Overthink

Is 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 the societal expectation that women manage their own emotions and those of their male partners simultaneously. How does Ellie’s research on hermeneutic labor shift our perspective on the issue of gender in emotional work?Works DiscussedEllie Anderson, “Hermeneutic Labor: The Gendered Burden of Interpretation in Intimate Relationships Between Women and Men”Arlie Russell Hochschild, The Managed Heartbell hooks, The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and LoveJudith Farr Tormey, "Exploitation, Oppression and Self-Sacrifice"Ronald Levant, “Desperately seeking language: Understanding, assessing, and treating normative male alexithymia”Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Stoicism (as Emotional Compression) Is Emotional Labor”Kathi Weeks, "Hours for What We Will: Work, Family, and the Movement for Shorter Hours”Support the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

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 JOMO, or the joy of missing out, provides a viable solution to the fear.Svend Brinkmann, The Joy of Missing Out: The Art of Self-Restraint in an Age of Excess PaperbackSigmund Freud, Obsessions and PhobiasSigmund Freud, “Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy”Mayank Gupta and Aditya Sharma, “Fear of missing out: A brief overview of origin, theoretical underpinnings and relationship with mental health”Herman Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street”Mark Morford, “Oh My God You are So Missing Out”Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of MoralsJenny Odell, How to Do NothingJames A. Roberts and Meredith E. David, “The Social Media Party: Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), Social Media Intensity, Connection, and Well-Being”Support the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

Wild 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 DiscussedRachel Aviv, The Philosopher of FeelingsMartha Nussbaum, Justice for Animals: Our Collective ResponsibilitySupport the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

I’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 the Uses and Liabilities of History for Life”J.O. Urmson, “Of Saints and Heroes”Philip Zimbardo and Zeno Franco, “The Banality of Heroism”Zeno Franco, Scott T. Allison, et. al, "Heroism Research: A Review of Theories, Methods, Challenges, and Trends"Support the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

It’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 Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste, Or, Meditations on Transcendental GastronomyA. S. Barwich, Smellosophy: What the Nose Tells the MindDavid Hume, Of the Standard of TasteCarolyn Korsmeyer, Making Sense of TasteMengzi, MengziPassport to Paris (1999)Support the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

Have 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 Indian Religion And CultureLarry Shiner, Art Scents: Exploring the Aesthetics of Smell and the Olfactory Arts Marta Tafalla, “A World Without the Olfactory Dimension”Benjamin Young, “Stinking Consciousness” Benjamin Young, Theoretical Perspectives on SmellSupport the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

Have you heard? In episode 65 of Overthink, Ellie and David continue the series on the five senses as they discuss hearing. From wanting to close your ears to stop overhearing a conversation to the noise pollution outside your bedroom window, how does the sense of hearing make its way into our everyday lives? They also discuss how Deaf culture calls upon us to retool our understanding of the importance of hearing for human life. Works CitedJacques Derrida and Bernard Stiegler, Echographies of Television: Filmed InterviewsChristopher Frith, “Disorders of self-monitoring and the symptoms of schizophrenia"Karen Hanson, “The Self Imagined: Philosophical Reflections on the Social Character of Psyche”Edmund Husserl, The Phenomenology of Internal Time-ConsciousnessHans Jonas, “The Nobility of Sight”Simon McCarthy-Jones, “Stop, Look, and Listen”George Herbert Mead, Selected WritingsAlva Noë, Out of Our Heads: Why You are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons From the Biology of ConsciousnessMichel Serres, The Five SensesRobert Sparrow “Defending Deaf Culture”Ludwig Wittgenstein, Logical Investigations Defu Yap, Laura Staum Casasanto, and Daniel Casasanto, “Metaphoric Iconicity in Signed and Spoken Languages”Support the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

And at last I see the light. In episode 64 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss vision in the second installment of their ongoing series on the five senses. They discuss the prevalence of visual metaphors for knowledge, and why sight has historically been the most privileged of the senses. Ellie and David talk about the difference between Greek and Vedic approaches to vision and how culture and language can impact important aspects of the visual experience such as the ability to perceive the color blue. Works DiscussedHans Blumenberg, The Legitimacy of the Modern WorldGuy Deutscher, Through the Language GlassWilliam Gladstone, Studies on Homer and the Homeric AgeLuce Irigaray, Elemental PassionsMartin Jay, Downcast Eyes, the Denigration of Vision in 20th Century French ThoughtHans Jonas, "The Nobility of Sight"Hans Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life Toward a Philosophical BiologyPlato, The Theaetetus Plato, The RepublicThe Upanishads Support the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

Touch, texture, and tickling. From touch working as a form of recognition to the sensation of shapes, touch is a part of our everyday lives. In episode 63 of Overthink, Ellie and David begin their series on the five senses with touch. They discuss the significance of Cinderella’s original fur slipper and why Lucretius believed that milk and honey particles have a smooth, round shape. They also consider why some ancient philosophers consider touch the primary sense and what we learn about the nature of the self from the phenomenology of touching and being touched.Works Discussed Matthew Fulkerson, The First Sense: A Philosophical Study of Human Touch Galen, Complete WorksG. Stanley Hall, "The Psychology of Tickling, Laughing and the Comic" William Harvey, The Circulation of the Blood and Other WritingsEdmund Husserl, Cartesian MeditationsDanijela Kambaskovic-Sawers and Charles T. Wolfe,“The senses in philosophy and science: from the nobility of sight to the materialism of touch”Lucretius, On the Nature of ThingsMaurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Visible and the InvisibleDaniel Heller-Roazen, The Inner Touch: Archaeology of a SensationMichel Serres, The Five SensesSupport the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

Curiosity led Pandora to open a box, but what does being curious look like in our everyday lives? In episode 62, Ellie and David discuss the vilification of curiosity and the role of curiosity in the modern education system. To help, they talk with philosophy professor Perry Zurn and bioengineering professor Dani S. Bassett, twins who co-authored the book Curious Minds: The Power of Connection. Together, they consider how we can understand and cultivate different types of curiosity.   Works Discussed  Saint Augustine, The Confessions Francis Bacon, "Of Tribute" Barbara Benedict, Curiosity: A Cultural History of Early Modern Inquiry Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan Richard Phillips, “Curiosity: Care, Virtue and Pleasure in Uncovering the New”  Alastair Reed, “Curiosity”  Joelle Thomas and David M. Peña-Guzmán, “Review of Vinciane Despret’s What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions?”  Perry Zurn, Curiosity and Power: The Politics of Inquiry Perry Zurn & Dani S. Bassett, Curious Minds: The Power of ConnectionSupport the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast