PlasticPills Critical Theory & Philosophy

Anthropotechnics // 248 (preview)

28 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For hundreds of hours of content like this, it's https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Sloterdijk on Trial for Eugenics // 247

16 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Find all episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsThis week we read Sloterdijk's 1999 "Rules for the Human Zoo" (https://web.stanford.e...

Marcel Mauss - The Gift // 180 (unlock)

10 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Find All Episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/c/plasticpills.We read the eminent The Gift (https://amzn.to/3NAenx3) by Marcel Mauss which is i...

Emile Durkheim on Mana - The Original Floating Signifier // 179 (unlock)

06 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Find All Episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/c/plasticpills.We read Durkheim's Elementary forms of Religious Life (https://amzn.to/4c1ubkB) an...

Why Critical Theory is Never Enjoying Anything // 246 (preview)

02 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview but you can find all our episodes and other work ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills. In this episode we read Sloterdijk...

Why Philosophers Fear their own Farts // 245 (preview)

01 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview, find all our episodes and other work ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills.In this episode we cover Peter Sloterdijk's C...

The Critique of Cynical Reason - Sloterdijk // 244

31 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Find all our episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/c/plasticpillsPeter Sloterdijk wrote a philosophy bestseller in 1983 called The Critique of C...

Cynicism // 243 (preview)

30 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview but you can find all our episodes and other work ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills. In this episode we cover the Cynic...

It's Hyperreal Fascism then? // 242

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

We discuss the proposition of hyperreal fascism as presented in this video essay (https://youtu.be/R9fpm-lorIU) and its relationship to current events...

The Philosophy of Jeffrey Epstein // 240

17 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jeffrey Epstein is not primarily known as a philosopher, but his emails illustrate that he had higher ambitions than pedophilia. We explore both the l...

Simulation World Order // 239

02 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone is talking about Canada leading the charge into the New World Order. Are we excited yet? Watch the glorious father of our nation deliver the ...

Epicureanism MOGS Stoicism // 238

26 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Stoicism is on its comeback among dumb 20 year olds, which is too bad because Epicureanism is the superior Athenian philosophy. We discuss hedonism, h...

Stoicism at the End of the World // 236

10 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The history of Stoicism is long and complicated, and we didn't want to end with AI alpha male YouTube channels, so here is a rundown focused on Greek ...

A heated debate over Samantha Fulnecky's Essay Fail // 233

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From Zero to hero: Samantha Fulnecky has been honoured by the Oklahoma government and named "an American hero" for her paper submission to her Psych c...

Analytic vs. Continental Philosophy 2025 // 231

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's the bi-yearly event in the ongoing race war between analytic and continental philosophy. Philosophers of all stripes invited themselves to partak...

The Nick Fuentes Signifying Chain // 230

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Access exclusive episodes https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsA Signifying Chain (or symbolic chain, or signifying web) is a structuralist concept dev...

Theory of the Gooner: Baudrillard vs Lacan // 229

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Have a look at our exclusive content https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsThe Pill Pod reads Daniel Kolitz' anthropology of the gooners in Harper's Mag...

Pill Pod 228 - Lacan: Traversing the Fantasy $♢a

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Full Ad-free Lacan series: https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsWe conclude our Lacan series with what Fink says is the desired end of Lacanian psychoa...

Freud on Film: An Interview with Richard Ledes

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Ledes, director of the films Adieu Lacan and V13, explains his process, namely, adapting French plays about psychoanalysis into English-langua...

Pill Pod 225 - Lacan on the Pervert

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Pill Pod looks at the structure of the perverts in Episode 5 of our series on Lacan. Find the other episodes at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpil...

ChatGPT Psychosis: A Lacanian Interpretation // 224

19 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Pill Pod looks at the chatbot psychosis phenomenon and compares it to Lacan's clinical structure of psychosis.This is Episode 4 of our series on L...

Pill Pod 221 - Capitalist Realism

12 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

1Dime joins Erik and Victor to discuss Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism. We cover the popularity of the book, the term, and then wonder whether left-p...

Pill Pod 220 - Lacan: The Other of Language (preview)

15 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We wanted to review some Lacan because everybody's still desiring, and Bruce Fink's Lacanian Subject (1995) is quite often touted as the best unoffici...

Pill Pod 219 - Peter Thiel's Deranged Apocalypticism

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a recent interview with the New York Times Peter Thiel, one of the world's most powerful men, gave ample evidence that he should be institutionaliz...

Pill Pod 217 - Gaza vs. The United States of Exception: Agamben's Homo Sacer

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Pill pod discuss the public media representations of Epstein and Gaza before a seamless transition into a discussion of Giorgio Agamben's concepts of ...

Pill Pod 215 - The New Woke Right ft. 1Dime

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Pills is away, so 1Dime Tony came present a thesis he's working at. Tony rejoins the pill pod to excavate the terms "woke right" and the semiotics of ...

Derrida: White Mythology (preview)

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

According to Derrida, metaphysicians have spent 2000 years conceptually boxing-in metaphor because they don't want to admit their dependence on figura...

Self-Help via Merleau-Ponty and the Flesh of the World (preview)

18 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We go deeper into Maurice Merleau-Ponty's insights in The Visible and The Invisible, e.g. The Flesh of the World, the Chiasm, and the Intertwining and...

Pill Pod 212 - The Mass Desire for Fascism

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week we looked into OG critic of fascism Wilhelm Reich, who wrote The Mass Psychology of Fascism right after the Nazis were elected in 1933. Reic...

Phenomenology via Buddhist Philosophy (preview)

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We compare Maurice Merleau-Ponty's insights in an unfinished work he wrote before his death to the meditations of Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna 18 ce...

Pill Pod 210 - New York Times LIES about "Fascism Experts" fleeing Trump

31 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The New York Times has claimed that three "fascism experts" are fleeing Trump and "going abroad". In truth, these are not (all) fascism experts, and t...

Pill Pod 208 - Prime Minister Mark Carney: Vibes Banker

16 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We catch you up on Canadian politics by introducing you to our new Prime Minister via his book VALUE(S): Building A Better World For All (https://amzn...

Pill Pod 206 - Trump Declares War on Education

08 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Yea we missed a lot of news, but we wanted to cover the Trump regime's war on higher education. As a group with a lot of university affiliations, we h...

Pill Pod 205 - PlasticPills Discovers Buddhism

29 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After a long hiatus, Pills returns to the main show with some new musings over The Last Samurai, Buddhism and the phenomenology of religion. The Kyoto...

True vs. False Prophets | Plastic Pills on Religion III

22 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Part 3.What makes a prophet a prophet? As we are on the civilization decline hill, we are going to experience a higher volume of prophets than...

Pill Pod 202 - Paradise has been Lost ft. Victor Hainagiu

15 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The contemporary political situation has rendered Paradise Lost more relevant now than any time since it was penned by John Milton's daughters. It is ...

Cults of Cleansing | Plastic Pills on Religion II

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The cults of COVID may never go away, but this is why they are to be expected.This is part II of the plasticpills diatribe on religion focusing on met...

Pill Pod 201 - Only German Idealism can save us ft. Christopher Satoor

05 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

So, after decrying philosophy last episode, we are back on it hard again in 201. The Pill Pod interviews Christopher Satoor on Schelling and his conce...

Death Cult Logic | Plastic Pills on Religion I

28 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Christo-techno-fascism? I'm hunting down the impulse producing the end of the world and how religion functions as a social technology. As it turns out...

Pill Pod 200 - Why has America Gone Insane?

13 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A panel discussion on how a once great simulation become, almost overnight, the most schizophrenic spectacle in the history of human society. Is it me...

Pill Pod 198 - Three Philosophies of Freedom

05 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Pill Pod debates the philosophy of freedom from Merleau Ponty, Sartre, Peirce, and Post-structuralism. Listen ad-free on https://www.patreon.com/...

Pill Pod 197 - "Never were we freer than under Nazi Occupation..." (preview)

21 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of an episode on Jean-Paul Sartre and existentialism. Find it at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills. Please join us to support the...

Finally! New Translation of Marx's CAPITAL is out! Interview w/ Paul Reitter

15 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Reitter just finished the first translation of Marx's Capital this century. He joins our episode to educate us on why we need a new version, the ...

Pill Pod 192 - Marxism vs. Ideology: Althusser

04 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is the big one and it's hard to believe we haven't done this particular essay before, but it's the linchpin for the critical theory use of the te...

Pill Pod 191 - Marxism vs. Humanism (ft. Diego Ruzzarin)

28 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is based on an article Althusser wrote in the 60s, Marxism and Humanism, which you can find in "For Marx." He declares that Marxism and H...

Pill Pod 190 - What is Ideology really?

21 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We read Althusser's "Marxism and Humanism," an Essay from his 1965 collection For Marx in which he declares the two fundamentally incompatible. We did...

Pill Pod 195 - Luigi's Mansion

17 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There's big news on the news, and we thought we would take a poke at interpreting this event—if in fact it is one—and giving it an ideological sta...

REWIND - Althusser I (Pill Pod 115)

14 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We have been talking about Althusser once again on the Pod, and in advance of our new dive we are re-releasing an episode about why Althusser might be...

Pill Pod 189 - Theorizing America's Trump Vote

09 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The federal union of the United States has decided to elect Presinald Trump as its leader from the years 2025-2029, as God wills.Here, three Canadians...

Pill Pod 186 - The Post-Political Singularity Everywhere (preview)

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today we take the temperature of all the new futures popping up—the various Acc/s, the radical democracies, the Christofascists, and the Magacomms—...

Pill Pod 185 - Bataille on Fascist Psychology (preview)

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1933, Bataille linked Durkheim's sociology and psychoanalysis to the rise of fascism over the border. The parallels to the present moment are hard ...

Pill Pod 184 - MAGACommunism & Philosophy: HAZ on Marx, Heidegger and Dugin

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

MAGA Communism may strike you as contradictory and stupid sounding, but it is backed by 200 tweets of theory which include Marx, Lenin, Dugin, and Hei...

Pill Pod 183 - Carl Schmitt on the Friend/Enemy Distinction (preview)

20 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We face the fact that only a Nazi could properly explain American politics.Get all episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Pill Pod 182 - Bataille & Sacrifice (preview)

07 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Back to business—we talk Aztec myths and Bataille on Sacrifice from The Accursed Share.Get the full episode and all the others at https://www.patreo...

Pill Pod 181 - Hegelian EGirl Council ft. Jreg

31 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We don't often have current events to cover, but once in a while the current events are Hegel. The Hegelian E-Girl Council was to be the head of a new...

Pill Pod 180 - The Gift by Marcel Mauss (preview)

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We move from Durkheim to Marcel Mauss and his book The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. Referenced by Bataille, Levi-Strau...

Pill Pod 179 - The Mana Principle (Preview)

27 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After a brief recap of the Deleuzo-Guattarian Australian breakdancer we read chapters 6 and 7 of Durkheim's Elementary forms of Religious Life and try...

Pill Pod 178 - We Solved the World with Diego Ruzzarin

13 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What do Adin Ross, China, RFK and the Cult of the Individual have in common? This episode... that's it.All episodes are found only at https://www.patr...

Pill Pod 177 - Society as Magic, Society as Religion: Emile Durkheim

06 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Durkheim, one of the founders of sociology, slowly came to the discovery by the end of his career that consciousness, langauge and thought itself were...

Vance & The Dork Conservatives (Preview)

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The full episode (Pill Pod 176) and many more are available at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Pill Pod 175 - The Straussian Plot Against America

13 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Conspiracy theory or actual conspiracy? Today we investigate how a small cabal of philosophers managed to take over America and caused the invasion of...

Trump v. United States (preview)

09 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We hear this is a big deal and the end of American democracy (or whatever), but we don't all know why. Lucky for us, Victor happens to read Supreme Co...

Pill Pod 173 - Biden v. Trump & The Economy of Fear

30 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We recap the Trump-Biden debate and then discuss the politics and economy of fear. Sources include Armageddon, Strauss, Hegel, and Durkheim.  Get all...

Dark Academia (preview)

30 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Some simulationist material analysis in the economy of signs from Pill Pod episode #172. The full episode and many more are available at https://www....

Pill Pod 171 - Zizek Goes Monarchist

13 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We discuss Zizek's Hegelian defense of a monarchy to solve the problem of democracy.https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/in-defense-of-hegels-notion-of-m...

Pill Pod 96 - The Malaise of Modernity (Taylor's Version) *UNLOCKED*

10 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Get the book (it's easy and small:https://amzn.to/3KxgjB3) or listen to the lectures by Charles Taylor starting here: https://youtu.be/j_losVdiARc?si=...

Pill Pod 170 - The Ethical Dilemma of Killing Nazi Children (Preview)

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We continue reading Simone DeBeauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity, and try to sus out its particular ethical dilemmas.The full episode and many more are ava...

PP169 - Is Existentialism Ethical?

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We read Simone DeBeauvoir's defense of Existentialism as an ethic that is not hyper-individualistic, nihilistic or absurdist.Get all our episodes for ...

PP168 - Ecomarxism (preview)

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of one of many exclusive episodes available at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsHere is your homework in the meanwhile: https://...

Pill Pod 167 - Schopenhauer: Christianity is the Worst Religion

11 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We look at Schopenhauer's comparison of various religions' metaphysical explanations for suffering, and why conservative celebrities are converting to...

Pill Pod 165 - Dissident Right Fight Night: Yarvin vs. Rufo

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Deviating from our usual strategies for the leftist future, we look to the strategists of the conservative future, as discussed in this article, where...

Pill Pod 163 - How to Control a Democracy ft. 1Dime

10 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week we discuss how modern liberal democracies co-opt resistance and adapt to internal opposition as a mechanism of inverted totalitarian control...

Pill Pod 162 - Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (preview)

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Erik and Pills read Walter Benjamin's most famous essay (and perhaps the most famous essay of critical theory), The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanic...

Pill Pod 161 - Andy Warhol and the End of Art

27 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're still on why everything's ending, this time with another pillar of civilization: art, and modern art in particular. Part of the discussion comes...

Pill Pod 160 - Walter Benjamin on Leftist Content Creators (Preview)

24 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We read Walter Benjamin's (perhaps) undelivered address to the Anti-Fascist Club: The Author as Producer, and try to test whether or not it holds up. ...

Pill Pod 159 - The End of the University

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Most everyone agrees that the university has failed its ideal, but few agree as to the reasons for why this happened. Did it get too arcane? Too expen...

Pill Pod 158 - Walter Benjamin & The Idea of History (preview)

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Get the full episode and all episodes ad-free at https://www.patreon.com/plasicpills

Pill Pod 157 - Progressive v. Reactionary Christianity ft. John Hamer

21 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to our public episodes ad-free, for free, at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsAlthough Conservative Christians are the most attention-seekin...

Pill Pod 156 - Christofascism

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to our public episodes ad-free, for free, at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsWhat if, instead of letting history end or disappear, we hit t...

Pill Pod 155 - Jean Baudrillard & The Disappearance of History (preview)

10 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As all things disappear, we have our rountable on Baudrillard's "Illusion of the End." Get the full episode and all episodes ad-free at https://www.pa...

Pill Pod 154 - Christian Intellectuals at the End of History

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to our public episodes ad-free, for free, at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsWhile no one is exactly happy that history has ended, few are ...

