Hotel Bar Sessions

MINIBAR EPISODE: Will The Courts Save Democracy?

10 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts cross-examine the courts. Former President Trump is currently dividing his time between the campaign trail and the courtroom. Some Ameri...

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

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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, educato...

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

26 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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,...

Jean-Paul Sartre's "Bad Faith"

19 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Companion Animals

12 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts celebrate the paw-some impact of furry companions on our lives.Companion species, like dogs and cats, have been a part of human history ...

Psychoanalysis (with Benedetta Todaro)

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts take a break from the bar and lie down on the couch.Almost from the beginning of its theoretical elaboration and clinical practice, Psyc...

Whose Anthropocene?

29 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts look for the cause of the Golden Spike.The term “Anthropocene” was coined in the 1980’s, although it wasn't until 2000 that Paul C...

Academic Freedom

22 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts consider a case study testing the limits of academic freedom.Nathan Cofnas, holder of an Early Career Fellowship from the Leverhulme Tru...

Immediacy (with Anna Kornbluh)

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss the style of "too late" capitalism with Anna Kornbluh. Immediacy would seem to be the defining cultural style of our moment. Fr...

Boredom

08 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss the many paradoxes of ennui. Most of our podcast episodes are about “big” issues, “interesting” topics, “provocative”...

Breaking Things at Work (with Gavin Mueller)

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss how the Luddites were right about why we hate our jobs. The term “luddite” generally functions as an insult these days. It ...

Lying

23 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts parse the difference between mistakes, half-truths, embellishments, and outright lies. George Costanza (from the TV series Seinfeld) onc...

Growing Old(er)

16 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

 The HBS hosts consider the sands through the hourglass. It seems as if, when we’re young, the solution to all of our problems is just getting olde...

The Phenomenology of Black Spirit (with Biko Mandela Gray and Ryan Johnson)

09 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS discuss Hegel, the black radical tradition, and the history of Philosophy with Biko Mandela Gray and Ryan J. Johnson.This week we are joined b...

Back to "Normal"

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss post-COVID demands to get "back to normal."In 2020 the NCAA canceled its basketball tournaments for the year. Over the next seve...

Real Life Heroes

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts chat about heroes without capes. In a world saturated with fictional caped crusaders and masked vigilantes, we want to redirect our att...

Deconstruction

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts dig into Jacque Derrida's philosophy to see if it really is responsible for everything that's wrong with the world.There are very few ph...

HBS Goes to the Movies: "The Magnificent Seven" (1960)

12 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts return to the movies to learn why men are cheaper than guns.The Magnificent Seven, produced in 1960 and directed by John Sturges, has a ...

Decartes' Second Meditation

08 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts don their nightgowns, cozy up to the fire, and contemplate wax.There is, perhaps, no more famous statement in the history of philosophy ...

Trust

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss the meaning of trust, and how it is built, broken, and restored. Trust acts as both a glue and a sieve, holding together our per...

Thought Leaders (with Christopher P. Long)

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts ask Chris Long how philosophers contribute and how best to value their contributions. TThis week, we are joined in the bar by Christoph...

Trans Philosophy (with Talia Mae Bettcher)

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS co-hosts learn why it's not just about pronouns.In recent years, society has witnessed a seismic significant shift in our understanding of gen...

The Stories We Tell

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts explore what is lost when we choose documentation over narration.We live in an era that can be said to be documented more than it is nar...

Collegiality

03 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts wonder if "collegiality" is a virtue... or just a cover for prejudice. Everyone who works with others has colleagues. In the academic w...

Debt

27 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts wonder why it is so hard for us to think of ourselves as "we, debtors"?Debt has an odd function within modern capitalist societies. On t...

Political Philosophy of Mind (with John Protevi)

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts are joined by John Protevi to talk about case studies, COVID, and the political philosophy of mind.At first glance, a "political philoso...

Fan Culture

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts chat about the symbiotic relationship between cultural products and their fandoms.For a long time, the image of the fan and fan culture ...

The Problem Spaces of Philosophy (with William Paris)

06 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts are joined by Will Paris to talk about Du Bois, public philosophy, podcasting, and carving out "problem spaces." In The Souls of Black F...

The Uncanny Valley

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss why humanlike robots are sooooo creepy.In 1970, a Japanese roboticist by the name of Masahiro Mori published a short essay in th...

Jordan Peele's Horror (with Johanna Isaacson)

22 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss Jordan Peele's special brand of horror with the author of Stepford Daughters, Johanna Isaacson.For a long time, or at least it s...

The Subversive Seventies (with Michael Hardt)

15 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts ask Michael Hardt why we so quickly jump from the 60's to the 80's in our political imagination? Most histories of the present either o...

Forgiveness

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts wonder how a hard heart is melted and mended.In a world often colored by misunderstandings, hurtful actions, and lingering grudges, the ...

HBS Goes to the Movies: "Hands on a Hardbody" (1997)

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss a real human drama.Note to listeners: if you haven't already, you may want to watch “Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary” (...

REPLAY: Death

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts confront the inevitable.It is most obviously true that we are all going to die. The very fact that anything is alive seems to entail tha...

REPLAY: Revolutionary Mathematics (with Justin Joque)

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts chat with Justin Joque about how we might get Thomas Bayes' robot boot off our necks. Why does Netflix ask you to pick what movies you ...

The Master/Slave Dialectic

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts struggle for recognition.The dialectic of lordship and bondage, more commonly known as the “Master/Slave dialectic,” is a moment in ...

Too Soon?

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss timing, prudence, discretion, and propriety.When we talk about propriety, there are a lot of “gray” areas, largely because p...

Tenure

28 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss the pros and cons of tenure.There are many good ideological reasons to defend tenure in higher education, not least of which amo...

Prestige TV

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS try to decipher what makes prestige TV "prestigious." The 21st Century hasn’t given us a lot of reason to recommend it so far—terror, war...

Hobbies

14 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts lobby for hobbies.The concept of hobbies is perhaps anachronistic and even ambivalent. Many hobbies are shadows of more respected pursui...

What's YOUR Philosophy?

07 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts celebrate our 100th episode by asking each other the question "what's YOUR philosophy?"Hotel Bar Sessions, as a podcast, is committed to...

Community

30 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts try to determine who's in and who's out. In 1887, Ferdinand Tönnies published a groundbreaking book, Community and Society (an excerpt ...

Gossip

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts spill the tea about tales whispered, secrets shared, and reputations shaped. Gossip seems like exactly the sort of topic that serious p...

Men and Masculinity (with Nathan Duford)

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts chat with Nathan Duford about what men can (and can't) want.  Men, or rather masculinity, seems to be increasingly in crisis. This cris...

Gatekeeping

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss culture wars, Midwestern housewives, and Kafka. “Gate-keeping” is a term that actually originated in 1943, when Kurt Lewin ...

Punching Nazis (with Devin Shaw)

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

 The HBS hosts ask Devin Shaw whether and how to punch Nazis.Since at least the 2016 election the word fascism has emerged from the historical archiv...

Progress

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts ask: how do we know if we're getting where we're going? Recently, an article about four "hard problems" in philosophy and their possible...

The University and its Discontents

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts consider the recent spate of assaults on academic freedom.As a public institution of sorts (and sometimes) the university claims to be n...

Lazy Relativism

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts do NOT agree to disagree! On the first day of co-host's Leigh's classes, she  warns her students against (what she calls) “lazy rela...

HBS Goes to the Movies: The Conversation (1974)

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss Coppola's classic treatment of Nixon-era surveillance and paranoia.Released in 1974, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation i...

REPLAY: The Public Intellectual (with Eddie Glaude, Jr.)

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

While the HBS hosts are taking a break between Seasons 6 and 7, we're re-playing some of our favorite conversations you might have missed. Enjoy this ...

