Shows
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 205 - PlasticPills Discovers BuddhismAfter 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 School and Nagarjuna were mentioned in the episode, but we didn't get into much depth this time round. Find everything we make at the feed at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2025-04-291h 12
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyCults of Cleansing | Plastic Pills on Religion IIThe 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 metaphor as the original decision making process in a world and specifically the metaphors of religious laws that begin with keeping your hands clean but end with the mass extermination of people.Listen ad free at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2025-04-111h 01
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyDeath Cult Logic | Plastic Pills on Religion IChristo-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, we're all still religious.All the full episodes are available at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpillsThe videos are available at https://www.youtube.com/plasticpills
2025-03-281h 00PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 178 - We Solved the World with Diego RuzzarinWhat 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.patreon.com/plasticpillsBe sure to check out the plasticpills YouTube channel for new CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT this week. https://www.youtube.com/c/plasticpills
2024-08-131h 45PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 161 - Andy Warhol and the End of ArtWe'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 from Frederic Jameson's Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, the cover of which features a (particularly ugly) Warhol print (https://amzn.to/3PD4M6m). The other two books referenced are The Diary of Andy Warhol and The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, written by the man himself. Check out the Plasticpills YouTube channel to see the new video about why Warhol is to blame for killing art: https://www.youtube.com/c/p...
2024-03-271h 16PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 131 - Freedom Isn’t FreeEveryone 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 not much beyond that. We looked to Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology in this book (https://amzn.to/3OdpzwL) to give us something a little better. Pill Pods #59, #60, #61, #62 are all about Merleau-Ponty in more detail. Find all the episodes at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-07-141h 12PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 130 - We Have Never Been ModernPills 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 network theory, and why reality is more complex than theoretical models. All our episodes are up at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-07-081h 20PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 126 - Based RousseauOne 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 on the Origin of Inequality this week and appraised its significance. Get all our exclusive episodes at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-06-101h 15PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 124 & 125 - The Light of Reason and the Eye of the Mind (preview)Pill Pods 124 & 125 cover a paper written by Pills, which argues that despite banishing figurative language for the sake of "clarity", Western philosophy has forgotten it was founded on a metaphor equating reason with vision, a metaphor we unknowingly reiterate on the daily. The episodes are available to patron subscribers at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-06-0916 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 123 - ”Western Civilization” According to Francis BaconWe revisit Atlantis, the new one, in this Victor Hainagiu (Lit Vic) episode where we peer into the the early modern, colonial, proto-capitalist imagination. Find the short story here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2434/2434-h/2434-h.htm Follow Victor @HoratioVictor Get all our eps at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-05-191h 16PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 122 - Mosh Pit Sociology (Preview)Get the full episode, many others, and all the other exclusive content by supporting the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-05-1311 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 121 - Obscurantism in French Philosophy: Searle on Foucault & DerridaToday we discuss how to pet your professor's ego to get better marks, and review John Searles sassy attempt to take down Derrida by quoting Foucault gossip. Sources come from Reiterating the Differences: A Reply to Derrida and Limited Inc. https://amzn.to/3oIfJc0 More content—video and audio—at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-04-281h 15PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 119 - Bernard Stiegler & Posthumanist Post-Marxism (ft. Diego Ruzzarin)How many posts can be fit into a title? Diego's back is back and so are we to have a look at why Stiegler believes that the class war is over, the techno/grammatological pharmakon is in and proletarianization has been total. We looked at the first half of "A New Critique of Political Economy", which was suggested to us by a patron (thank you). Find Diego's work (mostly esp) on the internet (he's easy to find). The even-numbered episodes and video lectures are at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-04-141h 36PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 117 - Baudrillard as Post-MarxistWe are still on the lookout for some worthwhile post-marxisms, we found a dude who is post-everything. Our reading is from "Ironic Strategies" from Baudrillard's Fatal Strategies (https://amzn.to/3ZqeDhS), and it turned out to be a pretty seductive text all around. All episodes: https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-03-311h 30PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 116 - Guattari & Negri: Communists Like Us (preview)New week, new book, and we're still on the hunt for a "post-Marxism" that hits. As usual, we were split on which ingredients we look for in the recipes of political theorists. This is a preview of our debate and all our arguments can be found