Pill Pod 152 - Fukuyama on The End of History (preview)

14 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Adjusted for inflation, Francis Fukyama received $1,311,814.68 to write The End of History and the Last Man (https://amzn.to/3tPo5Bt); we want to see ...

Pill Pod 151 - The End of History

14 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We embark on the notion of "the end of history" by trying to figure out if we have an idea of history. This is mostly inspired by our reading of Fukuy...

Pill Pod 149 - Gothic Horror: Edgar Allen Poe & The Fall of The House of Usher

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Inspired by the new Netflix series, we read some Poe short stories and compared them to their TV adaptation. Victor Hainagiu (aka Litvic aka @horatiov...

Pill Pod 148 - Badiou: Philosophy & Antiphilosophy

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Some oversimplified Badiou plus a look at Wittgenstein's Antiphilosophy (https://amzn.to/47xStiv) Want more episodes? Every other one is posted to ht...

Pill Pod 147 - Authenticity & Existentialism (preview)

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Phil battles Heidegger and Sartre. Get all of our episodes by becoming a patron at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills.

Pill Pod 146 - Heidegger on the Anaximander Fragment (preview)

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anaximander, Apeiron, Heidegger, Derrida, Logocentrism. It's a mouthful. Get all of our full episodes by becoming a patron at https://www.patreon.co...

Pill Pod 145 - Metamodernism is just bad

04 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Postmodernism has fallen. All hail the new dumbuy cult: METAMODERNISM. We took its FRESH NEW RADICAL academic wing out for a spin, as seen in this boo...

There are no Democratic Systems (Pill Pod 144 Preview)

27 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Get the full episode and whole lot more at www.patreon.com/plasticpills

Pill Pod 143 - Gaza & Frantz Fanon on Violence

21 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We noticed a few Fanon name drops so this week we decided to read "On Violence" from Wretched of the Earth and see whether it's a useful heuristic for...

Pill Pod 142 - Systems Theory Politics in the Shadow of Gaza

14 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Despite the shadow of Gaza hanging over our consciences this week, we try to introduce Systems Theory via politics. The book is Political Theory in th...

Pill Pod 140 - Heidegger Nazi Debate No. 125,421

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The timeloop continues: Another Ukrainian SS soldier in Canada and another wave of books and articles about the dangers of Heidegger following the pub...

Affect Theory and Revolutionary Routines - Interview with Carolyn Pedwell

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Victor interviews Professor Carolyn Pedwell, editor of the Affect Theory Reader (two volumes) and Revolutionary Routines (https://amzn.to/44FykoA). Pe...

Pill Pod 137 - Groomer Mythology

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Erik and Pills break down the myths of grooming, childhood, sexuality and the semiotic systems which produced them. The book is Roland Barthes, 195, M...

Pill Pod 135 - Political Mythologies of the Left and Right ft. Diego Ruzzarin

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Diego Ruzzarin is back on the Plastic Pills Podcast to talk about mythologies of the Left and Right as analyzed by Roland Barthes in his 1957 book (ht...

Pill Pod 132 - Fairy Tale Feminism

26 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With the release of the Barbie movie, the feminine symbol has been deployed this summer. But for thousands of summers previous, the role of the femini...

Pill Pod 131 - Freedom Isn’t Free

14 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone speaking on freedom but nobody's asking what it means. "Freedom-from interference" is a 400-year-old definition that covers a few bases but n...

Pill Pod 130 - We Have Never Been Modern

08 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Pills and Erik celebrate Latour Day. Cracking one of our old favs (https://amzn.to/3O2fLVp), to discuss the theory island chain, the scheme of actor n...

Pill Pod 126 - Based Rousseau

10 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of those guys we rarely think about but who single-handedly pulled the track lever in the history of philosophy, it's Rousseau. We read Discourse ...

Pill Pod 124 & 125 - The Light of Reason and the Eye of the Mind (preview)

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Pill Pods 124 & 125 cover a paper written by Pills, which argues that despite banishing figurative language for the sake of "clarity", Western phi...