REPLAY: Vulgarity

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

While the HBS hosts are taking a break between Season 6 and Season 7, we're re-playing some of our favorite conversations you might have missed. Enjoy...

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

15 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts are on break between Seasons 6 and 7, so we're REPLAYing our Season 5 episode on "YouTube's Alt-Right Rabbit Hole."In this episode, we i...

REPLAY: Robots (with David Gunkel)

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts are on break between Seasons 6 and 7, so we're REPLAYing our Season 2 conversation with David Gunkel about robots and robot rights.The H...

The Allegory of the Cave

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts consider the merits and demerits of the red pill/blue pill option.The Allegory of the Cave (a section from Plato's longer dialogue entit...

Late Capitalism

24 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a passage that could be considered the motto of our historical moment, Fredric Jameson writes "It seems to be easier for us today to imagine the th...

ChatGPT

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts try to figure out how much of the ChatGPT panic is warranted.There seems to be a real panic among not only the professoriate, but also e...

Death

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts confront the inevitable.It is most obviously true that we are all going to die. The very fact that anything is alive seems to entail tha...

Fascism (with Alberto Toscano)

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts chat with Alberto Toscano about the long shadow of racial fascism. Since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, the word "fascism" has mo...

Bullshit Jobs

24 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss the work of flunkies, goons, duct-tapers, box-tickers, and taskmasters. In the middle of the last century it was expected that t...

Abolition of the Family (with Sophie Lewis)

17 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts ask Sophie Lewis why the "family" is a troublesome institution.In a society that is increasingly structured around isolated self-interes...

Influencers

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts ask themselves why and how they are under the influence of influencers.Although humans have been influencing other humans for as long as...

Afterthoughts: Season 6, Eps 79-81

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts rewind the tapes to reconsider episodes 79-81.They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, so we designed “After...

Materialism

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts talk about "stuff."Materialism seems to be both one of the oldest and most contended philosophical positions. From Thales saying “all ...

Afterthoughts: Season 6, Eps 76-78

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts reconsider what they might've missed in the first three conversations of Season 6.They say you never get a second chance to make a first...

Hospitality (with Michael Naas)

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts invite Michael Naas to make himself at home on the podcast.There are two popular ideas about hospitality that seem to be at odds with on...

Attention and Distraction

20 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts focus their attention on... oh, look, a squirrel!It is said that we are living in an attention economy,  an age in which attention has ...

The History of Philosophy

13 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts argue for the merits of studying the history of philosophy.In a recent essay, Hanno Sauer argued against the importance, for philosophy,...

Revolutionary Mathematics (with Justin Joque)

06 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts chat with Justin Joque about how we might get Thomas Bayes' robot boot off our necks. Why does Netflix ask you to pick what movies you ...

Human Nature

30 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts ask not what is human nature, but what is at stake in this constant recourse to human nature.  The history of philosophy can in part b...

HBS Goes to the Movies: Casablanca

23 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts return to the movies and this week we are discussing Casablanca. Shot in 1942, a year after the U.S. entered The Second “World War,”...

REPLAY: Whose History? (with Dr. Charles McKinney)

28 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

While the HBS hosts are taking a break between Season 5 and Season 6, we're re-playing some of our favorite conversations you might have missed. Enjoy...

REPLAY: Style

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

While the HBS hosts are taking a break between Season 5 and Season 6, we're re-playing some of our favorite conversations you might have missed. Enjoy...

Podcasting and Philosophy

14 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts-- now, all four of them!-- chat about what podcasting can do for Philosophy. There are roughly 2.4 million podcasts in existence right n...

The Last Dance

07 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts reflect on four fantastic seasons with the inimitable Charles Peterson. Co-host Charles F. Peterson has been the beating heart of Hotel ...

Artificial Personhood (with Regina Rini)

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts consider the possibility of sentient artificial intelligence with Dr. Regina Rini.The debate about the possibility of emergent AI sentie...