at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-03-2414 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 115 - Althusser and Structuralist MarxismErik and Pills duo on Althusser, reading "Contradiction and Overdetermination" from the book For Marx. We read this anticipating a couple episodes trying to figure out what "post-marxism" could mean, and we don't want to strawman, and this is one of my (Pills') favourite bites attempting to delineate what Marxist theory can and cannot aspire to.Get all the exclusive eps at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-03-171h 25PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 114 - POST-MARXISM ft. Diego Ruzzarin (Preview)n the 80s, Laclau and Mouffe decided they wanted to succeed Marxism with discourse stuff and some identity politics thrown in. We read their apologetic for Post-Marxism and while Post-Marxism is interesting as a direction, this version of it leaves something to be desired. Find the full episode and many more on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-03-1610 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 113 - Slavoj Zizek vs WokenessZizek allegedly wrote an article on the problems of wokeness and we argued about it. Reactionary? Transphobic? Trolling? We don't agree (with each other). The article: https://compactmag.com/article/wokeness-is-here-to-stay The rest of our episodes are available at www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-03-031h 33PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 111 - Spectacles of The Integrated SpectacleHow many of the intellectual left were assassinated by the CIA? THE TRUTH WILL SHOCK YOU! Guy Debord's head inflates by the time he gets to his book written about his own book, Comments on the Society of Spectacle https://amzn.to/3lLEsLa then we argue over whether America or China is more spectacular, in this last episode of our series on the Situationist International. If you like this kind of content there's more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-02-181h 24PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 109 - SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLEWe've been leading up to it, and here is the first spectacle of 2 on Debord's popular book (https://amzn.to/3HRp0pj). Stay tuned for future spectacles. Get the full series on Debord and the Situationist International at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-02-071h 23PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 108 - Psychogeography (preview)This is a preview on our episode covering the Situationist concepts of psychogeography and unitary urbanism, from back when we hoped for such things. Get the full episode and plenty more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-02-0706 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 107 - Situationist Revolutionary TheoryFrom 1957 to 1972, the Situationist International published a slew of articles, pamphlets, films and journals trying to bring theoretical Marxist debates into everyday life and change public consciousness. Today we read a few of these articles on topics including art, revolution, and the Los Angeles Watts riots to see what of their imagination might be recovered. Links to Articles: "The Revolution of Modern Art and the Modern Art of Revolution" https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/modernart.html "The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy" https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/decline.html Don't miss any episodes and s...
2023-01-201h 35PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 106 - Introduction to The Situationist International (preview)We are starting a series on the theorists and artists of the Situationist International and their most well-known export: The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord. Get all exclusive episodes, bonus content, and help support our efforts at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2023-01-2006 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 27 - BURNOUT SOCIETY by Byung-Chul Han *UNLOCKED*It's been a while since we released an exclusive episode, but I thought this that this episode is as pertinent as it ever was, so enjoy this release from two years ago, and Merry Christmas. It's a discussion of The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han (whom we had then recently discovered, by the sound of it). Find the book here: https://amzn.to/3sW85IL As always, get more of this every week by joining us at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-12-231h 16PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 105 - AI, Transhumanism & Silicon Valley Singularity CultsAfter our episode claiming that ChatGPT would destroy university education as it currently exists, we had to de-mythologize the dumb philosophy status quo of Silicon Valley and its weird mix of objectivism, stoicism, and effective altruism. References from https://www.kurzweilai.net/the-transhuman-singularity All episodes and exclusive videos at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-12-171h 30PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 104 - AI & the New Crisis of Humanities EducationNot with a whimper, but with a bang: it's time for another crisis of the Humanities. Students, then teachers, then administrators will realize that AI has nullified our current evaluation methods in academia. In this episode we discuss the implications of OpenAI for essay writing, and how to prevent universities from devolving into AIs reading AIs. Get access to all the episodes and other media at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-12-091h 09PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 103 - Feminist Fight Night: Nussbaum vs. Butler (preview)What was a niche, inter-feminist fight in the 90s proves to be prophetically relevant this week. Pills and Victor narrate Martha Nussbaum coming at Judith Butler and almost split the difference. Get access to the full episode and many more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-12-0905 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 101 - Democracy 101(preview)We glance at Ranciere's Hatred of Democracy which suggests that hatred, not equality, is the animus of so-called democracies, and then debate whether or not the term even matters anymore. Get access to the full episode and many more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-12-0907 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPILL POD 100It's a "party" for our 100th episode! Thanks for everyone who helped us reach this milestone by listening, guesting, supporting us on patreon, or whatever else, and special thanks to everyone who submitted voice clips. To find out what everyone's working on mentioned in this episode: Diego: @DiegoRuzzarin https://diegoruzzarin.com/Chris: @aufgehendeRest https://epochemagazine.org/56/the-influence-of-plato-on-schellings-living-cosmos-the-timaeus-the-freedom-essay-and-ages-of-the-world/ Matt: @MattPolProf https://areomagazine.com/2022/04/11/is-postmodernism-neo-marxist/ Victor: @victorbruzzone Pills: @plasticpills https://www.youtube.com/c/plasticpills Erik: No fixed address
