Overthink

What do garden gnomes, the #BlackLivesMatter black squares of June 2020 Instagram, and formulaic pop songs all have in common? They’re kitsch. In episode 56 of Overthink, Ellie and David investigate the history of kitsch as an aesthetic category distinct from art. How does the superficiality and mass-reproducibility of kitsch explain its uses as a tool of fascist propaganda? They discuss the American cultural instinct to deploy inspirational quotes in response to national trauma, kitsch as an antidote to working class alienation, the decline of emotionally significant, critical art, and more.Works DiscussedClement Greenberg, “Avant-Garde and Kitsch”Tomáš Kulka, Kitsch and ArtCatherine A. Lugg, KitschZach Brown Band, “Chicken Fried”Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, Dogs Playing PokerSupport the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

Feeling watched? Suspicious your Google Home is a front for Big Brother? From period tracking apps to police body cams, surveillance has immense social-political implications for our everyday lives. In episode 55 of Overthink, Ellie and David draw on social philosophy to understand our experiences of mass surveillance. How do technologies of surveillance that promise convenience and freedom lead us to welcome new forms of control into our lives? They also consider how these technologies have empowered people to take up new methods of resisting state violence. Works DiscussedAnders Albrechtslund, “Online social networking as participatory surveillance”Roger Clark, “Information technology and dataveillance”Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on the Societies of Control”Michel Foucault, Discipline and PunishKevin Haggerty and Richard Ericson, “The surveillant assemblage” Steve Mann, “’Sousveillance’: inverse surveillance in multimedia imaging’”Support the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

Are humans the only animals with culture? In episode 54 of Overthink, Ellie and David explore the social and cultural bonds that animals develop with one another. For instance, what can elephant mourning rituals tell us about elephant society and whether these creatures have a concept of death? Then, they sit down with philosopher Cynthia Willett to discuss her work on animal sociality. According to Willett, intra- and trans-species sociality challenges modern conceptions of ethical life as a matter of individual choices and abstract laws.Works DiscussedDavid Peña-Guzmán, When Animals DreamHal Whitehead and Luke Rendell, The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins  Cynthia Willett, Interspecies EthicsSupport the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

A recent court case highlights the evolving conversation around animal personhood and rights. The discussion dives into the philosophical implications of recognizing animals as legal entities, particularly concerning their bodily liberty. It draws parallels between speciesism and human discrimination, urging a reevaluation of our moral responsibilities. Historical perspectives are explored, alongside the potential disruptions to industries like farming and animal testing if personhood is granted. This engaging dialogue melds serious ethics with playful debates about identity in political contexts.

From snoozing puppies kicking their legs to controversial octopi who change colors while asleep, nonhuman dreaming fascinates us. Science says that sleeping animals experience “reality simulations,” rich dreamscapes which they navigate as conscious agents. Inspired by David’s book When Animals Dream (fresh off the press!), this episode kicks off a 3-part series tracing his thrilling investigation into the nature and philosophical implications of animal dreaming. Episode 52 introduces David’s argument that animals’ capacity to dream reveals the need to radically rethink animals as conscious beings with complex inner lives.Works Discussed:David Peña-Guzmán, When Animals DreamNature (S38 E1), PBS TVElizabeth Preston, "Was Heidi the Octopus Really Dreaming?"William Lauder Lindsay, Mind in the Lower Animals in Health and DiseaseSigmund Freud, The Interpretation of DreamsEvan Thompson, Waking, Dreaming, BeingMaurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of PerceptionCharles Darwin, The Descent of ManPeter Godfrey-Smith, Other MindsRatatouille (2007)Support the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

Generational differences emerge in subtle ways, but how do we identify these? And how does the new generation of youth culture Gen Z is defining differ from Ellie and David’s generation of millennials? Feeling a bit out of touch, Ellie and David interview Overthink production assistants Anna Solomon and Sam Hernandez to tell them all about Gen Z values.Works DiscussedJose Ortega y Gasset, El tema de nuestro tiempoWilliam Strauss and Neil Howe, GenerationsWilliam Strauss and Neil Howe, The Fourth TurningBobby Duffy, The Generation MythMark Bauerlein, The Dumbest GenerationSupport the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

