ·

2026/09/10

I begin with a roundup of the fascinating features of The Empire Strikes Back that I'll be discussing this season: striking parallels between the beginning and end of the film, repeating themes that don't get resolved in the typical way, Luke upside-down four different times, Han and then Luke living the passion narrative. I close by pointing out a puzzling fact about Luke in this film: He hasn't learned the main lesson Obi-wan taught in the last film. He hasn't learned Jedi freedom.

en

32:10

A Portrait of the Artist as a Jedi Apprentice from...

The Force and Freedom ·

2025/11/18

I return to the early scenes of A New Hope to pick up on some early ideas about freedom. C-3PO and R2-D2 are opposite extremes: 3PO totally unfree, R2 remarkably free. The desert settings of Tatooine are the perfect place to set up questions of freedom because it echoes the setting of the Western, a genre preoccupied with freedom. I then summarize the evidence that the film can be seen as an autobiography of George Lucas and connect that with Lucas's preoccupation with freedom. Finally, I briefly

en

Transcript: A Portrait of the Artist

The Force and Freedom ·

2025/11/18

Welcome to The Force and Freedom, Part 5. Last time I finished laying out what I think are the central ideas of A New Hope. First, there's an important kind of unfreedom. One where someone determines not just whether I have certain options, but the very terms of engagement, the rules for how we'll decide how to resolve our disagreements. This kind of unfreedom typically arises through fear. That's what the Death Star is for. The Death Star is a kind of unfreedom generator for the Empire, a control

en

33:38

The Jedi's Freedom

The Force and Freedom ·

2025/11/11

Obi-wan's adventures aboard the Death Star are in stark contrast to the other heroes'. Where they narrowly escape danger after danger, desperately thinking their way out of jams, Obi-wan wanders through the Death Star unnoticed, fully in control of the situation. Obi-wan doesn't have to overcome fear because he is so good at setting the terms of engagement that no one ever threatens him. Until Vader shows up. Vader is as cunning as Obi-wan, and their duel involves layers of strategic gambits, each

en

Transcript: The Jedi's Freedom

The Force and Freedom ·

2025/11/11

Welcome back to The Force and Freedom. Last time we saw that Han and Obi-Wan disagree about how to face fear. They discuss their disagreement while Luke trains with a lightsaber, and then immediately after, their disagreement is illustrated in an encounter with a TIE fighter. Han thinks they should blow it up. Obi-Wan thinks there's something fishy, and they'd better let it go. And then we saw that throughout the Death Star scenes, Han consistently wants to solve problems with guns. And Luke and

en

20:31

Two Responses to Fear Aboard the Death Star

The Force and Freedom ·

2025/11/04

This time I begin by connecting Star Wars's message about fear to events from George Lucas's life. Then I trace the two approaches to fear outlined at the end of last episode. Han illustrates his attitude towards fear by preferring a straight fight aboard the Death Star. Luke and Leia illustrate an alternative approach closer to what Obi-wan recommends. They constantly rethink the terms that are presented to them. For a complete transcript, visit

en

Transcript: Two Responses to Fear

The Force and Freedom ·

2025/11/04

Welcome back to the Force and Freedom Podcast. We've been exploring the ways that images express ideas about freedom and threats to freedom. In the first episode, I gave some examples from the first couple of minutes. In the second, I focused in on some images that highlight a concern about how fear can undermine our freedom. I pointed out that the first scenes aboard the Death Star repeat this theme three times, with three separate visual reminders of the Death Star, small spheres that share some

en

28:14

The Problem of Fear

The Force and Freedom ·

2025/10/28

The central threat to freedom in A New Hope is fear. When you're afraid of someone, you do what they want, even if you'd rather not. After briefly discussing some of the other interpretations of Star Wars, I show how A New Hope introduces the problem of fear through a series of scenes centered on the Death Star. These scenes tend to contain visual reminders of the Death Star, like the interrogation droid of the remote Luke trains with. I conclude the episode by discussing Han's and Obi-wan's opposed

en

Transcript: The Problem of Fear

The Force and Freedom ·

2025/10/28

Welcome back to the Force and Freedom Podcast. Last time I posed a question, What is Star Wars about, or what does Star Wars mean? And I began to unpack my answer. Star Wars is about freedom. But I should point out that there have been a lot of other interpretations of Star Wars. You may have heard of some. One of the most common is that Star Wars is about the hero's journey. There was a scholar, his name was Joseph Campbell, and he was influenced by some psychologists who thought that myths contain

en

Transcript: Visual Storytelling in Star Wars

The Force and Freedom ·

2025/10/21

Welcome to the Force and Freedom Podcast. This is a podcast about the meaning of Star Wars, about what Star Wars is about. Now when I ask, what is Star Wars about, I'm trying to get at something beneath the surface of the movies. On the surface, you could say that Star Wars is about the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker, and about the demise and restoration of the Republic, a story that takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. But the Star Wars movies were made not so long ago,

en

26:59

Visual Storytelling in Star Wars

The Force and Freedom ·

2025/10/21

Star Wars is a story about freedom and threats to freedom. You might not have thought that it has a lot to say about this, since the dialogue never poses any deep questions about it. But the dialogue isn't what's interesting about Star Wars. What's most interesting about Star Wars are the visuals, and the visuals communicate a lot about freedom and threats to it. In this episode, I run through some of what the visuals of the first two minutes of Star Wars: A New Hope (after the opening crawl)

en

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

We"ll Bring The Popcorn

Josh Fields & Brad Covey

Entertain This!

Hayden, Mitch, and Tom

Pop Culture Happy Hour

NPR

Classic Conversations: Pop culture Interviews with Jeff Dwoskin

Jeff Dwoskin

Deck The Hallmark

Bramble Jam Podcast Network