Shows
OverthinkCleanlinessEpisode 128 – CleanlinessHow often should you shower to remain ‘clean’? How many times can you re-wear your jeans before they are considered ‘dirty’? In episode 128 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a look at cleanliness. They get into how humans have turned cleanliness into an art, and maybe even an obsession. Why are we so bothered by dirt? What is dirt, anyways? How are notions of dirtiness and cleanliness even into our symbolic systems, including language and religion? And what is up with TikTok’s obsession with the Clean Girl Aesthetic? As they tackle these questions, your hosts also e...2025-04-2255 min
Elevated | Conversations about Health and HealingEp 41 | Sugar, Sugar... Honey, Honey!Sugar, Sugar.. Honey, Honey!
Let's talk about Blood Sugar.
Don't forget that Ellie did a whole webinar not this in more detail found here:
https://youtu.be/QvnxDqRrAwM?si=ChJJJSBaUMUIL8y2
On Salvaging Blood Sugar & Reclaiming Metabolism: The Hidden Realities Sabotaging Your Health
In this episode, Ellie high level breaks down the surprising and often overlooked factors disrupting blood sugar regulation and metabolic health—even for those eating "healthy." She exposes hidden stressors like EMFs, chronic stress (yes, even from intense workouts), poor sleep, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals that silently hijack the body’s natural rhythms.
Ellie also shares practical tips on food...2025-04-1731 minOverthinkOligarchyIs Trump’s presidential reign turning the US into an oligarchy? Or did the US fall into oligarchic rule many years ago? In episode 127 of Overthink, David and Ellie dive into what an oligarchy looks like, the dangers of a country’s power being in the hands of the wealthy few, and whether or not oligarchic rule is new for the US. They look to the ancient Greeks for ideas on which form of government is conducive to the good life and explore how Aristotle’s notion of pleonexia relates to the current state of the US. Your hosts invest...2025-04-0854 min
Elevated | Conversations about Health and HealingEp. 37 | Health by kids, for kids with Analei AndersonJoin Ellie and her oldest daughter Ana to unpack how the Anderson family strives to live a more holistic lifestyle. It's not all or nothing in this house hold, so you'll get a chance to see how we really work to find the balance.
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Also, don't forget to join us for our Crunchy Christian Mom's Summit April 26th, less than a month away!!
Building your tribe can be hard, we want to help!
Join us for a day of amazing refreshment and empowerment.
**See the agenda here: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/bcb68c_60a2945c69bc4c928...2025-03-2730 minOverthinkTrans Identity with Talia Mae BettcherHow should we make sense of the Trump administration’s assault on Trans rights? In episode 125 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk to philosopher Talia Mae Bettcher about her new book Beyond Personhood: An Essay in Trans Philosophy, where she discusses everything from “genderphoria” to her notion of “reality enforcement” (a mechanism of transphobic oppression). In the interview, Dr. Bettcher expresses concerns about certain received views about trans identity, such as the “the wrong body” and “beyond the binary” views, which don’t capture the complexity of trans experiences. How can we move toward a more inclusive culture when it comes to trans id...2025-03-1153 min
Elevated | Conversations about Health and HealingEp. 29 | Jenna Interviews Ellie!In today's episode, we get to know our host, Ellie Anderson!
Jenna asks her all the questions— from "What are the #1 steps for people starting their health journey" to "How do you balance a family and owning multiple businesses." We hope you enjoy!2025-01-3037 minOverthinkBlack Consciousness with Lewis GordonDo you need black skin to be Black? How might concepts such as white privilege be limiting our understanding of how racism works? In Episode 117 of Overthink, Ellie and David chat with philosopher Lewis Gordon about his book, Fear of Black Consciousness. They talk through the history of anti-Black racism, the existential concept of bad faith, why Rachel Dolezal might have Black consciousness, and Frantz Fanon’s experience of being called a racial slur by a white child on a train. From the American Blues to the Caribbean movement of Negritude, this episode is full of insight into Black li...2024-11-191h 00OverthinkPredictive Brain with Andy ClarkPhantom phone buzzes? Painless mosquito bites? Toy masks flipped inside-out? It might be your brain bringing order to its complex world. In episode 109 of Overthink, Ellie and David interview cognitive philosopher Andy Clark, whose cutting edge work on perception builds off theories of computation to offer an intriguing new model of mind and experience. He explains why the predictive processing model promises a healthier relation to neurodiversity, and they all explore its real-world applications across placebos, road safety, chronic pain, anxiety, and even the accidental success of ‘positive thinking.’ Plus, in the bonus, Ellie and David discuss depression, plasticity, qual...2024-07-3055 minOverthinkZombiesWho’s afraid of zombification? Apparently not analytic philosophers. In episode 99 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk all about zombies and their unfortunate legacy in the thought experiments of academic philosophy. Their portrait as brain-eating and consciousness-lacking mobs is a far cry from their origins in the syncretic sorcery at the margins of Haitian Voodoo. This distance means that the uncanny zombie raises provocative questions about the problematic ways philosophy integrates and appropriates nonwestern culture into its canon. Your hosts probe beyond limits of the tradition when they explore zombification in animals, in reading, in Derrida, and beyond....2024-03-1259 minOverthinkPityTell us who you pity and we’ll tell you who you are! In episode 93 of Overthink, Ellie and David guide you through the philosophy behind this “well-meaning” emotion. From Aristotle’s account of pity in theater, to problematic portrayals of disability in British charity telethons, pity has had an outsized role our social and cultural worlds. But who is the object of our pity, and why? Your hosts dissect various archetypes of pity, such as Father Mackenzie (a character in Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles) and the elusive Corn Man (a figure invented by Ellie while in Greece!). Where is...2023-12-1958 minOverthinkNon-Monogamous Love with Justin L. ClardyLet a thousand flowers bloom! In episode 92 of Overthink, Ellie and David have a panoramic conversation on love beyond monogamy with philosophy professor, podcaster, and author of Why It's OK To Not be Monogamous, Justin L. Clardy. They envision relations of love and special attachment that aren't bound to the notion of sacrifice. They also turn to personal stories and question the role of marriage in consumer capitalism and its nonstop pressure to find the One and Only. Together, they find in non-monogamous pathways to reimagine agency, identity, and community — and a nudge toward a richer philosophy of our re...2023-12-0559 minOverthinkDaddy IssuesWho’s your daddy? Episode 90 is all about daddy issues. Ellie and David investigate father-child relations and the sexual, emotional, and familial worlds they create. From summer zaddies and sexy dad bods to hero feminist dads, your hosts travel from psychoanalysis all the way to theology to explore the expansive world of father figures. Do we all, as Julia Kristeva says, harbor unconscious fantasies of seeing our fathers “beaten”? Could civilization itself, as Freud suggests, be rooted in an archaic act of patricide for which we still feel guilty without realizing it? Ellie and David tackle hard questions about how pa...2023-11-0758 minOverthinkPsychedelicsNo, you’re not hallucinating! In episode 89 of Overthink, Ellie and David investigate the loopy world of psychedelics. Did you know that after doing psychedelics Jean-Paul Sartre went through a “lobster phase” during which he hallucinated lobsters everywhere he went? Once paraded as mind-opening gateways to the nature of reality, psychedelics are back in the conversation today as tools of therapy and neuroscience. Your hosts take a crack at the philosophy of these puzzling substances, from their implications for phenomenology and the nature of consciousness, to the ethics of their medicinal use, in light of their risks and long-lasting