What do Freudian slips, Josie and the Pussycats, and solving math problems have in common? Psychoanalysis claims to have some answers! Sigmund Freud suggests that unconscious desires, fears, and trauma influence us without us being conscious of them. In pop culture, the unconscious is often depicted as the realm of dirty thoughts and subliminal messages, but does the unconscious actually even exist? In episode 50 (!), Ellie and David explore the unconscious and the existentialist challenge to it from Jean-Paul Sartre.Works DiscussedSigmund Freud, “The Unconscious”Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and NothingnessJosie and the Pussycats (2001)The Exorcist (1973)Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific KnowledgeStanislas Dehaene, The Code of Consciousness Jacques Hadamard, An Essay on the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical FieldJacques Derrida, “Freud and the Scene of Writing”Support the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

Why do humans in every known culture love juicy gossip? Some theorists say gossip evolved as the modern version of picking fleas off our friends, reassuring those around us of our shared social bonds. Others argue that it reinforces social norms by outlining what behaviors are bad, or even scandalous. In episode 49, Ellie and David gossip about gossip — when is it wrong to gossip, and when might it be the ethical choice? Many scholars throughout history have condemned gossip as idle chitchat that slanders others, but some feminist and decolonial thinkers have reclaimed its utility for fighting against systems of oppression that exclude them from formal modes of communication. Episode 49 spills the tea on gossip.  Works DiscussedSipping with Socrates, “Socrates’ view of gossip”Immanuel Kant, AnthropologyThomas Aquinas, Summa TheologicaSoren Kierkegaard, The Present Age: On the Death of RebellionThe Bible, 1 Timothy 5:13Megan L. Robbins and Alexander Karan, “Who Gossips and How in Everyday Life?”Robin Dunbar, Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of LanguageGiambattista Vico, The New ScienceBaumeister, Roy F., Liqing Zhang, and Kathleen D. Vohs, “Gossip as Cultural Learning”SurvivorRanajit Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial IndiaSissela Bok, Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and RevelationSupport the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

We’re always worried about being productive enough with our time, but where does this compulsion come from? In episode 48, Ellie and David examine productivity culture and the drive to produce. Although research says longer hours don’t equal more productivity, capitalism encourages us to always be working, even at the cost of our mental and physical health. How does this inefficient approach to work (and our lives outside of it) stifle our growth and creativity? According to Twitter memes and Bifo, refusing productivity for lazy relaxation on the beach may be a revolutionary rejection of productivity culture, but Adorno contends that laziness recycles us into merely consuming commodities for capitalism instead of producing them. What can a creative, process-based approach offer us that a productivist one cannot, and what value might there be in just producing less?Works CitedAmelia Horgan, “The ‘Dark Academia’ Subculture Offers a Fantasy Alternative to the Neoliberal University”John Pencavel, “The Productivity of Working Hours”Shainaz Firfiray, “Long hours at the office could be killing you – the case for a shorter working week”Economic Policy Institute, “The Productivity-Pay Gap”Foucault, History of MadnessFranco Berardi, FuturabilityHerbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional ManTheodor Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged LifeMihály Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal ExperienceCal Newport, “It’s Time to Embrace Slow Productivity”Mark Fisher, Capitalist RealismSupport the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast

Is rage a bad thing? Philosophers usually frame anger as an unhealthy or even immoral emotion that leads us away from compassion and towards violence, but episode 47 guest Myisha Cherry's new book makes The Case for Rage as a powerful tool for anti-racist work. Before their discussion with Dr. Cherry, Ellie and David discuss contrasting theories of anger from  Martha Nussbaum and Buddhism. Can rage be rooted in love rather than hate, and drive us towards a more just world?Works DiscussedMyisha Cherry, The Case for Rage: Why Anger is Essential to Anti-Racist StrugglePeter Sloterdijk, Rage and TimeMartha Nussbaum, Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, JusticeAeschylus, The OresteiaShantideva, BodhicaryāvatāraEmily McRae, "Metabolizing Anger: A Tantric Buddhist Solution to theProblem of Moral Anger"Silvan Tomkins, Exploring AffectAudre Lorde, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism”Myisha Cherry and Owen Flanagan, The Moral Psychology of AngerMartin Luther King Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”Amia Srinivasan, “The Aptness of Anger”Support the showPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail | dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcast