Hotel Bar Sessions

Why do AI's fabricated memories "feel" so true?Hotel Bar Sessions is currently between seasons and while our co-hosts are hard at work researching and recording next season's episodes, we don't want to leave our listeners without content! So, as we have in the past, we've given each co-host the opportunity to record a "Minibar" episode-- think of it as a shorter version of our regular conversations, only this time the co-host is stuck inside their hotel room with whatever is left in the minibar... and you are their only conversant!AI engineers and designers are currently, and rightly, focused on minimizing the deleterious effects of AI's three primary "memory problems"-- hallucinations, catastrophic forgetting, and bias-- but in this Minibar episode, HBS co-host Leigh M. Johnson argues that none of these problems can be design-engineered away. They are, according to Johnson, baked-in and unavoidable structural elements of any language-based system reliant on an archive.Borrowing from Jacques Derrida's work on archives, language, and memory, Johnson argues that we should think more seriously about the manner in which LLM's outputs come to us cloaked in the garb of memory. We take AI hallucinations, for example, to be true because they inspire in us a feeling of nostalgia... something that we could have remembered, perhaps even should have remembered, but didn't.Or didn't we?Tune in for the first episode of Season 15 on January 23, 2026!Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/minibar-algorithmic-noslagia---------------------SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes!SUPPORT Hotel Bar Sessions podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

What happens when we follow the letter of the law, while refusing to cooperate with its spirit?Hotel Bar Sessions is currently between seasons and while our co-hosts are hard at work researching and recording next season's episodes, we don't want to leave our listeners without content! So, as we have in the past, we've given each co-host the opportunity to record a "Minibar" episode-- think of it as a shorter version of our regular conversations, only this time the co-host is stuck inside their hotel room with whatever is left in the minibar... and you are their only conversant!This week's Minibar episode features Jen Kling's reflections on civil obedience, malicious compliance, and their relation to (or separation from) violence.Tune in for the first episode of Season 15 on January 23, 2026!Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/minibar-uncivil-obedience-with-jennifer-kling---------------------SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes!SUPPORT Hotel Bar Sessions podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

What can the body, in pain, teach us about the hilarity of our own finitude?Hotel Bar Sessions is currently between seasons and while our co-hosts are hard at work researching and recording next season's episodes, we don't want to leave our listeners without content! So, as we have in the past, we've given each co-host the opportunity to record a "Minibar" episode-- think of it as a shorter version of our regular conversations, only this time the co-host is stuck inside their hotel room with whatever is left in the minibar... and you are their only conversant!This week's Minibar episode features Bob Vallier's reflections on what he learned after a serious automobile-meets-bicycle accident in late-2024. (Bob was on the bike!). The pain, the trauma, the rehab-- and the friendships that showed up along the way to help manage it all-- turned out to be an unexpected lesson in not only what able-bodied people naively assume about their world, but also what  insights can be gleaned from the sudden interruption of those naive assumptions.Turns out, according to Bob, there's a lot more that's funny about our finitude than is immediately obvious in our pain!Tune in for the first episode of Season 15 on January 23, 2026!Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/minibar-pain---------------------SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes!SUPPORT Hotel Bar Sessions podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

How might "oppression" be best understood as a "cage"? This week the HBS co-hosts take a deep dive into a true classic of feminist philosophy: Marilyn Frye’s 1983 article “Oppression.” We unpack Frye’s understanding of oppression and argue about some of Frye’s more infamous examples, such as her claim that men holding doors open for women is sexist. Is she really correct that oppression can occur in the absence of the intent to oppress? Or do people have to know what they’re doing to commit oppression, or uphold the patriarchy?We also tackle academic philosophy’s tendency to want to clarify and draw clear lines around messy, difficult, urgent phenomena. Frye is seeking to delineate what constitutes oppression: but is that a helpful conceptual project in today’s world? Or should we be focused instead on how to get out of the cage? We worry that, given Frye’s analysis of oppression as an interlocking series of double binds, there seems to be no way out. Depressingly, if she’s right, we might still have agency, but we might always remain pressed down.Some of us are more cynical, some of us are more hopeful, but at the end of the day, we agree: Frye set the baseline for discussion in an enduring (if a bit dated!) way for feminists and feminist theory alike.Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/marilyn-fryes-oppression---------------------SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes!SUPPORT Hotel Bar Sessions podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