effects...2023-10-2459 minOverthinkFood with Shanti ChuEllie and David are serving… dinner! In episode 88 of Overthink, your favorite podcasters explore the philosophy of food, discussing everything from Glaucon’s plea for fancy meals in the Republic, to the rich ways in which food is intertwined with our individual and cultural identities. They welcome food critic and philosophy professor Shanti Chu for a lively conversation about the gendering of meals, the ethics of food systems (lab-grown meat, anyone?), the future of restaurants, and much more. Bon appetit!Check out the episode's extended cut here!Works DiscussedCarol J. Adams, The...2023-10-1055 minOverthinkAuthenticityTime to be real! In episode 87 of Overthink, Ellie and David go back and forth about authenticity. They explore its deep roots in existentialist philosophy and Romanticism, and grapple with the paradoxes of being authentic in the era of reality TV, social media, and friendly-branded megacorps. They dive into philosophical critiques of authenticity, and explore how Heidegger’s writings on “Eigentlichkeit” (often translated as “authenticity” or “actuality”) stand up today. Is authenticity the same thing as sincerity? Can you be authentic and insincere, or sincere and inauthentic? Who do we try to be authentic for: ourselves or other people? And might drag...2023-09-2659 minOverthinkWorldGive us a listen, and we’ll give you the world! In Episode 86 of Overthink, Ellie and David ask: what does it mean to live in a world? From animal spirit masters in Labrador to the foundations of climate science, they discuss why the concept of "world" is so contentious, and even at the brink of collapse. They navigate our entangled concepts of nature, culture, and the idyllic nurturing earth through the work of Hannah Arendt and Arturo Escobar. Is the world of animals the same as our own? And, what could it mean to imagine a world where man...2023-09-1256 minOverthinkSexual ConsentThis episode gets an enthusiastic yes from us. In episode 85 of Overthink, Ellie and David dive into the crux of sexual consent. They work through some of the earliest attempts on the part of American universities at developing a sexual consent policy, before unpacking the fiery debates surrounding consent today — ranging from complex legal cases as well as instances of “gray rape.” They probe the limits of popular understandings of consent with cases involving intense physical pain, and cases which undo the very stability of our idea of consent. (Can one meaningfully consent to one’s own murder?) They explore...2023-08-2959 minOverthinkStandpoint Epistemology with Briana TooleWhat does it mean to be marginalized? Does marginalization give some people more epistemic authority than others? And, if so, what should we all do with this information? In episode 84 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about standpoint theory, its complex intellectual history, and its relationship to W. E. B. DuBois’ concept of double consciousness. They welcome an expert on the subject: Dr. Briana Toole, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College. In their conversation, they chat about how standpoint theory makes sense of electoral politics, educational policy, bizarre reality TV, and much more. They also discuss Corrupt th...2023-08-151h 00OverthinkExerciseWestern philosophy started… at the gym. In episode 83 of Overthink, Ellie and David tackle the philosophy of workouts, from Plato’s days as a wrestler to the modern loneliness of a solitary bench press. As they discuss the role of exercise — which the Greeks called gymnastics — in building bodies and training souls, they consider the ancient Olympics, the cravings for health and beauty that guide us through what David calls the "Protestant work-out ethic," and Jean Baudrillard's thoughts about Americans' passion for jogging.Works DiscussedJean Baudrillard, AmericaMark Greif, “Against Exercise”Drew Hyland, Phil...2023-08-0156 minOverthinkRegretCoulda, woulda, shoulda… In Overthink’s long-awaited epsiode 82, David and Ellie fret over the meaning of regret, in everything from life-altering career decisions to sloppy teenage breakups. They consider the usefulness of regret — if it has one at all — and explore its relation to a life well lived, investigating its philosophical lineage from Confucius and Aristotle to today. Can 20-year-olds regret? Can dogs? Is regret ever rational? And, when does remorse turn into existential despair?Works DiscussedAristotle, Nichomachean EthicsJohn Danaher, “The Wisdom of Regret and the Fallacy of Regret Minimization”Shai Davidai and...2023-07-1854 minOverthinkFashionTweed suits, penny loafers: who said philosophers were out of touch? In episode 81 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk everything from Shein to Ferragamo, from high school lunchbox trends to Machiavelli’s nightgowns. As they chart the history of clothing, and the shift from functional Egyptian togas to extravagant