Scholar and literary critic Rebecca Ariel Porte joins Abby and Patrick to delve into Freud's pleasure principle. They discuss the complexities of pleasure, its relation to pain and the reality principle, and its role in mental development. The conversation explores Freud's theories in depth, from pleasure and neurosis to the transition to the reality principle. Plus, a Freudian analysis of a sequence in Milton's Paradise Lost!

Rebecca Ariel Porte, Danya Glabau, and Laura Forlano discuss cyborg theory, hidden human labor, feminist scholarship, and the political and aesthetic aspects of cyborgs. They explore critical cyborg literacy, failure, glitch, and the collaborative nature of feminist perspectives on technology. The podcast delves into techno utopianism, labor automation, and posthumanism versus transhumanism, challenging traditional norms and highlighting the social, political, and artistic dimensions of the cyborg concept.