"Nostalgia" is a portmanteau coined in 1688 by Johannes Hofer, combining the Greek nostros (homecoming) and algos (pain, ache).  Hofer was a medical student, and he invented this term to describe a kind of melancholia, a somewhat depressive state–- and so, from its inception, "nostalgia" was viewed as a mood disorder.  For the Romantics, it was a sentimentality for the past, the good old days of yore, combining the sadness of loss with a joy that that loss is not complete or total.  Nostalgia is also paradoxical, because the past we long for and re-member is a past that was never present.  If it is a "homecoming," what one discovers in returning home, as Odysseus does, is that there is no "there" there.  That is, nostalgia is always unheimlich ("unhomely") or more accurately, "uncanny."  It always involves a manner of self-deception about what was by distorting or idealizing the past. This can often have negative, even dangerous consequences: individually, socially, and politically.  More than just a "mood," nostalgia is a vector of philosophical investigation par excellence that opens onto a wide range of themes: memory, time, the hermeneutics of personal identity, and even reality itself.   So, pour a drink, and let's see what might be problematic about what we "fondly remember"!Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/nostalgia---------------------SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes!SUPPORT Hotel Bar Sessions podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The conversation dives into the rise of sophistry in modern discourse, highlighting how viral debate clips often prioritize performance over truth. The hosts contrast sophists with philosophers, tracing the shift from genuine rhetoric to specious reasoning. They explore modern deceptive tactics like the Gish Gallop and ad hominem attacks, and the power dynamics in staged debates. Strategies for engaging with sophistry, reframing arguments, and defending spaces for honest dialogue are emphasized. The episode calls for critical thinking in an age of misinformation.

Delve into the concept of 'enshittification' as a lens on modern society. Discover how platforms shift from serving users to exploiting both them and businesses for profit. The discussion links this model to democracy and higher education, revealing their current struggles. Explore resistance strategies, from creative sabotage to union organizing, and ponder the importance of demanding higher standards. Join in on a captivating analysis that critiques the commodification of our attention and data in today’s world.

Many of us think of resistance as "protest," communicative acts aimed at fighting injustice, and done with others in public. But what happens when that kind of resistance isn’t possible or safe? When showing up, or waving a sign, or making a public speech might get you jailed, or silenced, or disappeared? Is it possible to resist oppression without following Western scripts surrounding protest? This week, we are joined by guest Dr. Tamara Fakhoury (University of Minnesota) to talk about her concept of "quiet resistance."Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/quiet-resistance---------------------SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes!SUPPORT Hotel Bar Sessions podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The hosts dive into the rise of therapy-speak and question its impact on personal responsibility. They debate whether therapy addresses individual issues or obscures deeper societal problems. There's a critique of pop-therapy trends and how they can commodify healing. The discussion highlights the importance of community care and collective action alongside individual therapy. They also explore the role of philosophy as a tool for deeper understanding and challenge the notion that therapy is a one-size-fits-all solution.

This week’s episode of Hotel Bar Sessions brings political theorist Laura K. Field (author of Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right) into the bar to talk about the intellectuals cranking the rhetoric up to eleven while insisting they’re just “doing Great Books.” We follow the trail from Straussian seminar rooms and conservative think tanks to Trump rallies and “no kings” protests, asking what happens when a self-styled aristocracy of the mind decides liberal democracy is played out.Field guides us through the angry energy behind this movement, the “furious minds” driving it, and why she turns to Aeschylus’ treatment of the ancient Furies (in his Oresteia trilogy) and Abraham Lincoln’s Dred Scott speech to think about justice, vengeance, and the dangers of sacralizing politics. Along the way we talk MAGA as quasi-religion, liberalism as a way of life, why so many young men are adopting Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life, and what it means to refuse the invitation to become furious.Full episode notes available at this link:https://hotelbarpodcast.com/furrious-minds---------------------SUBSCRIBE to the podcast now to automatically download new episodes!SUPPORT Hotel Bar Sessions podcast on Patreon here! (Or by contributing one-time donations here!)BOOKMARK the Hotel Bar Sessions website here for detailed show notes and reading lists, and contact any of our co-hosts here.Hotel Bar Sessions is also on Facebook, YouTube, BlueSky, and TikTok. Like, follow, share, duet, whatever... just make sure your friends know about us! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★