The Rights of Nature (with Stewart Motha)

23 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss legal personhood and rights for rivers, lakes, and mountains with Dr. Stewart Motha.In most discussions about extending rights o...

Critics and Criticism (with A.O. Scott)

16 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts chat with A.O. Scott about the role and responsibilities of the critic.The critic is frequently seen as a parasite who lives of the crea...

Democracy in Peril (with Linda Alcoff)

09 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts ask Dr. Linda Alcoff just how close to the edge of the bed is the United States sleeping?A year and a half ago, as an angry, armed mob s...

Fear

02 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts wonder whether the call is coming from inside the house.Fear is a one of the most complex of human affects. It is both physical and psyc...

YouTube's Alt-Right Rabbit Hole (with Caleb Cain)

26 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts chat with Caleb Cain about his experience being radicalized by the Alt-Right internet.In June 2019, the New York Times featured a story ...

Rethinking Disability (with Joel Michael Reynolds)

19 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts talk with Dr. Joel Michael Reynolds about what bodies are afforded and denied. As we come to recognize more and more the occlusions tha...

Sex Robots (with Kate Devlin)

12 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts sit down with Dr. Kate Devlin to talk about social relationships between humans and machines.When most people think about our future wit...

The Blues (with Charles L. Hughes)

05 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

 The HBS hosts ask Dr. Charles Hughes for water, and he gives them gasoline. According to co-host Charles Peterson, the blues is "as American as app...

Memes (with Andrew Baron)

29 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts try to go viral with Andrew Baron, creator of KnowYourMeme. Memes: if you get them, you get them... and if you don't, you don't. But ho...

Reason

22 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts investigate the limits of Reason alone and, more importantly, in real human history.Many, rightly, understand the discipline of Philosop...

Plagiarism

15 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts attempt to measure the real stakes of cheating. According to a recent study, almost 60% of college/university students in the United Sta...

The Public Intellectual (with Eddie Glaude, Jr.)

08 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts sit down with Dr. Eddie Glaude, Jr. to talk about what constitutes a "public intellectual."Dr. Eddie Glaude, Jr. is the James S. McDonne...

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

17 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts try to get to the truth of untruths.Mark Twain famously claimed that there are three kinds of untruth: lies, damned lies, and statistics...

Queers (with Ladelle McWhorter)

10 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts chat with Dr. Ladelle McWhorter about the evolution of "queer" as an identity category and a verb.Once only used as a slur with unambigu...

Utopia

03 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss the where, when, and how of utopic imagination.On the one hand, utopia as an ideal place, space, political arrangement, or futur...

Philosophers on the Internet

27 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts sit down with Justin Weinberg of the Daily Nous to talk about philosophers on the internet.While everyone is on the internet, many philo...

Musical Theater

20 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts chat with actor, dancer, and choreographer Blake Zolfo about what makes musical theater so unique.What could possibly make musical theat...

National Identity

13 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

 The HBS hosts wrestle with Fukuyama's "Why National Identity Is Matters." In this episode, we will focus on questions of national identity. In the ...

Algorithms

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss the pervasiveness and perversity of algorithms in our lives.Algorithms measure, and increasingly influence/determine, our behavi...

Metaphysics

29 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts get to the bottom of what is real, what exists, and what is virtual.In this episode, we take head on the question of whether an analysis...

Immortality

22 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts talk about the striving to live forever in physical, psychical, and social dimensions.Immortality seems to be a spoken and unspoken obse...

Moral Subjectivity

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts unpack Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, Section 13, to uncover how we arrived at morality and moral subjectivity. There are conditions ...

Desire

08 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts look under the hood, inspect the engine, and try to figure out what drives us. Perhaps more than any other affect, desire is put to wor...

Memory

01 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The HBS hosts discuss the role of memory in the constitution of human intelligence, subjectivity and culture/civilization.As we age, we often lose the...