medieval breeches, they investigate the refrain that clothes reveal the wearer’s personality. They ask, where does being timely turn into being classist? What does our sense for what’s hip tell us about perception? And, how do we square our drive for style with the injustices of consumption?Wo...2023-07-0453 minOverthinkArt and AI with Raphaël MillièreMachine minds can work a paintbrush, but are they really making art? In episode 80 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk with guest Raphaël Millière, scholar and philosophy lecturer at Columbia University, on the aesthetic merits of computer-generated art. They discuss the thorny marriage of art and technology in everything from the early days of photography to YACHT’s AI-assisted pop songs. Why do we expect art to express human emotions? Is prompt-engineering for AI models an art in itself? And, if ‘great artists steal,’ is DALL·E the greatest artist of us all?Works discussed...2023-06-2059 minOverthinkIntellectualsFrom Émile Zola to Edward Said, from Antonio Gramsci to… Joe Rogan? In episode 79 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss the figure of the high-minded ‘intellectual’ and their role in today’s mass-media landscape. Who are intellectuals, what do they do, and what are they for? Ellie and David ask whether intellectuals have a duty to participate in public debate, and whether they can truly partake in liberatory action in such a capacity.Works DiscussedJulien Benda, The Treason of IntellectualsChristoph Charles, Birth of the Intellectuals: 1880-1900Didier Eribon, Returning to ReimsAnton...2023-06-0653 minOverthinkBoredomOne must imagine Sisyphus…bored. Take a break from boredom and listen to episode 78 of Overthink as David and Ellie guide you through the fabulously idle realm of this “bestial, indefinable affliction.” They discuss the peaceful highs and painful lows of their middle school summer slumps, the endless days of pandemic panic, and the sluggish mornings of monks during the Medieval period. What can boredom teach us about existence? Is Kierkegaard right that the masses are boring while the nobles bore themselves? Can 9-year-olds be existentially bored? Maybe all we need to overcome boredom is a little bit of fun, p...2023-05-2358 minOverthinkOrgasmFireworks, a gushing waterfall, little death. The orgasm. In episode 77 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss how phenomenology and psychoanalysis interpret the experience of orgasm. They talk about evolutionary theories of the orgasm, including the theory that the body can suck up...“higher quality sperm.” They tackle what the orgasm gap says about the state of gender and sex in our society.Works DiscussedGeorge Bataille, ErotismSigmund Freud, “Instincts and Their Vicissitudes”Sigmund Freud, “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality”Sara Heinämaa, “The Phenomenology of Desire and Orgas...2023-05-0950 minOverthinkBad Movies with Matthew StrohlGuilty pleasures or cult classics, at the end of the day they’re just bad movies. In episode 76 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk with Matthew Strohl about bad movies and why it’s okay to love them. Strohl is a professor of philosophy at the University of Montana who specializes in aesthetics and ancient philosophy. He is the author of Why It’s Okay to Love Bad Movies. Here, he talks with Ellie and David about what makes certain movies “bad” yet also somehow “good,” and introduces us to two ways of relating to bad movies: bad movie ridicule vs ba...2023-04-2551 minOverthinkSilence*cricket noises* In episode 75 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss silence and its connection with awe, ecstasy, and the experience of the divine. They talk about David’s experience staying silent during a collegiate debate and Ellie’s practice of meditation as it relates to silence. How does being silent reveal the inner and outer noise that so often surrounds us? They talk about Christian mysticism, Dauenhauer's deep silence, and Heidegger’s call of conscience and explore the various forms of silence that shape our everyday lives.Works Discussed St. Tho...2023-04-1156 minOverthinkLived ExperienceWhat kind of authority do we appeal to when we invoke lived experience? Isn't all experience "lived"? Why does the *discourse* today so frequently refer to this concept, and what are its philosophical origins? In episode 74 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss the phenomenology of lived experience, including its roots in Dilthey, who considered lived experience to be historical. They incorporate Fanon’s work into the conversation to answer the question of if our lived experience of the world is something that varies along identity lines such as race.Works Discussed Wilhelm Dilthey, Poe...2023-03-2858 minOverthinkCultural AppropriationWhat do Gwen Stefani, Iggy Azalea, and Camille Monet have in common? They are all blonde women who are probably guilty of cultural