2022-11-041h 53PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 99 - Edward Bernays (preview)Today we read Freud's nephew, the "Father of PR," Edward Bernays' book "Propaganda" and compare his theory and practice to other opinions on the purpose of propaganda, and how it compares to the later neo-marxist conception of "ideology" and whether theorizing about democracy matters at all when private interests run the state. Get all the episodes plus ~60 exclusive eps for just 4 bucks at www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-10-2808 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 98 - Ricky Rorty: Derrida vs. HabermasThis resembles one of our FIGHT NIGHT episodes, except the whole of it is mediated by another philosopher, Richard Rorty. We give a bit of background to philosophical pragmatism before trying to get a read on what philosophy is for according to each of these three authors. Is it for self-help? Can it solve 'real' problems? Or is philosophy just cope? Find the public link on our patreon page https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-10-251h 22PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 94 - Kafka MetamorphosisFind the whole text here https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5200 Find LitVic on Twitter! @HoratioVictor Always looking for more suggestions for the lit stuff, someone suggested this several months ago and we bore it out! We are joined by LitVic for a literature episode, looking at the puzzling tale of the guy who gets turned into a bug. Find the whole text here https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5200 Find LitVic on Twitter! @HoratioVictor Missed any eps? Want to support the podcast? join us at www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-09-271h 28PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 93 - Nick Land (preview)It's easy to get all the bonus eps and a lot besides on www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-09-2711 min
PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 91 - ADIEU LACANBrace yourselves for two and a half hours focused on Lacan's psychoanalytic method. We are joined partway through by Director/Auteur Richard Ledes, who has brought Lacan to the silver screen in a film we're proud to hype up: ADIEU LACAN. To watch the film, (which is pretty safely the only decent depiction of psychoanalysis we've ever seen) you can find it on Amazon and Apple in English, or go to https://www.richardledes.com/films to watch it in other langauges. If you enjoy our content, help us keeping making it by sharing, algo-boosting, rating or joining our Patreon to...
2022-08-262h 29PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 89 - The Myth of Atlantis (Preview)We turn our attention to the ur myth of civilizational collapse... and accidentally find political philosophy. Ah well. Get the other half of our episodes and support our continued efforts at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-08-0503 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 87 - The Idea of Communism IV ft. Diego RuzzarinIt's more answers without questions, in part IV of our "Idea of Communism" series. We're getting the hot takes from Diego Ruzzarin (@DiegoRuzzarin) on what he thinks the Idea of Communism means for Latin America particularly, what's up with psychoanalysis, and the other stuff he's working on. Find our content mill over at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-07-201h 56PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 85 - The Word ”Communism” *Preview*We have another heated discussion on the sense and meaning of the word "communism," this time from a Heideggerian communist. Get all the goods at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-07-0106 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 84 - The Universality of Communism *Preview*This week we read the article by Susan Buck-Morss "The Second Time as Farce... Historical Pragmatics and the Untimely Present" from, again, The Idea of Communism https://amzn.to/3xZJjMw All of our episodes and extra content are available for an inconsequential contribution to our group project at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-06-2512 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 83 - The Idea of Communism - Alain BadiouThis is our first in the reading series on the Idea of Communism conferences, covering Alain Badiou. Our readings will come from The Idea of Communism I https://amzn.to/3xZJjMw, The Idea of Communism II https://amzn.to/3OkDYVd, and The Idea of Communism III https://amzn.to/3b8e3lb Join up with us on Patreon to get all of the upcoming episodes at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-06-171h 26PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyThe Deleuze Seminars ft. Professor Daniel W. SmithPills is graced by the presence of the eminent Deleuze scholar, editor, and translator, Daniel W. Smith. Dan explains how he came to Deleuzian philosophy, why it's important, and previews the exciting Deleuze Seminars project, which is almost finished translating 20 years of Deleuze's lectures into English. The Deleuze Seminars project can be explored here: https://deleuze.cla.purdue.edu/ Si vous pouvez comprendre le français, il y en a plus a la Bibliotheque Nationale de France https://gallica.bnf.fr/html///und/enregistrements-sonores/gilles-deleuze-cours-donnes-luniversite-paris-8-vincennes-saint-denis-1979-0?mode=desktop This interview was too good to keep to ourselves, but if you wa...