appropriation. In episode 73 of Overthink, Ellie and David tackle cultural appropriation, starting with the kerfuffle over Claude Monet’s painting La Japonaise at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Pulling from their own experiences of cultural appropriation and from academic explorations of the topic, they consider whether individuals should even be called out for cultural appropriation. They talk about Nguyen and Strohl’s concept of “group intimacy” and debate whether we can ever draw a clear li...2023-03-1459 minOverthinkWhy Live? with Céline LeboeufTo be or not to be? That is the question. At the center of Hamlet’s soliloquy is the issue of whether life is worth living. In episode 72 of Overthink, Ellie and David consider this issue with philosopher and existentialism expert Céline Leboeuf. How can we find meaning in our lives when the world seems random and indifferent to our interests? Leboeuf talks about how her personal experience with an existential crisis and her philosophical search for a way out of it led her to consider religious, atheist, and spiritual answers to the question "Why Live?" Ellie and Dav...2023-02-2859 minOverthinkEmotional LaborIs the emotional opacity of men a social justice issue? In episode 71, Ellie and David break down the concepts of emotional and hermeneutic labor. The notion of emotional labor was originally created to shed light on gendered workplace interactions, but it has since been applied to romantic and other kinds of relationships. Is this expanded use of the term justified? Ellie’s research suggests that the concept of hermeneutic labor may better explain asymmetries of power in romantic relationships between men and women. Hermeneutic labor imbalances are produced by men’s inability to name and interpret their feelings and by t...2023-02-1459 minOverthinkFOMO (Fear of Missing Out)In the next hour, I might miss out on the greatest thing that could happen to me. Or maybe that’s just the FOMO talking. FOMO, the fear of missing out, has infiltrated the zeitgeist in the past decade. What does the obsession with FOMO tell us about our desire to connect with others in an age of consumer capitalism and social media? In episode 70, Ellie and David consider the fear of missing out in light of Nietzsche’s ressentiment, Freud’s psychoanalysis of Little Hans, and how FOMO has changed due to COVID. They consider whether the movement toward...2023-01-311h 00OverthinkAnimal Justice with Martha NussbaumWild animals who build communities, domestic companions who love, and captive creatures who suffer. In episode 69 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk with renowned philosopher Martha Nussbaum about her capabilities approach to animal justice. They touch on topics as varied as animal sentience, factory farming, habitat destruction, and the ethics of predation. Together, they discuss the failure of established ethical frameworks to fully incorporate the more-than-human world, explore our ethical responsibilities to other animals, and consider how our legal system might need to change in order to facilitate the flourishing of all life on earth.Works Discussed2023-01-1759 minOverthinkHeroesI’m holding out for a hero. From Achilles to Odysseus and modern day heroes, what does it mean to be a hero, and why are we obsessed with hero worship? In episode 68 of Overthink, Ellie and David dissect the figure of the hero, from its masculinist overtones to how it differs from other morally praiseworthy figures, such as the saint. They discuss how the concept of heroism has changed over time from the time of Homer to the age of CNN.Works DiscussedAri Kohen, Untangling Heroism Marina McCoy, Wounded HeroesFriedrich Nietzche, “On t...2023-01-0358 minOverthinkTasteIt’s corn! A big lump with knobs, it has the juice, I can’t imagine a more beautiful thing. Wise words about corn that relate to the sense of taste. In episode 67 of Overthink, Ellie and David finish their series on the five senses talking about the gustatory experience. They consider if taste is merely a subjective experience or are there some things that objectively taste good? Ellie and David discuss how having good taste relates to the perceptual experience of taste and why taste is such a big part of community.Works DiscussedJean...2022-12-2052 minOverthinkSmell with Benjamin YoungHave you ever experienced the headache-inducing odor of Axe body spray? Smell has immense power, but why has it been undervalued in philosophy? In episode 66, Ellie and David are joined by philosophy professor Dr. Benjamin Young to discuss the sense and how we perceive smell. They talk about everything from Anosmia, the loss of smell, to the smellscape of middle school. Works Discussed Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the SensesImmanuel Kant, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of ViewBill Lichen, “The Sliding of Smell”James McHugh, Sandalwood and Carrion: Smell In In...2022-12-0659 min