2022-06-141h 14PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 82 - 1980s NostalgiaReboots and renewals, bodies and images, city and pasture. The Pill Pod takes a crack at analyzing the desire structure of 80s nostalgia in popular media. New episodes and videos not found here are up at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills so check that out for more content.
2022-06-101h 10PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 81 - The Postmodern Condition *Preview*Pills, Erik and Victor tackle the boogeyman: Lyotard's Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, with reference to Wittgenstein's language-game methodology. Is postmodernism when there are too many gay characters on TV? Or is it the legitimacy crisis of state knowledge precipitated by finance capital, the computerisation of information, and the subsumption of politics by public relations? Get the full episode and a ton more audio and video at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-06-0704 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyKumbaya Posthumanism *Preview*We venture into the weeds of ignorance, science, and anthropomorphism, and not even immuno-responses can stop us. We look at posthumanism a la Francesca Ferrando (Philosophical Posthumanism), Donna Haraway (Staying with the Trouble), and James Lovelock & Lynn Margulis (The Gaia Hypothesis). Get the full episode and many more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-05-1416 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyAmerica’s New Right Problem ft. WaPo’s Greg SargentGreg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) from the Washington Post joins Victor and Matt to discuss America's burgeoning illberal right wing. While often painted as reactionary and unintelligible, America's new right may have more coherent principles and goals than first meet the eye. If you're done with the feed and interested in what else we have on offer in theory and philosophy, check out https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills for weekly content.
2022-05-0439 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 78 - The Posthumanism ManifestoErik and Pills do the thing, because everything needs to be manifestoed eventually and I needed a title. If you wonder whose name is being referenced throughout, it's the forgotten sociologist, Niklas Luhmann. You can follow us at @podpill and @plasticpills, but we don't go there much. Find anything you might've missed at www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-04-291h 28PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 77 -Trans/Post-Human Technics (Preview)Pills and Erik talk about transhumanism as opposed to posthumanism, and compare their positions on human technology and technics. Heidegger, McLuhan, Latour and Stiegler are all noteworthy theorists of technological posthumanism, the foundation of which we try to lay out here. Get a lot of content for not a lot of money at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-04-2212 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPill Pod 76 - Posthumanism is Good Actually Vol. 1Erik and Pills cover posthumanism in the context of systems theory and what makes it a viable model as an alternative to humanist explanatory frameworks of how society functions. We reference Niklas Luhmann (https://amzn.to/3ObXyUq) quite a few times as well as Francesca Ferrando's "Philosophical Posthumanism" (https://amzn.to/3rtH8Nv). There are more episodes of systems theory to be observed at www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-04-161h 20PlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyPrePostPostHumanism *Preview*This is a brief introduction to our defense of posthumanism. Find our extended deliberations about philosophy and whether or not it matters at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-04-0911 minPlasticPills Critical Theory & PhilosophyHyperreal War *UNLOCKED* Pill Pod 57We recorded this months ago but feels relevant enough for a public post. Regularly scheduled content will continue as usual! The video referenced is this one: https://youtu.be/JgJhmvzcb28 If you've missed anything you can more at https://www.patreon.com/plasticpills
2022-03-091h 13